July 9th (Continued)

We got back to the Riviera at about noon... We didn't want to waste a second in Ethiopia and not fill it in with sights to see, people to talk to, things to learn... (However, if we could have we would have spent every single second at HH with little M LOVING on her ♥) We called Tsegaw to have him come get us and give us a little tour around Addis for the rest of the day.

He got to the Riviera at about 1:00 and we headed near the Post Office. Erik was looking DESPERATELY for an Ethiopian Map.  We found a kid selling them there.  He wanted Tsegaw to be able to highlight where we have been... North and South of Addis.  While we were there I purchased a painting of the Last Supper (LOVE IT), picked up a couple traditional dresses for little M and bought a few silver crosses. :)

We also stopped and purchased some MAZE (this is like corn on the cob cooked over charcoal) from a woman sitting out in the street. Tsegaw taught us how to eat it... and we all shared a FUN snack together.

Then we headed up the Entoto Mountain, a windy steep road took us to the very top... along the way we passed a woman carrying such a HUGE bundle of timber! I couldn't believe it!

Seriously! 
AMAZING!
The strength and drive it takes for some of these people to survive.

We continued up the road, passing so many people and children walking up this GIANT mountain.  Once we got to the top - It would have been an outstanding view of Addis Ababa but there was a SERIOUS cloud cover... it was just a hazy day - but we could totally tell on a good day this view would have been spectacular!

Once we were at the top we visited St. Mary's Church and took a tour through the Palace of King Minilik the Second.  

This is a picture of the palace...

This is our guide (I forgot his name. darn.) and Tsegaw outside of the palace.

I met one of the Nun's while walking around...

...Then we headed back into town and stopped off at the National Museum (we didn't go inside to check it out) But, Tsegaw told us about these BIG HUGE TURTLES that are on the grounds there... I LOVE TURTLES! 

Yaaaaaaaaaaaa, it looks like TURTLE TORTURE, I know!!! Oh MY! Tsegaw is SO funny! Even the guard said people (probably crazy Forengi (sp?) - what the Ethiopians call white Americans - it is NOT derogatory - they LIKE us!!! :)) come and stand on the turtles ALL the time to get their picture taken!!! EEEEEEKS! ha ha ha! I totally felt weird about it! But, we chalked that one up to another one of Ethiopia's FUN finds!!

*Disclaimer - no animals were injured in the process of capturing these pictures! (I promise) :)

In the same area as the National Museum and the Terrific Turtle Sanctuary :) there was a restaurant called Lucy's Bones (I think that was the name of it) - They were doing a little construction there and so we decided to sit in this TOTALLY cool Gazebo/Hut thing! It was very authentic looking... As soooooon as we sat down Tsegaw recognized an ETHIOPIAN MOVIE STAR!!!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaah! I LOVE IT!!! We instantly turned into the TOTAL FAN CLUB!  His name is Daniel Tegezu. He is an actor who has done 9 movies and stars in local television program in Addis... Some of his movies were Hiroshima, Gemena, Janderabaw!!!!  

Here we are with the MOVIE Star himself!!!!  :)

We even got his phone number, email, said he would 'friend' us on Facebook and told Tsegaw he would give him free admission to a show!!! 
HOW COOL IS THAT!!?? :)

Got back to our dinner of Beef Tibs, some veggies and Kitfo.  I think we had PERMANENT smiles on during the entire dinner!

ALL of us thought seeing Daniel was PRETTY DARN AWESOME! :)

YUM!

After our FUN dinner we got back in Tsegaw's van and headed to a part of Addis called Brune to have some coffee at Kaldi's before we retire for the night... On our way there we did see a street vendor selling roasted barley, sunflower seeds, flax seed and maybe another kind of nut or seed... We purchased some from him and added some M&M's to it and made a little Ethiopian trail mix! It was DELISH!!! :)

This section of town seemed much more middle-upper class, there were a lot of shops, people were dressed REALLY nice and the night life was Hopp'n!  Right before we got to Kaldi's Tsegaw saw his wife and mother in law walking!! We stopped and Erik and I had an opportunity to meet them! It was GREAT! 

They were out so his MIL could make some phone calls to her children in the U.S. SO glad we got the opportunity to meet them!

Went into Kaldi's - It had a LOOK and FEEL like Starbucks! CRAZY!

Of course the coffee was delish, the company was fantastic and it was such a GREAT end to a TOTALLY AMAZING DAY!  

Meeting our little girl!!!! YAY! ♥ YAY! ♥ YAY!

...and seeing, experiencing, talking to people from where she is from!

Oh the stories I will have to share with her! CAN'T WAIT!!! :)