Fred marking the start of Ramadan by getting inside a bottle of beer

Originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Yes, indeed, Ramadan DID start yesterday, as I mentioned in my badly spelt blog made quickly last night.

It is not easy to see but Fred is standing inside this bottle of beer, which also serve as doors to the bar!

He, and I can say we, did not stop there because it turned out to be our last evening in Harar, so also our last evening in the bar of the Baleynah hotel, with its bottles of Harar beer for sale for 30 eurocents. Monique was there for dinner (each of us ordering the delicious and HOT spaghetti bolognese) and we later joined up with Mike and Lorraine who had been down to Dire Dawa for dinner. And, also two German Swiss men who enjoyed the opportinity of asking three Brits what they thought of Tony Blair, when not monopolising Fred's timer being their funny German!
Needless to say, the evening went on for a long while and there were very many bottles for the boys to clear up afterwards. Only pity was that Bokhane, our ever friendly smiling waiter had his day-off.

So, by the time we got back to the hotel among the hyenas, there was less than four hours before the alarm clock would wake us up. Fortunately, we would have the whole day to sleep off the effects of too much Harar beer, perched/squahed/crammed into the exteremely SLOW bus to Nazret (12 hours for 400 kms on what was an excpetionally good road). Problem this time was not the road but the bus, an old one from Italy, maybe even from the colonial days - not quite but so it seemed.