Fogera Hotel Gonder

... since winter had ended a month or two ago ...... but, hey, this is Ethiopia and anything is possible.)<br><br>I am now travelling with Lise Carrier, a 29 year old chic, sleek and glamorous Parisienne who is sometimes mistaken for my daughter. This does not offend me in the slightest.<br><br>We have somehow acquired Claus and Salvador, a Dane and a Spaniard, who are also not travelling together, but we all seem to have the same idea ...

... me: <br><br>4 stones (1 at helmet) <br>1 stick (wood) <br>1 peace of sugarcane (yummie) <br>1 thong (the other was still in use) <br>1 widow (thankfully refused) <br><br>To round this list up I can confess, that all other 3'471 kids while traveling in Ethiopia were simply friendly smiling, running towards me and waving a lot, being very ...

... but that may be because it's almost zero visibility. Apparently the winds that clean up the air in Addis make it really bad out here. The path to Dire Dawa and Harar seemed much nicer, shades of Guatemala, but so was the weather that day. Nevertheless this northern part of Ethiopia seems heavily deforested, hardly a square inch not under the till or the hoof, barely a five o'clock shadow of cover. If it weren't so deforested I ...

... Upon arrival at the airport, some browsing through the available postcards unfortunately cost us with our ride to our hotel, as there were no taxis left and we had to squeeze in with two of the other remaining people at the airport. Since they were originally from Ethiopia, however, we realized that our fare quote, though not incredibly expensive, was still 4x their price. After we puttered up to our hotel (noticing that an extensive ...

... is a bizarre writhing of you body in time to the music and letting your shoulders shake uncontrollably. Besides been hit on by hookers it was a great night - but having not really had much to drink in months, and a FitzGerald tolerance anyways, I was pretty wasted by the time I got back to my room. And then I called Wing, what we talked about I have no clue! And then Debs from uni arrived. We spent a day traipsing around looking for ...

... and your camera being taken. Built in the classical style the palace is set in a large park on the banks of the Blue Nile, just as you would expect of a British colonial building. The National Museum where we went next was so dimly lit that we could hardly read the explanations next to the exhibits, which were very similar to ...

... from Axum to Gondar is spectacular (again), more hairpins than in Corsica and some very beautiful gorges. We passed the Takazze river (using a modern version of Bailey Bridge, the old bridge having been blown up or washed away) and set up camp on a hill soon after. It was on the inside of a hairpin bend of the road. As it was getting dark there weren't that many people around, a few curious passers by and some trucks continued during the night. The next day we were looking forward ...

... tree stumps. The question I am so frequently asked by the interns and seniors is "how does medicine in uk compare to Ethiopia?" - I answer diplomatically with "it is different". Infectious disease makes up the majority of medical cases here - huge rates of TB, a fascinating condition called Kalazar (much reading up was required!), every patient with recent onset fever and another false localizing sign pretty much has malaria, and looming in the ...

... t think they are reading anything as they do not speak English. This is a tiny little one room airport which only has a few flights a day, so everyone who is there is going on the same flight. Because of this, there is no need for there to be staff at the counter all of the time - just when they're ready. I forgot to empty my nalgine of water. Even though they saw it, I was not asked to empty it (water is too precious). The ...

... was a wonderful assortment of chambers, breweries, and prayer buildings (the most important) overlooking the city. Unfortunately, much of it had been bombed so there was not a lot remaining. Ethiopians function on a different calendar than we do. They have 13 months - each with 30 days, and the 13th has 5 (or 6 in a leap year). They are also approximatley 8 years and a few days off of the Greek calendar, so this ...