Day 1 – From Newcastle to Addis – Will and Jake

We all met in Newcastle international airport, a little nervous but very excited, where we said goodbye to our parents and entered the airport. After a year of planning it had finally begun – we were off to Africa. Through to the departures via security without any major problems (apart from Lucy and Rachel’s mishap with the yellow fever certificates, which we now have!) We also bumped into Rebecca Bewick, Erin Taylor and Rebecca Savage in the waiting departures area which all students were thoroughly happy with. We were then called to board the plane at about 12:30 and take off commenced at 13:30. Once we boarded the plane there was a very wide range of film choices and the service on the plane and comfortable was fantastic.

We then arrived at Dubai, where all the clocks where Rolex roughly the size of a dinner plate, and walked through miles and miles of shops and it took a total of 2 hours to go from one of a terminal to another and there are three terminals and then Matthew Whitfield suddenly remembered he left his sweatshirt on the plane but we soon recovered it (I bet his mam, Jane and dad, David are glad about that). We set up a base camp at some chairs in the airport and found out that with a long wait we got a free meal passes from Emirates and everyone chose which restaurant they went to in the airport. Some people managed to catch the end of the world cup 3rd round play off. Then the 10 hour wait. Even though the UAE is luxurious we do not recommended marble floor as beds. Finally after 10 hours we boarded our second flight where some people managed to sleep and others just watched more movies. After a total of 11 hours of flying and a 10 hour wait we finally arrived only to have to then get through security and exchange money which took another hour.

Waiting in the car park was Bizrat, a local tourist guide who Richard has known for years, he took us through Addis which was absolutely breath taking. The sights smells and general aura of the city is sublime, everyone is friendly waving and shouting hello, we eventually reached the Yonas Hotel where we were finaly about to relax.

After a good wash and a quick orientation off Richard which lasted the length of a torrential downpour (no jokes the streets were pretty much a mud river) we ventured into Addis on foot looking for a restaurant called the Zebra Grill which we soon found out had been knocked down a few months ago due to the new railway. We walked further on and finally found a lovely grill called the Road Runner, which was suffering a power outage due to the weather, nevertheless it was all smiles and laughs with fantastic food and a chilli sauce which blew your head off, seriously Jalapeños are a tiny little tingle compered to this.

After the food, everyone agreed they were tired and we picked their way through the damp streets, with full stomachs and an even fuller sense of happiness.

Enter the world cup final; all the lads came downstairs after inviting the women down to which they politely refused due to tiredness, we slowly started succumbing to tired which Matthew Whitfield suddenly found the most fantastic drink; the Double Espresso at an astronomical price of 30p which could have shot us to Mars if we weren’t rooted to the game, then we were onto the Fanta and Pepsi which cost 33p for a 300ml bottle! The difference in taste is so large its unbelievable. The game: we all put 1 birr (3p) into a glass – pot for the winner of a game – the holder of the pot when one team scored. Every time the ball went out of play the pot was passed on to the next person, and the pot slowly accumulated to 89 Birr. This continued until the 113th minute when Mario Gotze scored and yet again Matthew Whitfield struck lucky when he was the holder of the glass at the time (so there you go Jane and David he’s not doing too bad!) after jumping with joy and a lot of cheering we all waited until the Germans lifted the World Cup and then we hit the hay, welcoming an uninterrupted sleep which we were also allowed a lie in, thanks Richard!

Everyone arrived safely after a very long journey.