Finally some news!

Hello hello…

After not having written for ages, I am back telling about what is going on around here. It might be long to tell you about all, so I’ll try to sum up a bit.
So i think i left you just before i took couple (or more) of days off from work to be able to go travel a bit with Tim. Our route started in Bahir Dar, a city north of Addis, on the side of the biggest lake of Ethiopia, the Lake Tana. We took one of those crazy local place to go there, an dit took us the day to do something like 400km. The bus was pretty bad, ass-killing but the roads were kind of maintained (built by the Chinese and Japanese on this portion of the road) and the landscapes are very beautiful. So it was fun. Long but fun.
On the way to our destination, the road was beautiful. We crossed the Blue Nile Gorges which a beautiful and impressive, because the road goes down in the gorges before crossing them, then up again in a beautiful area. Ethiopia has lots of stiff mountains and the views are great !
Arrived in Bahir Dar, we slept in a 40 birr the room hotel (very cheap) with a dirty room and disgusting common toilet (was so close to go pee in the shower… didn’t do it !). The second night, we up scaled to a 50birr room with private bathroom an dit was great. We had a cold shower from a plastic bottle in the dark, it is memorable!
In Bahir Dar, we did the usual stuff: the boat trip. The lake has more then 30 islands on which there are many very old monasteries. Those are impressive because very old, but after three or four, we kind of had enough. The boat tour was nice, lots of birds to observe and nice fisherman boat. We met a funny crazy old polish guy with who we hang around a bit after. The next day, we went with him to the Blue Nile Falls, once considered as one oif the most beautiful fallls in Africa. Now, the falls have lost 75% of its water as they built a dam just ahead of the falls to produce electricity for the country (still not enough huh !). WE were lucky because the falls were « open » meaning we had the chance to see big waterfalls compared to normal. We climbed the highest mountain around for couple of hours before reaching the top, with a 380° view on the valley. Bweauwtifuwll ! Worth the effort.
After coming back to town, we almost directly took a minibus to Gonder.
HAaa.. i make it short but it makes me skip some funny details like the door of the bus taking us to the falls which fell down during the first 2 meters, the rain inside of the bus, the crazy Chinese taking pictures of us at the falls, the crazy children jumping on you to sell you any kind of handicraft stuff, the shepherds and so on…
To go to Gonder… i think it should take 2 hours and a half. WE took something like 5hours. Yeah, we had a little « bus » problem. After stopping at the gas station, we just couldn’t start anymore. So we had to wait for a mechanic, then for him to repair then we went.
We stayed in a lovely hotel in Gonder where we met the first night Chris, a Canadian guy off traveling for a year and a half. He was heading eventually to India, so we had a beer all existed sharing about the cool places we should go to. In Gonder, the main attraction is the castles, or the remain of them. It is impressive and surprising for Africa. Those are just old stones castle like we have. Sa that was cool. Then we met a girl who stayed in Gonder couple of months and she took us to visit a bit the surroundings, taking us a bit outside the center, with beautiful views and more rural village.
Then it is said that the first official tej place in Ethiopia was in gonder, so we had to go. No electricity, big wooden tables with a tiny candle, and lots of old wise Ethiopian guys zipping their tej in chemistry bottles (cf pictures) and a great atmosphere.. We had a great evening, the wine and the atmosphere made us talk for hours without us noticing it. After our fourth bottle, we realized we were the only one left and that we got pretty drunk. The wine was excellent, soft, sugary and tasty. But we forgot it was wine. So we took a rickshaw (yesss they have that all over Ethiopia but in Addis, what a shame, i love it!)We got home fast and slept like babies. The next day, i had a fever. So i hesitated between the hang over, the swain flue or malaria (paranoid ? not at all !). Think in the end i just had a cold…like a normal winter cold (yes it is winter here !).
The next day, i left time, Gwenen and Chris go up north to Axsum, while I went down to Addis in a nice middle class bus that took one day instead of two. I have been so happy to have chosen this fancy bus as i was feverish, diarrhaish and sickish in general. I just wanted to be home, take a shower and sleep.
I went to work on Monday but slept all day the Tuesday and had a slow motion week before Tim came back on Sunday.
Tim trip was …fun i think. Him and Chris have been sick alternatively (« are you good Tim ? yes but Chris is piucking all he has got ». And the next day : « are you good Tim ? No I am shitting blood but Chris is great ». Poor guys, they have been miserable. And they were riding buses all days… interesting.
I met them on Saturday morning thinner and dreaming for some rest. We had a nice week end in Addis before Chris flew to Egypt.
The next week has been the last one in town for Tim, who enjoyed some shopping, walking and last meetings.
On Friday, we flew (no time for 2 days of the local bus, so just 2 hours by flight ! luxury) to Lalibella. Lalibella is where the rock churches are. It is a small village in the mountain, without car, with beautiful views and great sunsets. Celebrating our two years together, we made the week end special. We had this crazy fancy hotel in houses called tukuls (traditional round houses), a huge room, impressively clean with lots of windows opening on a balcony and on a gorgeous view on the valley. We even had breakfast in bed, checking out the sun rise… yes i know, luxury again. But it worth it!
We went to the market on Saturday morning then to the churches in the afternoon. We had a little of tej the evening (a little, i have been a bit quieted down on tej !), we met nice people (including a Thai girl living in Lund and speaking Swedish just a bit better then me but who sounds so confident that i got jealous ! Med vi pratade lite svenska och det var jätte trevlig att träffa henne.
Then again, i am skipping lots of details but it is too much and i am sure you are already a bit bored. But we climber a mountain to see a beautiful sunset, we visited the churches that are very impressive, we ate the biggest omelet in the world, lots of cute birds of all colors, the best fruit juice and the worst ginger-dirt-tea, we saw the most traditional way of selling honey in the market ( big bags, full of durt with honey inside and a woman digging her whole arm in it to take a handle of it…yummie. And so on and so on.
We came back to Addis on Sunday and Tim flew in the evening, after a great packing day, followed by his last injera and a stress of not having money left to pay it. Indeed all the ATM were out of function and i had only 50 birrs, which didn’t even pay the taxi. So i had to leave a deposit of my traveler check.
The problem led me finally to visit the Sheraton hotel the next day (the best in Addis, totally wahou), to meet another svensk, to meet another guy from the world Bank and to get a lift to an ATM that works (i had only six birrs left and i think they had pity of me…)
So sunday evening, tim left and flew back to Sweden a studies, which put me in a veryyyy slow and sad pace of life. But my roommate came back from their trip and interns from ECA were going, so my week has been quite busy anywas. And after all, four months is going to be fast right?

Here it is, the sum up of our trip. The pictures should help you visualize what it was. Hope it was not too boring ;)
Bisous à tous
Ps: papa, j’adore mon appareil photo! Il est juste géniale.