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Syrian refugees begging in the streets of Addis
It was a shocking sight, one that we have not seen before and that goes against all our established ideas: white people begging in the streets of a city in Africa. It may not be politically correct to...
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1960s architecture in Addis
For readers interested in Modernist architecture in Addis from the 1960s, I thought I would share here a story I wrote earlier this year for Selamta, the in-flight magazine of Ethiopian airlines....
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Farewell to Addis
This blog has been particularly silent in the past few months for a very good reason: I have returned to live in Europe and have therefore been extremely busy with the move. I will no longer be able to...
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New Dashen opened
As I got a few queries on this blog about the new Dashen, I can confirm that it has re-opened a few months ago in a new location in Kasanchis very close to the Swedish school. The menu is the same with...
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Dashen Demolished
It happened. After months of uncertainty, the decision fell for Dashen restaurant to close down. The whole process didn’t take long, we had a goodbye lunch on a Sunday some three weeks ago and by the...
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Helicopter in Gheralta
A new form of tourism is all of a sudden developing in Ethiopia: the helicopter ride. Last month, I went back to the Gheralta lodge, one of my favourite retreats in northern Tigray, and to my great...
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New lodge in Bale Mountains opens up area to more visitors
The Bale Mountains National Park is famous in Ethiopia for its unique biodiversity, being the only remaining afroalpine environment in the whole of Africa and the home of the rare Ethiopian wolf, a...
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Northern Light in Addis
What a great opportunity to have Olafur Eliasson’s work exhibited in Addis for the first time ever! The Danish artist Eliasson needs no introduction, he is a very established international artist,...
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The Armenians of Addis
People who have lived in Addis for a while know that the Armenians have a strong presence in the city, even if today very few of them remain in Ethiopia. The Armenian church in Piassa is still a...
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A city without parks
Addis used to be a green city full of lush gardens and flowers, with tall palm trees, thriving avocado trees, forever-purple jacaranda trees, deep red and fuchsia bongainvilles, aloe vera plants,...
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Lunch at Taitu hotel
Finally some good news, the Taitu hotel is not as damaged by the fire as we previously thought. I went back there for lunch today, the restaurant, practically untouched, has reopened; they continue to...
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Timkat or the Ethiopian celebration of Epiphany
Addis is still wearing its festive colours after the Timkat celebrations which took place on Monday. All the streets of the capital were decorated with yellow, red and green (the Ethiopian colours)...
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London, Paris, New-York…..Addis Ababa Fashion Show
I attended for the first time the annual African Mosaique fashion show organised on Thursday night at the Sheraton hotel and featuring Ethiopian designers as well as guest designers from other African...
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First Boutique hotel in Ethiopia
To celebrate Genna, or the Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas on 7th January, we went to a new boutique hotel, the first one of its kind, which just opened in Adama (Nazret), only an hour from Addis with the...
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loss of Taitu hotel, loss of a great heritage for Ethiopia
I was very sad this morning to see Hotel Taitu burnt down after the damaging fire which partly destroyed it on Sunday. I am not the only one; many people in Addis, young and old, are mourning the loss...
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Broken arm
Last week, my nine year old son broke his arm. In many parts of the World, it is not a big deal as the medical set up is there to provide emergency treatment so parents wouldn’t think twice about it....
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The struggle of renovating a public paediatric hospital
Medical care is a serious problem in Ethiopia, with few facilities available and a shortage of highly professional staff. Foreigners living in Addis are evacuated through a procedure called Medvac as...
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New road eating into gardens
I went to a friend’s house the other morning for a yoga session we have set up in our area. Yoga classes and qualified teachers are hard to find in Addis so we need to organise ourselves to practice...
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New Express Way
Nowhere else, a new road would draw so much attention but in Ethiopia. The new highway which just opened a couple of weeks ago is getting us all excited and understandably so. This is the first ever...
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The tragedy of refugees
Ethiopia is currently having to deal with a huge number of refugees, estimated at around 650,000 people coming across the border from Somalia, Eritrea and of course South Sudan. With the current ethnic...
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