Lalibela churches. Or not.

Now it's Sunday morning, we wake up at 530 am to make it to the churches for 6am, as the locals do. We walked around a little. Got to hear the chanting playing over loud speakers. People crouched down a little everywhere praying. Everyone with their usual white scarfs around their heads. Slight lighting made the ambiance perfect. These churches are so impressive, standing what seems to be 30 feet tall, red tint, all carved from a rock. Then a man asks for our tickets. We present them. No problem. Once we get to the next church, a man asks for our tickets. Again we show them, no problem. By the third church, the man asks for our tickets, and then asks for our passport (passport number were written on the ticket). We say we don't have them on us. He argues. We argue. He then demands we follow him to the ticket office. Great.

Once at the ticket office, they inform us they think it's someone else's ticket. We obviously argue. The man asks us to write our names, countries and age on this little piece of paper. First two I had down, the age in the other hand, I invented. Why not. Jack did the same, or should I say Debra. I was pretty sure Debra was spelt this way on her ticket, but Jack wrote Deborah. Either way, these guys were not believing us, and yet had no reason not to. We argued. Said they were taking 100$US away from us, they had no right.... Argue argue argue, until both Jack and I looked at each other and decided it wasn't worth it. The experience was ruin. Now we were both frustrated and angry. So we left and decided we may have to spent 4 days in this town we would both leave now, but we're not doing the churches!

Still being early, I suggested we walk to whatever high point we could find to watch the sun rise. Perfect idea. With just enough light, we made our way to what seemed like our own little secluded spot at the edge of a mountain side, and watched the sun rise. Mood set back to zero. The scenery is honestly some of the best I've ever seen, and that goes for most of Ethiopia. It is absolutely beautiful.

We eventually (around 8am) walk down and make our way to this other part of town for breakfast. A part completely separate from the usual tourists centre. Here, no one spoke to us, no one yelled at us, the women were saying a simple Salem as we walked by, to which we returned the hello. We eventually got the a row of mini huts mostly just selling coffee and breads in from of the bus station. At this point, I knew we only had 65birr on us, but assumed our 1 egg, 1 bread and 2 coffee breakfast would be no where near that. Everyone was pleasant. Of course there was a group of women in the stall next door having a full conversation on how I look, all starring and pointing, but this felt more like curiosity because I'm different and not judgement. I was OK with this.

Then we try to leave. 80birr is quoted to us. To put that in perspective, we usually have breakfast in the bigger towns that's called Special Full. It consists of an egg, veggies, a bean and tomato mix and yogourt that you mix all together and eat by scooping bread. That breakfast, with 2 teas, usually costs us 30birr. That's in a proper restaurant, not in a shack in front of the bus station. So we argue. Remember, I only have 65birr. They claim coffees are 10 and the egg and bread was 50 (adding to 80 with the water bottle we wanted which is always 10). Again, we argue. We say we've been here for 3 weeks, and named all the towns we've been in and had this type of meal and the usual price. They finally brought the price down to 50birr. From 80 to 50. F***ing walking wallet again. Even 50 is entirely over priced, but we weren't getting any further. So we paid and left angry, after such a promising morning. I managed to very quickly put it behind me, deciding that my morning (not including the ticket annoyance) was too good to let them ruin it. Jack had more trouble. I think both because she really wants to be able to trust people, and because we both know we have another day here.

The rest of the day was spent reading and writing from our hotels balcony and from coffer shops. It was actually quite funny - our hotel is set about 25 feet from the side walk down the cement courtyard, and we were sitting in the second floor. So quite far from the street. Yet kids still stopped to yell hello from the street in their usual mocking matter, and all Jack kept answering back is "untouchable!"
She was absolutely excited at the idea that we were untouchable. They can't bug us here. It turned out to be a relaxing, almost vacation like day. Rebooted ourselves.

Finished the day with a relaxing dinner at Mountain View hotel. Slightly expensive, but with the right to be. Great food, and amazing views of the wonderful sunset.

One more day in this town, and off to Harar we go!Read more