SO knowing that my time at Yaya was winding down, I decided
to seize the opportunity and embark on a trip to Northern Ethiopia. Initially,
when I arrived in Ethiopia I was disheartened as I felt there was no way I
could travel as a solo female, but the more hotel guests and Ethiopians I met
from outside of Addis, it dawned on me that it would be a crime to let the
opportunity to explore Ethiopia slip by. It was time to grow up, put away my
teddies, saddle up and get out there. I’m kidding, I obviously brought Keiko.
I booked a flight to Gondar, set my eyes on Axum and booked
a return flight from Lalibela; and was gone before the sun rose on Sunday
morning. The Saturday before I left while perusing a guide book (Ethiopia; Briggs-
excellent guide, highly recommend it) given to me by my new found friend and English
fell runner, Matt- I discovered a tour guide called Sisay Asefa in Gondar, who
arranged city tours. Usually I wouldn’t bother with a guide, as most of my foreign
explorations have been with my family- and we like to rough it. But I thought,
hey, why not. While I could have done it myself, I figured for the first city
it’d be nice to have some structure.
With just a backpack filled with clothes, an extra pair of
shoes, my journal, Keiko and my camera I set out from Yaya at 5:30 and by 10:00
I was standing outside Gondar airport, searching for a man holding sign with my
name. Alex quickly found me, as I was the only Ferengi in sight- and in no time
we were zipping along a country road towards the lusciously green city of Gondar.
We arrived in town and picked up Sisay and headed to a hotel he’d found for me.
To be honest it was a bit expensive- 600 Bir (30$) for one night, but the
hotels I’d been leaning towards were super shady as Sisay showed me later. So I
figured it’d be a treat for my first night out of Yaya.
Sisay gave me half an hour to “freshen up” and then we met up to begin our tour. Gondar, I am told
was, until 1994, the capital of Ethiopia for 250+ years. It was founded by
Emperor Fasilidas in 1635 and was chosen for its location as it sits between
two rivers, is surrounded by 7 mountains and because of the altitude, there are
no mosquitoes and thus, it’s a malaria free zone. We started with the Fasil
Ghebbi (Royal Enclosure), which lies in the center of town and covers an area
of 70,000m2(Briggs, 224). They call it the Camelot of Africa, and when it would have been in
its prime it really would have been straight out of a fairytale, with the original
castle being built in 1640 by Emperor Fasilidas. The stone walls surrounding it
are around 12 feet tall, and you can see the turrents and crumbling walls of
the castles within from every direction as the city of Gondar has a rule that
no building can be taller than those within the enclosure, so as to allow the
city’s greatest treasure to be seen from all around. I love it when people take
history serious. There are six castles within, of various sizes and conditions.
Unfortunately the Italians took over the Royal Enclosure during WWII and while they
made quite a few damaging changes to some of the castles (in an attempt to make
them livable again) the British also bombed quite a few of the 
major buildings;
so if you’re British, keep that tidbit of information to yourself as the locals
still feel a little sore about it. The castles were built with Portuguese, Axumite and even Indian influences (Briggs, 224)- and they’re stunning. Among the castles there also lies a lions cage, which looks a quite sad and once held ten domesticated big cats. It was common for Emperors to walk with lions by their side, as lions were the symbol of Ethiopia for centuries. There are saunas that are similar in structure to those of the ancient Roman baths, a massive stable that could house about 20 horses, a banquet hall, a theater hall, courtyards, and bridges that lead into the city- allowing the royals to avoid the plebs.
 |
| (to the left of the center sauce- raw intestines) |
After the Royal Enclosure, Sisay took me to “the most famous” restaurant in town- the
Four Sisters. As you guessed it, it’s owned and run by four sisters- and it
really is a beautiful place, and again I would recommend it to anyone heading
to Gondar. So we settled down and under Sisay’s encouragement I order the
National Dish- which turned out to be a giant ingera platter with a serving of
all the traditional ingera sauces, meats and veg. I’d had most of them before,
and knew I ought to avoid the raw meat sauces- but there was one that I didn’t
recognize, so I asked the waiter to explain each sauce- and he went through
them all, leaving the one I was unsure of last, finally I pointed at this white
and pink mix of meat and asked- “And
this?” He paused, smiled and replied, “…that’s
raw cow intestine”. Ah, yes. It’s a rare delicacy here, but while I usually
like to follow the whole When in Rome
thing, I gave this one a pass. I ate as much as I could, but little did I know
I would later spend the evening quite ill.
While I was having lunch Sisay headed off to get a bus
ticket so I could head to Axum the next day. The man is brilliant. When he came
back we headed off to see a monastery called Debre Birhan 
Selassie that is so
beautiful it could put the Sistine Chapel to shame. According to my guide book,
“there are 44 churches in Gondar, at
least seven of which date from Fasilidas’s rule, but most of the original buildings
were destroyed in 1888 when Gondar was attacked… The only Gonderine church that
escaped entirely untouched was Debre Birhan Selassie (“Mountain of the
Enlightened Trinity”), saved…by the intervention of a swarm of bees…or so they
say in Gondar”(Briggs, 227). It was founded by Iyasu I in the 1690s, and as the most
important church in 18th-century Gondar, when it was the site of
several royal burials.
Inside the church is painted head to toe with Biblical scenes,
and they’re still the original ones-painted in the 16th century with
paints made from vegetables- and it took the 17th-century artist
Haile Meskel, four years to complete his work. The ceiling is decorated with
paintings of eighty cherubic faces with lovely big brown eyes, each looking in
a different direction to show that they’re all seeing. Sisay explained that
traditional Ethiopian painters painted the skin of their subjects different
shades- and in the most beautiful way they allow their subject to be both
Habesha (Ethiopian) and Ferengi (Western), as the skin subtly fades from dark
to light. The monastery is built to look like a lion with the head at the
entrance and the tail is found within the stone enclosure. The body, Sisay
explained, is the area within the stone enclosure to symbolize that God is all
around us. As my journey continued I realized that religious symbolism is the
center of every religious and medieval structure- there is a reason to every rhyme.
After Debre Birhan Selassie, we headed to Fasilidas’s Pool, “…which lies just outside of town and is
2,800m2 sunken bathing poo generally attributed to Emperor Fasilidas. It is
enclosed by a tall stone wall with six turrents, and is overlooked by a
two-storey building widely said to have been Fasilidas’s second residence” (Briggs, 226).
It’s basically a little castle built within a huge bath, with a bridge leading
out to it. The pool is filled by a water system that connects to a local river,
and was drained back into the river when it was out of use. It is dry most of
the year, and was probably always used ceremonially rather than for leisure.
The pool is the central stage on which the Timkat or Epiphany Festival is
celebrated in Gondar, which takes place during the 18th-20th
of January. Apparently “it is led by
colourfully attired priests carrying tabots and crosses, thousands of
white-robed worshippers converge around the pool in the afternoon, where they
are blessed and sprinkled with holy water” (Briggs, 226). People from around the world
come to join or watch this holy celebration.
All along the pool are trees that have allowed their roots
to climb over, under and through the stone wall surrounding the pool. Of
course, they too just want to dip their toes in- but it looks amazing. Like
something out of The Jungle Book. It’s pretty cool when nature takes over
man-made structures. Pretty darn cool.
So that was our city tour- but Sisay and I got on so well he took me to a hotel on top of a giant peak to get a panoramic view of the city. It was amazing. Being a Lord of the Rings fan I was pretty excited to be in Gondar- and while there no wizards or handsome-rough-looking Kings, they do have some sweet castles and with the rolling green hills, like camel humps, it feels like nothing bad could ever touch the city. Even with the poverty, there is a calmness and happiness that I haven’t found in Addis. I suppose it’s like my Dad says, “Just because there is poverty, doesn’t mean there’s unhappiness.”
Sisay dropped me back at my hotel, I paid him and he offered to come back later to check out the town. I skipped dinner, hit up my room- and that’s when the stomach bug hit. “Stomach Trouble” number 3. Brilliant. Just before my bus trip to Axum, which was going to be ten hours through the Simen mountains and out again, but I whispered to my body “not cool, don’t do this”, and after a while I was fine again. I was able to wander through Gondar with Sisay til dusk, and enjoyed a macchiato while we people watched. It was lovely, and Sisay Asefa is a really cool guy- if you’re interested in taking a tour in Gondar give him a call, 0918712125 or email him at asefa_sisay@yahoo.com. He knows everyone and really makes sure you’re safe and happy.
DAY TWO;
So, the next morning I was up at 4 to catch my 5:00 bus to
Shire (and then a minibus to Axum). I caught a three wheeled Tuk-tuk (taxi), to
the station and picked up another Ferengi along the way, a Chinese lady called
Christine. We arrived at the station to see a massive crowd also waiting to get
in and board the buses. At exactly 5:00 the gates opened and everyone flooded
in, running to the buses. I found mine and said goodbye to my new friend, who
claimed to be on a different bus to Axum, and settled down into my assigned
seat at the back of a rickety bus. Holding
my bag to my chest I watched the havoc of the hundreds of bus travelers. People
were trying to slip on, unseen and without tickets while others were climbing the
roof to tie on their goods (but I was certain they were trying to buckle themselves
in up there), people were arguing about seats and rushing & pushing to find
their bus. Others were having emotional goodbyes and trying to make the most of
every second they had together. It was craziness. But finally, something was
said in Amharic by our bus driver, and everyone on the bus sank into their
places and fell silent. I hope you can imagine my eyes, wide as saucers at this
moment- it’s my classic look when I have no idea what’s going on, but I know
something IS going on. Haha- so at 6:00 we were off and on the road to Axum.
The countryside was beautiful, but for about two hours I
slipped in and out of sleep- accumulating a lovely bruise on my right temple as
we went. When I finally woke up we were entering the mountains and my bus
buddy, a young teenager was asleep on my shoulder. I didn’t mind, as the bus
was terribly packed, with people sitting on water tubs in the asile, standing
in stairwell, and the longer bench like seats were packed with people. However,
once my bus buddy woke up I was wishing he was back on my shoulder. I suppose
he was pretty interested in the bus, the road and any construction we passed as
he loved to open the window on my side, and push his head out. I didn’t mind at
first- it was pretty hot and sweaty inside but warm & windy (and dusty) outside, so I understood his eagerness to
get some fresh air- but after while I got tired of him leaning out in front of
me, resting his body on my bag and having his armpits in my face. It was beginning
to be a bit of hellish ride, and finally came to an end when we were going
through a bumpy patch, and while leaning out the window/ squashing me against
the side of the bus, he (unintentionally) elbowed me in the throat and I pulled
out my teachers voice with a stern “Excuse me!” He sat down and that was the
end of his window viewings.
Selassie that is so
beautiful it could put the Sistine Chapel to shame. According to my guide book,
“there are 44 churches in Gondar, at
least seven of which date from Fasilidas’s rule, but most of the original buildings
were destroyed in 1888 when Gondar was attacked… The only Gonderine church that
escaped entirely untouched was Debre Birhan Selassie (“Mountain of the
Enlightened Trinity”), saved…by the intervention of a swarm of bees…or so they
say in Gondar”(Briggs, 227). It was founded by Iyasu I in the 1690s, and as the most
important church in 18th-century Gondar, when it was the site of
several royal burials. Inside the church is painted head to toe with Biblical scenes,
and they’re still the original ones-painted in the 16th century with
paints made from vegetables- and it took the 17th-century artist
Haile Meskel, four years to complete his work. The ceiling is decorated with
paintings of eighty cherubic faces with lovely big brown eyes, each looking in
a different direction to show that they’re all seeing. Sisay explained that
traditional Ethiopian painters painted the skin of their subjects different
shades- and in the most beautiful way they allow their subject to be both
Habesha (Ethiopian) and Ferengi (Western), as the skin subtly fades from dark
to light. The monastery is built to look like a lion with the head at the
entrance and the tail is found within the stone enclosure. The body, Sisay
explained, is the area within the stone enclosure to symbolize that God is all
around us. As my journey continued I realized that religious symbolism is the
center of every religious and medieval structure- there is a reason to every rhyme.After Debre Birhan Selassie, we headed to Fasilidas’s Pool, “…which lies just outside of town and is
2,800m2 sunken bathing poo generally attributed to Emperor Fasilidas. It is
enclosed by a tall stone wall with six turrents, and is overlooked by a
two-storey building widely said to have been Fasilidas’s second residence” (Briggs, 226).
It’s basically a little castle built within a huge bath, with a bridge leading
out to it. The pool is filled by a water system that connects to a local river,
and was drained back into the river when it was out of use. It is dry most of
the year, and was probably always used ceremonially rather than for leisure.
The pool is the central stage on which the Timkat or Epiphany Festival is
celebrated in Gondar, which takes place during the 18th-20th
of January. Apparently “it is led by
colourfully attired priests carrying tabots and crosses, thousands of
white-robed worshippers converge around the pool in the afternoon, where they
are blessed and sprinkled with holy water” (Briggs, 226). People from around the world
come to join or watch this holy celebration.All along the pool are trees that have allowed their roots
to climb over, under and through the stone wall surrounding the pool. Of
course, they too just want to dip their toes in- but it looks amazing. Like
something out of The Jungle Book. It’s pretty cool when nature takes over
man-made structures. Pretty darn cool.So that was our city tour- but Sisay and I got on so well he took me to a hotel on top of a giant peak to get a panoramic view of the city. It was amazing. Being a Lord of the Rings fan I was pretty excited to be in Gondar- and while there no wizards or handsome-rough-looking Kings, they do have some sweet castles and with the rolling green hills, like camel humps, it feels like nothing bad could ever touch the city. Even with the poverty, there is a calmness and happiness that I haven’t found in Addis. I suppose it’s like my Dad says, “Just because there is poverty, doesn’t mean there’s unhappiness.”
Sisay dropped me back at my hotel, I paid him and he offered to come back later to check out the town. I skipped dinner, hit up my room- and that’s when the stomach bug hit. “Stomach Trouble” number 3. Brilliant. Just before my bus trip to Axum, which was going to be ten hours through the Simen mountains and out again, but I whispered to my body “not cool, don’t do this”, and after a while I was fine again. I was able to wander through Gondar with Sisay til dusk, and enjoyed a macchiato while we people watched. It was lovely, and Sisay Asefa is a really cool guy- if you’re interested in taking a tour in Gondar give him a call, 0918712125 or email him at asefa_sisay@yahoo.com. He knows everyone and really makes sure you’re safe and happy.
DAY TWO;
The countryside was beautiful, but for about two hours I
slipped in and out of sleep- accumulating a lovely bruise on my right temple as
we went. When I finally woke up we were entering the mountains and my bus
buddy, a young teenager was asleep on my shoulder. I didn’t mind, as the bus
was terribly packed, with people sitting on water tubs in the asile, standing
in stairwell, and the longer bench like seats were packed with people. However,
once my bus buddy woke up I was wishing he was back on my shoulder. I suppose
he was pretty interested in the bus, the road and any construction we passed as
he loved to open the window on my side, and push his head out. I didn’t mind at
first- it was pretty hot and sweaty inside but warm & windy (and dusty) outside, so I understood his eagerness to
get some fresh air- but after while I got tired of him leaning out in front of
me, resting his body on my bag and having his armpits in my face. It was beginning
to be a bit of hellish ride, and finally came to an end when we were going
through a bumpy patch, and while leaning out the window/ squashing me against
the side of the bus, he (unintentionally) elbowed me in the throat and I pulled
out my teachers voice with a stern “Excuse me!” He sat down and that was the
end of his window viewings.
The trip was pretty terrible to be honest- but the views
were stunning. The road through the Siemen mountains were snake-like and dangerous,
but our driver navigated them with ease. There were many a time when we could
have easily toppled off the road and landed again on the road directly below us.
The mountains seem to be strangely thin- allowing you to see the road below as
it snakes along; into the valley and up the next mountain. It’s amazing. I didn’t
see any wildlife, only the nests of Weaver birds, which are like mini bungalows
woven from twigs and straw- it’s incredible. The mountains are luscious and
green, with mist circling their jagged peaks- and the mountains in the distance
are blueish gray. It was absolutely stunning- the majority of the bus was silent
during our mountain trek; with everyone peering out the windows, and scanning
the mountain side for wildlife or just taking it all in.
We finally arrived in (the) Shire- actually pronounced as
Sher-ee, but I refuse to call it anything other than THE Shire!! Muahaha- it was
around 4:30 pm. Our bus was met in this tiny town by dozens of young men and
boys asking for our next destination- I was immediately rushed across town
square towards a minibus and hustled into a minibus headed for Axum. Christine
from the Tuk-tuk also joined me, as she was actually sitting at the front of
the bus and it had taken me almost 5 hours to realize she was there. SO off we
went to the dusty city of Axum.
So I think that's a fairly good place to end this entry. I'll write about the following days in again this week. Thanks for reading so far!! xx
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