Day 1 Arrival Addis Ababa

I travelled with GAP adventures on this trip http://www.gapadventures.com/trips/ethiopia-explorer/DEN/2011/ this blog is a combination of their trip details and my own experience.

Addis Ababa, founded more than a century ago, means 'New Flower' in Amharic. The third highest capital in the world, the climate is pleasantly cool. The city mixes past and present. Statues from the imperial times coexist with placards from the former Marxist Regime and huge billboards advertising current activities in the city, modern businesses, as well as development organizations' goodwill projects. The streets are a mesh of expensive cars, old Russian "Lada model" taxis, as well as donkeys, sheep, goats, stray dogs and cats, medieval looking priests and modern dressed working class with mobile phones. Traditional mud houses stand not far from austere Fascist buildings and private-sector banks.
After a quite nice night flight with Etiophian Airlines I arrived Addis Ababa early in the morning, I was still exhausted from the long working hours I had before I left my office so I went straight to the hotel and had some hours with sleep. When I woke up in the afternoon i felt like I had a hangover-like headache, I could not understand why, but then I realised it was because of the altitude, Addis is on an average altitude 2500 meters so coming straight from sea level you can definitely feel it.
It's really not much of traditional sights in Addis but I truly did enjoy the National Museum where I met Lucy, the 3.2 miljon year old fossilized hominid discovered in 1974. The museum also contains a wide array of Ethiopian historical artifacts focusing on the pre- Aksumite, Aksumite, Solomonic, and Gonderine periods. It also has a wide array of Ethiopian art ranging from 14th century parchment to 20th century canvas oil paintings by leading modern Ethiopian artists.
If you enjoy shopping (I don't) Merkato is the largest open market in Africa where you can find a bit of everything. The spice market is very interesting for its colourful displays and aromas. For some travellers one of the highlights of the Merkato is the "recycling market" where old tires are turned into sandals, corrugated iron is made into metal buckets, and olive oil tins from Italy are made into coffee roasters and scoops. Also interesting is the section where the narcotic leaf "chat" is sold.
In the afternoon i met the other guys in group whom I where gong to travel with for the next 14 days. It was an interesting mix of people, from the 25 year old Swiss guy to the 55 year old woman from Hong Kong. I have found out that Swiss people always get mixed up with swedes, and they really hate that, so I have developed a standard procedure of pushing it as far as possible. If you keep insisting that Stockholm is the capital of Switzerland they go completely mad (I was almost punched once in the Philippines by a Swiss guy before he got he joke). Our tour leader was a local guy named Fikaldo, but he said his friends called him f***i? Everyone wanted to go for drinks and food so we went to a traditional dining and show place. The food was spicy and good but I stayed away from the traditional raw minced meat. The dancing performance was really interesting, especially when the local male guests went up for a group dance. They used only the shoulders and above when they did "the moves". It has to be seen to be believed. for an example here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmBdu7XgvrI.