From Lalibela to Addis

From Lalibela to Addis

Since friday i'm in Addis Abeba. I reached Korem after a 2 days trek and 1 day by bus, and stayed there 2 days , including a visit to the beautiful Ashange mountain lake. Then I still tried to make a trip to the nearby Afar Region in the east and sacrificied 2 days with running from one local authority to the other to get a permission, but without any success. The Afar nomads are known to be very hostile not only for "farenji" (white men like me) but also for other ethiopian ethnics. So it would have been nessecary to take a guide from their tribe in order not to be abducted or even killed. Their homeland is the hottest area in Ethiopia, flat pastoral land, interrupted by many extinct and active volcanoes and salt lakes, very different from the highland. Maybe I'll try it again from their regional capital Samara, when I'm on the way to Djibouti.

Here in Addis I stay with some Somali friend's friends, refugees from Mogadischu who are waiting for their visa to follow their relatives in Austria or other western countries. The Djibouti Visa is also the only reason why i still didn't leave this monster city, mainly consisting of corrugated iron buildings and shopping malls next to each other, without any single park or other alternations. I should get the visa tomorrow, then i'll go to Harer , a historical islamic trading city, most probably better worth seeing. It's only 2 hours (in Ethiopia a ridiculous distance) from Jijiga, the capital of Somali Regional State, which i have to avoid in order not to get into the same situation like in the new year, as there is still a long lasting guerilla war in it's hinterland.

I still have problems loading the pictures, it would simply take days (without sleeping) untill I've loaded all important images. Maybe in Djibouti it's better. Also I cannot open my blog here in Ethiopia, (seems to be censored by the government) and I have to mail the texts of the entries to my sister in austria.