The Road Less Travelled-Blog (1): Eritrea

in #travel6 years ago (edited)

I have been lucky enough to travel to some countries which not a lot of tourists visit, mainly for my work. I thought it would be a good idea to share these experiences with you guys. Let's start with Eritrea; some other countries that are on my list to be included in this series are: North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Somalia, South Sudan, Iraq and perhaps a few others.

So Eritrea then; you might know that it's close to Ethiopia, that there is / has been a war, that there is a dictatorial regime, and that there are many refugees trying to flee the country. No politics here in this blog though, just a few photos and a bit of history to give you an impression: it is a beautiful, diverse and mountainous country (cold in winter in Asmara!).

20091229_0865.jpg

The Italians were in Eritrea in the late 1800's. Asmara, the capital, at 2,300 meters altitude, still oozes a lot of Italian atmosphere. People are going for a 'passeggiata' in the afternoon, drink their coffee, and there is still a lot of Italian-influenced architecture.

20091213_Asmara cathedral_0244.jpg
the cathedral of Asmara

The Italians developed the Eritrean Railway line from Asmara to Massawa in 1888; the railway was later dismantled by the British in World War II. Parts of the railway are still running, with steam (not steem) trains, and I took the train as well. I remember the traditional coffee ceremony on the train (great coffee), I also remember that we had a delay, as the train derailed a few times.

20091220_Steam train Asmara_0570.jpg

The British then expelled the Italians in the 1941 Battle of Keren, and took over the administration of the country. In the many wars the country has experienced, many buildings got destroyed and never repaired, like this one in Massawa on the coast, the old "Banco d'Italia".

20100101_massawa_0982.jpg

Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia in 1950, and in the '60s a war was started between Eritrea and Ethiopia, which has still not been fully solved as we speak.

Screen Shot 2018-06-14 at 16.17.09.png

20100102_massawa_0919.jpg

Let us hope there will be an agreeable peace treaty soon, now that the Ethiopian Government seems willing to discuss (see my post: https://steemit.com/travel/@ultrabiker/the-new-ethiopia).

photos: myself-ie-ish


Click here for my other posts

Cycling
MTB back garden ride
The toughest MTB race on earth
Crocodile providing MTB support
Top 10 MTB stage races in the World
I beat the Magalies Monster!
What to carry on your bike
Bhutan - Tour of the Dragon - 268 km MTB race
Plugging your tires
My bike, Salsa Cutthroat

Winecraft - Wine Barrel Projects
Bench --- Lounger --- Table --- Wine glass holder

Language
Language affects the way we think
Words change the Colours we see

Sort:  

Embarrassingly i had never heard of the country till today. Thanks for the quick travel lesson. Looking forward to the other countries!

Before you post about the others, i would suggest checking out and using the #travelfeed tag.

@twowheeledmonkey - really, you had never heard of it before? Well then at least this post was useful in some way! Thanks for the #travelfeed tag, I will use it from now on.

Congratulations! Your high quality-travel content caught our attention and has earned you a partial upvote. We love your hard work and hope to encourage you to continue to publish strong travel-related content. Thank you for using #travelfeed

Transparent-Discord-Travel.png

Thank you @travelfeed, much appreciated, I do hope indeed to continue to publish more travel-related content for #travelfeed!

You got a 2.65% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @ultrabiker!

Want to promote your posts too? Check out the Steem Bot Tracker website for more info. If you would like to support the development of @postpromoter and the bot tracker please vote for @yabapmatt for witness!

Resteemed by @resteembot! Good Luck!
Check @resteembot's introduction post or the other great posts I already resteemed.

Great, thank you for resteeming!

We hosted the Eritrea Cross Country runners when they were down here for the African Cross Country Champs...they are starting to make an impression now a days in distance running !!

Yes, they are... Don't forget the professional cyclists: Teklehaimanot, Kudus, Eyob, etc. Dimension data has 4 Eritrean cyclists. They all train going up the hill from Massawa to Asmara, a huge hill!

Yes, they are... Don't forget the professional cyclists: Teklehaimanot, Kudus, Eyob, etc. Dimension data has 4 Eritrean cyclists. They all train going up the hill from Massawa to Asmara, a huge hill!

Congratulations, Your Post Has Been Added To The Steemit Worldmap!
Author link: http://steemitworldmap.com?author=ultrabiker
Post link: http://steemitworldmap.com?post=the-road-less-travelled-blog-1-eritrea


Want to have your post on the map too?

  • Go to Steemitworldmap
  • Click the code slider at the bottom
  • Click on the map where your post should be (zoom in if needed)
  • Copy and paste the generated code in your post
  • Congrats, your post is now on the map!

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.17
TRX 0.15
JST 0.028
BTC 61940.19
ETH 2433.78
USDT 1.00
SBD 2.50