It took about 4 hours by minibus to get from Debark to Gondar. Jon was spat on by the passenger in front of him who was aiming out the window, but missed. I had spent the trip wondering what was bumping into my legs, however, I did not have enough room to check. When we arrived and the bus began to clear, I discovered it was a live chicken. Cheryl had to move seats about 3 times and ended up next to a puking child. Steph appeared to be in a fairly uneventful, but squished seat. She was likely frustrated to have no control over opening and closing the windows of the minibus. Despite the heat, Ethiopians love to ride with the windows closed.

The main highlight of a visit to Gondar, established in the 1600s, is exploring the various castles and palaces in the stone-walled enclosure known as Fasil Ghebbi. Because of this UNESCO site, Gonder is known as the Camelot of Africa.

Before we could play the part of your typical tourist, we had a few tasks to complete. Luckily Steph’s friend had recommended a great hotel called Haz, so accommodations was covered. We all had to get laundry done. Jon and I had to find baking soda to draw out the kerosene spilled on our things in the Simiens and find an Ethio Telecom office to get our sim cards fixed.

After the frustration of trying to get things done in Debark we thought this would be a struggle. To our surprise, we found a great grocery store next to our lunch spot with large bags of baking soda for sale and we even splurged for a bottle of Ethiopian Rift Valley Red Wine to have in our room. Cheryl and Steph went off with our clothing to find a better deal for laundry than what our hotel was offering. Jon and I went to the Telecom office to sort out of malfunctioning sim cards and we met back up with the girls for “the laundry report”.

After trying a number of places that were more dry cleaners than laundry places, they connected with a tout who led them to a small home behind the bus station. Our laundry was dumped out and picked through in front of a sizable audience in the living room. Steph told them the laundry did not have to be done for that day, but could wait for the next evening. After considering the pile they quoted the girls 900 Birr (about $36 Canadian). Appalled, Steph and Cheryl began to repack the clothing, not even bothering to negotiate. Then the women said that if they did not need it the same day (which they already knew we didn’t) they could do it for 300 Birr ($12). Satisfied with the illogical price drop, they left the laundry for cleaning.

We returned to the hotel for a much-needed nap. Well us girls napped while Jon covered our kerosene-soaked items with baking soda in the bathroom, hoping that at no point hotel staff would come in and wonder what all the white powder was. With all tasks complete, we wandered out for dinner and had our first taste of tibs, flash-fried meat mixed with onions and peppers, washed down with cold Ethiopian draught beer.

On day 2 in Gondar, we pushed through a thick crowd lining the streets and praying. It turned out that it was St. George’s Day (they LOVE St. George in Ethiopia) and everyone was on holiday.

We hired an excellent guide at the enclosure from the official guiding association and he took us through the various palaces and castles of the different kings. Apparently, no one likes a hand-me-down palace, so each generation of king built his own palace in the same enclosure. After lunch, we walked uphill to the church of Debre Berhan Selassie, famous for its beautiful fresco paintings.

That evening we all went together to pick up the laundry. The four of us were instructed to sit in the small living room with flashing lights while a number of men sat around drinking beer and chewing on Khat, a mildly stimulating leaf that is chewed in social settings. They had clearly taken advantage of the holiday and had been at it all day. It was an awkward scene and we were so relieved to get our bags of laundry that we did not bother to check that everything was there before leaving. Naturally, when we got back to the hotel, we discovered that we were all missing shirts, socks and pants. This was particularly bad for Steph whose wardrobe was limited in the first place. We decided to deal with it in the morning and cracked open the bottle of Ethiopian wine, which was actually better than I had anticipated it to be.

We went down to the laundry house first thing in the morning, wondering if we would see people walking around in our clothing or selling them on the streets. Thankfully it was only the women at the house this time. We used google translate to explain what we were missing and they found our clothing easily. They apologetically handed them back indicating they had just missed an entire line when packing them up. We walked through the streets feeling rather victorious and packed our bags for the trip south to Bahir Dar.