Schlagwort-Archive: backpacking

Ethiopia, World Trip 2018-19

Gondar & Axum – two historical towns

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From Bahir Dar, we took a minibus to Gondar – which didn’t take long but was quite annoying and gave us a first taste of Ethiopian transportation and the guys involved in it: after agreeing on a price, they suddenly wanted extra for luggage and refused to give change. They then dropped us about 15 km outside of Gondar, saying this is it. We wanted to stay on and force them to bring us to the agreed end destination, however a group of Frenchies was stupid enough to get off and agreed to take a chartered minivan to the center for an over-inflated price… so we had to come with them. Some people…!!

Gondar itself surprised us as quite a pleasant city. After late lunch, we went for a first walk around town and checked out the castle Ras Gimb. Quite impressive in the afternoon light and well preserved, at least the outside! The scruffy interior and museum was less interesting.

Next day, we went off to explore the main castle complex of Gondar, Fasil Ghebbi. And I must say, I was really impressed!! I didn’t expect such cool-looking castles here. We spent quite some time walking around the grounds and taking loads of photos.

Later on, we took a minivan to the Fasil Baths a bit outside town, which were equally surprising. It must be really awesome to experience Timkal here, when the pool is filled with water and the devotees go for a bath!

As a last sight of the day, we walked to Debre Birhan Selassie church, one of the oldest churches in Ethiopia with beautiful paintings on the wooden walls and ceiling. The walk there and back led us past some photogenic market stalls.

After Gondar, we ventured into the Simien mountains, from where we only returned for a night to catch a connecting bus to Shire next (early) morning. It was a long, uncomfortable bus ride, squeezed into our seats for 10 h, then involved a change in Shire to get to our final destination – Axum. Bus travel here is among the most exhausting we have ever experienced!

We just wanted to spend one day in Axum (and you don’t really need more), but I caught a stomach bug that forced me into a rest day. Somehow recovered, we finally set out to see the old stelae that Axum is famous for – but to be honest, they were a bit disappointing. I understand these are old and historically important columns, but…we thought they were ugly and not that impressive. We also walked outside town to see some more – even bigger disappointment. Only the Dungur palace was still kind of nice…

But at this point, the heat and my exhaustion from being sick the day before got to me and I had to skip a visit of the beautiful Cathedral. Mathijs went and had a great time, being able to take lots of nice pictures of the locals.

All in all, Axum wasn’t that great for me, but I seem to have missed out on the best part (cathedral). Oh well… can’t have it all!

Ethiopia, World Trip 2018-19

Bahir Dar and the monasteries of Lake Tana

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Bahir Dar was a welcome change to Addis! After dealing with the taxi mafia at the airport, we were welcomed by streets lined with palm trees and lots of nice little cafes. It was still very busy on the street of course, but it had a more relaxed vibe.

On our first afternoon, we just walked around town a bit and discovered the colourful local market which was really really nice. After a while, Mathijs didn’t feel too shy about taking photos anymore, and there were just so many great subjects and scenes to photograph!

Later, we took a minivan to the Nile Bridge to see if we could spot some hippos. We did see two, but they were mainly under water and far away.

Next morning, we woke up very early to take the public ferry to the Zeghe peninsular. You can go on lots of tours to see the colourful monasteries of Laka Tana, but we always prefer to do things on our own. Ferry might be a bit of an exaggeration for the small boat, but it departed on time and the ride was beautiful and peaceful in the morning light.

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At Zege, we were welcomed by some chanting coming from the monastery Ura Kidane Meret. So we quickly walked up, past the still empty souvenir stalls to the ticket office which had to be opened up for us. Tours usually arrive here 1-2 h later only, so no one had expected tourists yet and we arrived to this amazing atmosphere. A group of men who were dressed as if they had climbed out of a history book were playing old musical instruments and chanting. It felt mystical and as if we were experiencing this very old culture.

It was special because there were no other tourists yet and it seemed like something they just did every morning, but that we were able to be part of that day. The paintings in the monastery were beautiful and nicer than expected, so we spent quite some time here – listening to the men and walking around taking pictures.

Later, we walked on to another monastery – Azwa Maryam – which was nice too and had some elaborate cruel paintings. Overall, it was quite similar to the first monastery though, and we imagine most other monasteries around the lake to look alike (unless you have a special interest in this area), hence concluded that seeing two of them would be enough for us! We were lucky to catch the same ferry on its way back to Bahir Dar and see some locals in their photogenic boats.

We still had some time left, so went back to our favourite market once again for another walk around and lots of pictures. This is more the kind of markets we like, compared to Addis‘ Merkato.

From Bahir Dar, we took a minivan to Gondar – a drive full of hassles and attempted tourist rip-offs…

Ethiopia, World Trip 2018-19

Addis Abeba – time for Africa!

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After two successive night fights, we landed in Addis Abeba dead tired and were happy that everything went smoothly with our hotel pickup. We were able to have breakfast at the nice buffet and our room was ready soon for some much needed catch-up on sleep.

Slightly more rested, we ventured to Piazza, an older area of Addis with some old buildings and churches. Here, we had our first Ethiopian meal and booked our flights to Bahir Dar. We were a bit shy still with taking out our big camera for photos, so sticked to quick phone pictures mainly. We had a brief walk around the Merkato area too, said to be the biggest market of Africa. Having freshly arrived, we found it a bit overwhelming though, and also not as picturesque as expected.

On our second day, we roughly followed a walking tour described in our guidebook, which led us to a couple of squares, churches and other remarkable buildings (or not so remarkable ones). The Tiglachen monument and the Holy Trinity Church were our favourite sights. Most other things were not really interesting.

To move around in Addis, we used local minibuses which worked well mostly – only sometimes we had to search a bit for the correct one. There’s also a tram line which connects some areas and was easy enough to use. Both were crowded and hectic – our introduction to the Ethiopian transportation system.

After 2 days in the capital, we were happy to move on to a smaller place – Bahir Dar.