Back to Addis

I had booked my trip to Dire Dawa at the last minute, so I hadn't been
surprised that the seats were limited and some flights were full. That
meant that I had time to kill on Friday until my 5:20pm flight back to
Addis. Arriving in Dire Dawa around 2pm, however, I had spent a night in
Dire Dawa a few days before and gone to the two restaurants suggested in
my guide book, checked out some of the bars downtown and stayed in their
premiere hotel. So there seemed little to do other than hang out at a
local cafe, resigning myself that the town was not particularly meant
for tourists. After almost an hour there, I decided I might as well head
to the airport, arriving about two and a half hours before my scheduled
flight. When I checked in, however, they told me that there was an
earlier flight I could get on if there were still open seats and if I
waited for 20 minutes then maybe I could take it. I was glad to have the
opportunity to leave earlier but was surprised to hear that there was an
earlier flight, since the travel agent I'd booked with said there was
only a morning and an evening flight. Well, twenty minutes later I was
lucky that there was still a seat open and, when they printed out my
boarding pass, the time stamp was for 11:30am. I asked about this and
they said it was the morning flight but it had been delayed, and as a
result, the 5:20 flight was being delayed an hour too. I promptly
disregarded any need for further explanation, clutched my boarding pass
for the 4 o'clock departure and headed towards the tarmac.