Sunday Rush Hour

Late Sunday morning I ventured out to both the National Museum and Ethnological Museum. Afterwards, I decided to drop by Piazza and see if I could buy some coffee beans from Tomoca Coffee and also another Ethiopian jebena coffee pot. When I was ready to head back to the guesthouse, it was about 5pm. I tried to catch a minibus taxi and waited near an intersection where I saw a number of them stopping. However, they were either too full or seemed to be going in a different direction, so I decided to hike over the hill and stop at the Hilton Hotel to hit the ATM machine there. The walk was a little further than I had suspected, so when I was done at the Hilton I tried to catch a regular taxi, but all of the ones that passed appeared to be occupied. I walked down another hill down to Meskal Square, which is basically in the center of town. There, I stopped by a refreshment stand, paid 3 birr (27¢) for a lukewarm 7-Up and downed it.
I had already walked a few kilometers from Piazza, crisscrossing through town, up and down the slopping landscape. Now it was past 6pm and the traffic, both auto and pedestrian, seemed heavier than ever. I approached a crowd of people standing on a street corner trying to catch a minibus taxi; when one would stop, people would hustle as quickly as possible to the sliding door to try to get a seat. However, since each vehicle only had enough room for one or two more people, it seemed that the crowd was merely growing and I resigned myself to the fact that I'd either have to beat some old woman to the seat or keep walking. I trudged another 10 minutes before I could flag a taxi, jumped inside and asked him to take me to Rwanda Street, thankful to finally be able to rest my legs.