Rest day! A day off from driving spent in Addis. In the morning we walked up to the National Museum for a bit of Ethiopian history and culture including the 'Lucy' exhibit. Eowyn particularly liked the animal paintings, screaming from enthusiasm: "LOOK AT THAT! Zebra! Hippo! Good Girl!!!" With the latter referring to herself.
Addis is a busy, dusty city but friendly – reminds us of a big Kigali. Easy to walk around and not much hassle. Lots of people begging although not relentlessly and concentrations of beggers seem to increase in proximity to the church. Lots of people also give money we noticed. For lunch we ended up back at the Erkata hotel for more shiro and tibs where Eowyn had her first try at the injera and shiro! She hadn't been to keen on the Ethiopian food so far and luckily we had been able to find spaghetti all along the way but today she rolled up her sleeves and went for it. Over lunchtime, Niels and Stanley went to the Michell Cott Landrover Garage for the correct gearbox mounting and a spare shock. On arrival we were heartedly welcomed and served by five old professionals. These guys reminded us of the Buena Vista Social Club: old but still with lots of spice. They wanted to give us directions to a spare parts shop, but the one guy couldn't write and delegated it to his colleague who couldn't see well. We all ended up standing outside in the sun discussing and laughing around the map in the lonely planet (in the local Amharic language). No need to say that we never managed to find the place. In the afternoon we went in search of a 'well known' Ethiopian contemporary art gallery. Once again – the map/street sign problem left us driving in circles. It left us driving in circles in proximity of the US Embassy which we noticed (by the 4th pass) we had the guards on their feet. We aborted the search for the gallery to avoid drawing 'friendly fire' and ended up at the Entoto Market looking through the fabric stalls. A couple of scarves later we were set up for an early dinner and early to bed in anticipation of an early morning start on Thursday.