I seperated in peace from the "new flower" (Addis Abeba translated to english)and fell in love with Harer at first sight. It's the only city in Ethiopia with a real old town. It has it's very own style of houses (especially the sitting plateaus inside), and even it's own language, only spoken inside Jogul, the old wall embracing it. Harari is a mix of arabic, amharic, oromo, somali and many other languages.
Also the harari folk songs are a refreshing alternate, they sound quite arabic. Regrettably I didn't find any live performance at this time, only bought some records, contrary to it's amharic counterparts in Lalibela and Addis, performed in a so called "asmari bet" , some kind of traditional night club (I forgot to mention it in the previous entries). Eventually I master the amharic "skisa" - dance, which is best described with joggling one's shoulders, to some extent.
Harer is an old trading city. The most important product sold here is Khat, a narcotic leaf, the nr.1 drug in Yemen, Somalia and some parts of Ethiopia. I tried it before several times in Yemen and Ethiopia, but I couldn't get used to it's bitter taste, and also couldn't feel any stimualtion. Unfortunetly the surrounding of harer is covered by a sea of blue plastic inwhich the khat is sold.
Now I stayed here for 5 days, including a day trip to Babile (1 hour by bus from harer), where I took a walk through an amazing stone forest, only angered by the cactus alongside the overgrown paths. Though I really like it here and found some new friends again, I'm quite disappointed now about my soon ending stay in Ethiopia. Within 2 months I couldn't find a place in the rural areas to integrate into the farmer's daily life, like I hoped to do. I've always been always a visitor and most acquaintances were rather cursory.But I'm still far away from feeling homesick.
Also the harari folk songs are a refreshing alternate, they sound quite arabic. Regrettably I didn't find any live performance at this time, only bought some records, contrary to it's amharic counterparts in Lalibela and Addis, performed in a so called "asmari bet" , some kind of traditional night club (I forgot to mention it in the previous entries). Eventually I master the amharic "skisa" - dance, which is best described with joggling one's shoulders, to some extent.
Harer is an old trading city. The most important product sold here is Khat, a narcotic leaf, the nr.1 drug in Yemen, Somalia and some parts of Ethiopia. I tried it before several times in Yemen and Ethiopia, but I couldn't get used to it's bitter taste, and also couldn't feel any stimualtion. Unfortunetly the surrounding of harer is covered by a sea of blue plastic inwhich the khat is sold.
Now I stayed here for 5 days, including a day trip to Babile (1 hour by bus from harer), where I took a walk through an amazing stone forest, only angered by the cactus alongside the overgrown paths. Though I really like it here and found some new friends again, I'm quite disappointed now about my soon ending stay in Ethiopia. Within 2 months I couldn't find a place in the rural areas to integrate into the farmer's daily life, like I hoped to do. I've always been always a visitor and most acquaintances were rather cursory.But I'm still far away from feeling homesick.
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