I made it to Addis around 5:30am this morning, and reunited with Kat! Then I took a nap.
Around noon, we met with Mickey, the guide we’d connected with for this trip. We needed to pay him and sort out our plans. He took us to a restaurant nearby where we shamefully devoured our food without a single picture – I promise to do better in the future. A few of Mickey’s friends were in the area and came by as well – it was great to chat about life in Ethiopia, the World Cup, and, of course, AI. It’s inescapable.
One of Mickey’s friends helped solve a mystery Kat had been wondering about – restaurant menus with “fasting” items. It turns out, fasting in the orthodox faith means eating a vegan diet.
After lunch, we wandered the neighborhood a bit, then grabbed some coffee at a cute cafe. Addis is a city in the midst of a building boom. Ethiopia has one of the fastest growing GDPs in Africa, and Addis is hustling. The airport was full of Chinese folks arriving to do business (America having mostly ceded that ground) and there’s a real sense of growth. The roads are predictably awash in Chinese EVs (Kat might get tired of me pointing out the BYD Dolphin Surfs) and everything is covered in dust from the construction (and some unpaved roads).
For dinner, we got some chicken and then strolled the city. Like everywhere outside the rich world, the online advice says “definitely don’t go out in the city at night” – judge for yourself.
