Ethiopian Time
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
With the money exchange incident behind me, the next thing to tackle in Ethiopia was understanding time. You see, Ethiopia doesn't follow standard GTM time. Instead of just being +3 hours ahead of GMT (which is what they are), they have their own time which is basically 6 hours behind "European time", as they like to call it.
So, if a bus is scheduled to leave at 6am European time, then it will leave at 12 Ethiopian time. This can get down right confusing if not for the fact that every Ethiopian can pretty much convert between the two times. However, it does force you to always ask which time format they are quoting you, because when they say a bus leaves at "11", they really mean at 5am in the morning, so you best not wake up late or you'll miss it.
Oh, and they also have a different calendar. One of Ethiopia's travel slogans is "Be 7 years younger!" and that's true because while the Western date is currently February 14, 2006 the Ethiopian date is February 7, 1998, which is really 6/7/1998 because the first month in Ethiopia (01) is September. I guess that means my 22nd birthday is going up in 9 days!
You can read more about it here: http://www.triotours.com/faq/et/calendar-and-clock.htm
Kenny
With the money exchange incident behind me, the next thing to tackle in Ethiopia was understanding time. You see, Ethiopia doesn't follow standard GTM time. Instead of just being +3 hours ahead of GMT (which is what they are), they have their own time which is basically 6 hours behind "European time", as they like to call it.
So, if a bus is scheduled to leave at 6am European time, then it will leave at 12 Ethiopian time. This can get down right confusing if not for the fact that every Ethiopian can pretty much convert between the two times. However, it does force you to always ask which time format they are quoting you, because when they say a bus leaves at "11", they really mean at 5am in the morning, so you best not wake up late or you'll miss it.
Oh, and they also have a different calendar. One of Ethiopia's travel slogans is "Be 7 years younger!" and that's true because while the Western date is currently February 14, 2006 the Ethiopian date is February 7, 1998, which is really 6/7/1998 because the first month in Ethiopia (01) is September. I guess that means my 22nd birthday is going up in 9 days!
You can read more about it here: http://www.triotours.com/faq/et/calendar-and-clock.htm
Kenny
posted by Kenny Carruthers at 2/14/2006 03:30:00 AM
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