Turkey to the Balkans

We are traveling today through Thracian Turkey (Thrace) into the Balkans. Tomorrow we will be in Bulgaria, (Haskovo then Sofia) and we will try and use our blog and LP blogsherpa to keep in touch. Our bus has wireless. It turns out the 'otobus' in Turkey, which is a serious upgrade over the train (at $6 US for three hours of comfortable travel a real steal) - is luxurious. We got cakes, coffee tea, personalized TV monitors A/C etc.

But, we will go back to hitchhiking and trains ASAP. We just enjoy the experience and meeting people and going to the unexpected places between the bus stations and city urban centers. Istanbul was huge. It would have taken many rides to probably get into and out of the urban center from the Asian side where we have been couchsurfing. So, sometimes, a bus is a comfortable and certain option.

We have been having trouble finding internet in Turkey. It turns out wifi is everywhere, it is on this bus, but the networks are all secured. A certain paranoia; or, perhaps, a leftover guild feeling to the provincial use of internet. The scenery even from the highway is superb. Beautiful forests, seasides, castles, and urban cores mean that while we are leaving feeling very satisfied with our visit to Turkey, there is mucch more to come back to and recommend.

We are editing and publishing our blogs, our computer is pieced back together (thanks Brittany and youtube for the tutorial on computer operations without any tools beyond a knife!). We hope to find enough respite in the few days we will travel to publish what we have been encoutering, learning, writing etc.

Until then, we are wlell, in good spirits, excited for Europe and more of North Africa in the months ahead!

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Ethiopia for Travelers

Ethiopia is wonderful, but heavily impacted by foreign influence, NGOs, and tourism. We spent nearly one month in Ethiopia (March - April 2010) and traveled as far north as Gonder and Lalibela, and as far south as Arba Minch and Kemba. We also spent one week in Addis. Please note that this is not intended to be a comprehensive travel guide, but is limited to our experiences and some tips that we think might be helpful for travelers.

Overall, I would say that the north is great for those who love tourism-packages, churches, guided tours, etc. The south was much more up our alley. The effects of tourism were less, the people seemed more genuine, and the presence of other foreigners was greatly reduced. But that’s just us. The north was beautiful and incredible and the stone-hewn churches of Lalibela were spectacular. But Lake Tana was a drag (rather expensive and not especially incredible), and most of the other tourist-towns were overwhelmingly tourism-focused: nearly everyone you interacted with had an agenda or something to offer: a guide, a translator, a coffee ceremony, a hotel, it was hard to just “make a friend.”

In a culture that has been so impacted by foreign-influence, aid, and tourism, I think that it’s important to be educated and responsible about giving. Although each person is entitled to their own opinions and ideas on this, we have written a few blogs about aid and giving. Check them out here and here and here if you’d like.

We traveled exclusively over-land while in Ethiopia. The buses take a loooong time. When you are given an estimate of how long the bus will take, double it and hope for the best. The roads are bad, the buses are ancient, and the livestock just can’t resist wandering in the middle of the highways. Plus, the buses make frequent stops to pick up travelers and items for transport. But, aside from the discomfort of eight and nine hour bus rides, it’s a great way to see Ethiopia. Also, we never found that the minibuses arrive at the destination much faster than the large buses, so keep that in mind when you are comparing prices.

Addis Abeba
Tsegereda hotel - Assefashi kinfu Kidane (Piazza behind Cinema Ethiopia)***
Tel - 011-157-4755
Very good service. Really a beautiful Garden Patio. Chilled-out vibe during the daytime transforms into loud music and “ladies and gents of the night” in the evenings. Shared bath is absolutely awful, best to use the chamber pot. Shower situation was questionable: staff told us that we could use the showers at the National Hotel next door, but it was much easier (and nicer) to use the Taitu hot showers next door. Honest. Helpful. Smiling. 40 birr night is a great price for Piazza, even with the negatives.

National Hotel (next door to Tsegereda and several doors up from TaiTu). Best coffee in Addis - rich, dark, divine. The mokiato and sweetened steamed milk are also good bets. Best to go early in the morning and get a fresh biscuit: lightly fried twist of buttery bread with a few rye seeds cooked within.

Baro Pension 125 birr, clean w/ Private bath, tours. **
tel. 25111155, 011-1574157
Email abenet@baro.com.et

Wutma email wutmahotel@yahoo.com **
tel. 251-111573163 Mgr Chernet Agonafer
105birr Priv Bath, Restaurant, book exchange

D.S. Guesthouse, across from Axum Hotel. (tel 001-6-18-92-00, mobil 09-11-64-08-54)
Following some notes from our friend Benson’s Lonely Planet Ethiopia, we took a minibus from the airport to a hotel called Debre Damo in Addis Ababa. We were thoroughly disappointed with the place: 240birr for a crappy hotel where all rooms led onto a concrete parking lot. Even through our plane-related and airport-sleeping delirium, we hit the street trying to find a better option. We were delighted to find the DS guesthouse, just a few blocks away. It was a world different, and SO worth the 60 birr upgrade. A shared minibus from airport should be less than 10birr per person to DS. Peaceful, serene, very kind and gracious family, private bath, hot shower, cable television. Kitchen available for guests upon request. Breakfast is included. 300-400 birr/night. One minute walk to minibuses that go all over Addis.

A.A. (Addis Abeba) Women’s Association Café, Piazza. On the second floor of a large restaurant and shopping mall right in the midst of Piazza. Excellent food, very fair prices, very friendly and sweet staff. We went there more often than was appropriate, and usually ordered the Tibes with Spagetti with spicy tomato sauce. And plenty of Ambo.

Lalibela
Blulal Hotel: Lalibela. We got our hotel room for 50 birr per night for two with shared bath and shared hot shower. Shared bath was for three rooms upstairs. Hotel also has rooms with private baths and hot shower for 150 birrh/night. Beautiful views of the mountains from two large windows (that even opened!!). Sophie (the owner) is especially gracious and friendly, and has a restaurant (Chez Sophie) on the first floor. Perhaps a bit noisy for some, as the nightclub two doors down can get a bit raucous on the weekends.

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Land Travel in Ethiopia

Ethiopia isn't all that big, about twice the size of Texas. But most tourists take private landrovers or use Ethiopian Air. But if you know anything of us, you probably expect that we choose a different mode.

However, we understood the benefits of private and air travel on our very first bus ride. After missing the 5AM bus to our original destination of Bahir Dar, we hopped the next bus north: destination, Debre Marcos, about 250 kilometers away. Our bus was the local one, big and lurching and stifling unless you score a seat crammed against a window. As we have recently learned, Ethiopians have a superstition against bird: the draft that attacks the back of your neck. So, the window is a mute point, aside from the view.

So, the bus was fine. For the first three hours. Then we descended into the Nile Gorge: airless both inside and out. By this time, windows were being cracked. A smidgen. Barren, dry, not a speck of water, with occasional cacti breaking the stark terrain.

This first bus trip, covering 250 kilometers, took a total of eight hours. That's an average of about 30 kilometers an hour. Metal roof of the bus sending radioactive currents into my sweaty head. Children crying with discomfort. But we made it, and Debre Marcos was wonderfully real and far from the tourist path. And there is a sense of comradery among people that share uncomfortable situations. There wasn't the communal clapping that sometimes follows a disconcerting plane landing, but the sighs of relief upon arriving in Debre Marcos were in unison.

Road conditions are difficult in Ethiopia, and the quality of your bus seems to be luck of the draw. The double-price minibuses don't seem to be worth the price. From Gonder we did join a group of six foreign teachers on vacation from their school in Kenya, all hell-bent on making the two day (local bus itinerary) trip to Lalibela in one day. A flight, though incredibly overpriced, takes 45 minutes. An initial estimate of seven hours on the bus turned to nine, then ten, then twelve as the scalding pressure of the interior bus radiator continued to seep steam, occasionally blowing off the cap and nearly scalding passengers. 

We met many villagers that day. Our bus was a traveling circus troupe, the locals just didn't know what to make of us. During one of the many pauses, our traveling comrades all climbed atop the minibus for a A-Team photo-op; the locals were hysterical with laughter. We are grateful for the kindness of the Ethiopian villages, and the opportunities to provide unfathomable entertainment.

Winding roads, section of loose gravel, ancient buses (until yesterday, I hadn't heard the sound of a tape deck eating the tape in a looong time), poor pedestrian etiquette, and a menagerie of large and small, horned and hoofed, furry and fast, humped and ornery beasts wandering back and forth and along the road. A long break occurred on our bus yesterday when a troupe of CAMELS casually blocked the entire width, chewing meditatively and paying no heed to the blaring horns.

With only one month here, sometimes we feel that we are destined to see most of Ethiopia through the windows of a bus. But that's better than seeing it from thousands of miles up in the air. But I say that because today we are only six (or nine or twelve) hours from Addis.

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