28 July 2013: I am buying a bus ticket for the next day.
“Are you sure it’s for tomorrow?” I ask three times in a row, and a man is patiently nodding his head. He is smiling, can’t be the first time he’s explaining it to tourists.
I knew Ethiopia uses its own calendar, but I’ve never thought about the dates so I look down at my ticket where everything is written in amharic: 11 November, 2005, departure at 11.30.
“So we are leaving at 5.30?” I ask again, just in case, because I already know how differently Ethiopian time works. Some tourists learn about this difference only when then get to the station and find out their bus left many hours before.