A bumpy time in Ethiopia
We’ve started to get a lot of questions on how we picked the places we did. Most places were picked for us, like Antarctica, New Zealand/Australia. Erik has been wanting to take me to Chile and Argentina since we met 17 years ago, so that was a must. We’ve been all around Asia but hadn’t been to any islands or the middle east – so that all made sense. But when we got to Africa it was going to be the official check off of all 7 continents for us so we wanted it to be special! We thought of Egypt and Jordan, because -duh, it’s on everyone’s list. We also thought about South Africa or Morocco, we have a lot of friends who have gone to those two places. But, really, we’re foodies at heart and knew if we wanted to go to Africa, it was going to be to eat some of our favorite food – Ethiopian! That’s the very very short version of about 3 years of planning 😊.
Anyway, so we landed in Addis Ababa about mid-day and were so excited for that day – getting to our final continent as well as a cooking class! Woohoo! We got brought to our hotel room, wowie!! Was it beautiful! A huge corner suite, a super fancy bathroom with so many different seating areas. It felt like we won the lottery! It didn’t take long for the time to come to head out for our cooking class. We gave ourselves about 20 minutes to find a car and find the building. We hopped in a taxi and showed the driver the address and off we went.
The streets were marvelous mayhem – food sellers, clothing sellers on the side of the road. Kids playing in the rubble of a fallen bridge. Dust blowing as cars zoom by, making their own lanes for passing and turning. Everything was colorful, everyone was smiling and the whole city smelled like delicious treats. Once we got to the area, our driver started to slow down. He knew a little English and clarified that the address we had been given is simply to an entire neighborhood. Um, what?! It was now getting close to starting time so we went to the area that made the most sense and I got out and walked around while Erik continued over and over to get in touch with our cooking class host. After about 40 minutes of endless calling, messaging and searching we decided to call it quits. There was absolutely no way to get a hold of the person and we came to terms with the fact that a full address had not been provided. Dang! So I immediately emailed the host and the company (Tinggly) and let them know the situation. Crickets, Tinggly is still challenging me on if we went or not and we still haven’t gotten any type of response (message, call, text, email) from the host.
So, that was a drag. We were both so so excited for that cooking class but we ended up eating at an Ethiopian restaurant across from our hotel (still our hotel though) and, holy cazole was it amazing! However, after dinner – we got into a little pickle. We tried to pay by just putting it on the room card, but when they did apparently it was charged to an Abraham!! I am not an Abraham. Our lovely server came with us and another 40 minutes later we had figured out that we were probably brought to the wrong room (lol) and our cards had been switched because we were supposed to be in different rooms. Erik cleared it all up and we got to stay in our mansion of a room as well as pay for dinner! Whew. Off to bed we went hoping the next day wouldn’t be so bumpy.
The next day we had a whole day tour booked, starting in the morning with some markets, then going through some museums and ending the day with a food tour. Whew! Our guide arrived and informed us it’d be a whole day private tour too! Things were looking up.
Off we went to the Shola market, where we saw so many incredible spices and herbs and the stalls were filled from things such as chickens, to traditional Ethiopian dining tables to socks. Our tour guide said it was the standard market in the city that everyone goes to for just about everything – himself included. We tooted around, putting our hands into lentils and split peas and feeling like Amelie. The sights and smells were both worrisome and incredible. It was a full 5 senses experience!
From there we went to a famous local coffee chain called Tomoca, one where Anthony Bordain went, and stood around a long tall table, sipping our VERY strong coffee and chatting about what life is like in Addis compared to the US. From there we went to the National Museum, which included some incredible art, a lot of information and LUCY! Erik, of course, knew that Lucy was there (the oldest humanoid every found!) but I did not. So what a delight and surprise to be able to see such a thing of history on an unexpected Saturday in Ethiopia. This trip just continues to blow me away.
From there we were whisked off to the highest point in the city where they have the most incredible view overlooking the valley. And an extremely touristy sign for us! Now started the food tour! We had some savory and spicy chickpeas with butter (of course in injera), then some beef tibs (my fav) again with injera, then whole fish (omfg!!!) that our tour guide taught us how to properly eat. We ended with a traditional coffee ceremony and my goodness were we stuffed. You could have rolled us home. The tour ended around 8 and we basically crawled into bed and passed out with meat sweats and a food coma.
However, the night was not good to Erik. When we went to Peru a few years ago, he and my brother got just beat down by altitude sickness. ☹ It was awful. We knew Addis is in high elevation but our travel doctor didn’t think it would be an issue. Addis is at 9000 feet, which is 2000 more than Denver and 1000 more than what airplanes cabin pressure settles at. I woke up early to Erik struggling a little and then sure enough – the morning took off in the very wrong ways.
Needless to say, there are no pictures or memories really other than a movie day in the hotel with water, room service and pharmacy runs for April 23rd. Poor Erik. The only good thing about this is that we now know, for sure!, Erik is sensitive to elevation so we can plan properly for future trips.
We got to bed early, I think Erik fell asleep around 7:30, which was great. We had picked up some honey wine earlier that day so I poured myself a glass before heading to bed. Because we had another tour the next morning – this time a sunrise market tour with pick up at 5:30! In the morning he was still feeling pretty groggy but hadn’t been sick in a while so we felt good getting out and about.
And I am so glad he was better because what a great morning! We got picked up by Bre, who is FAMOUS!!! He’s the tour guide to celebrities when they come through Addis for food tours (!!!!). Masooma was also on our tour and we had a delightful time getting to know her and what life in Bahrain is like.
That morning was not as whimsical and charming as the market two days before. NOPE. There were hundreds of people at this market, either selling, unloading or buying. Men were seen carrying bags of potatoes that were 3 ft around and 6 ft long on their shoulders while screaming at you to move movemovemovemove. Lots of the people selling were standing around and looking at us, which is normally fine. But apparently they’re from the south where they see more Bollywood films and shows in which fair skin is associated with the Chinese characters – so they called us “China” over and over. Little girls would reach out to touch Erik’s freckled skin to see how it felt, then giggle, people would pull Erik aside to tell them how beautiful I was, little puppies were running amuck and what was that smell? Was that poop? Or just rotting vegetables under the feet of every marketgoer pulverizing them as they sought out their produce. Oye, it was absolute madness. This market was a wholesale market, so farmers would drive up in the middle of the night, get set up by 3 am and start selling until about 10 or 11 am that morning. By the time we got there at 5:30, things were absolutely packed. Bre had told us that these farmers sell to the small shops along the city streets or at other markets. Those resellers come at 3am, load up and go set up their booths so they are ready for a day of sales at 6am. Wow! I’m not sure how long we lasted but towards the end it start to feel dizzying with how many people were hovering, yelling at us and touching us. We all hit our limits at about the same time and luckily we were right on the edge of the market to make our escape. WHEW! I’ve never gotten such a rush from just looking at watermelons and pineapples.
Guess where we went after that? To the same famous coffee place, Tomoca! Lol. We drank up and then continued to the next market called Merkato (thanks to the Italian occupation). This was a much more casual market – yes with some of the resellers from the first location. However, there was a really interesting part of this market. Bre had said that, yes there are trash companies, but there are also people who go door to door picking up unwanted items from houses everywhere – lightbulbs, old cellphones, cellphone cases, extension cords, etc. – they pick these items up, they fix them and then resell them at this huge portion of the main market. It was really cool to see this in action. They had done a great job with cleaning up old lamps and organizing all the internet wires and plastic chairs. What an incredible idea that every community should pick up on!
After that, we grabbed breakfast – guess where, at a place Anthony Bordain ate at! We had a delicious flatbread soaked in honey and shredded injera in a spicy stew served with more injera. Lol. And we were back in our hotel by 9:30! Whew! We had until noon to pack up and check out. So we did exactly that. We had a whole afternoon though to explore the town!
First we went to the Red Terror museum, which I cried endlessly throughout. It was a graphic telling of the communism era of Ethiopia. Then we headed to the Ethnological Museum which didn’t cheer us up nearly as much as we needed to be. From there we hit up an Irish Pub, which was only Irish because it was painted green and called “Irish Pub at The Club” (lol). They had no Irish beers or ciders, but we enjoyed a ‘cheers’ regardless. They really wanted us to use the pool table as well, but we declined.
We grabbed one last incredible dinner and ordered the local specialty of doro wot before heading off to the airport. While we were in Addis Ababa I couldn’t stop feeling both in awe and in fear. Checking into our hotel we had to put our stuff through scanners and walk through a metal detector, our tour guide said to only walk on the sidewalks during daylight hours and for me to never be alone. But, being at the markets in the buzzy, loud, smelly markets – I felt so open. My senses were overwhelmed the whole time I was in the city, but in a way that left me feeling whole despite the extreme poverty and heartbreaking history. Ethiopia has such a long and rich history that unfortunately gets wrapped up in how poor and damaged the country is – not for how colorful and joyful it is and how amazing the people are. We experienced the most culture shock here out of our whole trip, but that is what we live for, to connect with the world that on the surface seems much different but at the heart has so much in common with our own.
If you’re interested in going because you also love Ethiopian food and find the culture fascinating and the history flabbergasting, let me know. I can connect you with our touring company and they can help plan each day so you feel comfortable while you are there so you can enjoy every aspect of this special city. What a dream.
