Old Harar has well preserved town gates and it is good idea to see them one by one, to enjoy the colorful crowd to see the life. to photograph the vendors, kids going to the school and patient donkeys with loads of the firewood on the back. Old Harar is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage and has a lot to offer, but I must say it is still a dirty jewel. Sandy streets, piles of garbage, beggars and hemeless people sleeping just on the ground, even in the main alleys.
There is a museum (30 birr entry fee), a new, but permanently closed cultural centre. From the terraces of the centre you will have possibly the best view of the old and new Harar. Near the Shoa Gate there is a big fruit and vegetable market where I am buying tomatoes, paying 40 birr per kilo – like one dollar. Local beer in the shaddy bars cost only 20 birr per half litre (and you have to drink a lot to avoid dehydration! 🙂 In the evenings at 7 pm locals offer to the tourists hyenas feeding spectacle. It costs 200 birr=5$ plus transport. You can have a pic with a hyena… Sorry, I do not like hyenas, I prefer pictures with the local people!
Today it is the time to say goodbye to historic Harar – after Lalibela probably the most interesting town in Ethiopia… But clean it up, please!
