LA, Dubai, Addis Ababa day 1

We left LA on December 16th and flew Emirates, via Dubai into Addis landing December 18th. We landed mid-afternoon in Dubai and had grand plans to take a taxi tour of Dubai before eating and going to bed. Yup, that didn't happen. Emirates was lovely - comfy seats, great food and service, nice planes. Despite that just the flying time along with not sleeping well on planes (except John,) we arrived in Dubai really tired. Taking the shuttle to the complementary hotel was very easy and no hassle, but at that point we wanted to check in, eat dinner, shower and bed. The hotel was perfectly fine. The room clean and fairly basic. The walk from the front desks to the elevators were rather like walking down a school corridor or dormitory though. We got up around 5am to eat breakfast and to catch our flight to Addis. A note here about Dubai airport. It's very white and new. I thought Heathrow was busy until I went to Dubai and was amazed at how busy it was at all times of day we traveled. The area between gates was lined with Duty Free shops. One for alcohol, one for make-up, one for fragrances, one for cigarettes etc etc. And just an amazing amount of people. Visiting the womens' bathroom was really interesting. It was like an international world visit in one room: women in traditional Arabian dress - covered from head to toe in black but often with their large beautiful eyes heavily lined in kohl to show them off, women from different parts of Africa in traditional, interesting outfits made of lovely fabrics, women from India dressed in stunning sari's. It was so interesting I didn't mind the wait!!!! When the gate opens for your flight from Dubai you go through x-ray for a second time to wait in another lounge for your flight. Emirates flights have 2 cameras you can follow on your personal tv monitor. One is in the front of the plane - great for take off and landing, the other shows beneath the belly of the plane. This was really interesting flying to Addis because you could see the countryside that you were traveling over. Between the mountain ranges were a lot of farms seemingly quite close into the city. It was an absolutely surreal experience finally being on that last leg flying into Addis. This was a trip that we'd been looking forward and imagined taking since we started this adoption journey, one that we'd grown increasingly excited to take since we'd seen our girls at referral, and one that seemed so elusive waiting for a court date. Now we were on our last leg there.

Our first sight of Addis was a shell of a white plane on the side of the runway. A little disconcerting and I was glad to have seen it after we landed! When you go down the escalators/stairs to immigration there will be no sign for it so it might be hard to remember, but this is where you should look to your left to find a small office with a very small sign above it where you get your visa! After we got the visas, the Bean and I got in line for immigration while John changed money at the bank which was a time saver. After immigration we got our stuff x-rayed again then it was outside! Abey met us outside loaded up our bags. The airport seemed to be on a hill overlooking the city. My first impression was how nice the surroundings were from there, and that the air was not bad like I had imagined it might be. Now keep in mind when I mention the air that we do live in LA! Everything is relative! We seemed to be on Bole Rd really quickly. One of the other sights that we saw right away was a building being constructed, maybe 10 storeys high, and the scaffolding was wooden tree poles lashed together so it was crooked and in some places pulled out quite a distance from the building. I found it fascinating and it was a sight that was repeated in many places around the city that we saw day in and day out around the city as there was so much construction going on. I was amazed at the amount of traffic but more about this later. We dropped our bags at Bejoe and headed out for lunch. We really wanted to make the most of our time in Addis so wanted to hit the ground running. We had a list of places we wanted to go to to either visit or shop at from other blogs talking about their travel experiences and also the things that Gladney families usually did and I was really glad about that. With some of the in-country staff back in the States for Christmas, and Belay dealing with an Embassy glitch for some families that were already in Addis too, we were really glad we could be independent and rely on our own stuff to do with the help of our driver. Abey drove for us on this first day, but Solomon was our driver from then on. We ate lunch with Abey at 'Texas Rodeo Ranch' which did look like a little Texas island in Addis, but we had tibbs for lunch at Abeys recommendation and they were good! After lunch Abey wanted John to try a macchiato (I'm the weird Brit who doesn't drink tea or coffee,) and the Bean finagled a chocolate cake while at La Parisienne. I have to say of the cakes we tried that week this one was my favorite, though Emma thought Bilos was a tad better. Our chocolate connoisseur! We picked up water and berere from a supermarket and for those of you that stay in country for embassy and miss chocolate they had great English chocolate for sale there. Oh the Joy!!!!! After changing some more money we asked Abey to take us to buy some souvenirs. I'm not sure where we ended up but it was a bit of a shock for just landing a few hours before. There were a row of shops, only one which we shopped at, but there were children trying to sell us gum etc outside the store. Inside the store ladies were fun and very nice. We definitely had to haggle, which again was a little exhausting on day one, but we ended up with some nice scarves, wall pictures for the Bean, rag dolls for the girls and a few other odds and ends. The drive home took us past the Hilton and he Sheraton, but with very humble, poor neighborhoods in their shadows. This is one of many dichotomies that we saw each and everyday here in Addis. So many juxtapositions all around. For us that became the defining theme of how to sum up Addis in brief. The new, modern glass building surrounded by wooden, primitive scaffolding. Large, plush hotels with these basic homes surrounding them. So many more to describe in the days to come. One thing that did surprise me as we drove around was how similar, actually the same, the vegetation was here and in SoCal: palm trees, poinsettia trees, ecinacea, dahlias etc. The weather was a lovely temperature during the day, but WOW, can you say COLD at night. I mean COLD. I tend to be chilly, but I wore long pants, two t-shirts, and fleece sweatshirt and socks and really didn't want to get out of bed in the morning! I brought by Ugg slippers, thinking it was a bit of an extra that I didn't really need and I'm SO glad I had them! I'll be packing flannels and long underwear next time! As the evening fell there was a lovely smell of firewood burning. It's one of my favorite smells back home because I associate it with fireplaces and nippy weather. Here though it's the smell of wood burning as people try to stay warm and cook food. Food for thought. I will also always remember the sounds of dogs barking at night through most of the night, and starting about 5am the call to prayer which I loved to hear. There was something exotic, but soothing about it. This is where you might want to think about packing some ear-plugs and that tylenol pm without the tylenol! Without it I woke up at 4am, but when I took it both in Addis and back in LA it really helped getting onto the right time zone. I'm hoping after I finish writing about our trip to write a packing list that I used compiled from others blogs and help from other families that traveled before we did.