Addis Ababa (2)

As in so many developing country capitals, the streets are full of people of every walk of life. There are shoe polishers everywhere, in rows on the pavement; interestingly, as many people wear sport shoes these days, the shoe polishers have branched out into shoe washing. Really, bucket, brush and soap! Most disturbing though are the beggars, especially the lepers amongst them, something I thought wasn’t of these times anymore. And those with an arm missing, or a leg, you cannot fake that. And the old, they have no safety net, no social security. Then there are the opportunists, those who cross the street at the sight of a ferenji – a foreigner – to put up their hand. And there are those who want to strike up a conversation with the foreigner, often with good intentions, occasionally not. And all those casual pedestrians who seem to continually study of all the pockets you could possibly keep money in. We have a tendency of walking a lot, and after a while it can become overwhelming.

But back to the sights. The guidebooks claim Addis Ababa has some very worthwhile museums, and a number of interesting churches.

Addis Ababa

So there we are, finally, in Addis Ababa. A huge city, not particularly pretty. There is not really an old core, the town has been established only a little over 100 years ago, in 1887, and has been added to afterwards, by the Italians who invaded Ethiopia in the run-up to the Second World War, and quite likely also by the Derg, the communists who overthrew emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, and their allies: lots of buildings have this Soviet-era look: functional architecture, euphemism for square box devoid of any fantasy. Not pretty. There is the city center, with all the businesses and state offices, and two areas where most of the hotels and restaurants are, the Piazza - as the name suggests established by the Italians -, and a newer area around Bole road. Neither is particularly attractive. Large avenues connecting the various neighbourhoods are somewhat busy, lots of taxis – every model Lada ever made, I guess - and mini-buses, but few heavy trucks. Traffic is a lot less chaotic than one would expect, and a lot less aggressive, too. Many of the larger streets have sidewalks, but these are sometimes interrupted, for no apparent reason – the tiles used just run out, sidewalk continues into a gravel patch, and with luck tiles appear again a little further. More dangerously, sometimes there are huge holes in the sidewalk, I mean, you could disappear in one of those. All of this creates a bit of a shabby look, but at the same time most of the town is reasonably clean, at least visibly (although in many places the smells suggest this town is also being used as public toilet).

So why are we here in the first place?

The railway

Less than two days to departure, I can’t wait – partly to do with the fact that it has started freezing and snowing in The Netherlands.

As I wrote earlier, we had to adjust our program, which means that Djibouti – for which I have always had this inexplicable desire to visit - will now not be our first stop anymore, in fact it will not be a stop at all. Which also means that we will not take the only railway in the Horn of Africa anymore, the train from Addis Ababa to Djibouti.