Title image: Sunset over Lalibela and a beautiful Ethiopian culture. Our visit to Ethiopia was wonderful from all points of view: well organized by our excellent guide, Elias Alemayehu, visually stunning and vastly informative. Three aspects of Ethiopian culture are striking: Ethiopian Culture: The Food I like Ethiopian food because... read more
Ge’ez is the Ethiopian script in use all around the country. Ethiopia is the only sub-Saharan country to have its own script and it is hundreds of years old. You might be tempted to call it an alphabet, but it is really a syllabary, where each symbol represents the combination... read more
According to Elias Alemayehu, our guide in Ethiopia, 95% of tourists come to the country in order to visit Lalibela. The reason is suggested by the title image – namely the remarkable churches carved out of rock in one piece. The work was done between the 7th and 13th centuries.... read more
Semian National Forest was a highlight for me in Ethiopia. Why? The title image tells the story. I identify with primates. Feet on the ground, grunting, lumbering primates. Other people identify with dogs, cats, horses, you-name-it. But for me it’s apes and gorillas … and then there’s me communing with... read more
Title image: Gondar Fortress, site of scenic ruins The next stop on our Ethiopia tour is Gondar, the center of power for the Ethiopian kingdom between the 13th and 17th centuries. Gondar: On the Way On the way from Bahir Dar to Gondar we stopped at the community of Awra... read more
From Addis Ababa we made a quick 45-minute plane hop to Bahir Dar to the north. One of the attractions of the area are the Blue Nile Falls, pictured in the title image. Bahir Dar: Blue Nile Falls A good hour or more outside of town we bumped along an... read more
We landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and got a taxi to our hotel. Hardly ten minutes into the ride the taxi driver mentioned the name Haile Selassie. Of course I knew who he was, but I had underestimated his importance in Ethiopian, African and, indeed, world history. A few days in... read more
We were delighted to fly from Istanbul and to arrive at the airport in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia is truly the Land of Origins: of humanity, of language and of major parts of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Historical note: Addis Ababa means ‘New Flower’ in Amharic and has been the political center... read more
After Istanbul we flew to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Readers of my blog know that I like to start any travel in a new country by figuring out the famous people I know from that country and the famous ones I don’t. It’s no different here. There are plenty of famous... read more
On my second day in Istanbul I ventured out of my neighborhood of Beyoğlu and walked across the Galata Bridge spanning the waterway known as the Golden Horn in order to get to the Asian side of Istanbul and the neighborhood of Sultanahmet. I chose the Galata Bridge as the... read more