Macchiatos in Addis Ababa

I just read my last entry about going out for Ethiopian red wine. It
brought shivers back…lets just say three bottles is too much and the
night ended with us doing very inappropriate things with Injera in a
local restaurant.

For now I've left Steve doing a workout in our room and headed down to the
Internet cafe for a while. We're in Addis Ababa and are both
rating it as our favourite city so far in Africa. It's choc full of
people but has a really good vibe about it - lots of cafes, market
stalls and chaos! We've also decided to upgrade to a local hotel for a
few days away from the tent and are enjoying the delights of a hot
shower.

The focus of our stay here is getting more visas…and drinking lots of
excellent coffee (thanks to the Italians that were stationed here
during the second world war!). All is looking good for us with the
Egyptian and Sudanese visas...but not for all our group. The poor
Danish girl Maree has been told that there is no way she will get a
Sudanese visa (do you remember that Danish journalist that drew some
derogatory cartoons about Mohammed a few years back? Well apparantly
the Sudanese are not happy about that so they have banned all Danish
from visiting). Poor girl has to make alternate travel
arrangements at her own expense so she is not very happy. Additionally
Sid the New Zealand guy has to cut his trip short and go home as his
dad is very sick...so that isn't great news.

Other than that all is well for us...I did however get a tick in my
leg the other day which I wasn't too impressed with! He hitched a ride
with me for a good few hours before I found him!! Gav ended up ripping
him out for me…along with a good chunk of my skin. Ouch!

Addis is rumored to have the largest market in Africa so we've spent
several hours exploring that, and we also went to the National History
Museum which has the remains of the oldest human fossil ever found.
"Lucy" is apparently 2.2 million years old and old stands about a
metre tall. Very tiny!

One other good thing we did yesterday was take a visit to a local "spa"
facility. Not quite what we are used to...imagine what a old fashioned
psychiatric hospital might look like and picture us trying to relax
while the electricity flickered on and off. It was a good experience
though - for $7 we each had a giant hot bath soak followed by a
massage. It felt the cleanest I have been in the whole 10 weeks!

I've also just splurged out and bought some jeans…had to buy male ones
as the ladies were all too short….but luckily Ethiopian men seem to
like a tight slightly gay fit. Perfect for me!