Wednesday, 23 April 2003
This morning we loaded our baggage into the minibus again and were driven to the old palaces, which is the main attraction in Gonder. We arrived 10 minutes prior to the opening time and that turned out to be an advantage as we were the only tourists around and got the manager as our personal guide.
The six palaces were built in period 1632-1855 where this city was the capital of Ethiopia. An Indian and Egyptian architect built the oldest and most impressive of the palaces for King Faisal. Other palaces were in very different style some with stables; lion cages others with banqueting hall.
Most of the palaces were gentle restored and luckily the majority had survived everything from religious disputes and the Italian occupation to the bombing by the British when they liberated the country during Second World War. One of the palaces was in use as the city library and another was being converted into an exhibition hall. It was nice to see that the palaces were kept up.
We proceeded to the religious bath called “Timkat”, which is filled with water every January to celebrate the baptism of Jesus. It was fascination to walk around and examine how the surrounding trees struggled to grow in the normally drought ground. After an hour we proceeded to the airport, only to realize that the plan was 1,5 hour late.
Late that afternoon we arrived in Addis Ababa and was unexpected received by Gebru who arranged the tour for us. That was a nice service of him. It was very nice to get a shower and we weren’t in doubt about where to eat dinner that evening. It defiantly had to be “Sheraton Hotel”.
That hotel is official Danish consulate as the manager is Danish/French and appointment as consul of honor. The more practical tasks handling asylum applicants among others are done at the Norwegian Embassy as doesn’t suit the hotel to have poor and exhausted Somalis lined up in the reception.
They would probably never manage to get in anyway, as everybody has to pass an x-ray at the security desk just like in airports. Hotel Sheraton is owned by one of the richest people in Ethiopia who is Ethiopian/Egypt and earned his fortune in gold mining and oil drilling. Fortunately he invests in his own country and built the most extravagant hotel in Africa.
On our way into the restaurant in Sheraton we met a Danish engineer with his two small kids. Later when we had dinner we said hello to a married Danish couple with four kids. They enjoyed a nice dinner before their oldest daughter left to go back to Denmark. All in all it indicated to us that living here even with small children wasn’t impossible.
After a very delicious dinner we went to a exotic restaurant down town called “Fasika” where we tasted the honey liquor “Tej” and enjoyed their Ethiopian dance ensemble. What they did with their bodies was extremely fascinating. Once again we must admit that this country holds some of the most beautiful people on the continent. It was a very pleasant experience before going back home.