"Capital of Africa" - Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa is a kind of African Brussels, because here is the main office of the local EU counterpart - the African Union. There is a monument to Pushkin and even Tsar Cannon, Churchill Street and Niger Street, VAZ-2101 and ancient Peugeot models go by taxi. This city is located at an altitude of more than 2000 meters and therefore is considered one of the largest and highest mountain capitals in the world.

“The capital of Ethiopia stands out for its beautifully groomed streets, numerous parks and squares that shelter the inhabitants of the city and its guests under the shadow in the hot heat. Addis Ababa is perfect for families and kids with fun to ride on attractions. The main direction of the tourism industry Ethiopian capital is considered ecological tourism ", - is written on one of the tourist sites. Amazing I wonder if there was a person who wrote these lines in the capital of Ethiopia, or whether it was just a slightly overdoing copywriter.

Take a walk in Addis Ababa and see ...

Ethiopian Tsar Cannon among cacti and palm trees. Majestically, unusual, unbanal.

However, in the next 10 days, we quite often noticed an irresistible craving for the strange and non-standard among the Ethiopians.

Although the Tsar Cannon is quite interesting, I can’t say anything. Even the wooden carriage, and not familiar to the monuments, is cast from concrete.

Unlike many countries in Africa, Ethiopia has never been a colonial state. Only an insignificant period of its history, from 1936 to 1941, was under Italian occupation.

From those 5 years in Addis Ababa, the Piazza area, the Mercato market and a small number of buildings built in the Italian style remained. Now they usually have offices of banks or companies.

To say that the city far does not correspond to the description that I quoted at the very beginning on the tourist site is to say nothing. The streets of Addis Ababa are as far from cozy groomed streets as local villages are from villages in the Swiss Alps.

Although, in fairness, I must say that the capital is gradually developing. Most recently, a tram line was launched across the city with the most modern trams. In fact, this is a local overground metro, because the entire line is located above roads and highways and nowhere intersects with them.

Metropolitan Railway Station. With railways in Ethiopia, things are much worse than with a tram.

She is simply not here. It was, but ... was gone. Now the Chinese are rebuilding the local piece of iron again, planning to connect Addis Ababa with the capital of Djibouti. First of all, it is necessary for the transportation of goods to seaports. The country needs to somehow develop its export, because economically it is in a very, very poor condition.

Near the railway station there is a foot bridge over the former tracks. It leads into one of the many slum areas.

All that is up to the horizon is a slum inhabited by many thousands of people.

In total, about 3.5 million people live in Addis Ababa, a significant portion of whom live in similar areas.

Despite the fears of some comrades, we still decided to go to this area to see how the locals live ...

... and make me a new hairstyle in one of the trash hairdressers.

We decided to wash our hair in tea at a local cafe.

I am often asked how people feel about the fact that we photograph them while traveling.

I answer. They also photograph us constantly.

Interestingly, they posted these photos on Twitter with a comment like: "Crazy-whites wandered into the slums of Addis Ababa. I wonder if they will be able to remain unbroken?"

In fact, in the slums of tourists do not like.

One of the undoubted attractions of Addis Ababa is her taxi.

A significant portion of taxi cars in the Ethiopian capital of the VAZ brand. As a rule, the VAZ-2101 of various modifications. Sometimes there are 2102, 2105.

Addis, like any other African city, is a continuous market. They trade everything, horrible, and everywhere.

Often, the trading stalls look in a completely unique way, more like some kind of halabuds from the trash. You can buy any part of jalabuda.

In Ethiopia, I saw the most amazing use of mannequins at points of sale of clothing.

You look, what a creative!

Why does a person need a head? The boot is what matters)

The one who wrote about cozy, well-groomed streets on the same quoted site clearly did not see a lot of homeless, dirty, and foul-smelling people on these streets, perfect for a family vacation.

In general, everything is bad with work in Ethiopia. In Addis, although it is the capital, the situation is only slightly better than in the country.

A huge number of people can not (and sometimes do not want) to find work.

This is one of the reasons why they trade at every step with everything they hit ...

Often even children trade. And also with what they can. Sometimes even rotten fruit.

The usual picture in Addis Ababa - a woman carries some heavy load on the hump: a huge bundle of firewood, bricks, a bag of cement, a 20-liter canister of water, etc. The concept of "weaker sex" does not exist here. All are equal - a paradise for feminists.

In schools, colleges and universities, a mandatory uniform form. This is very noticeable in the middle of the day, when a mass of schoolchildren and students leave their educational institutions.

By the way, the shape is very different and very bright. I like it!

Female students.

Ethiopia is predominantly a Christian country, so there are many temples that are familiar to us.

People to a large extent in Addis Ababa and in the country as a whole are quite friendly and sociable. Of course, there were exceptions, as I described above. But basically, they treated the shooting normally, and just talked about it.

In the evening rush hours, Addis turns into a real anthill. The working day here almost everywhere ends at the same time, at 17.00, and hell begins on the streets and stops.

People stand in endless lines to their route.

Some who do not want to stand in line even resort to radical methods to get on the bus.

With the onset of darkness, the city is almost lost in darkness. There is no street lighting, there are very few neon signs, so being in the streets in such an atmosphere is very unusual. A little brighter in the cooler areas, as here the lights of rent-bars are invitingly burning.

One of the most evil areas of Addis Ababa is Chechen. There are many eat-up bars and mini-hotels with prostitutes.

I will not write about prostitutes. I can only say that without their attention you will not stay here. They will spud at every step, because white is money, and everyone needs money in this country ...