Tues 22nd. The MM hotel chef was happy to be woken before 4a.m. to make me an omelette sandwich. Bus company phoned bang on 4 to say I was late. I didn’t panic as the bus station was only 5 mins walk away…and of course we didn’t leave until 5a.m.
A comfortable journey. We were stopped about 3 times for security checks which weren’t very thorough. The police stops seem to be mainly to check that the various bus papers were in order. I always enjoy looking at the scenery, but also closed my eyes to help make the 10 hours pass by as painlessly as possible. The scenery went from the green, lush Highlands to bone dry terrain. Had the obligatory coffee at the lunch stop and ate my remaining 2 bananas which were fairly well mashed at that point.
We seemed to be travelling at a good speed and there seemed to be less traffic compared to the journey to dire dawa, so couldn’t figure out why it took an extra hour….other than, I suppose, getting to the centre of Addis. From drop off, I had a 10 min walk to Meskel square. Then 25 min walk to Mexico….at least the rucksack was quite light. No minibuses at Mexico so got into a shared blue taxi. First time I used one….3 people in the back and another passenger up front…cost 30 birr, compared to the 5 birr by minibus. Stopped off at the Red Lion Pub to meet my drinking buddies. That’s become almost a daily ritual. Not as bad as it sounds as the place closes by 6:30!!!
So, from 23rd to 30th it was a matter of normal routines of shopping…cooking…having street coffee…watching European championship football. I made one visit to dimmer Cultural restaurant for a half litre of Tej. I think that was to celebrate having walked an hour (there and back) with Dereje to the electricity office to complain about the high bill of 4,668birr…about 90gbp. I knew it had to be wrong, and the queueing for an hour and a half was worth it to bring the bill ddown by 90% to 450birr. Good result as I think I was responsible for paying that bill!!!
Sun 27th I decided to find the Greek orthodox church and hope for a Sunday service. So, a minibus to Mexico and Getachew put me on the right minibus to Piazza. 10 min walk to the Church. Was a bit early at 8:30. Only saw the locked gate initially but some people across the street pointed to another gate. Was let into the Church and after 10-15 mins I was greeted by the priest. I said I was tracing family history and it turned out he’d been to Nairobi about 10 years previously and had met Evan and Elizabeth. Well, the one hour service took place; about a dozen white Greeks attended, plus some Ethiopian Greeks. I hung around afterwards…didn’t say anything, as they all knew each other. Then introduced myself to Vera who worked for the Greek embassy, but had been at the embassy in Nairobi about 18 months previously and was very good friends with Helen and knew the Spyropouloses very well. Stayed chatting after Vera had left and was so,so pleased I had made the effort. Quite an emotional morning.
A few days later I went to Ethiopian airlines at the Hilton and was able to utilise some of my Djibouti flight cost to fly to Arba Minch and back from Awassa. So I think I managed to bring the overall loss down to about 150gbp. After all that excitement, I was ready for my trip to Arba Minch on July 1st.