DonQui cannot quite make his mind up about Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s sprawling capital city.

At first sight it appears dusty, somewhat ramshackle and plagued by choking traffic and the devil-may-care drivers which are the curse so many modern African cities. On the latter point DonQui feels bound to say that the traffic congestion is not nearly as bad as in other major East African cities, such as Nairobi or Dar Es Salaam.

It would be surprising if the capital of one of Africa’s oldest civilisations did not have some things of interest. Scratching beneath the surface, DonQui finds some of it.

Visiting the National Museum he meets Lucy — one of humankind’s earliest ancestors. It is not the best laid out museum in the world and DonQui does not linger but he feels it is well worth the trip. He also enjoys a short visit to the Ethnological museum which tells the story of the Ethiopian people.

Most interesting of all is Holy Trinity Cathedral which is the last resting place of the Emperor Haile Selassie.

It is also the last resting place of Sylvia Pankhurst — suffragette, turned communist, turned anti-facist who became a great supporter of Ethiopian resistance to the Italians in the 1930s.

DonQui had hoped to make it out into the countryside but the UN issued a warning of political violence in the surrounding districts. Their advice to DonQui was to stay in the city and so he does..

All the locals he meets are friendly, outgoing and full of life — not least the wedding party he comes across.

Their joie de vive is infectious.

Would DonQui recommend a trip to Addis Ababa? No, not really. The city is worth a day or two on a stop over to somewhere else but probably not a trip in itself. He hopes that if he visits again he will have the chance to get out of the city and see a bit of the country.