January 14th 2013
So I wrapped things up in Axum with a visit to the Bath and Palace of the Queen of Sheba. They were most likely not the Bath and Palace of the Queen of Sheba (the archeaological record dates them far too late). The Bath was most likely what it is today, a water reservoir, and the Palace, just a nobleman's mansion.
My shoes and boots were fixed to incredible quality and almost look brand new. A very solid $5 investment on nearly $300 worth in shoes. In North America they would have gone straight into the garbage.
We left Axum and headed to Adwa. Adwa is extremely famous in Ethiopia because it is the site of the most famous battle between Italian and Ethiopian troops. Ethiopia said forever no to European colonialism (unless you count the 5 years of Mussolini's rule, which Ethiopians don't but history books do) when they turned back the Italian forces. Italy was forever embarassed that a bunch of "Africans" had defeated a military tradition which extended back to the glorious Roman Empire. And to this day, discussing the battle with an Ethiopian brings a lot of pride into their eyes.
Modern day Adwa is extremely boring, but interesting in that there were no other tourists there. This meant that the constant "You, You, You" "Pen, Pen, Pen" "Give me money", etc. didn't really exist. So it was a small vacation in my vacation. I drank a lot of excellent coffee, read, wrote and played even more Ethiopian pool with mixed results (I think I won 3 and lost 2, I am getting better!).
From Adwa, Simon, Mike and I made our way to Debre Damos. It was a 6km walk from the main road North (we came within 20km of the Eritrean Boarder) through farm land and villages (where some kids decided that, because we didn't give money or pens, they should throw rocks at us) to a table top shaped mountain. From the bottom of the mountain you have to climb up this extremely questionable leather rope (I ended up just mountain climbing with all the easily accessible hand and footholds available). The climb was only about 10m, but the lack of safety equipment made it feel like an entire mountain!
On top of the Mountain was a massive monestary which housed about 80 monks. The most impressive building on top was what they called Africa's Oldest Standing Church. Since it is in Northern Ethiopia, it is entirely possible. They said it was dated to the 6th Century (which also makes sense), but I feel it is a few hundred years younger than they claim. I have no evidence, but it just seemed to be in a little bit too good condition to be so old. They could just be taking really good care of it though.
We were shown around by a priest who was quite excitable because he had been drinking. He showed us inside the church, wood carvings on the ceiling, old books, paintings, etc. He then charged us 200 birr (quite expensive by Ethiopian standards) and we had to kiss his key and his book. A bit awkward, but a funny and interesting experience to reflect on.
We also saw where the monks store their remains, saw their water reservoirs, saw monkeys and some strange kind of large rodent and walked around in the sun for awhile.
When we attempted to climb down and leave the monestary we were stopped by another priest who insisted we pay to be let down. Like that is fair. After considerable argument, we won and we were basically dropped down and shooed away.
I find it so interesting that people who dedicate their life to a lack of materialism, to religious devotion and seperation from the non spiritiual world can be so obsessed with money. Every corner you turn at these monestaries there is another "fee" for "this or that". It is all bullshit of course, and so far I have gotten away with only paying the entrance fees (which I do believe are fair) but I know that most tourists give in and pay the "dollar or two" that I just can't accept. Seriously, pay to enter but then pay again to have the door opened? And these are suppose to be people of serious religious devotion. I know not all the monks and priests are like this, just the most opportunistic ones and really it just kind of spoils some of the amazing qualities the monestaries have to offer.
We made it back to the main road and within about 30 seconds we were picked up by a bus going right to where we wanted to end up! Mekele!
We would have made it to Mekele that night had one of the passangers not decided to pick a fight with a police officer. This meant we were stopped in the next town, Adrigat, and were forced to spend the night before continuing on the next morning. Adrigat was a really neat little town and formerly the main trading city with Eritrea before everything went downhill and war broke out between the countries in 1998. That war is still on to some degree. I spent 2 hours in the evening walking around and enjoying, again, not being hassled. The most interesting qualitiy of the city was that I saw a lot of dogs! A first for me in Ethiopia.
At 5:30 am (or 11:30pm Ethiopian time) we had to wake up and get on the bus that eventually made its way to Mekele. Mekele has so far been quite a neat city, with a few Universities (Ethiopia's Capital of Education they claim), which means excellent English, politie and courteous people as well as a general disinterest in bothering white people like me. The nice break continues! Also there is internet that is not painfully slow! Love it.
I am undecided about what is going to happen next. Will have to decide if I am staying with Simon and Mike because they are definitely going tomorrow. Oh....decisions.
No comments:
Post a Comment