Day 198 - The National Museum of Ethiopia - The Holy Trinity Cathedral
Thursday, January 17, 2019.
Today we went to The National Museum of Ethiopia and learned a lot. I can't believe that the entrance was only 10 Birr which is like 30 cents! I almost wanted to tell them to raise the price and invest it in the museum. Mostly we went because we wanted to see Lucy and Selam who were the oldest humanoids, both found in Ethiopia. The fossil floor was very impressive and even Sunshine and Daniel were engaged.
The museum has 4 floors, with the fossils (human and animal) downstairs, recent history (the last 2000 years, up through the empire) on the ground floor, an art gallery upstairs, and an ethnographic exhibit on the top floor.
The top 3 floors could use some updates and more explanations but it was fine this way, because it made the visit shorter, but not short enough for Daniel!
We saw several groups of school kids and we took pictures with some of the kids that approached us. In the end, there were two young teachers who wanted to take a picture with me! I thought it was funny. [Gregory's note: this has happened to us several times now, where locals ask to take a photo with us. It makes us feel like movie stars or something. Also, this museum has the most comfortable leather couches I have ever sat on. Not only that, but the wood frames are hand carved! They were a star attraction for me and Daniel.]
After the museum, we walked to a local restaurant down the street. It seemed like they never had faranji (whites/foreigners) before because they didn't speak English [Gregory's note: nor was there a menu, not even in Amharic! Luckily, they did have beer]. We ordered what we know, which is shiro with injera and the kids ordered spaghetti. Gregory was adventurous enough to order kitfo, which is raw lamb meat in a red sauce. I only tried it because I didn't know what it was when they first brought it. [I knew, but there was no way I was going to tell her. Also, I do enjoy a bit of tartare every now and then, but this was a heaping bowl, and the red sauce did not help. I felt nauseated eating after a few bites.]
After lunch, Daniel and I walked to the Holy Trinity Cathedral because it was close. Sunshine and Gregory caught up with us later. We didn't go in because the church was closed. Later, we found out that it was open for visitors for 200 birr each. [Gregory's note: However, it was our policy to not pay to enter a church (which suited Daniel just fine), so we didn't pay, but we did look at photos of the interior on our phones. The only reason to pay to go in is to see the tombs of the emperor and his wife. The kids had a better time looking at the 2 water buffalo parked outside the guard house.]
At that point, we decided to go home. We have seen so many churches -- and I'm going to sound like Daniel -- but they are all starting to look the same. We took a taxi back home.
For pictures please click here
https://photos.app.goo.gl/CChbNtTwqe6yEiyg6
Today we went to The National Museum of Ethiopia and learned a lot. I can't believe that the entrance was only 10 Birr which is like 30 cents! I almost wanted to tell them to raise the price and invest it in the museum. Mostly we went because we wanted to see Lucy and Selam who were the oldest humanoids, both found in Ethiopia. The fossil floor was very impressive and even Sunshine and Daniel were engaged.
The museum has 4 floors, with the fossils (human and animal) downstairs, recent history (the last 2000 years, up through the empire) on the ground floor, an art gallery upstairs, and an ethnographic exhibit on the top floor.
The top 3 floors could use some updates and more explanations but it was fine this way, because it made the visit shorter, but not short enough for Daniel!
We saw several groups of school kids and we took pictures with some of the kids that approached us. In the end, there were two young teachers who wanted to take a picture with me! I thought it was funny. [Gregory's note: this has happened to us several times now, where locals ask to take a photo with us. It makes us feel like movie stars or something. Also, this museum has the most comfortable leather couches I have ever sat on. Not only that, but the wood frames are hand carved! They were a star attraction for me and Daniel.]
After the museum, we walked to a local restaurant down the street. It seemed like they never had faranji (whites/foreigners) before because they didn't speak English [Gregory's note: nor was there a menu, not even in Amharic! Luckily, they did have beer]. We ordered what we know, which is shiro with injera and the kids ordered spaghetti. Gregory was adventurous enough to order kitfo, which is raw lamb meat in a red sauce. I only tried it because I didn't know what it was when they first brought it. [I knew, but there was no way I was going to tell her. Also, I do enjoy a bit of tartare every now and then, but this was a heaping bowl, and the red sauce did not help. I felt nauseated eating after a few bites.]
After lunch, Daniel and I walked to the Holy Trinity Cathedral because it was close. Sunshine and Gregory caught up with us later. We didn't go in because the church was closed. Later, we found out that it was open for visitors for 200 birr each. [Gregory's note: However, it was our policy to not pay to enter a church (which suited Daniel just fine), so we didn't pay, but we did look at photos of the interior on our phones. The only reason to pay to go in is to see the tombs of the emperor and his wife. The kids had a better time looking at the 2 water buffalo parked outside the guard house.]
At that point, we decided to go home. We have seen so many churches -- and I'm going to sound like Daniel -- but they are all starting to look the same. We took a taxi back home.
For pictures please click here
https://photos.app.goo.gl/CChbNtTwqe6yEiyg6
Comments
Post a Comment