The cheapest way(s) to spend at least 3 or 4 days in Addis Ababa?
 

Greetings:

I am in Khartoum, Sudan now, but I have to travel by plane to Addis Ababa for a visa run. Basically, I have travel to and stay in Addis Ababa for at least 3 or 4 days before I can go back to Khartoum with a new entry document. I have never been to Addis Ababa or even Ethiopia before so I have some questions for this Forum about my trip so that it is as uneventful as possible.a) When I arrive in Addis Ababa, I will not have an ATM card so can I easily buy the local currency at the airport? Any tips on this by the way. I figure when I first get there, I will exchange 100 USD for the local currency. I am only hopefully staying 3 or 4 days so is this a good idea? After that, I figure I would, if necessary, buy the local currency at a local bank. However, is this logical and workable?b) When I am in Addis Ababa, I will be staying in a hotel unless someone has a better suggestion. Please note that I don’t have a credit card so Air BNB is definitely out for me. I don’t want to stay in a 5 Star hotel (I am simply a poor teacher and due to currency restrictions now in place in Khartoum when you are leaving from the airport, I can’t arrive with very much money), but I also don’t want to stay in the cheapest if it doesn’t have character or is not run by nice people. I want to deal with nice people because while I am Addis Ababa, I will be waiting for my visa to arrive by email and then I want someone at the front desk to print it for me. I would definitely like to stay in a nice place with free wifi and which isn’t too expensive. Finally, I would like to stay in a place easy to get to from the airport. If not walking distance from the airport, at least a place near a landmark that every taxi driver in Addis Ababa would know. Finally, why am I posting these questions on this Forum and not doing the research myself? Well, I definitely want local knowledge and also for the summer at least, I have very limited access to the Internet so I can’t waste any time when I am on the Internet. That’s it for now and I look forward to reading the great advice/information you give me.