Clive Best

I arrived yesterday and am staying in a room at the Hilton. Today I went to sign the rental car agreement and buy some things, and then went for swim in the pool. The weather is sunny but not as hot as you would imagine. Addis is at 2400 meters, which is higher than Cervinia, so although the sun is very powerful, it never gets above 25 degrees and can get really quite cold at night. This place is full of people and I begin to realise that Addis is the diplomatic centre of Africa, and many people stay at the Hilton complex. I am still hoping to get one of their apartments, which are actually cheaper than the rooms and more private. If I am going to stay 6+6 weeks then I would also like to cook my own food, prepare breakfast etc. There is plenty of time to sort that out. However I managed to get an Ethiopian SIM card - but SMS seems to only work within Ethiopia. It even has 3G - but for some reason network connectivity doesn’t work. Meanwhile I will survive on very expensive Hotel broadband - which is not too bad.