Saturday, January 28, 2006
The historical city of Gondar
We didn’t spend a great deal of time in Gondar. Apart from the afternoon tour of the Palace much of our time was preparing for or cleaning up from the trek. Our hotel (another in the Ghion chain) was perched on top of the hill just on the edge of town. It was a great spot with fabulous views. Both times we stayed there (it was the night both before an after our trek) the guests were of great interest. The first time we were there, there were meetings between the Foreign Ministers of Ethiopia and Sudan in the hotel. This meant that we could not eat in the main dining room (and nor did we get the wonderful looking Injera that was provided for them) and were relegated to the corridor between the reception and the bar for our meals! And whilst we were having our evening meal, the ministers were sitting in the bar area right against our table… so much for getting us out of the way!
The second time we stayed at Gondar, there was a wedding party at the hotel. They arrived precisely at the time we got off our bus, tired from a long drive and grubby (to say the least) from 10 days without a shower and trekking in the dust. This wedding seemed to be a society wedding. The dresses of both the guests and the bridal party were exquisite. As the bridal party arrived, before they were allowed out of the car the guests formed a circle around the car and were singing and dancing around it for at least 15 minutes. Then they got out of the car and all went out to the terrace of the hotel and continued with the singing and dancing. By 730pm, after we had washed and found some clean clothes (heaven!) and started our dinner, the party was over and all was quiet again.
As for the palace, well I don’t remember a lot of the history, but a few bits sunk in. They started to uild the palace in the 1600s and there was a lot of Portuguese influence. The buildings look quite European. Each successive Emporer built a new castle in the grounds of the palace and a couple of them have been quite well preserved. As we were walking through the grounds, hundreds of birds of prey were continually circling above our heads – mostly Black Kites, but there were Vultures too.
The second time we stayed at Gondar, there was a wedding party at the hotel. They arrived precisely at the time we got off our bus, tired from a long drive and grubby (to say the least) from 10 days without a shower and trekking in the dust. This wedding seemed to be a society wedding. The dresses of both the guests and the bridal party were exquisite. As the bridal party arrived, before they were allowed out of the car the guests formed a circle around the car and were singing and dancing around it for at least 15 minutes. Then they got out of the car and all went out to the terrace of the hotel and continued with the singing and dancing. By 730pm, after we had washed and found some clean clothes (heaven!) and started our dinner, the party was over and all was quiet again.
As for the palace, well I don’t remember a lot of the history, but a few bits sunk in. They started to uild the palace in the 1600s and there was a lot of Portuguese influence. The buildings look quite European. Each successive Emporer built a new castle in the grounds of the palace and a couple of them have been quite well preserved. As we were walking through the grounds, hundreds of birds of prey were continually circling above our heads – mostly Black Kites, but there were Vultures too.
// posted by rachelle @ 4:11 PM 
