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Ethiopia, and Christmas in London
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In Gondar, Ethiopia, I visited some outstanding castles built in the 16th and 17th centuries. They're in a walled-in area at the center of town called the Royal Enclosure. It was a real treat to wander around this place in peace through a number of castles in various states of ruin (several in almost perfect condition) sprinkled across a green meadow. They resemble castles from Europe and Asia to a degree but have their own unique features, like the rounded tops of some of the towers.
Outside of town was a landmark called Fasilidas' Bath -- Fasilidas being a famous Ethiopian king who also built the largest castle in the Enclosure. The Bath is a large, deep rectangular hollowed-out area walled by stone and historically filled with water. Rising from the middle of it is a small castle-like building with a bridge leading to it. Nowadays the tank is only filled once each year for a special event. This site is currently being restored by a Norwegian-headed project.
Also a little outside of the city is a famous church called Debre Gerhan Selassie. As often happened in Ethiopia, on my way there I was joined by a couple of little boys who showed me the way. The church grounds are of a similar style to that of the castles and the Bath, but the church itself has something special inside. Like many Ethiopian Orthodox churches, the inside walls have frescoes depicting Ethiopian saints in scenes from well-known stories. But at this church, the frescoes are especially good and cover all of the walls. The ceiling is the best off all: the beams are painted with rows of cherubs whose faces wear all sorts of different expressions, some humorous. (to see this and most of things I describe here check out the photo gallery)
After two nights in Gondar I flew on to Axum, not far from the Eritrean border in the far north of the country. Most of Axum's main sights are more than 1000 years older than Gondar's, since the city was a the center of a major empire in ancient times. The easiest to spot is the main stelae field (a stele is a type of obelisk -- or is it the other way around?). The highest stele still standing is called King Ezana's stele and it stands over 70 feet tall. Like several of them, this one is carved with row upon row of windows, and a small door at the bottom. It looks like small skyscraper, though the stelae date from around the 4th century CE. The largest one of all is the Great Stele; it lies stretched out about 100 feet long nearby, where it is thought to have fallen at the time of its creation. It may be the largest single piece of rock ever attempted to be erected by humans. Just looking at this mammoth stone lying cracked on the ground makes you think of how the earth must have shaken when it fell!
One other stele is taller than King Ezana's and stood until 1937, when the occupying Italians stole it and re-erected it in Rome. (Ethiopia was briefly occupied by Italy, but decades earlier it walloped the Italian army in a huge battle that made it the only African country not to be colonized by a European power) They agreed to return it in 1947 but didn't get around to doing it until April 2005. It was the heaviest object ever transported by air. I saw it still lying in three pieces at the site, waiting to be restored.
Axum also has a lot of ancient fitted-stone tombs -- not too interesting to look at but quite impressively constructed. And the site is thought to be 98% unexcavated. Much more recently, the St. Mary of Zion church was built -- around the same time as the Gondar sites. This church is the most significant to the Ethiopian Orthodox church, and a small building on the site is believed by members of the denomination to house the Ark of the Covenant. Only one priest is allowed to see the relic, and once he takes on this role he never leaves the Ark building!
As a smaller place, Axum had a more easy-going feel than Gondar, and I spent a lot of time just walking around town, often talking with local people. Like with many tourist-frequented places, in these Ethiopian towns when foreigners walk down the street a lot of people approach them, often wanting to sell something or offer guiding services. But unlike most places, here people seem quite happy just to talk if you're not interested in buying. In addition, plenty of people really are just curious to meet a foreigner. Because of this, I met loads of people in Axum (and Lalibela, the next town), including many kids. Walking down the street, people whom one passes call out "Hello", or "How are you?", or "Are you fine?" -- which I first thought was meant to make sure I was alright, but actually just means "How are you? Fine?". "Fine" seems to be the standard answer to "how are you?" taught in Ethiopian schools. Often I'd hear people talk about me as I passed. The word "faranji", meaning "foreigner", is a dead giveaway. Once I heard that word in a discussion a couple of teenage girls had as they looked at me. I turned toward them and deadpanned the word "faranji," and they roared with laughter (I think one might even have fallen down)!
One Ethiopian specialty I tried for the first time in Axum is "spris", a mixed-juice drink. When you order juice in Ethiopia, it always seems to be pure fruit, blended-up (not "juiced") right on the spot: more like what we would call a smoothie. It's delicious, and the best is spris, where two or three different types of fruit are added in colorful layers. The most common are papaya, mango, banana, and avocado. I know that avocado juice may sound hideous, like drinking guacamole perhaps, but really it's nothing like that at all ... probably because they add so much sugar!
The whole time I was in Ethiopia, I managed to eat injera for every meal except one. It's one of my favorite foods. But an injera dish that was new to me in Axum and is often eaten for breakfast is "injera fir fir." This is torn-up injera, cooked with spices and served on top of a piece of fresh injera. Awesome!
From Axum I flew to Lalibela, a town of only 8000. Like Addis Ababa, Gondar, and Axum, it is in the highlands of Ethiopia, with cool air and warm sun year-round. Lalibela's historic sites fall in between Gondar's and Axum's, time-wise. They were constructed in the 12th and 13th centuries, and are among Ethiopia's most jaw-dropping tourist attractions. They are rock-hewn churches, created by carving out rectangular areas deep into the stone of the ground and then hollowed-out and carved, complete with windows and pillars.
The people of Lalibela may have been the most friendly of all. I was invited to play foosball with some kids playing on a set out on the dirt road leading to my hotel, and a high school student hoping to go to university and become an economist showed me the quarters he and a friend had rented so they could live and study in town where there were better educational opportunities than in their rural homes. And one little boy gave me a necklace as a token of remembrance.
It was three hops on the plane to get back to Addis Ababa from Lalibela. Ethiopian Airlines uses one plane to fly back and forth along the route between the northern historical circuit towns, so I ended up with a total of eight domestic flights on my visit to the north. By the time it was done, I'd had enough propeller-plane time for awhile. ;)
In my one full day in Addis Ababa, I mainly stayed around the hotel, relaxing and watching the BBC. But I did walk around the Piazza for awhile, the central commercial neighborhood where my hotel was located. The next morning it was back to Cairo.
I like to arrive way early at airports, so I know I won't have any anxiety about catching my flight. This is one reason I manage to really love the expience of flying. But even though I was at Bole Airport three hours early and about the first to check-in for my flight, I still managed to almost miss it.
It's one of those airports where you go through security right at the gate, so that everyone sitting in the gate is waiting for the same flight. Or so I thought. I sat reading a book, and was happy to see the plane pull up to the jetway -- so we wouldn't have to ride a bus to the plane. I saw the incoming passengers disembark, and awhile later the cleaning crew go in. Then I heard an announcement about how my flight was "now boarding". But I could see that the plane (The plane at my gate! Gate 5A!) wasn't ready yet, so I figured that the announcement was an automatic one based on the status of the flight and trying to get any stragglers to hurry over to the gate in time. No one around me seemed concerned. Awhile later, I heard someone call out "anyone for Khartoum/Cairo?". Um, yes! I stood up, and everyone around me stared at me. Apparently, they were using the gate for two different flights, and my flight had already finished boarding. It just happened that the people sitting around me were all on the other flight, and I wasn't facing the end of the gate where my co-passengers had left to board already. So they put me on the shuttle bus all alone just before takeoff. Lesson learned, I guess.
My one night back in Cairo was fun, with the city seeming almost like a second home after a total of 7 nights there in 4 different passes through. I stayed in a different hotel right on the square where my favorite Internet cafe and Egyptian fast-food place are, did some online errands, and early the next morning, flew to London. The Heathrow airport had been experiencing freak severe fog and had cancelled every single domestic flight, and many European ones, for a couple days running. Luckily all of the long-haul flights were running since the fog didn't actually prevent landing but just increased the amount of time needed between planes using the runway. We plunged through the fog right on time.
For the past three nights I've been having a terrific time in London, my pick as the greatest city in the world: most beautiful, most exciting, most romantic, and with the best historic sites. A lot of people would disagree with me, but it's my opinion dammit. :) On Christmas Eve I took a long walk around the city and took lots of pictures. I'm staying at International Students House, which is also where my sister and I stayed when we were in London on the way home from Edinburgh almost exactly four years ago. It turns out that ISH is one of the best places for foreigners alone in London to spend Christmas. They have a big all-day event that attracts people from all over the city. This time there were some 200 young people in attendance, from 55 different countries! About a fourth were Chinese, but I'd say no other country had more than 8 people. We started with champagne, and then went downstairs for a gala-style traditional dinner. After that we went back up to the bar to watch the annual Queen's Speech, and then for a walk through Regent's Park just across the street. Then afternoon tea, and finally a movie marathon. It was a great time.
Tomorrow night, I fly to India where I'll be meeting up with my friend Samantha.
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