Addis Ababa & Mount Entoto: Museums, Market, Local Lunch

4.97

(146 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

I’ll admit — I didn’t expect the air up on Mount Entoto to smell so sharp and clean. There’s this eucalyptus scent that hits you as you wind up the road out of Addis Ababa, windows down, city haze fading behind. Our guide Mesfin pointed out little houses tucked into the hillsides — he said some families have lived here for generations. We stopped at a viewpoint where the whole city kind of sprawls out below you. I tried to take a photo but it never really gets the feeling right. The wind was chilly even though it was sunny; I pulled my jacket tighter and just stood there for a minute.

We wandered through Menelik II’s old palace (I didn’t know he actually founded Addis Ababa from up here) and poked around Saint Mary’s church — women in white scarves lighting candles, that faint beeswax smell mixing with incense. Mesfin explained how eucalyptus trees were brought from Australia ages ago; now they’re everywhere. It’s funny how something foreign can become part of a place’s heartbeat.

The National Museum of Ethiopia was next — honestly, seeing Lucy was stranger than I thought it’d be. She’s so tiny behind the glass but somehow feels familiar? There are old tools and art too, but everyone crowds around her case. After that we drove back down into town and stopped at Shiro Meda market. It’s noisy and bright — sellers calling out prices in Amharic (I tried to bargain for a scarf and totally failed). The cotton clothes are soft; I kept running my fingers over them while Mesfin laughed at my attempts to say “thank you” properly.

Lunch was at this place called Addis Ababa Restaurant — red walls, murals everywhere. We ate doro wat with injera; it’s spicy and tangy and messy in a good way. There was this moment when everything just slowed down for a second: people talking over each other in Amharic, coffee roasting somewhere nearby, sunlight coming through the window. I still think about that view from Entoto though — it felt like standing on the edge of something big.