At the moment I am writing this the time in Ethiopia is 02.11 on April 18th, while it everywhere else is 08.14 on April 26th 2010. Confusing, right? Everything in Ethiopia is different, maybe because they are the only country in Africa which was never colonized. Ethiopia follows a lunar calendar with thirteen months a year(the last month having only 5 or 6 days) and start the day not at midnight, but at sunrise which is six hours after midnight, therefore the time difference. They are the only country in Africa with their own language symbols (Amharic) and have a very different look, different cuisine and culture than anywhere else in Africa.
I first visited Addis Ababa five years ago and apart from encounters with really friendly people there it is quite a boring city. It was a place where I spent most the time arranging visas to Sudan, Chad, Liberia and the World’s hardest visa, Equatorial Guinea which I never got. Revisiting the national museum, our ancestor Lucy’s skeleton and the Mercato, drinking honey wine, 25cent beers and eating injera for and my favorite fava bean dish foul for less than a dollar is always good though, but it will be good leaving this city for good now and start making my way towards Sudan.