It's 1993, it's 7 o'clock in the middle of the day, there are thirteen months in the calendar, and New Year's is in September: Time warp or Ethiopia? Welcome to Addis Ababa.

A little Amharic phrase reference to help you get around:

Cheers - Ishee

OK - Ishee

Sounds Good - Ishee

Thank-you - Ishee

Please - Ishee

I agree - Ishee

Bye - Ishee

Traditional Ethiopian Diet: Injera, Injera, Injera...if you're not crazy about Injera (grey, thin, flat, spongy, fermented pancake-like bread) or you're just tired of it, luckily the Italians left behind Pasta & Machiatto's that are consistently good.

Addis greeted us with a nice, cool downpour that was a welcome relief from the Middle East heat. After aclimatizing to the altitude (2400m), we ventured out to book our first bus trip to the north and were so shocked at the site of the bus station, that we returned empty-handed not too sure what to do next.

That bus station was our first reminder of what it's like travelling in a country that has no transport infrastructure set-up for tourists. Although, not our first choice of transport, our crazy bus rides ended up being some of our most memorable cultural experiences of our time in Ethiopia.

Imagine for a moment, if you will, showing up at the bus station at 5a to a mob of seat-savers and future seat-mates all scrambling to get on your bus. Luckily, your new best friend/seat-saver is skinny, fast, and 'has nothing in his pockets to slow him down'.

The melee continues on the bus with your long, white legs not fitting in the seats and the aisle jammed to the point of elbows in the back of your head as you ponder the next 36 hours in this un-Godly circumstance...well that's the way it started and it's hard to believe now that we warmed right up to the whole procedure, break-downs and all. In the end, it was our new-found friends always willing to try out their English ('wishy-washy?') or share with us their local mild narcotic chew, Chat, that got us through.

Using Addis as our base, we managed to make it north to see the source of the Blue Nile, east to feed the wild hyenas with the Hyena Man, and south to enjoy the lakes and the lush surroundings en route to the Kenyan border.

We were constantly amazed at how green the country is considering most envision Ethiopia as a land of drought and famine. For the most part, villagers were curious about their white visitors. We often felt lucky to be seen as a novelty even though we were frequently greeted with the pleasant, heart-warming: "You! You! Give me money!!"

To add to our arsenal of transport experiences, our trip through Kenya was to be on-top of a cattle truck, but that's a whole other story...