After a day and most of a night of packing and repacking, cleaning the house, and then throwing a few more last-minute possible necessities into one of the duffel bags hoping that it wouldn’t exceed the 50 pound weight limit, our journey to Ethiopia began. Our flights from Detroit to Chicago, and then from Chicago to Washington DC were fairly uneventful. We entertained ourselves during our layover in Chicago by watching a group of high school students en route to Zurich for a summer program who could have easily been the cast of a teen movie. Our favorite to watch was the “hot guy” who had two pretty girls hanging all over him and was clearly enjoying the attention. Later, on the flight, we had a brief conversation with a flight attendant who was annoyed because “we’re trying to prepare for landing, the seat belt sign is on, and there’s this kid who’s trying to impress these two girls by standing up to adjust their air vents, so I had to yell at him to sit down.” We knew exactly who she was talking about.
Once we arrived in Washington DC, we parted ways from our teen movie friends to begin our Ethiopian Airlines adventure. Due to a misunderstanding in Detroit, we weren’t sure if our bags had been checked all the way through to Addis Ababa or not, so we went to the baggage claim area to try to find out. When our bags did not appear, we checked a nearby computer, which was not very useful, but gave us some hope that we would have our luggage when we arrived in Addis the next day. We then went in search of the Ethiopian Airlines ticket counter, to check in and get our boarding passes. We passed by the various American and European based airline counters, all with people standing in orderly lines, respecting the tape mark on the floor that keeps those in line within a respectable distance of the counter and those trying to check in. Not so at Ethiopian Airlines. The small area in front of the ticket counter was packed with people who didn’t seem too concerned with lines or tape marks or anything else that could possibly create any sense of order. And each of them had at least four or five giant suitcases piled anywhere where there was room. While we were waiting, a representative from Delta came to inform the Ethiopian Airlines staff that they had a bunch of bags for the flight going out that night, and could they please send someone to come get them. The nearest Ethiopian Airlines employee proceeded to jump onto the conveyor belt behind him, ride along to the other end of the counter, jump off and start chatting with another employee. This worried us a little bit, although when we finally picked our way to the front of the line, we were assured that our bags would make it onto the flight. Not entirely convinced, we received our boarding passes, and headed off to find our gate.
The flight from DC to Addis confirmed our suspicions that Ethiopian Airlines is not quite like the other airlines that we have been accustomed to flying. Ethiopian Airlines has its own musical theme. This is a little 4-minute instrumental piece that plays over and over and over during boarding and take off, during the one-hour refueling stop in Rome, and during the landings. Needless to say, by the end of the flight it was stuck in both of our heads, and we looked forward to not having to listen to it again until the flight home. We were also not prepared for how difficult it would be to sleep on the plane. Our flight left at 8pm, and we were told that dinner would be served. We expected take off, then dinner, then some time to sleep. This was not the case. We took off, finally on our way to Addis Ababa, and then three hours later, at 11pm, dinner was served. We would have taken advantage of those three hours to sleep, but having not eaten since noon, we were very hungry and did not want to risk missing dinner. After dinner, the lights were turned off for a couple hours, and people generally quieted down. We got a couple hours of sleep during this time, and then were awoken by the lights turning on, and an announcement that breakfast would be served before we arrived to refuel in Rome. The refueling stop took one hour, and after we took off for the rest of the trip to Addis, it was a party on the plane the rest of the way.
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