This is my series on my trip to Africa and it will be a 5 part series. I traveled to Africa with my husband, my sister, my dad, my brother and his husband back in August and traveled to some amazing places. For this first segment my husband and I traveled from Chicago to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where we stayed for a day before continuing on to Tanzania.

Before visiting I really had no preconceived ideas about Ethiopia, but I did know the country was pretty poor and that Addis Ababa could be unsafe. After visiting I can say both are true but it really depends on where you are. Most of the time we felt okay but it’s the little things in the country that don’t put you at ease. The guards at the entrance of our hotel. Things like that.

Chicago to Addis Ababa

Our original plan was to travel directly from Chicago, but the flight we were supposed to be on was long changed so we had to switch our flight over to connect from Washington DC. We left Chicago the night before our long flight and landed in Washington DC late at night. We then had to take a long uber ride to Washington Dulles, stay in a hotel for a night and then transfer over to the airport for our morning flight.

Surprisingly, everything ran smoothly. Ethiopian Airlines does not have the best reputation for being on time, but it all was, even the boarding process. We chose the second to last two seats on the airplane because they narrowed to only two seats together and took off for our 15 and a half flight to Addis Ababa. The flight is long, but the food isn’t that bad and there are free movies on Ethiopian Airlines. Honestly, it was a pretty good flight given how cheap it all was.

Ethiopia is beautiful coming in for a landing. The mountains are lush with green and the country is mountainous. You can only see how poor Ethiopia is when you get closer into the city and from above the city looks quite large and intense. I recommend getting an eVisa before visiting as well because we did have to wait a while at immigration.

Radisson Addis Ababa

After leaving the airport we met up with a Radisson shuttle that took us directly to the hotel. Now Radisson is in a relatively safe area of Addis Ababa, but we still had our bags checked before entering the grounds. The hotel is easily one of the nicest hotels in the area and we actually enjoyed our stay there. Even locals would come to the hotel to have a sip of coffee, an essential must while visiting Ethiopia.

I highly recommend this hotel because it did allow us to escape some of the harshness that is Ethiopia and allowed us to try some Ethiopian food that we felt was relatively safe to eat. I’m not knocking about trying Ethiopian food somewhere in the city, but the reality is a lot of time guides will try to scam you. We were also told that being out late at night was not a good idea so we didn’t even bother with that. To be honest we were so tired we stayed in our room.

Mount Entoto

Our first stop of the day was Mount Entoto, the famous mountain that overlooks the city of Addis Ababa. Well most of the time it’s enshrouded in fog, so you really don’t have a view. Addis Ababa already sits at around 7,700 feet, making it kind of chilly even in the middle of summer. Mount Entoto is just above 10,000 feet and clouds are very common throughout the day. There really isn’t much up here besides churches and pilgrims who come and pay a visit. We actually didn’t even see many tourists to be honest.

The most famous church that sits there today is the Maryam Church. It’s a special kind of pilgrimage for monks and locals. Back in the day the King of Ethiopia literally ruled from this mountaintop, and remnants of his home are still there today. Today the mountain is covered with Australian eucalyptus imported back in the days of Emperor Haile Selassie’s reign. There are no kings of Ethiopia today but all of its past kings possessions are still on display in a small museum up there.

National Museum of Ethiopia

We came back down Mount Entoto and actually had to stop for a funeral that literally overtook the streets. Our driver had to pull over for about 15 minutes and wait for everyone to pass through. From here we went to the National Museum of Ethiopia. Now there is a small fee to get in, make sure to bring dollars or Ethiopian money, or ask your driver. For most places actually there is a small fee and we actually knew this but we didn’t have the exact change for it to work out so our driver ended up paying.

Now this museum is small and not in the best condition but it still has some unique artifacts. Ethiopia is the cradle of civilization so there are many bones of some of the oldest human bones to ever be found and that’s really cool. The cool thing about these bones is that they look like miniature versions of today’s humans and they are really little. I’m surprised that these bones even survived.

Holy Trinity Cathedral

Next we went to Holy Trinity Cathedral, a famous church built to commemorate Ethiopia’s liberation from the Italian occupation. It is the second most important place of worship in Ethiopia, after the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum. You are required to take your shoes off at the entrance and the funny thing was  that the lights were totally off when we visited. It was a strange place but oddly beautiful from the inside. This is also the place where the former King and Queen of Ethiopia are buried.

Marketplace

The last place we visited for the afternoon was the local marketplace and we just drove around because this was in fact a local marketplace. They weren’t even really selling souvenirs, more like local goods for local people. The marketplace was chaotic, and although we could have walked around, there was probably nothing to be gained by doing so. I was a little afraid of getting picked pocketed but in the end we were already tired from our flight and just wanted to go back to our hotel.

Coffee at the Radisson

One of my goals while in Ethiopia was to try the coffee because Ethiopia is the birthplace of the coffee plant. But in the city there is really no good place to do that so we tried some coffee in our hotel which I’m sure would have been the same on the outside. It was delicious and seriously some of the best coffee I’ve had!

We also bought some scarves at the local souvenir shop. Scarves are actually pretty common in Ethiopia since elevation is so high and it is pretty chilly. Because I live in Chicago I can actually use scarves so I bought a beautiful orange scarf.

Breakfast and Airport Transfer

Breakfast at Radisson is pricey, but it easily had some of the best varieties of food and some Ethiopian food to try. Overall, expensive but well worth it.

Now when we left our hotel for our flight to Tanzania we ran into a bit of problems. Nothing with the Radisson shuttle but rather the city of Addis Ababa was out celebrating politicians and literally all routes to the airport were blocked. We ended up driving all over town, while our driver tried to find a way into the airport area. We got within a mile before we could go no further and eventually we had to leave our shuttle and walk to the airport. Luckily we could see the airport from where we were stranded, but I’m glad we left because we wouldn’t have been on time.

We were able to leave Addis Ababa relatively smoothly and continue our journey into Tanzania.

Thoughts on Ethiopia

We spent so little time in Ethiopia, but we got a sense of what the country was like.

First of all, people were generally nice to us but we were not open as a gay couple and I would never want to do that. I posted some pictures on instagram with gay hashtags and we were attacked by one Ethiopian in that picture. I deleted it but yeah I won’t be doing that again. Ethiopia is also pretty poor, and the city of Addis Ababa is harsh. It’s not exactly a relaxing city and I do think there is more to do outside the city limits.

To be honest, I think we saw everything important to see in Addis Ababa. Overall, I just wanted to see it at least once but I don’t think I need to see it again.