Inside The "North Korea" of Africa 🇪🇷: How It Really Is (#174)

Salam and welcome to Eritrea one of the world's most difficult countries to visit some people refer to this country as the North Korea of Africa I would personally call it the Cuba of Africa but we can't just judge a country by its reputation just like China I'm more interested in the people than the government so let's go out and see what this country is really all about so when you take a trip to arria you have to stay in a hotel and one of the designated hotels the hotel that was chosen for me is the hotel asara Palace has this cool retro Italian Vibe atra used to be an Italian Colony weirdly got all the different cities of the world sure in the past there used to be like an actual knob that was going around the clocks here Lima Toronto San Francisco New York algers Car special little gold play for erray over there I'm told that this used to be the Intercontinental Hotel however erria has gone through some turbulent history over the past few decades and it's under different ownership now this thing right here says InterContinental World link got the old InterContinental broadband internet connection must be from the '90s so this is my Eritrean hotel room I don't know how much it costs because in order to come to erria I actually have to book like a group tour package in which I am the only member of the group basically to come to arrea you got to drop like ,000 on a group tour and you have to do it you don't have a choice because it's the tour operators that are going to get you the Visa here's a giant generator that's powering the entire Hotel okay so we are now in downtown asara on the busiest Avenue in the entire city doesn't look particularly busy to me but anyway these are literally my first impressions of AET tray how much these yeah how much 50 osara is a very sunny City thankfully I found some sunglasses which I don't wear often enough my God that is a really crowded bus right there apparently the bus has finally reach Max Capacity this says La Cinema Africa I guess back in like the 40s and 50s you would have had like an advertisement for different movies that would have been playing at the cinema now it's just empty very interesting very Italian 126 126 years 100 years old 126 years old 1899 oh yeah you got the year of the construction up there 1899 I love this this is this is like from uh the 1940s 1930s wow it's like going back in a time machine the spaghetti and pizza house which I stolen the logo of pizza Hood don't know if that's a good sign of quality here but this is about to be my first Italian food in AR tra okay they just told me that they actually don't have pizza at the pizza house right now they ran out so they tell me there's another uh pizza spot a few streets away let's go find that one okay here we have the Napoli Pizza here yeah it is it is okay you have great pizza here you sound very American New York I'm from Boston from Boston how long you live there with neighbors too long my friend I've been there almost 40 years now okay you're still coming back to the Homeland yes yes most certainly what's the best one uh which one tastes which one is the special here the Pizza Hut Pizza Hut ingredients why is it called Pizza Hut cuz you don't have Pizza Hut in ARR so you made one here okay I have a medium Pizza Hut medium was born here as well okay and now he's been there for 3 years in Boston okay now this year is's going to go to school here fifth grade so we go back and forth I want them to be and Americans same that's interesting what do you think is missing from America that you want them to get here friend I mean it cannot be a in America wow how old this building looks also how Italian it looks look like it could be a pizza caller in New York city so is this going to be as good as Pizza in Boston [Music] kind of bizarre they're playing like classic rock in the background never heard this in Africa before so that was interesting that gentleman that I was speaking with he actually gave me like a full history lesson of rraa very detailed comprehensive history lesson and uh I found that very interesting because up until now I had thought but once you leave erria you basically never come back his idea seem to be that erria is actually a very peaceful place there's almost no crime people are very respectful seems like it's pretty good place to raise your kids I mean if I don't know if you noticed but kids didn't have any cell phones or Wi-Fi to play around with it's like stepping back in time in this case stepping back in time to 1940s Italy I can't can't get over how Italian this place looks the cinema impero an old Italian Cinema guess it's been here since like the 20s 30s this is the uh old movie snack bar right here don't know why it's boarded up kind of smells like piss back here though just like the real Italy it's literally a silent film it's broken s oh it sounds broken how much is the ticket for the movies today tomorrow it's free it's free aome a it's free for everybody is but no sound there you go free movies for everybody I actually ended up flying into arria during a holiday week tomorrow is mcel the biggest holiday in both Ethiopia and erria that was one of the biggest holidays so I guess the city is even more quiet than normal this is your spot right here yeah okay sure I'll sit down here actually met this gentleman while I was walking around earlier yeah what do want think uh what do they have here don't what was your job when you worked with Americans and before I with American American B in here before long time ago okay now no American in here because all going away and now I'm here sit down alone because break my my feet okay but when the Americans were here what what job did you do no I don't have a job but before before I been work in the water in water uh waiter a waiter oh okay you serve food yeah oh I see long no no American here [Music] many oh the Americans did they leave in the '90s okay okay he just aboly got up and left noine no no machine no lights no lights oh no electricity so no coffee no tea it's okay your hi he that's okay I'll see you later yeah so that was an extremely aitran situation men trying to be really nice buy a random stranger of tea or coffee but there was just no electricity and they had no coffee H 10 I don't know what he's [Music] saying guess this would be like the Blockbuster of alala obviously there's no Netflix in [Music] AR so the way it works is you take a piece of paper you find the name of the movie that you want and then you write it on here and then you hand it over here and they'll give you a I think a disc interesting I don't understand this place it says it's an internet cafe and also an honorary Consulate of the Republic of Korea yeah says it right there I don't know what's going on in there just a bunch of people sitting around in the dark uh but yeah actually if I hav't mentioned already errans are not allowed to use the Internet only in certain public places like Wi-Fi cafes internet cafes in fact errea is one of the only countries in the world along with Cuba and North Korea where people can't just pop a SIM card into their phone and get mobile Wi-Fi in the late 1800s when the Italians decided to get in on the colonization game they came here to the Red Sea Coast and colonized Eritrea but this colony was a bit different from all the others in Africa Italy intended Eritrea to be a place where basically become a part of Italy many Italians moved here at its peak in the 1930s there were 50,000 Italians here this was meant to be more than a colony it was almost like the way that France treated Algeria that's why you have so much infrastructure built Italy went all out trying to create this into another Italian city an Italian city on the Red Sea of course A lot has happened since then the Italians were kicked out then the Ethiopians came in and then after several brutal Wars the Ethiopians were kicked out and then Atria became a weird uh Onan dictatorship and here we are today admittedly I think the Shrubbery needs to be cut but it's a nice little Plaza you don't usually see stuff like this in African cities these streets I assume were the former residential areas during the Italian colonization period it's a wild looking houses and here right behind this amazing old house it seems like the old backyard has been converted into tenaments small little homes that people are living in Mama down here okay okay right here okay Wonder this house old building it's old building building yeah Italian building Italian building yeah what year huh maybe 1930s I don't know the exactly time maybe maybe wow how many people live here now in house yeah six six people six f oh six families yeah six families one two four five six seven almost seven wow wonder before one wowow he's a governor of city oh okay the governor the governor of oh Colony oh I see he's one he's the one yeah and he this house his so before the Italian governor now six air train family yeah wow interesting yeah wow wow so at some point in the past the governor one of the Italian governors of the colony would stand out here look out into his yard things have changed quite a bit can you there m okay wow that was so interesting but my uh camera ran out of battery as soon as I walked into the house but yeah so the way I understood what the lady was saying I guess they took the house and then they subdivided it to multiple families sounds like a communist thing to do Mar Italiano Italiano Italiano AF afri okay that man may have been here when the Italians were this is one of the most famous landmarks in the city the Fiat talero building it was a gas station but still you got to admire that 1930s Art Deco Italian architecture good morning today is a special day it's mcll the most important holiday in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church also the Eritrean Orthodox Church don't get them confused oh man in Ethiopia today and this weekend they're having a massive party the clubs are going to be filled could have been there instead I chose to be in calm peaceful tightly controlled errea let's go see how they celebrate mcll the mesco square mesco mesco square y okay 7 what 70 70 yeah no that's too much why much why so much it should be 10 10 like we give we give [Music] 30 so we're picking up more passengers along the way this is how taxi work in there and everyone's supposed to only pay 10 knock okay thank you [Music] me put [Music] on I don't know why I'm speaking Spanish but almost like Italian okay can you least now I don't look like such a damn Heathen walking around during this holiday [Music] diplomatic where do I go huh I'm not Diplomat no not diplomatic tourist tourist [Music] yes okay go here or can I go there I don't know if I'm supposed to be a diplomat to be here but we're going just trying to act like I belong here [Music] we just set up chanting for like almost 2 hours now we're finally sitting [Music] down I don't know why but there's a separate drum circle performance going on at the same time as the MK Tommy Tommy yeah what's your name okay nice to meet you happy let's go there we [Applause] go okay that was interesting but very [Music] long and it's wild to think who might have been sitting in these chairs a 100 years ago [Music] okay sure yeah let's go [Music] hello the president of Ethiopia and the president of Eritrea we're now [Music] friends yeah go that seemed a little more exciting and fun than the military parades of North Korea told you the Cuba of Africa not the North Korea and here I am walking around asara at night without a care in the world one of the advantages of authoritarian dictatorships they're very safe because who knows what happened to the criminals I think the only other country in Africa that you could reliably do this is Rwanda and guess what Rwanda has in common with Eritrea here's one more interesting thing I don't know if you can see the sign in the darkness all it says is Ministry of Education but this was actually the headquarters of muscolini in Africa during World War II crazy stuff imagine most people walking past this building I have no idea so I've got one more full day in asara so I'm going to get back to the hotel get some sleep and I'm thinking tomorrow maybe we can go and check out the places that uh aren't on the tourist Trail what do you think yeah all right let's go get a taxi here we go name okay you okay okay certain things in arrea like this strange uh tank graveyard need a little permit on a piece of paper saying you're allowed to be here a very important part of eritrea's history is well basically being in constant conflict with Ethiopia at first Ethiopia tried to control erria then there were border conflicts and most recently erria was involved in the Tiga war in Northern Ethiopia from the 70s until the early 90s Ethiopia was controlled by a Communist Regime they were very very communist so the Soviet Union sent them weapons reinforcements and basically all of the military hardware that Ethiopia took into erria was Russian made my understanding is that the aat Tran just keep all these old battered Vehicles here as a testament to defeating Ethiopia so here strangely right in the middle of asara you have a giant junkyard of old Russian trucks and tanks it's as if we're on a battlefield in Ukraine or something like that and is actually pretty cool it's like the statue graveyard level in Golden Eye what's funny and also tragic that these very same tanks currently roaming across Ukraine right now you are American American yeah I love America you love America I but American but I love America oh that's cool have you been there H have you been there what you say have you been to America I like yeah okay I like but no Visa no passport you will go no go you no go you stay you stay in air you guys are you're making shoes yeah like like Las vas Los Angeles movie you seen them all movies movieo I can all the R movie Arn nice yeah Star Wars yeah Star Wars yeah I know the S yeah s okay he's working in Australia every night I can see USS movie Walter Walter is dead one Walter you know Walter Walter Breaking Bad yeah he's dead oh yeah Breaking Bad what say Walter White yeah okay breaking bed breaking bed yeah yeah yeah with the meth yeah in New Mexico Mexico yeah in okay dirty yeah okay I don't know if we're talking about the same I don't know what this area is coming up over here but it seems to be outside of the city limits of asara seems to be like a more regular neighborhood I a question is here Asar or outside Asar outside Asar yeah oh okay oh it's very windy and I'm stuck here in the outskirts about tomorrow I B myself why do I do this this is definitely not on the approved tourist Trail a Vera Trail baby you have cold no oh NOS sorry maybe small small one is 20 yeah really what is the name of this place okay how Isa good country fun country okay how do I go back to Asar it's like this way I follow the road yeah guessing uh foreigners are not a very common site around here they're already not a very common site anywhere in a but there's something weirdly very beautiful the way that these cacti grow on the ruins of This Old House and it's like a completely different world from the osar I saw the last two days ceter no no just Cathedral you know cathedral in okay you go this directly this way you can go by this way also oh okay I can go this way too yeah this way directly you finish this way yes and it's world this one yeah you get a good uh uh your English very good better than my TIG okay what is your name hanu hanu where are you from America America yes oh how do you speak you have friend in I I have friends intig in yeah oh good yeah yeah they speak T too oh okay thank you you're lovely byebye that lady came running after me I was worried she was like a government agent or something but she just really wanted to help me very surprised by the English levels here people that I wouldn't expect to speak English no English so cars and foot traffic seem to be going up the hill over here I guess that's what the lady was talking about let's get back over there okay so we're back to paveed roads and sidewalks so must be getting close to the city center it's very interesting there's Italians in that Cemetery they buried in that Cemetery got remember the Italians were here for some something like 80 years even after they were defeated by the British in World War II and then their colonial period ended in nraa they're Italian citizens that continue living here I guess they lived and died here we're back on the nice paved Treeline streets of the city center The Prestige part of asara the part that you're supposed to see so yeah all things considered though I got to say as a tourist airr is not bad I mean I'm not going to lie the lack of Wi-Fi is kind of annoying but maybe it's good to have a break from Wi-Fi once in a while just not good if you're a YouTuber but I've liked arrea I've liked the people they're very kind they're lovely and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the country in the next episode got to get my money's worth for this tour we got to go outside of asara and see the rest of Eric TR so yeah looking forward to that got to wake up at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow which never a big fan of but I'll do it so see you then ciao

Channel: Sabbatical

Views: 432,594

Keywords: sabbatical, polyglot, eritrea, asmara, eritrea vlog, meskel, italy, italy in africa, adventure, travel, travel vlog, documentary

Id: lAHumbL12Z8

Length: 32min 17sec (1937 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 31 2024