Thursday, August 12, 2010

Travel Day 5--Addis Ababa to Bahir Darvia Debre Libanos and Debre Markos (aka July 19th)

So today the call to pray came on time about 5am and the rooster, believe it or not did not wake up from that call…he did however wake up after hearing the mating cats and loud howls from the dogs. We got up about 530 and finished packing as we’re leaving for our trip about 7am. We tried to combine bags last night so we’d have fewer bags to take but that was easier said than done…we did loose one bag but that was it.


I’m anxious to get out of the city. It has been very different than what I had imagined and honestly difficult to see. I had seen images of the streets of Addis Ababa, with many people just sitting about, shack houses and shops, very few ‘western’ looking buildings in the photos. I had assumed that there were ‘bad’ areas that were poverty ridden, and ‘good’ areas that were newer development. I had expected much fewer of these ‘newer’ areas than we’d see in western countries, but I have been shocked to see that even the good areas (nicer hotels, restaurants, shops) resembled western ‘bad’ areas and were not many in number.

Well, we got on the road shortly after 7am. Our driver Kiddir seems very nice. Our first day took us from Addis Ababa to Debra Libanos (a monastery) through Debra Markos (where we had lunch), the Blue Nile Gorge (where we took some great pictures) and onto Bahir Dar. The trip was at once beautiful and had a feeling of danger at the same time. We were out of the city and were able to see some spectacular views, even with the over cast skies. We came close to hitting several people (again pedestrians are very brave people) and actually did hit a donkey.   I am sad to say that we do not believe the donkey survived the encounter. People tend to walk in the roads as cars passing are not overly frequent. Animals crossing the road are common too. In the case of the poor donkey, it ran out from behind some bushes into the road. Our driver tried to stop but it was either swerve off the road (into a muddy ditch) or hit the donkey.

Debre Libanos—This is a monastery for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. It was named after one of their saints.  When you drive up, there is a large open courtyard with a museum/offices on the left and the church right in front of you.  The stained glass windows were the highlight of this visit.  The guide (a priest) discussed at length the history of the monastary and the saint for whom it was named.  We were able to see some of the art work inside the monastery and also were able to go down to the basement where there were many men praying and singing.  We also saw the baptistry which gave me a strong feeling of being closer to those men and women that were praying in the monastary...that as brothers and sisters in Christ, we all share that same passage.






Debre Markos--We stopped here at a restaurant/hotel for a late breakfast. Interesting French Toast.  Not bad, just made from a sweet bread and no syrup.  We weren't here very long.

Blue Nile Gorge--WOW.WOW.WOW.  What else can I say...I think the pictures speak for themselves.


 

 

 
We arrived at our hotel about 6 in the evening.  We didn't see much of the town as it was almost dark.  We pretty much crashed in preparation for Day 6.....

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