Day 195 - Looking for a place to stay in Addis Ababa
Monday, January 14, 2019.
Today, we got up at 8:30am and next door to a small restaurant for breakfast. It is included with our $30 per night room. It is not a five-star hotel, it's just a bed and breakfast, and I would probably give it three stars, but at least it's clean. It is supposedly in a nice neighborhood, but it is on a side street ( a dirt road) and we are surrounded by a Chinese restaurant, a bar and a tiny stand that sells the basics like oil, eggs, cookies, water, soda, and peanut butter! We were all excited to see peanut butter again!
And speaking of peanut butter, the kids ordered toast with peanut butter for breakfast and Gregory and I had egg omelets. Decent breakfast, but not as nice as the ones we had in Lalibela. I really liked it there and I felt at ease. Being back in a big city stresses me out, I don't like to think about having to deal with taxi drivers, people, cars, noise, etc.
After breakfast, when we went upstairs to brush our teeth, we met a very nice French couple. I had seen them at the breakfast so I asked them where they were from and the conversation that follows just flowed. They were Circus artists and they had been in Ethiopia for a month. When they said that they were flying back home tonight a tone of relief, I felt an urge to run back home. I felt so homesick and wanted to be in the comfort of my home. I feel very anxious when we don’t have a place to stay. We had all day to find a place and there are not many options for our budget (we had to leave the bed and breakfast because we wanted a kitchen). I honestly think we could find something decent if Gregory would be willing to spend more but because we are in a poor country, he cannot accept the idea of paying European prices or even more, because in Europe we got very nice apartments for $50 a night. Here, for starters, there is no Airbnb. We have found more guest houses which sometimes have a shared kitchen. We actually found one, near our guest house but it was just a simple room with two bedrooms and a queen sized bed. The owner showed me the shared kitchen and I wanted to cry. Well, it was just a basic sink and oven, I guess it's good for breakfast but not a single table or chair. I have seen a lot of people here eating in a circle and just squatting.
I told myself to keep calm and to not complain because last night when I talked to Daniel and Sunshine, they gave me a big lesson. We talked about places we have stayed, and they are super troopers and told me to adjust like they do and remember that we are just passing through. I think what was getting me was feeling poor from being around the local neighborhood and seeing the run-down places, but like Sunshine pointed out, we are not poor, we have a place to stay, food to eat and everything we need. She even said we are not sleeping in the street like some of them, we have hot water and we can buy food when we want to. Wow! That was a lesson for me. My kiddos are teaching me so much on this trip. I love to see how much they have matured and how well they adjust to the situations we have to encounter every day. The only thing that they don’t like is when Gregory and I fight, that gets Daniel very sad and he asked me to please learn to get along to continue our trip. It is not easy to spend all day with your husband and having to constantly make decisions together but listening to my Daniel with tears in his eyes asking me to please stop fighting really got me.
Going back to the day, we walked to see a nice apartment that Gregory found online. Not an Airbnb, he actually looked for furnished apartments and found this one. I saw the pictures and it looks very promising. Gregory sent the owner several messages asking him if we could come and see it but we never heard back from him. I told Gregory that we should at least check the neighborhood, and maybe just get it since the pictures looked nice. When we got there, we asked the doorman for the owner. It was hilarious and pretty frustrating because he kept saying yes and no to the same question! When we were leaving, a man in a black car, yelled at us to wait. We figured it was the owner. It was our lucky day. He showed us the place and we liked it but... There was only one bed. How in the world did we miss that? I never thought about it when Gregory showed me the pictures, all I was interested to see was the bathroom because we don’t had a decent shower at the Cheers bed and breakfast.
We decided to take the apartment and have Daniel sleep on the couch and the owner said he will bring a mattress for Sunshine. The bathroom is crappy like the ones we have been getting since we got here. Not that it's dirty or in bad shape, it is that they are small and the small shower doesn’t have a curtain or a door so you get the whole bathroom wet. Anyway, I decided to let it go because it had a nice and spacious living room which is where we like to hang around and a nice size kitchen with equipment. We even have a washing machine and that’s a luxury. Everywhere we have been they offer laundry service for super cheap but I'd rather wash my clothes and after being in dusty Lalibela I feel like I have to wash my whole suitcase. I think I’m the only one suffering so much from the dust and the dirt because I’m obsessive about being clean and it bothers me when places are not.
The owner of the place told us that we had to pay him in full right away. I felt more uncomfortable than Gregory who just nodded and did the math. We walked to an ATM and started to withdraw money for a while because it would only allow you to withdraw 200 Birr at a time. I was nervous to carry so much money in my purse. We walked back to the building, paid in full for a week before I asked him if I could film him just for safety. He laughed and agreed to it. Afterward, we decided to stop in the middle of the sidewalk at a little stand for a traditional coffee. What’s funny is that they spread some palm leaves on the sidewalk, place some cheap plastic stools around, and serve traditional coffee made on a tiny stove in a black clay coffee pot.
Gregory and I looked at each other when we saw that one of the girls washed the teacups in a bucket of black water!! I wanted to run but instead, I took out a wipe from my purse and cleaned the cups. I hope I didn’t offend the girls but we didn’t want to get sick. The coffee was good and really strong. We paid less than a dollar for the two small cups of coffee. After that, we walked to Ethiopia Telecom to get a sim card for voice because we couldn’t make phone calls with the data sim card that we got. It was frustrating not being able to communicate with Daniel and Sunshine who were waiting in the Guest House. It was getting late and I was worried that they might be hungry. We finally made to the building which seemed like it was going to collapse. We didn’t know where to go or where the line was, people were just waiting all around and it looked like chaos. I sent Gregory to sit down because his foot was hurting and I waited in line. I had to send two men to the back when they tried to cut me! The good thing is that we met a journalist from NPR who lived in Nairobi. He was very nice and he was married to a Mexican American and had 3 kids. He was surprised that we hadn’t seen anything going on in Lalibella. He commented that there was a conflict going on and there was militia over there. We were glad we didn’t know anything about it or I would have freaked out! He said that if we ever go to Nairobi we could eat dinner together. He was a nice guy who left me curious to read about what is going on in Ethiopia. I really haven’t done any research about this country.
We wanted to take a taxi but of course, Gregory thought that they were ripping us off. And so what if they are, I told him. You can’t walk, I’m very hungry, it's late and the kiddos are waiting for us. Mr. Stubborn decided to walk and I just stormed (I need to control my emotions) because he wasn’t willing to pay 3 dollars for a ride home. I knew we were close, but it was still pretty far to walk on an injured leg and it was hot. We walked some more and then a taxi driver approached him and asked him if he wanted a ride. He wanted the same price as the others but Gregory finally agreed. I told him that if he was honest and gave us a good price, we would hire him again. I still paid him the full fare because it is food for his family and 3 dollars is really nothing for us!
We got the kids and decided to try the Chinese restaurant next door. Daniel was very excited but unfortunately, it was very expensive. We didn’t even have enough cash for it. The dish was like $10 per person, I guess the same as back home, but this was a cheap looking restaurant. We walked out. My level of hunger was high by now. We stopped in Cheers Burgers where we had breakfast. but they didn’t have what we wanted because the power was out, so we decided to leave again. We ended up eating in a cafe that had sandwiches and juices. Not what we wanted but we were all hungry. All my family blames only me but I could tell that Gregory was starving as well. My poor Sunshine didn’t want anything, she has a bad cold and I just wanted to feed her chicken soup! Danny ordered the chicken sandwich and only ate the chicken. I ate all the bread and all the french fries, no wonder why he is skinny and I’m not!
After a nice meal, we walked back to the hotel to read and rest. We spent the rest of the afternoon in our rooms with lousy internet. Very frustrating but at least, it helped me to catch up with the blog which I’m up to date on but I can’t post the pictures because of the bad internet. No big deal about my blog, but I’m beginning to worry about Sunshine who has to turn in school assignments.
Click here for pictures
https://photos.app.goo.gl/t4KTNafTU6VMTdLa8
Today, we got up at 8:30am and next door to a small restaurant for breakfast. It is included with our $30 per night room. It is not a five-star hotel, it's just a bed and breakfast, and I would probably give it three stars, but at least it's clean. It is supposedly in a nice neighborhood, but it is on a side street ( a dirt road) and we are surrounded by a Chinese restaurant, a bar and a tiny stand that sells the basics like oil, eggs, cookies, water, soda, and peanut butter! We were all excited to see peanut butter again!
And speaking of peanut butter, the kids ordered toast with peanut butter for breakfast and Gregory and I had egg omelets. Decent breakfast, but not as nice as the ones we had in Lalibela. I really liked it there and I felt at ease. Being back in a big city stresses me out, I don't like to think about having to deal with taxi drivers, people, cars, noise, etc.
After breakfast, when we went upstairs to brush our teeth, we met a very nice French couple. I had seen them at the breakfast so I asked them where they were from and the conversation that follows just flowed. They were Circus artists and they had been in Ethiopia for a month. When they said that they were flying back home tonight a tone of relief, I felt an urge to run back home. I felt so homesick and wanted to be in the comfort of my home. I feel very anxious when we don’t have a place to stay. We had all day to find a place and there are not many options for our budget (we had to leave the bed and breakfast because we wanted a kitchen). I honestly think we could find something decent if Gregory would be willing to spend more but because we are in a poor country, he cannot accept the idea of paying European prices or even more, because in Europe we got very nice apartments for $50 a night. Here, for starters, there is no Airbnb. We have found more guest houses which sometimes have a shared kitchen. We actually found one, near our guest house but it was just a simple room with two bedrooms and a queen sized bed. The owner showed me the shared kitchen and I wanted to cry. Well, it was just a basic sink and oven, I guess it's good for breakfast but not a single table or chair. I have seen a lot of people here eating in a circle and just squatting.
I told myself to keep calm and to not complain because last night when I talked to Daniel and Sunshine, they gave me a big lesson. We talked about places we have stayed, and they are super troopers and told me to adjust like they do and remember that we are just passing through. I think what was getting me was feeling poor from being around the local neighborhood and seeing the run-down places, but like Sunshine pointed out, we are not poor, we have a place to stay, food to eat and everything we need. She even said we are not sleeping in the street like some of them, we have hot water and we can buy food when we want to. Wow! That was a lesson for me. My kiddos are teaching me so much on this trip. I love to see how much they have matured and how well they adjust to the situations we have to encounter every day. The only thing that they don’t like is when Gregory and I fight, that gets Daniel very sad and he asked me to please learn to get along to continue our trip. It is not easy to spend all day with your husband and having to constantly make decisions together but listening to my Daniel with tears in his eyes asking me to please stop fighting really got me.
Going back to the day, we walked to see a nice apartment that Gregory found online. Not an Airbnb, he actually looked for furnished apartments and found this one. I saw the pictures and it looks very promising. Gregory sent the owner several messages asking him if we could come and see it but we never heard back from him. I told Gregory that we should at least check the neighborhood, and maybe just get it since the pictures looked nice. When we got there, we asked the doorman for the owner. It was hilarious and pretty frustrating because he kept saying yes and no to the same question! When we were leaving, a man in a black car, yelled at us to wait. We figured it was the owner. It was our lucky day. He showed us the place and we liked it but... There was only one bed. How in the world did we miss that? I never thought about it when Gregory showed me the pictures, all I was interested to see was the bathroom because we don’t had a decent shower at the Cheers bed and breakfast.
We decided to take the apartment and have Daniel sleep on the couch and the owner said he will bring a mattress for Sunshine. The bathroom is crappy like the ones we have been getting since we got here. Not that it's dirty or in bad shape, it is that they are small and the small shower doesn’t have a curtain or a door so you get the whole bathroom wet. Anyway, I decided to let it go because it had a nice and spacious living room which is where we like to hang around and a nice size kitchen with equipment. We even have a washing machine and that’s a luxury. Everywhere we have been they offer laundry service for super cheap but I'd rather wash my clothes and after being in dusty Lalibela I feel like I have to wash my whole suitcase. I think I’m the only one suffering so much from the dust and the dirt because I’m obsessive about being clean and it bothers me when places are not.
The owner of the place told us that we had to pay him in full right away. I felt more uncomfortable than Gregory who just nodded and did the math. We walked to an ATM and started to withdraw money for a while because it would only allow you to withdraw 200 Birr at a time. I was nervous to carry so much money in my purse. We walked back to the building, paid in full for a week before I asked him if I could film him just for safety. He laughed and agreed to it. Afterward, we decided to stop in the middle of the sidewalk at a little stand for a traditional coffee. What’s funny is that they spread some palm leaves on the sidewalk, place some cheap plastic stools around, and serve traditional coffee made on a tiny stove in a black clay coffee pot.
Gregory and I looked at each other when we saw that one of the girls washed the teacups in a bucket of black water!! I wanted to run but instead, I took out a wipe from my purse and cleaned the cups. I hope I didn’t offend the girls but we didn’t want to get sick. The coffee was good and really strong. We paid less than a dollar for the two small cups of coffee. After that, we walked to Ethiopia Telecom to get a sim card for voice because we couldn’t make phone calls with the data sim card that we got. It was frustrating not being able to communicate with Daniel and Sunshine who were waiting in the Guest House. It was getting late and I was worried that they might be hungry. We finally made to the building which seemed like it was going to collapse. We didn’t know where to go or where the line was, people were just waiting all around and it looked like chaos. I sent Gregory to sit down because his foot was hurting and I waited in line. I had to send two men to the back when they tried to cut me! The good thing is that we met a journalist from NPR who lived in Nairobi. He was very nice and he was married to a Mexican American and had 3 kids. He was surprised that we hadn’t seen anything going on in Lalibella. He commented that there was a conflict going on and there was militia over there. We were glad we didn’t know anything about it or I would have freaked out! He said that if we ever go to Nairobi we could eat dinner together. He was a nice guy who left me curious to read about what is going on in Ethiopia. I really haven’t done any research about this country.
We wanted to take a taxi but of course, Gregory thought that they were ripping us off. And so what if they are, I told him. You can’t walk, I’m very hungry, it's late and the kiddos are waiting for us. Mr. Stubborn decided to walk and I just stormed (I need to control my emotions) because he wasn’t willing to pay 3 dollars for a ride home. I knew we were close, but it was still pretty far to walk on an injured leg and it was hot. We walked some more and then a taxi driver approached him and asked him if he wanted a ride. He wanted the same price as the others but Gregory finally agreed. I told him that if he was honest and gave us a good price, we would hire him again. I still paid him the full fare because it is food for his family and 3 dollars is really nothing for us!
We got the kids and decided to try the Chinese restaurant next door. Daniel was very excited but unfortunately, it was very expensive. We didn’t even have enough cash for it. The dish was like $10 per person, I guess the same as back home, but this was a cheap looking restaurant. We walked out. My level of hunger was high by now. We stopped in Cheers Burgers where we had breakfast. but they didn’t have what we wanted because the power was out, so we decided to leave again. We ended up eating in a cafe that had sandwiches and juices. Not what we wanted but we were all hungry. All my family blames only me but I could tell that Gregory was starving as well. My poor Sunshine didn’t want anything, she has a bad cold and I just wanted to feed her chicken soup! Danny ordered the chicken sandwich and only ate the chicken. I ate all the bread and all the french fries, no wonder why he is skinny and I’m not!
After a nice meal, we walked back to the hotel to read and rest. We spent the rest of the afternoon in our rooms with lousy internet. Very frustrating but at least, it helped me to catch up with the blog which I’m up to date on but I can’t post the pictures because of the bad internet. No big deal about my blog, but I’m beginning to worry about Sunshine who has to turn in school assignments.
Click here for pictures
https://photos.app.goo.gl/t4KTNafTU6VMTdLa8
Comments
Post a Comment