Accra to Addis Ababa - Day 297

Date: June 11th, 2010
Distance: Travel by plane
Country: Ethiopia
Song of the Day: Learning to Fly - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Took a taxi to the airport and got checked in. Customs didn't even want to look in my bags. They did have a someone to wrap my box in the big version of plastic wrap. That should hold it together. When I went to check the bags, they also wanted me to wrap the cheap bag I bought to hold my panniers. The lady at the counter kept saying the bag would rip, and I said that was fine. She wanted to me to sign a damage waver though. I didn't care about the bag, but the stuff inside I didn't want damaged. I didn't see how plastic wrap was going to do that. Eventually I realized that my logic in any case was going to be ignored. So I paid another $4 to wrap a bag that had cost me $2. Annoying.

Still, I was on my way. I took Ethiopian airlines. I have no complaints there. It was just like any other airline I have been one, but they served food.

When I got to Addis, I realized that my flight to Uganda was at 10:45 the next morning. Whoops. I wasn't sure what to do. I thought I could just sleep at the airport, but I didn't know if they closed. Everyone kept telling me to go to the interline office. They ending up giving me a voucher for a free hotel room. Okay, not really free as my ticket must have cost extra for it. Still, it is better than sleeping at the airport.

It was interesting to see more of the city. I was actually pretty impressed. Addis seems like a regular city to me. The hotel was also probably the nicest one I have been to in quite some time. They also had a free dinner buffet. While on the bus to the hotel I met Adam, a guy from South Africa. We ended up talking over dinner. I guess he works as a pilot for a UN chartered medi-vac plane in Liberia. His descriptions of their bureaucracy were both sad and amusing. Eventually though it was time for bed. Because of the air conditioning, I used sheets for the first time in a while.

-Dravis