Addis View Hotel Addis Ababa

... smiled as we droved off. Very seldom did the kids return anything else than a big grin.<br><br>The cultural loop<br><br>Given our positive welcome in this country, we decided against the shortest route to Sudan. Instead we opted for the +/-1800km &#8216;cultural loop&#8217; through Lalibela, Axum and the Semien mountains. It is astounding how little is known about the old and rich history of Ethiopia. Some of the churches, tombs and palaces we saw date to Queen Sheba and King Solomon ...

... 8217;t fly through Nairobi this time, but flew to Addis for the connecting flight to Paris. The first Addis flight left at 4:00, we flew over the equator shortly after takeoff and continued on 2 hours north to the capital of Ethiopia which is on a high mountain plateau. Temperatures can be surprisingly cool there, as I learned once before when I arrived in the morning in a short sleeved shirt, and we were driven into town for ...

... in. You know times are hard when the airline food is good. After the in-flight dinner I slept like a baby, good idea considering the 10pm take-off, half an hour late. But we made it up in flight somehow. When we finally landed at LHR next afternoon, we were right on time, or would have been at least if our gate hadn't already been occupied, second time that's happened in as many days. At least this is the REAL Terminal 5, not ...

... foiled in Addis - of course, the Hilton ATM was out of money, we had an incredible amount of trouble booking our flights, and then learned that we needed a minimum of 8 days for the trip we'd wanted to take to the South (we only had 6 to spare aft** doing the North), since Ethiopian Airlines had just stopped running its flights to one of the key south**n cities (despite what we'd read on-line and in LP, and thus reaffirming Lesson #2). So aft** finally buying ...

... to Addis road, with a mixture of vehicles and driving skills and attitudes. The whole road is a collection of accident black spots. One of the main contributors to this carnage are the taxis and minibuses, which are painted white and blue. They quite often make me look red. This time we made it through unscathed, but with heightened bloodpressures. We went to Alert, the place where we used to ...

... only realized through the mediation of fellow African leader Thabo Mbeke, of South Africa.  Ultimately, real achievements in African governance have to come from the African people themselves.             What should it say, then, that so many Ethiopians are resting their hopes for their own country on a U.S. presidential election?  For one, it should pose challenging questions about the way in which the U.S. and other developed nations have interacted ...

... degrees, field research experience, internships with internationally-recognized development agencies, volunteer service with health-related community groups, Red Cross certifications,extensive travels abroad, and generally one of the most impressive assemblages of experiences among recent graduates with which I've had the pleasure of associating myself...are all apparently invalidated if some enjoy the occasional flip-flop sandal.) clued us into external debates ...

... next 300 kilometers into the deep south brought rougher roads and lurching and bouncing in our Toyota Landcruiser. In some cases, we got off the main roads and unto paths that contained major ruts, steep inclines and declines, and deep gulleys just a few ...

... She could tell the man was insane. Arvid stepped forward with his fist drawn back and the man assumed a fighting stance. But the crazed old Ethiopian had not actually struck Arvid with his fist so that response would be beyond the Hebraic eye for an eye. Still if someone spits on you and you just ignore it days of torment and sleepless nights are the likely result. So he gathered as much spittle as he could in an instant, leaned passed Irina and let the load fly into the man's face ...

... called our host to pick us up. He then took us to a traditional restaurant, I can't remember the name anymore. But it was a nice place with some tradional dancing. We ordered the local honey wine. It was very sweet and I think the percentage of the alcohol must be quite high. My host couldn't even walk back, we had to get a taxi. When we went back home, we had a few more drinks and did some dancing and then finally got to bed. It was quite a full day for the first day of the trip!