We had a week in Addis Ababa after returning from our Northern tour and spent a lot of the time catching up with more friends.  We visited the house where I used to volunteer and spent time talking with the girls and house mother there.  We visited more friends and ate more good food.

 

 

 

 

 

We visited the Indian embassy four times trying to get our tourist visas (and in the process learned a lot more about using the mini bus system!)  We stayed for a few days at our friend Liya’s house and had an amazing time hanging out with her and seeing more of Addis.  We saw the excellent Ethiopian movie Nishan(check out the trailer below), drank spris juice, walked down Bole road to the airport, visited the extremely luxurious Sheraton hotel and managed to semi-crash a wedding by wandering past just as the bride and groom were coming out!

 

 

 

 

 

We went to the National museum where we saw the famous “Lucy”, the oldest skeleton found in the world.  We visited the beautiful Selassie church, which is decorated with beautiful stained glass designed by the Ethiopian artist Afewerk Tekele (one of his paintings is pictured above).

 

 

 

 

We went with friends to Yod Abyssina restaurant to eat delicious traditional food and watch traditional Ethiopian dancing. We practiced giving “gursha” – feeding your friends with the injera. I am not yet a master of giving gurshas! I loved being back in Addis Ababa – seeing the familiar, the incredible changes and most of all connecting with my friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dancing shown is from the same restaurant – it gives a good indication of what it was like!