Part 1/1001 - L'Algérie

Salam & Salut from Algeria! Finally my first post from abroad! Why it took me so long? Because this country is a mystery to me - so hard to catch in simple words and full of contrasts! I will do my best to pass on and draw my impressions for you! But first, to get you into the right mood: While I'm writing this, I am sitting in the shadow of a little bedouin tent surrounded by palm trees, in a small oasis at the foot of the sand dunes, well protected from the strong afternoon sun, while listening to birds tweeting and the peaceful sound of buzzing insects and smelling green, fresh spring... 

Are you in the right mood? So, before taking you on the trip to this desert paradise, let's share some general impressions that I gained about this country!

Algeria - I didn't know much of this country before, but who of you does? 

I chose this destination because it's not the usual commercial tourism like you find in the neighboring countries. And as you know me, I like it exotic and the less tourists and the more authentic, the better! In fact, during the 8 days that I'm here, I only saw one tourist!! Why is that? Although the country has so much to offer - from historic palaces, mosques, beautiful architecture, diverse landscapes from sea, over mountains to desert, super delicious food, colorful traditions and a well preserved and rich culture - tourism sector is currently very little developed. 

Most touristic sites that I visited, did not have any English explanations or no explanations at all, were not renovated or even disrupted by ruins of an unfinished hotel complex from the 60ies. But therefore, you usually pay only around 1EUR entry - fair enough! People gave me different explanations for the under-development of the tourism sector: some are of the opinion that it's the intention of the government not to become a mass tourism countries like some of the North African neighbors in order to stay more authentic, some say that the government's focus is oil&gas and the military and they simply forgot about developing the tourism... I guess we won't really find out what is true.

Indeed military seems to play a big role here: Algeria is known to have the highest expenditure on military in whole Africa! After the history of French colonialization and the brutal and deadly war for independency, that's somehow understandable. You see military everywhere, even in the remotest places, for example when hiking on a little mountain! Even in the government you allegedly find a lot of military power; although it is officially a Republic.

In general, the heritage of the French is an ambiguous topic. On the one hand, some people proudly show their affection to French related things - like the language, cultural events, architecture. On the other hand, they don't miss any occasion to celebrate Algerian Martyrs, displaying to the highest possible extent the brutality of the French invadors. One useful heritage that the French left, is certainly the infrastructure, including train connections, highways, electricity - which the government maintained pretty well and even further extended during the last years. But the funny contrast is: Although you will find 4G internet even in remote desert areas, you will have a very hard time to pay with or withdraw money with credit cards anywhere - electronic payments is almost non existent!! Even in Iran (which underlies major sanctions), it is so much easier to pay with credit card! And exchanging money, is best done in a spooky, dark little backroom of a random mini market than in an official change office :D

The society itself, I found very diverse: from very religious to very western, you will see all kinds of people on the streets, wearing full veil only showing the eyes, or wearing a light, short summer dress. And so far, I did not realize any judgement against each other. Rather the opposite, it's a very natural and positive togetherness, strange people engaging into conversations with each other so easily, supporting and helping and taking care of each other. I'm having a hard time to understand how this goes along with strict social rules of marriage traditions, where people are not allowed to meet each other before getting married! Certainly the marriage traditions will vary largely between families, but I've been with traditional families where the girls were chatting 3 years with a guy via facebook and will eventually marry him without having ever met him - and at the same time involving into super open and vivid conversations with strange men on the street! And even though marriages are very expensive, huge bombastic parties - or especially because of that - I met many divorced couples! And again, even though divorced men are obliged to pay expensive child alimony - or especially because of that :)

Talking about children - as some of you certainly know, I am not a fan of children. But here, I loved each of them!! It's not because I'm in my fertile 30ieth ;) I believe it's the way they are raised. I observed that the relationship between the mum and the children is rather like a true friendship at eye level. Hence, the children are very independent, self-confident, responsible and calm. It happened to me several times, that a 6-8 years old child paid so much attention to reach me the water bottle over the table, once it noticed that my glass was empty, gave me some explanations in clear, slow and understandable Arabic (conciously for me!) about buildings along the street, asked serious questions about my culture and were prudent enough to realize when I was tired to offer me to go to bed. Apart from that I received tons of lovely hugs and kisses from them <3

Now, let's talk bout my adventures that impressed me most so far! 

When I arrived in Algiers, I was so lucky to be welcomed by my colleague Selma from BNP Paribas Algeria, that I have last met in 2018 during a seminar in Lisbon. Can you imagine? We met 5 years ago and she still remembers me and dedicates her time to pick me up from the airport, show me around, organize a SIM-card and arrange the currency exchange! 

lool, they are qll BNPP colleagues - except the petit ;)! How amazing!

BIG THANKS to Selma and to the amazing global network and joint spirit of BNP Paribas! 

During those first days, I was most notably amazed by the old city center of Algiers, the so called Casbah, which has the UNESCO world heritage status. While you find noble, colonial buildings in the style of Paris at the seaside, with boulevards of pretty avenues with rich, green trees; a few corners behind starts the wild, though romantic chaos - the Casbah! 

Built on the hills behind the seaside with pretty amazing views to the Mediterranean sea between the small alleys, it is a labyrinth of stairs, corners, courtyards, markets, palaces, alleys, ruins and squares, impacted by the architecture of the different rulers over the centuries. 

It used to be the hideaway for all kinds of underground organizations, especially for revolutionary forces during the war of independence, but it seems like the government currently manages to control the quarter so that it is save enough to stroll around during the day. During the walk, you will notice many collapsed buildings and ruins - unfortunately renovation works are not keeping up fast enough to save all of the precious houses. 

But imagine, what a huge effort it must be to renovate a whole quarter of a city, built on inaccessible hills without roads, with a high density of population and complicated ancient architecture and construction!! Fun fact: Due to its inaccessibility, the trash is collected by donkeys - cute, isn't it? :)

Ramadan - Intervall fasting & Yoga

When I joined a little guided tour through the Casbah, it resulted in a lovely, cozy evening surrounded by local families, taking all together the Iftar after the tour. During Ramadan, Iftar is the dinner to break the fast in the evening and I absolutely love it! 

To get the full experience, I joined Ramadan and started fasting with the locals. During the day, I wasn't eating or drinking and to my big surprise, it wasn't difficult at all after 2 days! Especially at the moment when Iftar starts, I felt a great togetherness, thankfulness and proudness before traditionally breaking the fast with a bite of a fresh date together with a joghurt drink. Back in Europe I could not imagine fasting the whole day long, but now I realized that probably most of us practiced already something quite similar, if you tried the currently trending intervall fasting! Just that in Ramadan it's much easier, since no one is eating, no restaurants are open and hence you are not tempted. Only, when you smell fresh baked bread as a preparation for Iftar, I almost wanted to raid the whole bakery! 

After Iftar, the whole night is about food!! 

- In the Casbah, together with the families, we set on the rooftop until in the early morning hours, drank some delicious arabic coffee with cinnamon and cardamom, enjoyed self-made sweets, listened to mystic fortune telling and danced to traditional music! People are so welcoming and warm and easily accessible - not just for me as a European, but also to each other! I really admire this way of treating each other in such a positive, open and respectful way. In my opinion, this is something totally missing in Europe.

- When I stayed with local families at home, all the time new dishes and sweets were served, or we went out to restaurants, where especially chocolate was very much en vogue. I call it the Nutella temples, since the main idea of the menu is chocolate :D

To complete my Ramadan experience, I decided that I want to make the praying experience! The first time I was curiouse about a beautiful mosque in the Casbah and was just about to look for the female entrance, when an old lady invited me to join her for the prayer. Half Arabic, half French, she showed me the religious ritual of washing before entering the female praying room. I found it very cozy, with thick carpets and a crowd of young and old women side on side, while separated from the men by a wooden fence. I did my best to follow the praying practice and all the women around were keen to teach me! Open the hands, bend forward, knee, touching the floor with the forehead, circulate your index finger and in the end greet the ones right and left of you - repeat. 

The second time, I went to the mosque with the mum and the child of my host - only Arabic this time! But I was already prepared :) And as my intention was to not raise too much attention in this local neighborhood, I wrapped myself in my beloved black Abbaya and my headscarf and tried to hide in the mass, copying exactly the same movements and behaviour like my surrounding. This time we were on the rooftop of the mosque, under the stars, overlooking the rooftops and facing some collapsing houses. I wouldn't say that I felt close to god, since I'm not a very religious person anyway, I rather felt very concentrated and after some time, the movements reminded me of Yoga (I hope I don't insult anyone with this, but it's my European way of association) - it felt very peaceful and meditating! It was a loooooong ritual! When it eventually ended, I was super proud of my authentic performance and thought I imitated the perfect local. But I couldn't have been more wrong! The other women started gathering around and congratulated me or asked curiously where I'm coming from :D I guess, I have to practice a bit more!

Seaside to mountains to desert

My itinerary: After enjoying panoramic views of the mediterranean sea in Algiers and Oran, I continued travelling by train to Tlemcen, a small city in the green hills, around two hours inland from the sea and later on to a tiny oasis in the desert called Taghit. While the first train from Algiers to Oran was super modern, with seat reservation and AC, the second one to Tlemcen was a bit more rustic, but still very comfortable to travel and very punctual! The ticket for the 2h ride to Tlemcen was less than 2EUR! 

The third route, I managed by various shared taxis that handed me over to the next one until I arrived, as if by magic, in the little oasis. Incredible how that worked out!

While Oran is known as the most open minded city of Algeria, its alleys and buildings reflect a morbid and wild romantic, though abandoned picture. I understood that most houses are not privately owned and hence not being renovated.

 While the government is busy playing with the military budget, the houses are aging and collapsing, unless a private person is willing to buy and renovate or build a new one. Still it needs to be noted, that I saw many modern buildings that the government provided to the people - I can understand that it's much cheaper and faster to construct a new building from scratch than costly renovating the old, historic buildings with stucco and old material! 

The same applies to the touristic sites - When visiting the old Bey's palace, most buildings were about to collapse, just few areas were under renovation. And just in the middle of the whole historic site, the remarkable ruins of an abandoned, unfinished, huge hotel complex gave a "glamorous" appearance!

 Anyway, even if the sites are not super nicely renovated, also the least creative person gets an impressive imagination of how the Bey used to live in a palace with wonderful artwork decorating the walls inbetween of heavenly gardens and fountains! When I saw the special hall that he dedicated to his favourite concubine, I started dreaming about 1001 nights!! Through a garden with flowers, palm trees, fountains and singing birds, you enter a richly decorated dome full of mosaik and moorish frescoes, with huge, beautifully shaped windows and surrounded by a balcony with a stunning view overlooking the city! Forget about Austria, I want to be an Arabian princess as my next profession....

Although the city of Tlemcen is a bit off the usual track, here I found the buildings much more intact, while they reminded me of an Andalusian village, including the historical sites.

 My focus was the stunning, colourful nature! We were hiking through coniferous forests with beautiful flowery gardens, enjoying deep blue green waterfalls and I was impressed by a huuuuuuuge cave (700m), which was used during the war of independence to hide and even escape to close-by Morocco.

8 hours later, we are finally arriving in the Oasis of Taghit! 

Here we are, in the pleasant beduine tent, as I promised in the beginning of this post :) Yesterday evening I was overwhelmed by the magic of the desert! After the host invited me for Iftar under the stars next to the fire place (it gets quite chilly at night!!), we climbed the nearby dune to see the desert at night and for some star gazing.

Coming from the chilly oasis and entering the soft and warm sand of the dunes, the sand was reflecting the light of the moon and of the nearby village and the dunes looked majestic in front of the dark sky full of stars. In the sand you can see the waves of the wind and traces of the scarabs, which come to life during night. It's a miracle of nature, how those little beatles can survive in the endless sand!! While climbing up, we were listening the prayer calls that were blowing towards us with the wind from the village, creating a magical and surreal atmosphere... After half an hour approximately, we reach the summit of the dune and - oh wow - a whole sea of light-reflecting dunes with black shadows reveals itself to our feet! And now imagine the same in the golden morning sun... yes that's from another world!! 

A shiny red ball of fire rising behind the dunes, slowly climbing the sky, heating up the air and bringing the little oasis to life! What an enchanting spectacle!! On the way back to bed (I definitely needed some sleep after the short night!) we were strolling through the ruins of the old mud village in the center of the oasis. Unfortunately most of the houses in the labyrinth of cool, dark, tight and twisted alleys collapsed already. However, in the moment when you least expect it, a freshly painted wooden door appears, behind which still people are living in the middle of the almost destroyed ruins! 

What a shame to see all the histories, all the homes, vanishing. But again, with a little fantasy, you can bring this rustic place back to life and imagine vivid markets, busy merchants, wonderfully painted walls and doors and a nice view to the palm grove through the windows of the surrounding fort wall!

And here in this little green Oasis in front of the majestic red dunes, Sheherazade ends the story for today. Stay day dreaming of this marvelous place and keep some desert princess feeling for the rest of the week :)

Hugs and kisses, سلام وحب

Petra بترا

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