Fest Ethiopia
Lalibela
Murray Brill  from   Greece
After a month in Bangkok, I flew on Ethiopian Airlines direct to Addis Ababa for a two week visit. Mari, my wife, didn't want to go because she felt it would be a hardship trip for her. In many respects she was right, which I'll mention later, but for me I'm really glad I went I was thinking of seeing Ethiopia for years but something always came up to put it off.

I arranged the whole trip on the internet and found a reliable Ethiopian travel agent, Fest Ethiopia Travel & Tour Co., Robel Alemu,Director, and worked out an itinerary to suit my interests and to cover all the important sites. Arriving around 01:00am in Addis, I was met at the airport and taken to the Addis Hilton Hotel. After some sleep and a big buffet breakfast at Hilton I started off to see Addis Ababa. Ethiopia is a historic place, the first African country to adopt One of the most spectacular is cut from the top down into the solid rock in the shape of a Greek cross (Bet Giorgis) picture and the largest (Bet Medani Alem) is about the size of the Parthenon in Greece (all cut out of solid rock!). The next day I made the journey to the Naikotelab monastery at the top of a mountain almost 4'000 meters high. This was a difficult climb, after going as far the mule could go, it became too steep so I had to do some steep rock climbing on foot to reach the top. Saw 13th century processional crosses, icons, etc. This trek was like climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro but instead of 5 days it was compressed into 4 hours. The following morning I went on another trip to a cave monastery and walked around the town. There were also Timkat processions, with music and colorful costumes. In the afternoon I flew to Axum. Unfortunately the flights are often late and they are not direct to the place you are planning to go. We had a stop at two other places before arriving at Axum, so time was short for visiting that afternoon. Axum was the capital of the Queen of II seat of government before he established the capitol at Addis Ababa in 1886, with a magnificent view. Also saw Trinity Cathedral, St. George's Cathedral, Menelik's mausoleum and other sights around the city. At the City Museum I saw the colorful procession down below of the Timkat festival.

Later the day I went all around the city walls and saw the remaining gates, the museum and in the evening saw the "Hyena Man" and I fed the wild hyenas that live in the surrounding bush!!! On the way back to Addis, I stayed over night at Sodere resort and enjoyed the therapeutic hot springs. There is a huge Olympic sized pool with hot water, so it was like relaxing in a hot bath, you were so relaxed that you didn't feel like swimming.

So, why was it a "hardship" trip? It wasn't for me, but for old people or those not in good physical shape, the climbing in and out of the rock churches is difficult without assistance (rock steps slippery and treacherous) a lot of hard walking and climbing, especially the monastery at 4'000 m which I don't think most people who are not fit could manage.
 

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