I did not know what to expect, when touching ground in Bole Airport one late night just before Easter. In my research about Addis Ababa, I found my self constantly loosing track. Lured away by myths and fairy tales.



I plunged into the myth about The Child, Menelik the First, the result of a hot date between King Solomon and The Queen of Sheba, who would become King of Kings, the first emperor of Abyssinia. Did he really possess a second Ark of The Covenant - the ultimate weapon?



Three thousand years later, I wasted time with the French poet Arthur Rimbaud in Harar. He led me to rock diva Patti Smith, and her profound wish to move in his footsteps. Did she ever go to Ethiopia?



In 1896, I found myself with Menelik the Second at The Battle of Adwa. Fighting and beating the Italian army. Sneaking around the mountains in the dark, with big-eyed warriors. Was that one of Rimbaud’s contraband rifles I held in my hand?



However, I was moving in on Addis Ababa. Together with Menelik's wife Empress Taitu, I went down from Entoto Mountain, while he was away on business elsewhere. She was sick and tired of the constant cold winds. No more firewood, no more water. She named the place on the plains below The New Flower - Addis Ababa.



I was getting close, when I checked in at her hotel, that night in 2010, a hundred years later. When I woke up, I was at her balcony, looking downhill at Addis. No longer a simple tented military camp, but a bustling metropolis with several million souls. All that in a century?



I went to the churches for a little peace with God. I went to Mercato, the biggest market in Africa, and bought nothing. I went to the Italian cafés and had an endless stream of heavenly macchiatos. I went to a reggae concert and found Bob Marleys twin brother on stage. I drove with thousands of stinky old taxicabs, looking out of the window like a child coming to town.



Now, this is what I saw!