Day 158-161
Sleeping location: Addis Bright/Wim’s Holland House, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Distance (km today/total): 6 / 11455
Estimated climb (m today/total): 0 / 84600
Tasks completed: many
Distance (km today/total): 6 / 11455
Estimated climb (m today/total): 0 / 84600
Tasks completed: many
Day in three words: Amongst Admin Ababa
Addis was an odd yet kind of alluring city. It’s a weird mixture of Ethiopia and not-Ethiopia, where goats wander dirt streets in the shadow of new skyscrapers, and you can smell sewage outside a fancy art gallery. It had lots of (comparatively) luxurious things and we indulged ourselves in ways that hadn’t been available to us for months. After serving her penance in the hostel Rebecca moved into my guesthouse and enjoyed running water again. The time apart has been really good for us and we are steadily learning how to nurture what is a relatively new relationship in such an intense environment. After a couple of nights we moved to another guesthouse in another part of town, run by a Dutch guy and famous amongst overlanders (we were staying there at the same time as two Germans and a solo Brit on motorbikes).
Addis doesn’t have much to offer the visitor, but we filled our days with loads of admin (put off for weeks), eating fancy food and taking it easy. The food thing was great because I was on a mission to regain some of my lost bodyweight, which meant cake was more of a necessity than an indulgence. At one point Rebecca had to talk me down from buying an entire cake and taking it back to the hotel. My antibiotics had an almost immediate effect and I felt so much more energetic. I must have been running at 80% energy for weeks without realising. We’ve both rejigged our bike luggage setups; Rebecca sent her two broken front panniers home (full with lots of her unnecessary stuff and a bit of mine too) and is going with rear panniers only, so I donated my large saddlebag, which I was getting sick of anyway. Rebecca also fixed up her bike; I am waiting until Kampala to do mine.
Various funny/interesting things that happened in our time here:
-I was accosted by multiple kids asking for money near a mall (where we saw the new Star Wars in English - 7/10 from me, 4/10 from Rebecca) and when rebuffed one set started calling out “fuck you” which they had probably learned from an irate farenji. When I walked past for a second time it transpired that they had also taught their 5yo sister to say it, so I taught them to add “you cunt” onto the end, which they soon mastered with aplomb.
-Went looking for shoelaces but drew a blank at about 20 shoe shops. Was wondering what Ethiopians do when their laces break, and contemplating just buying a pair of shoes for the laces, when a street vendor came to my rescue. Maybe they are a black market item.
-Got my hair cut; the guy was an expert with the clippers on the back and sides, but clearly had no idea what to do with my thin straight farenji hair on top and just aimlessly snipped at it with some scissors for a bit.
-Went to play Ethiopian pool again after finally learning the rules. It’s actually really fun. The local tactic seems to be to just whack every shot as hard as possible, but they clear up in about half the time we do, so it must work.
-Discovered kitfo, which is like an Ethiopian steak tartare and is DELICIOUS.
-Went for beers with another cyclist called Martin, who is in his 60s and has been doing this for decades. He previously did Cairo to Addis but had to fly home after getting seriously ill, so now he’s back to complete the trip. He was good company and it seems likely we’ll see him again on the road.
-Discovered that there is a football team called Ethiopian Coffee whose logo is an amazing hybrid coffee pot/football thing. Went on a desperate search for merchandise but sadly couldn’t find any, even at their home stadium, which had no club shop but did have a bizarre amount of translation offices and leather goods vendors.
-Went shopping for something to use as a tool container after surrendering my saddlebag to Rebecca. Bought two pencil cases which immediately turned out to be useless for the task; went back to shop and swapped them for two equally useless pencil cases of lower quality; immediately found makeup bag festooned with glitter and sequins that was more appropriate; kept useless pencil cases as I would have felt too bad taking the money back off the shop owner; left one pencil case in guesthouse for child to find.
-Saw some live jazz at African Jazz Village club, which was great. Excitedly ordered two negronis from the (expensive) menu, but what we got was two enormous glasses of gin and ice with a splash of Campari and no Martini. A dark moment.
-Went to the St George gallery, which was full of loads of beautiful things I could neither afford nor carry. I mainly write this so I can remember the name of the place and buy loads of stuff when I am rich.
-Visited the National Museum, which had the remains of the famous Lucy skeleton inspired by the Beatles song (...in the Sky with Diamonds). It was just a boring load of bones (obviously) but there was some interesting information about human evolution in Africa.
-Polished off the rest of the fake Christmas whisky in delicious pineapple hot toddies. Highly recommend if you are feeling the British winter; gently warm up whisky, pineapple juice and honey with some cinnamon; drink self to comfortable stupor, preferably under a blanket.
Addis was an odd yet kind of alluring city. It’s a weird mixture of Ethiopia and not-Ethiopia, where goats wander dirt streets in the shadow of new skyscrapers, and you can smell sewage outside a fancy art gallery. It had lots of (comparatively) luxurious things and we indulged ourselves in ways that hadn’t been available to us for months. After serving her penance in the hostel Rebecca moved into my guesthouse and enjoyed running water again. The time apart has been really good for us and we are steadily learning how to nurture what is a relatively new relationship in such an intense environment. After a couple of nights we moved to another guesthouse in another part of town, run by a Dutch guy and famous amongst overlanders (we were staying there at the same time as two Germans and a solo Brit on motorbikes).
Addis doesn’t have much to offer the visitor, but we filled our days with loads of admin (put off for weeks), eating fancy food and taking it easy. The food thing was great because I was on a mission to regain some of my lost bodyweight, which meant cake was more of a necessity than an indulgence. At one point Rebecca had to talk me down from buying an entire cake and taking it back to the hotel. My antibiotics had an almost immediate effect and I felt so much more energetic. I must have been running at 80% energy for weeks without realising. We’ve both rejigged our bike luggage setups; Rebecca sent her two broken front panniers home (full with lots of her unnecessary stuff and a bit of mine too) and is going with rear panniers only, so I donated my large saddlebag, which I was getting sick of anyway. Rebecca also fixed up her bike; I am waiting until Kampala to do mine.
Various funny/interesting things that happened in our time here:
-I was accosted by multiple kids asking for money near a mall (where we saw the new Star Wars in English - 7/10 from me, 4/10 from Rebecca) and when rebuffed one set started calling out “fuck you” which they had probably learned from an irate farenji. When I walked past for a second time it transpired that they had also taught their 5yo sister to say it, so I taught them to add “you cunt” onto the end, which they soon mastered with aplomb.
-Went looking for shoelaces but drew a blank at about 20 shoe shops. Was wondering what Ethiopians do when their laces break, and contemplating just buying a pair of shoes for the laces, when a street vendor came to my rescue. Maybe they are a black market item.
-Got my hair cut; the guy was an expert with the clippers on the back and sides, but clearly had no idea what to do with my thin straight farenji hair on top and just aimlessly snipped at it with some scissors for a bit.
-Went to play Ethiopian pool again after finally learning the rules. It’s actually really fun. The local tactic seems to be to just whack every shot as hard as possible, but they clear up in about half the time we do, so it must work.
-Discovered kitfo, which is like an Ethiopian steak tartare and is DELICIOUS.
-Went for beers with another cyclist called Martin, who is in his 60s and has been doing this for decades. He previously did Cairo to Addis but had to fly home after getting seriously ill, so now he’s back to complete the trip. He was good company and it seems likely we’ll see him again on the road.
-Discovered that there is a football team called Ethiopian Coffee whose logo is an amazing hybrid coffee pot/football thing. Went on a desperate search for merchandise but sadly couldn’t find any, even at their home stadium, which had no club shop but did have a bizarre amount of translation offices and leather goods vendors.
-Went shopping for something to use as a tool container after surrendering my saddlebag to Rebecca. Bought two pencil cases which immediately turned out to be useless for the task; went back to shop and swapped them for two equally useless pencil cases of lower quality; immediately found makeup bag festooned with glitter and sequins that was more appropriate; kept useless pencil cases as I would have felt too bad taking the money back off the shop owner; left one pencil case in guesthouse for child to find.
-Saw some live jazz at African Jazz Village club, which was great. Excitedly ordered two negronis from the (expensive) menu, but what we got was two enormous glasses of gin and ice with a splash of Campari and no Martini. A dark moment.
-Went to the St George gallery, which was full of loads of beautiful things I could neither afford nor carry. I mainly write this so I can remember the name of the place and buy loads of stuff when I am rich.
-Visited the National Museum, which had the remains of the famous Lucy skeleton inspired by the Beatles song (...in the Sky with Diamonds). It was just a boring load of bones (obviously) but there was some interesting information about human evolution in Africa.
-Polished off the rest of the fake Christmas whisky in delicious pineapple hot toddies. Highly recommend if you are feeling the British winter; gently warm up whisky, pineapple juice and honey with some cinnamon; drink self to comfortable stupor, preferably under a blanket.
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