Let me first explain how we all managed to get here. I left for Houston on Sunday evening to leave my dog with my parents. On Monday, I left at 5 PM on a flight to DC (like most of the Gazelles; although, they were flying from Austin). Most of us took the correct shuttle to the hotel, but who knew that there were 4 different Hampton Inn Dulles? That's an easy answer - the drivers of the shuttles knew this information. They just didn't know a whole lot of English, which is where a few ran into problems. We left at 9:30 AM for the DC airport on Tuesday morning. Let me explain a few things about Ethiopian Airlines -
1. You cannot check-in online.
2. You can check 2 x 50 pound bags (no charge).
3. Once you enter the line you cannot repack your bag if it is over the 50 lb limit (a $210 fee).
4. Most of the people in line were taking 3-4 bags of varying sizes. They were also mostly women and did not seem to be able to effectively move 4 pieces of luggage.
5. Everyone applauds when the plane lands. This happened on all 3 legs of our journey. I want to bring that back to the states. It's quite fun.
6. They feed you more than the US airlines that fly internationally and they give free wine to everyone (a fact I didn't learn until the lady next to me ordered red wine in the last hour of my journey). They also apparently had a snack bar setup in the back. I mistook the constant traffic as bathroom needs.
We arrived at our gate right around boarding time and stepped on board for the 13 hour and 45 minute journey to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I was in the middle seat, in the middle row of row 40. It actually wasn't horrid, but I was not able to sleep, which leads to me to my series on entertainment options. Except for 1 movie, I had Damonfest.
1. Ocean's Eleven is still entertaining the 20th time you watch it.
2. The same 30 Rock episode with the meeting of Matt Damon's character, Carol, and Liz Lemon is quite hilarious (even when you watch it twice in the same 13 hour span).
3. You should probably see the other Bourne movies before attempting to watch Bourne Ultimatum (a mistake I made for about an hour).
4. The remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory even on a plane is quite disappointing (my cousins may know what I'm talking about).
5. They have a map that zooms in on your route. It shows a zoomed out image of the DC to Ethiopia path and then the screen updates as it zooms in on your location. While it includes the names of nearby cities, oceans, lakes, it also includes the location in the ocean/sea of shipwrecks and the year they went down. For example, Titanic; 1912 and Scorpion; 1968 and they had these markers in the ocean. I kept looking for an Osama Bin Laden marker, but I did not see one. I was just happy they had good enough judgment not to include plane wrecks. I might have requested Xanax upon seeing that.
We landed in Ethiopia at 8:30 AM and found the Addis Ababa airport to be a tad bit confusing. There are people at tables with computers which are randomly placed in strange areas (e.g. the top of the escalator), and everyone has to take a bus from the terminal (where everyone appeared to be using the same gate) to their flight. It's quite chaotic. People were jumping across lines to flights they weren't supposed to get on because they didn't understand the rules (I had the priviledge of listening to the lady scold those people and teach them the rules). I captured the reactions of a few Gazelles on the bus.
We flew into Nairobi, Kenya and sat there for an hour then headed on to Bujumbura, Burundi. I flew over the Serengeti and we passed Mount Kilimanjaro (couldn't really see it, but it needed to be mentioned because I thought it was awesome). Addis Ababa doesn't hold a candle to the Bujumbura airport. There are no computers (other than the few security scanners). There are no printers. Everything is done by hand. It's amazing.
The place to go if you lost your luggage. Its very official.
People do not form lines for anything, either. It was quite entertaining to watch and also be a participant in this madness.
After flying through Ethiopia and Kenya, I can say based on aerial and airport views alone, Burundi is much more beautiful. There are palm trees and tropical plants growing all around, there is a constant background of the mountains, and beautiful Lake Tanganyika which reportedly has hippos in it. It's very beautiful and I'll post more beauty photos (that are also in focus) later.
Beth, although I know you can't be funnier than me, I think you may be...funnier than me. Love you! Mom
ReplyDeleteYou should have asked for the 411. Italians also applaud on landing. And booze is free on most European airlines. I've never flown African, just BA to Nairobi. Have a blast and take lots of pictures!
ReplyDelete