Manchester City's dream of becoming the first team in history to claim the three titles in back-to-back years falls to pieces in penalty shootout loss
I begin my trip up in the country's north-western highlands, in the city of Bahir Dar. An early morning cruise on the glassy Lake Tana, a prime source of River Nile, takes us to this beautiful city. During the cruise, I find it tough to put my camera down. The lake's shores are speckled with salubrious sites, including forested islands hiding 16th century monasteries. Lake Tana is also dammed by a lava barrier over which the Blue Nile pours, dropping precipitously 138 feet into a gorge to form the spectacular Tissisat Falls. Pristine!
The capital city of Addis Ababa (meaning New Flower), founded in 1887 by Emperor Menelik II, is the pivot around which Ethiopia seems to move. The sprawling metro of over nine million people is peppered with nightclubs, restaurants, sprawling bazaars and malls... Whirring cement mixers and metallic cranes dotting its skyline reinforce the city's quest for modernisation.
Despite its unflattering images of starvation and famine, one of the highlights of a visit to Ethiopia is its cuisine. Dishes are nuanced with fruits, cinnamon, cloves and herbs (berbere, mitmita). Spicy wots (stews), vegetarian curries and lentils, all placed on the spongy bread injera, a staple of Ethiopian cuisine, constitute an everyday meal. The bread is astonishingly versatile, partnering well with everything from bland lentils to searing hot curries. At a restaurant, I nearly ignored the injera at first, mistaking it for a rolled up hand towel! But once I tasted it, I was hooked and sought it out every day. Apparently, injera is acquiring a global cult following among even Hollywood A-listers, thanks to the gluten-free teff flour it is crafted from.
There is also has an entrenched coffee culture. Legend has it the coffee bean was discovered centuries ago by a shepherd in northern Ethiopia. Since then, Ethiopians have been taking their coffee very seriously indeed. Not for them the impersonal instant variety. They roast their coffee by hand at home and brew it with gravitas. It's a real treat to watch a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony that begins with the chocolate-coloured beans being roasted by hand, ground by mortar and pestle, and then brewed in a traditional clay coffee pot known as the jebena.
wknd@khaleejtimes.com
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