Sugarmelon – There's so much more outside – Dieter Zirnig

Check out: New images uploaded on flickr today!
What a ride!
After the airplane in Shire (to Gondar) had “mechanical problems” we had to find alternatives in getting from Aksum to Gondar.
The route takes 1 1/2 hrs. by plane and – yes – 2 days by bus. That’s because of the very old italian unsealed road [...]

When walking through Addis Abeba and reading the Lonely Planet, I was wondering, why there is so much italian influence around: Many words like Latte Macchiato, macchina, “Ciao”, Piazza, Spaghetti, Maccharoni, Bolognese, Calabrese, Pizza and a lot more are used in daily life.
I found the answer very fast: Long, long, long time ago, Ethiopia was [...]

New photos uploaded on flickr right now!
This day we were driving with the minibus from Adigrat to Sinkata (nice name!) – an about 45 minutes drive for starting a short trip to the rock-hewn churches in Tigray.
Rock-Hewn Churches of Tigray

Although I am really not such a church- and religion-fan, I am interested in all [...]

First – there is so much happening every hour, that it is hard to recognize and write down everything. The trip is wild and fascinating. Travelling through the country with locals is awesome.
There are some new images uploaded to flickr
After two days without Internet, there is a quite fast one in the north [...]

The trip from Addis Abeba to Dessie started this morning at 4.15 AM: Getting up, going by taxi to the busstation and then boarding the bus at 5 AM. After this waiting for one hour until the trip started.
Addis Abeba in the morning
While driving with the taxi to the terminal, I noticed a lot [...]

Tomorrow, Thuesday, June 16th 2002 at 11:00 o’clock after sunset the bus is leaving from Addis Abeba to Dessie in the North.
Calendar
Ethiopia is having a different time-set everywhere in his daily life. Also this notebook in the internetcafe is showing 1:49 after sunset right now, although it is 19:54 (7:54 PM) at the moment [...]

From Vienna to Addis
The flight from Vienna to Addis Abeba was very good and the plane landed at 1.00 after midnight (Turkish Airlines). It had about 15 degrees Celsius outside in Addis at night. I was happy, getting out of the cold in Vienna – locals in Addis have been freezing and had thick jackets.
Taxi, [...]

When I am travelling to foreign countries with a different currency, I am always having an “exchange table” with me. This means, that I am having the rate from foreign currency converted to US-$ and EUR in my pocket.
In this case, I am using the exchange-table from ethiopian local currency BIRR to US-$ and EUR. [...]

Reine Flugzeit von Wien nach Addis Abeba sind es ja nicht mehr als 7:15 Std.
Da es von Wien keine Direktflüge gibt und wir mit der Turkish Airlines einen Zwischenstopp in Istanbul machen braucht die Anreise ca. 13 Stunden. Ankunft daher um 01:10 in der Nacht (Zeitverschiebung +2 Stunden).

Wien Schwechat Flughafen – Istanbul Ataturk Flughafen
TK1884
20.02.2010
10:00
13:15

Istanbul Ataturk [...]

Motivated by electrobabe’s posting about beers, I just had a look about beer in Ethiopia.
Ethiopian Restaurant is giving an overview about local beer. There I found out, that Ethiopia is offering 8 different sorts of beers: 6 normal ones, 1 non alcoholic and 1 dark beer.
I will try [...]