19/02/18, restday in Bahir Dar

Another restday, this time in beautifull Bahir Dar at the southern shore of lake Tana. Some of us already took a boat out yesterday to see the hippos and today another group took a boat out to see the famous lake Tana monasteries. As I did not have anything better to do I joined the group 🙂

We gathered in the lobby of the hotel at 830 and then the boat took us past the hippos again 🙂 I like hippos. I think I could be a good hippo. Being fat and standing the water all day… So I didn’t mind saying hi again 🙂 And they showed themselves pretty clearly 🙂

After that we continued to the monastery on the Zeghie peninsula on the other side of the lake. After we arrived we took a walk through the forest along many stalls selling local arts and crafts, to find the main circular church of the retreat. Like the trinity church in Gondar its interior was decorated with many colorfull murals. We hanged around a bit and listened to the guide who explained what the murals depicted. And after that it was time to leave again and take the boat back. It was just a very relaxed morning.

We got back to the hotel at around 0130 and after that it was time for me to shower, to pack my bags and to have a quick lunch in order to be able to leave for the airport at 300. Unfortunately i’m flying back to the Netherlands tonight to sign the mortgage papers on my new house tomorrow afternoon. Unfortunately the paperwork on the mortgage did not come through before I left for Cairo in January, causing me to return for it now. Hopefully it’s needless to say that I’m not too happy about it because it’s poluting, a waste of resources and you would imagine that these kind of administrative things could be done digitally nowadays. Probably I’m just a bit naive about these things. But unfortunately there is no other way, so i just gotta do what needs to be done and suck it up…

Hopefully I’ll arive in Amsterdam tomorrow morning. I’ll sign the papers in the afternoon and fly back to Addis Ababa in the evening. Then the next morning I’ll take a car and drive north to hopefully find the group again. If Ethiopian Airlines doesn’t do any weird things like cancelling or delaying flights I should be okay. At least I’ll have good story to tell if i’m able to pull it off 🙂 I’d rather just stayed in Africa though. I’m really sorry world…