Asmara: Honestly, It's Complicated (and Cold)
okay, so asmara. it’s…a lot. i’m elara, by the way. i tour with a pretty mid-level indie folk band, and honestly, finding places with decent sound checks and a vibe is harder than it looks. this place is…different. it’s high. like, really high. 2,325 meters high, which is apparently the sixth-highest capital in the world? my lungs are still adjusting. i just checked and it's 14 degrees celsius, feels like 13, and honestly, i’m wearing everything i packed. hope you’re into that kind of chill.
we were routed here because of a festival - some sort of cultural exchange thing. the venue is…well, it’s a building. a very old building. the acoustics are questionable, but the architecture is insane. seriously, it’s all this art deco stuff left over from the italian colonial period. it’s a unesco world heritage site now, which explains why everything feels so…preserved. it’s kinda eerie, actually. you can see why people are fascinated by it, though. check out the reviews on TripAdvisor, people seem to really dig the buildings.
finding coffee that isn’t…an experience…has been a challenge. i’m used to portland levels of coffee snobbery, and this is…not that. i heard that there’s a decent place near the cinema, but i haven’t braved it yet. the food is…filling. lots of injera, which is good, but i’m starting to crave a salad. or anything green, really. i’ve been trying to learn a few phrases in tigrinya, but it’s not going well. my pronunciation is apparently atrocious.
apparently, if you get bored, Keren and Massawa are just a hop, skip, and a descent from the plateau. massawa sounds tempting - a port city on the red sea? i could use some heat. someone told me the seafood there is amazing, but also that the drive is…intense. i’m not sure my tour van can handle intense. i’ve been looking at some info on the Eritrean Ministry of Tourism website, but it’s a little sparse.
it’s a strange city, asmara. beautiful, in a crumbling, forgotten-glory kind of way. but also…isolated. it feels like time moves differently here. i’m not sure if that’s the altitude, the history, or just me being tired from constant travel. i’m trying to soak it in, find the music in the silence, but it’s hard. i’m starting to think i need a vacation from my vacation. you can find more about Eritrea's history here: https://www.britannica.com/place/Eritrea. and if you're planning a trip, maybe check out https://www.lonelyplanet.com/eritrea for some practical advice. honestly, bring a coat.
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