John and Joe Reunited In Africa

 Reunited... somehow I made him look shorter than me.

 The view out our window.

 Our digs for a couple of days.

The little fruit and veg shop we stopped in.

Wednesday, January 17^th.

I arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at 1:00 pm.  Getting the visa on arrival was easy. They didn’t want to see my exit flight or my accommodation, they just wanted $50 US. I wanted to pay by credit card but the lady preferred cash. I only had $26 US. She asked what else I had. I said Australian, she didn’t want that. How about Canadian, yes. she said. So, I gave her the US and made up the difference with Canadian. Then I went to the carousel to get my bag. It took forever to come out. There seemed to be a lot of luggage and that many of the Ethiopians had gone to Dubai to buy electronics. There had to be about fifteen large screen TV’s come out on the belt. Finally, mine came out, but then there was a long line as I think they were checking what everyone had bought and brought, and they were x-raying all the bags. Finally, I got out and found the Intrepid driver who was there to pick me up. He was also supposed to pick up a woman, but we waited a half hour and she never emerged, so we left. He left a friend to wait for her. 

When I got to the hotel I checked in and went up to my room where John was waiting. He arrived in the morning. We yacked for a bit and then went down to the in-house restaurant and had a fish lunch and caught up. Great to see him and we are both excited about our next two months of travel.

Later we went for a short walk around the neighbourhood which is definitely nothing special. The air here is quite polluted from traffic exhaust. Although it is not as poor as Madagascar we are not in a great area. The Global Hotel claims to be luxurious, beautiful, and safe, but to us it is tired and drab, although our room is very spacious. They have security and an x-ray machine at the door, and a concierge. We stopped at a small local fruit and vegetable shop to have a look and were frisked as we went in. Inside we found a small snack bar at the back that served fresh juice, so we sat, and I had an orange and John had a carrot drink. After that we continued our walk and a young policeman struck up a conversation with us and he told us he had a friend in Toronto. On the way back, we stopped at a very small local bar for a beer where we sat outside on plastic stools. So far the people here seem very friendly and open. Then back to the hotel to catch up on our sleep.