Another stump jumper flight to Aksum from Lalibella and we were on the ground in the city of Aksum, the ancient capital of Ethiopia. We shared a cab ride into town with some people we met on the plan and stopped at a hotel we read about in our guidebook. Almost immediately we noticed a difference in Aksum compared to Gondar and Lalibella-no pressure. Well not exactly none but much less stress and hassle from touts on the street or in the hotel. We had a few days in Aksum so we settled in and took a walk into town for some water, etc. But not before seeing our old friend Simon from the Simien mountains! Yeah Simon, we were happy to see him again and knew he would be in town but had no idea were he was staying. Turns out he was staying in the room right next door to us so we chatted a bit then made plans for a dinner rendevouz in a few hours.
Simon told us about a great juice place in town and we stopped by after walking around. They made the best juice, Jess had a fresh squeezed mango and I had what is called a spliss, or a mix of whatever fruits they have, in this case guava, avocado and mango. This was tasty and we could have had at least a few more but wanted to save it for another day. We met Simon back at the hotel and stayed close to home for dinner in the lobby, nothing fancy but some nice pasta for me because I was still reeling from the big D. We also walked around the town at night which was quite nice because it was still Easter and people were just strolling along the sidewalk in teh cool night air. The next day we got up late and made our way into town for the monuments. There are many obelisks in town, in fact an entire field that once that over 100 but now just a few are left standing. We had heard from other travelers that you could see them from the road so we went to check out how well you could without entering the field. ON the way we made a quick stop at the hospital because I was still feeling under the weather and it had been over 3 weeks. I was convinced I had malaria and my anti-malarial drug was masking the symptons(which does happen) so I went to get a real blood test for the disease. An hour later after visiting several rooms including the nurse and lab for my blood and stool sample we left without paying (everyone was closed for lunch and we tried to give money but no one would take it, the equivilant of 6 dollars US) and a negative malaria result. Somehow I knew this would be the result but I had to find out for sure oh and I think Jess wanted to finally shut me up about having malaria-mission accomplished!!
On the way from the hospital to the monuments we met a young high school girl who chatted with us about Aksum and her life in town. We stopped at the grounds of the second oldest church in Ethiopia(or is it the oldest, I forget?) I wanted to see the church that Ethiopians believe holds the Ark of the Covenant and I am a huge Indiana Jones fan. Turns out it was expensive to get in and Jess could not enter as a woman so I just took a pictures from the outside and called it good. We went to the obelisk field across the street and took some pictures from the street. They were somewhat impressive but not worth paying to walk around them plus we knew there are tons on Egypt. We then made our way out of town towards some tombs after visiting a local watering hole(a real one, not a bar) but turned around after realizing we needed to confirm our flight the following day at the Egyptian Air office thatclosed at 5:00pm. After confirming our flight we celebrated with another awesome juice from the juice place we had visited the day before. Back at the hotel we relaxed and met two other Americans and after picking up Simon we headed out for a decent dinner of some meat-fasting was over!! The dinner was ok, I had some beef stew stuff that was damn spicey but not too bad. We walked around after in the evening again with no hassle from anyone which was quite different from our experiences in Gondar and Lalibella. Aksum had saved our Ethiopian adventure from being a major disappointment. The average people we met onthe bus or the street just walking by were great to talk with. Everyone else who had some claim to our business or so they thought were a major pain in the ars and put a negative cloud on the country. We both really wanted to enjoy Ethiopia and we did to some degree but not as much as we had hoped. The next morning back to Addis to spend the day and night before catching our flight early the next morning to Cairo.
After arriving in Addis we stored our bags at the airport(unofficially, no luggage storage available) and made our way into the city. We wanted to buy a few trinkets, mail a package and kill some time before heading back to the airport. After taking care of business we made our way towards the airport which is more developed then other parts of the town. There are many restaurants and shops along Bole avenue towards the airport. While walking along we met a young fellow (forget his name, sorry) who helped us find a place to eat. He was genuinely nice to us and interested in what we were doing, finally another person who just wanted to exchange experiences about the world. He left quickly before we could invite him to dinner but he helped end our Ethiopian adventure on a positive note. We tried to get some sleep at the airport on teh floor before checking into our flight at 2:00am. At 4:00am or so we took off for Cairo and landed safely at about 7:00am. Thus ended our Ethiopian adventure and began our Egyptian stay. See you then and remember do not walk like an Egyptian unless you want to...
