First, congratulations to everyone who got the year thing! Ethiopia does indeed follow the ancient coptic calendar which is closely linked to their religion even though Ethiopian Orthodox Chiristians are not coptic orthodox - you will have to read about that on your own if interested. It is a very long story.
Also, for Tric - the churches in Lalibela were 'hewn' from the stone at God's command to King Lalibela - you will not find a non-religious, 'more rational??' explanation anywhere - theologians, historians and archelogists have spent entire careers trying to figure it out . It's part of what makes Ethiopia to incredibly interesting! And yes, ferangi's are Ethiopian for gringos.

Now for our trip here - With the help of our guide, Gashaw, in Lalibela, we bought our bus ticket for Bahir Dar and 'reserved' our seats - front row. This cost a total of 50 birr (12.5 birr = 1US) versus 4000 birr for a private mini bus. We like traveling 'with the people' but this is not very common for tourists to do. The bus was scheduled to leave at 6am but we had to be there at 5am even with reserved seats. The reason for this became clear very quickly as we drove to the bus station, there were a lot of ghostly looking figures - people with their white shawls wrapped over thier heads and shoulders - heading to the bus station.  When we got there the bus was full except for our seats - I should say, the seats were all filled. Between 5-6am, many more people boarded and then the bus was really full.  Somehow word got to the bus that there was an insector down the road and they made a bunch of people get off . After we left, pretty close to 6am, many of these people had made it down the road beyond the check point and got back on the bus.  Ethiopians are not used to traveling in vehicles so they get motion sick very easily, thus, the front row seat was EXTRA good because we had air flowing from the door window. Ethiopians don't like wind so they keep all the windows closed up tight - airlessness and motion sickness are not a good combination.

The bus took us to Gashema a small town about 2 hours from Lalibela and then we had to change buses for Bahir Dar.   We were immediately approached by many options one of which was a very nice, clean beer truck and after some negotiating of price we hopped aboard. This was faster, somewhat more comfortable - me, Rich, the driver and his side kick sharing the front seat but we had a great view through the big front window and at least some of the time the windows were opened. The road is under construction. A Chinese funded project to pave the road which will make travel easier for many but also faster and so many Ethiopians travel by foot because they are farmers and they make their way to market each week by foot . It is a little worrisome to me but you can't deny them the progress either. I just wish it was more about the people and a lot less about the money. It was indeed a beer truck and at one 'pit' stop, Rich teasingly asked if they were going to serve beer. We started off again, and sure enough, two St. George's beer were handed to us. No bottle opener - no problem (Nancy - you may not want to read this part) - the driver opened them with his teeth! We laughed a lot and Rich took pictures which we will share if and when we get access to faster connections. So far only dial up and it is very dodgy. So, after about about 6 hours we arrived at a town just outside of Bahir Dar and the truck pulled into a gas station. They told us we would have to take a taxi from there to BD and they not only flagged it down for us but they gave us cab fare!!! (so far we have found Ethiopians to be very honest and honorable). So we hopped into the mini-van taxi which in a round about way (picking up and dropping off others along the way) we finally got to BD . Once again, we were quickly surrounded by offers for tuk-tuks (3 wheeled motorized taxis) and the best talker won - Abebe. He is 17 and in 10th grade and speaks English very well. He loaded us into a tuk-tuk and we started looking for a place to stay. We tried 4 places on our list - rooms were either gone or we didn't like how they looked and in the end we ended up at the place Abebe recommended anyway. It is a pension, small hotel and our first night we stayed in a room with toilets and showers down the hall but today we 'upgraded' to a room with a private bath - same price - 90 birr. When traveling in 3rd world price is not an indication of quality or cleanliness so you have to look at the rooms before you sign up. We have found this to be the case pretty much everywhere we have travelled.
It was a 'long, hard journey' yesterday so today we are laying low. Figuring out our next moves and, of course, catching up on the blog.
I loved seeing so many messages - keep them coming and I will try to answer questions as well. I am not sure about photos...