From malawi to Ethiopia

I always wondered how would Malawi be if it had never be colonised by the British. And just now, coming back from Ethiopia I come back to that question, because Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that never got colonised by Europeans. Yes, despite the efforts of the Italians to form the 'Africa italiana orientale' during the second world war, they only left behind expresso machines and spaghetti, that are found almost everywhere in Ethiopia.

Probably that is why everything is different in Ethiopia. Their calendar, time, christian orthodox church, food, music... Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world, and is full of fascinating legends that explain the origin of their culture and country. To start with, they claim that their line of emperors started with Menelik, who was son of king Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and lasted until Haile Selassie, that governed until the revolution of 1974 and as you may know is the messiah of the rastafarians. 

one of the things that most strike any visitor in Ethiopia  is the amount of historical sites,  that are totally unusual in sub-Saharan africa. The archeological sites of Axum tell us of an empire that was controlling the trade of the red sea and the Nile, and yet, we know so little about it. Walking around the town of Axum, you have the impression that everywhere you dig, you will find another tomb, stele or palace. And they explain why Ethiopia looks like a crossroads between the middle east, the Mediterranean and sub-saharan africa.

We spent only two weeks, which is just enough to see the north of the country, or what is also called the 'historical circuit'. We started in Addis Ababa, from there to Axum by plane, and then we went by bus to the Simean mountains (where we trekked 4 days) Gonder and Lalibella, from where we took another internal flight to Addis.

In general is very easy to travel in Ethiopia, there is a very good network of regional airports that allow you to save time, dust and fleas in the buses, and the internal flights are fairly cheap for a tourist. Travelling by bus was a really nice experience, apart from the early departure time (6 in the morning!) and the fleas mentioned above that would jump from the shepherd's robes into our clothes and would accompany us for a few days. The buses broke down sometimes, but we never got stuck anywhere. Our most difficult journey was between Gonder and Lalibella, but the only problems were big trucks that got stuck on the mud and we had to wait an hour or so until they got through it.. 

I cannot really decide what part did I like more, I totally loved the simean mountains, with their stunning landscapes from 3000mt high into the lowlands, and the small villages that we crossed hiking. Gonder was also special, the palaces of european and indian influences that are now used only by pigeons and the church of Debre Birham Selassie, with the roof full of painted angels. In Lalibela you can walk around monolithic churches that were dug on the rock with (according to the legend) the help of angels. And after seeing the 11 churches, you will really believe there must have been angels around during the works. We cannot wait to come back!