Thursday April 29, 2010
We arrived at the airport in Ethiopia after midnight so it was technically Thursday by then. Gotta love leaving Chicago on Tuesday and not getting to Addis Ababa until Thursday. At least with the time of our flight we were able to get to our hotel and go to sleep to get us on a pretty good start to acclimating to the time change.
The drive to the hotel was an interesting experience itself. Once we made it through immigration, the taxi lady asked if we wanted a driver. We said yes and followed her outside. I expected we’d meet the taxi in front of the terminal like you would at every other airport I’ve been to. But instead, we walked down the path to the parking lot where the taxis were.
The first thing I noticed as we walked out of the terminal was how quiet it was. There wasn’t the city hum that I expected for a city of over 3.3 million people. We could even hear crickets! It probably had something to do with the fact that it was after one in the morning, but it was still a surprise.
The taxis are all small white and blue cars, but ours was a station wagon that night. But it was still tiny and all our luggage got tied to the roof rack. We told the drivers our hotel’s name, but they didn’t seem to know where it was, which is what people said would happen. There is a very different sense of street names and directions there. Our hotel was near the Fistula Hospital which is apparently well known. So that information was enough for the driver to get us there, since street names weren’t an option. No Garmins in these taxis.
For most of the drive we were the only car on the road. But there were many dogs out. Dogs aren’t generally pets in Ethiopia and there are lots of street dogs. We saw a fair number scavenging around the streets. They were a variety of sizes (probably from 15 to 55 pounds), all different colors, but all of them had curled tails and definitely had the look of street dogs.
The whole trip I only saw two cats. I’m guessing that the feral dogs make it difficult for the cat population. One of the cats was a very, very scraggly white and orange. The other was a tabby. Not quite as pathetic looking, but not a thing like my overfed house cats.
One thing I noticed on the drive was the size of some of the intersections we went through. I wondered what they’d be like with the bustle of the day. One of these intersections had a traffic light. It was the only one I saw on the whole drive to the hotel. It was red for us and the driver slowed a bit but pretty much just went through the intersection anyway. Of course there weren’t any other cars on the road at the time.
Our hotel turned out to be very nice and the staff was great. We pretty much just headed to our room and went to bed. I did try to take a shower and failed. I was warned that you had to plug in the hot water heater in the bathroom before showering. So that part went fine. But I couldn’t figure out how to turn the water on.
Our bathroom. Notice the hot water heater in the upper right. There is also a sign above the toilet that says "Tissue couldn't pass through this bowl." Apparently you aren't supposed to flush toilet paper and every bathroom has a basket next to the toilet instead. The water bottle next to the sink was for brushing our teeth. We weren't taking any chances with the water since we were warned in many ways not to drink any non-bottled water.
The shower was very fancy and had lots of buttons that probably did lots of interesting things, but I never got any of them to work.
Kerry informed me in the morning that you had to pull the knob instead of turn it. I felt better when she said she had to ask to find out.
We had a suite which was huge and very comfortable.
One corner of our huge room. Kerry had a king size bed in here. Later we found out that it was probably the most comfortable bed in the whole hotel.
My room. You can see the start of my water bottle collection.
In the morning we could appreciate our surroundings a bit more. Each of our rooms had a balcony and enormous sliding glass doors. Here was my view which was off the back of the hotel.
One morning Kerry saw the lady at this house let her chickens out of a box on the porch. Another morning a guy was outside bathing.
Our hotel's driveway and guard.
Across the street from our hotel. The scaffolding on the building across the street was pretty scary but it was what they used everywhere. We saw many, many buildings under construction and they all had this scaffolding.
Across the street.
When we were downstairs having breakfast, I had to get a picture of the lights. They were pretty special.
The entrance to the hotel was one big room where the reception desk was as well as the dining room, kitchen and bar.
Hotel lobby. The guy at the bar was my favorite. He was so nice and helpful and attempted not to laugh when Kerry tried to tell him "thank you" in Amharic.
The breakfast menu seemed pretty standard if not extensive. I wasn’t adventurous and had eggs and toast.
Little did I know that I saved up my adventure for later that morning when we set off to see the sights. The itinerary with Holt, the adoption agency, didn’t start until Friday, so we had a whole day to explore.
To be continued…