allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Welcome to Addis Ababa, City of Flowers (Page 1 of 2)

When you think Addis Ababa or Ethiopia, the last thing that will come to your mind is flowers. This is because of the image of famine associated with the country.

The name, Addis Ababa, given to it by Emperor Menelic in 1887 means NEW FLOWER in Amharic language. Our decision to stop over and see this city was as a result of a trip to India on Ethiopian Airlines. It is always good to touch down, enter and go on sight-seeing when you are on a transit in any city.

Upon taking the decision to stop over, obtaining the Ethiopian visa became very easy, thanks to my buddy, Mr. Raphael Udeogu of Motorola, who introduced me to his Ethiopian friend, Mr. Bekele. Bekele was managing Reltel network in Lagos. He [Bekele] personally took me to the Ethiopian embassy, in Victoria Island to obtain the visas. The flight to Addis Ababa from Lagos was smooth and both the ground and in-flight staff of the airline were very courteous. On arrival, the transiting was also handled professionally. Nothing went wrong, except for the weather. It was cold, and we weren't prepared for it. This was also as a result of the mindset that I had about the country. We had to observe the temperature as predided by meteorologists.

On completion of the airport formalities, we were driven straight to the GION, where the airline accommodates its transit passengers. Looking at the view as we approached the hotel, there seemed to be more gardens and flowers than buildings in the premises, and, indeed, there were. To date, I can't remember staying in a hotel that has better and more species of flora. I am saying this because it was totally unexpected and I was caught off guard. On the first day, we couldn't go anywhere, because we arrived late in the evening. Besides, we were tired from the almost six-hour journey, so we just checked into our rooms, freshened up and came down to do dinner and make enquiries on where to go and what to see the next day.

Before I let you in on the places we visited, let me give you a brief on the capital city and Ethipia. Addis Ababa is the capital and largest city in Ethiopia. With a population of about 2.7million people, it is one of Africa's largest inland cities. It is the country's political, commercial, manufacturing and cultural centre. It is situated in the centre of the country at an altitude of about 2400mts above sea level, on a plateau that is surrounded by hills.

This explaines the cold that hit us on arrival. However, most of the country itself lies on a plateau deeply divided by valleys and lakes that are home to large numbers of fish and crocodiles. The country is also home to the Blue Nile, which flows to the Sudan, where it merges with the White Nile to form the mighty Nile River. There are places in the country that rise above 4500mts above sea level, one of the highest peaks in the continent. There are, indeed, areas that experience very low rainfall. [Less than 20 inches].

On our second day, we woke up early after a good night rest and went out for breakfast in a restaurant with an exceptionally and unforgettable view of a beautiful garden. The Ethiopian waitresses were courteous and obviously happy to be of service to their guests. They were well-dressed in their predominantly white with colour edges traditional pure cotton attire. They looked well-trained in the art of hospitality.

Done with breakfast, we moved outside to the grounds to take in the early morning aroma of the flowers and familiarise ourselves with the environment, but not before arranging for transport at the reception. We drove out some 30 minutes later in a taxi. The cab was driven by a friendly young man who, on arrangement, agreed to serve as our guide also. Arrangement concluded, we said to him,"Kaine wuka, kaine Nama, and sai inda ka kaimu." This roughly translates to "you are now in charge,' draw our itinerary". The young man suggested we started with driving around to get a general picture of the city, to which we agreed. We were pleasantly surprised to see Addis Ababa as a sprawling city, well-planned, with lots of trees lining its broad avenues.

There are modern tall buildings sitting side by-side with traditional ones, thanks to good town planners. The climate was mild and pleasant due to the high elevation, but this, unfortunately, made it difficult for people that are asthmatic or with high blood pressure to function well. In fact, an embassy staff I met told me one of their staff had to be re-deployed because the high elevation was making life difficult for him.

The first place we stopped in the course of our tour of the city was the African Hall, which was the venue of the first African Heads of State meeting in 1963. The meeting metamorphosed into the establishment of the 52-member OAU [now AU]. It is a huge structure with manicured lawns, and an impressive display of African states flags. I found the glass windows on the building depicting the "self-inflicted" suffering African very sad to behold. But the impressive collection of African artwork inside lifted my spirits. Next, we visited the Addis University, established in 1950. It has an impressive display of architecture. From there we went to the Emperor Melenic palace, which contains several museums with an equal collection of art and archeological items. The furniture and clothings used by the emperors, including Haile Salasi were on display there.

One thing that caught my attention in one of the museums was an old wooden ship It kept reminding me of Noah's Ark. I cannot exactly remember now the history associated with it, but I know that it is a significant archeological find, judging from the way tourists inscribed their names on it. Trust me, we did engrave ours. Done with the museum, we proceeded to a lion zoo in the middle of the town Addis has whole pride of lions, including their cubs.

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