Day# 1: Wednesday 6/5/13: Our journey to ET began on Wednesday night, June 5th. We had a 10:10 P.M. Lufthansa flight out of Logan to Frankfurt. Thanks to Ambien, the flight was fine!
Day #2: Thursday 6/6/13: We arrived at the Frankfurt airport in the morning and we remained there for 10 HOURS! The layover was actually not as bad as I had anticipated it to be. I was surprised by the cleanliness and size of this airport. Luckily we were able to shower here. In Terminal B they have a nice locker room type shower area that was wicked clean and nice. I believe the shower was what got us through this very long day. Finally, after walking around the airport 587 times, nighttime arrived and we were able to board our plane to Addis Ababa!!
Day #3: Friday 6/7/13: We arrived in Addis somewhere between 5:30-6:00 A.M., obtained our visas & luggage, and found our driver. After we got to the van we realized that we forgot to exchange our dollars for birr, the ET currency. We went back in and exchanged $500 for birr. The rate is 1:18 so it was pretty funny when Chris could not fit his "stack" into his wallet. What was even funnier was the man purse he wore all week long. At least I did not have the responsibility of keeping the money and passports safe. Soon after leaving the airport we arrived at our hotel which was just a couple of miles away.
After checking in, our agency's person in charge on the ET side called us and asked us to meet him in the lobby so he could review our paperwork for the US Embassy. After this was done, the 3 of us went to breakfast at Kaldi's where Chris' obsession with machiattos began! Chris and I walked back to the hotel from the breakfast place and this is where I learned the streets of Addis are no place for flip-flops!
For some reason, I do not remember pieces of this day. It was a bit of a blur but I do remember the following parts:
-meeting and eating lunch with Heglunds out on the balcony
-napping in the afternoon
-eating the yummiest meal ever, the Thai Chicken dish at the hotel's restaurant
-taking a shower as fast as possible because the drain was screwed up and the water overflowed onto the floor.
-going to bed early as we had to get up in the morning to begin our "real journey" to Alazar!
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