I think the last time I was so exhausted to the point of not hearing someone knocking persistently on the door of my hotel room was probably back in vet school during final exams. I figured finding a hotel upon arrival, since I had been doing that in Morocco, would have been fine in Ethiopia, but I was told it would be best to wait in the airport until sunrise to head out and try to find lodging. And that also proved a little difficult in that other guests were still in their rooms (of course!) at 7 AM...my taxi driver was incredibly helpful in that he used his mobile to call around hotels to see if any of them had space, and I ended up conking out in a yet-uncleaned but vacated room at the Ankober Guest House. I am now sitting in the restaurant of Wutma Hotel in the Piazza area of Addis Ababa, and I had my first vegetarian injera-wat dish in Ethiopia, and it was nicely flavored, moderately spicy, and EXTREMELY filling...I had to stop the waitress from continuing to bring more injera (sponge bread), which she kindly kept doing everytime she saw I was nearing the end of my current serving (and I was just trying to keep up and finish everything in front of me!). After I'd finished eating, I noticed that various tables were being piled up in front of the room, and all the chairs being neatly arranged in pew-like fashion. Given that it's Sunday and everything except restaurants and cafes are closed, I thought possibly some church-type service was going to happen, but it's actually a group of locals getting together to enjoy beer while watching a football (soccer) game on a movie screen with a projector. I think I may have to imbibe some beer myself!
(I asked about taking a photo of the group arranged in front of the screen, but some people may have been uncomfortable about this, so I've just posted a photo of the big screen). Fun!
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