In the middle of the night Julien had given me a painkiller leftover from his root canal, and while I did sleep, nothing had improved by morning. In fact, by the light of day, my toe was a disturbing purple black color near the corner of the nail, and it was so sore that contact with anything whatsoever was searing. This was especially ( Read more... )

Our final day in Axum was quite relaxed, as we had mostly done and seen everything there was to do and see. We did the actual visit of the Tsion Maryam church complex. Their museum had an astounding array of church and political artifacts, but even though it had recently been renovated, there was not enough room to display the items to their full ( Read more... )

We had long debated before our trip whether we had time for an additional side-trip off the beaten path of the standard northern circuit. By this time it had become plain that we would not, but we decided to compromise by taking a day trip out of Axum to see a bit of the rock-hewn churches of Tigray. The Belgians were long gone, and the ( Read more... )

The next morning we met the Belgians and the Australians and all had breakfast together. The Bradt had recommended the pastry shop next to the Abyssinian Cafe, and although it took some finding, we were satisfied and actually ended up returning there every morning during our time in Axum. As usual, Bradt's idea of "widest selection in town" ( Read more... )

The next morning only confirmed my low opinion of Debark -- our laundry, which had hung out all night to dry, had not been wrung at all, and was sopping wet. I cannot express how disheartening it is to stuff your backpack, with the few dry clothes you do have, full of dripping clothes, nor the displeasure I felt, given that I was already freezing ( Read more... )

I'm afraid it will be a short post tonight. After we got back from Ethiopia, we discovered that Mayhem actually loves one of the free toys I got with his cat food at the Super. Anyhow, he loves it so much that he ripped the pull-string vibrator out of the fake-fur mouse body, and I just got 30 minutes of excellent use out of the sewing kit my Dad ( Read more... )

The main sightseeing activity in Bahir Dar is to take a boat tour to visit the dozens of monasteries sequestered on the islands and shores of Lake Tana. Unfortunately for the time-limited tourist, the lake is quite large and even the monasteries in the middle of the lake require a full day trip from Bahir Dar. Many of the most interesting ( Read more... )

Our second day, we returned to Arat Kilo because we wanted to check out the Ethiopian Ethnographic museum at Addis Ababa University. However, it was our bad luck, because as a result of the holiday, it was closed. We then tried the nearby Lion Zoo, to see the black Abyssinian lions, but it, too, was closed ( Read more... )

Our goal in going to Arat Kilo was to see the national museum. The collection was quite comprehensive, ranging from contemporary Ethiopian art to historical and archeological pieces. The highlight of the visit for us both was the hominid exhibit, culminating with a display of Lucy ( Read more... )

I'm finally back on track, and getting around to posting about Ethiopia. I have a feeling this will take quite a few sessions, so I'm deliberately going to break it up into logical pieces -- by city ( Read more... )