Story#179
The bus with no timetable
The bus left when it was full and not before. Full meant something different than we expected. We made friends with everyone in three rows and arrived eleven hours later knowing four words of Amharic.
Ethiopia
Thirteen months in the year, a day that starts at sunrise, and churches carved downwards into rock.
7 entries · 3 stories, 4 fun facts
Ethiopia at a glance
The practical numbers, before the stories.
- Capital
- Addis Ababa
- Currency
- Ethiopian birr (ETB)
- Official language
- Amharic, plus Afaan Oromo, Tigrinya, Somali and Afar as federal working languages
- Climate
- Temperate on the highlands where most people live, hot in the lowlands. Main rains June–September.
- Best time to go
- October–March
- Time zone
- UTC+3
- Driving side
- Right
- Plugs and voltage
- Type C / F / L, 220 V
Worth knowing: Ethiopia keeps a 13-month calendar roughly seven years behind the Gregorian one, and the day starts at sunrise.
Planning a trip to Ethiopia
The decisions that determine whether the trip works, whichever country you are going to.
Ethiopia runs a 13-month calendar about seven years behind the Gregorian one, and the day begins at sunrise rather than midnight, which makes appointment-setting an interesting exercise. The eleven churches of Lalibela were cut down into solid rock in the 12th century, their roofs level with the ground.
Wild Coffea arabica still grows in Ethiopian forests, and the coffee ceremony - beans roasted in the room, ground by hand, poured three times - takes well over an hour. Refusing the third round is a small insult. The Danakil Depression, meanwhile, averages above 34 degrees year-round.
Entries from Ethiopia
Story#182
Coffee three times
The ceremony took an hour: green beans roasted in the room, ground by hand, brewed and poured three times. Refusing the third round, we were told, is a small insult. We stayed.
Story#186
Priests in the rock
A priest unlocked a church cut down into the ground and held up a cross older than most European cathedrals. Then he sat back down on a plastic chair and continued reading his phone.
Fun fact#415
Ethiopia keeps its own calendar
Ethiopia runs a 13-month calendar about seven years behind the Gregorian one, and the day starts at sunrise.
Fun fact#416
Ethiopia carved churches downward
The eleven churches of Lalibela were cut down into solid rock in the 12th century, roofs level with the ground.
Fun fact#419
Coffee likely began in Ethiopia
Wild Coffea arabica still grows in Ethiopian forests, and the country's coffee ceremony can take well over an hour.
Fun fact#420
The Danakil is one of the hottest places
Average yearly temperatures above 34 degrees make the Danakil Depression among the hottest inhabited regions on Earth.
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