ethiopia: addis ababa part 2
brace yourselves for a history lesson! (hang in there jeremy!)
in my last blog i had mentioned that ethiopia has a long and rich history. how long exactly does not seem to be known accurately, however, there are records of the more famous ancient egyptian kingdoms trading with ethiopia. occasionally the 2 kingdoms (with sudan being the capital) were united under one king.
around the 1st century c.e., the kingdom of axum rose in ethiopia. it seems that extended up to yemen in arabia and was ranked with rome, china and persia in power. they have experienced almost every kind of rule, from christian to muslim, italian to ethiopian, communist to democratic.one of their emperors, menelik II was responsible for founding addis ababa. the location was chosen by his wife who had a palace built at the hot springs. menelik expanded this house and it became the seat of the government till today.
ok! enough history. (not sure where that came from - i think because it is so rare in africa to have an old culture with a well documented history = oral history does not keep too well) on to ... merkato!! merkato is said to be the largest open air market in africa. i am not sure if this is true or not, but it definitely large, bustling and vibrant. men carrying improbably huge loads share the roads with trucks being loaded for different parts of the country.
did i mention men carrying improbably huge loads? down the winding narrow streets you come across these guys with loads of every imaginable item stacked high like little minature teetering towers of babel.
apparently you can buy anything in merkato, in any quantity, then pay for it to be delivered anywhere.
the people of ethiopia are very devout. many have tattoos denoting their religious faith. this lady, genet, has a tattoo across her chin - apparently religious in nature. many others have them on their forehead of back of their hands.
i must include this picture because i made our kind and wonderful host, eyob, stop to take it..then he had to buy some fruits from the stall because they thought we stopped for their produce.
addis has probably more coffee shops per person than any other city - and they dont mess around with their coffee - no packet of instant coffee with a cup of hot water for them. no wonder coffee originated here. i ordered just a regular coffee and this is what i got...
our next stop in ethiopia is 250km from addis. the awesome and amazing....nile gorge!
