Sometimes you have to seize unexpected opportunities when they appear. Touching ground in sub-Saharan Africa for the first time.
Women carrying faggot of wood (80-100kgs!!!)
Well I can say straight away that I was fantasizing about the African continent for quite some time, albeit it wasn’t on the top of my to do list. But being of curious nature and looking for every way to discover and explore unknown parts of the planet, I jumped on the opportunity when my (college) friend asked me to accompany him as a (freelance) photographer during his business trip to Ethiopia (more on that in a later post. click here!).
I knew we would spend most of the time in the southern part of the country (where the coffee plantations are located), so I followed his advice and decided to explore during a few days the northeastern part of the country, that offers a totally different scenery (aride landscapes, nomade population, etc.).
The only way to get to Ethiopia is to fly to Addis Ababa, the country capital, and then take domestic flights. The city boasting some nice sights, I decided to make a 24h+ stop-over.
Fate doing often a proper job, one of my closest friend, Alex not to name him, who works for Oxfam (a UK-based NGO) was also in town for a few days before heading to Sudan for an assignment. So it was definitely time for a proper meet-up and some sightseeing.
However, because of the travel’s fatigue and some heavy-partying – I exited the airport at 1:30am and entered the club at 2:45am where we danced our ass off till dawn- I kind of woke up at 11am the next day, which didn’t leave me much time to cover all must-sees.
Clubbin in Addis
(this one definitely doesn’t want to go home)
So I could do only 3 sights:
- Ethiopian Natural History Museum to meet Lucy (yes THE Lucy);
- The Holy Trinity Cathedral
- Mount Entoto, one of the best view point overlooking the entire city where I had my very own coffee ceremony;
Fortunately, I would have another day in Addis a week later to visit two other major sights:
- the Mercato and,
- the Red Terror Memorial Museum.
Holy Trinity Cathedral
A little song to get in the mood before starting off the pictures:
And here below, a few pictures of Addis. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them and start the slideshow.
