Adventure In Ethiopia: Gondar

For the last week Suze and I have been travelling to and from Gondar. As always, we started out with a rough plan but somehow managed a full week of new people, places, and food . We started last Tuesday by heading to Addis where we stayed with two former NSAC folks, Mary and Gary. They were most kind; providing us with a place to rest, great meals, and some funny stories about their experiences in Nova Scotia.

We then headed for Gondar. For some reason I had thought the bus ride was only seven hours, but was corrected of that after arriving 13 hours later. The view on the road made up for that though. The winding road through mountains of Debre Markos were both terrifying and awesome, we were sometimes driving above low-lying cumulus clouds!

Once there, we were greeted by our friend of JUCAVM, Biru, and our soon-to-be guide for the following days, Tamiru. After a thorough rest we headed into town where you can find the castles of the Emperors of Gondar (now a UNESCO world heritage site). These castles were built in throughout the 17^th century and though partially destroyed by bombs during conflicts in the 1940’s, much of the structures remain intact. Though mostly empty of artifacts, the areas which once hosted kitchens, bedrooms, animal stalls, courtyards, a library, and even a lion's den remained. It's a precious symbol of a great power that once ruled the region.
Also interesting was the bath of King Fasilides. This was a huge in-ground pool with a castle constructed right in the middle! The pool is still used today by Orthodox Christians who bath in it every January as part of the Timkat (baptism) celebrations.

We ended our tour of Gondar with a trip to Gondar University where we met up with some students from the University of Calgary. Knowing the area, they took us out to the Dashen Brewery Gardens where we had some delicious (but consequently spoiled, as Suze learned) chicken, and a tower of Dashen beer, which had been brewed a stone’s throw from where we sat. How’s that for local?

We left the next morning bright and early, and continued our adventure along with Tamiru in the Amhara capital, Bahir Dar. Suze will fill you in!

Ciao,

Manny

Road to Gondar