A couple of months back, I FINALLY got to go to the Algerian desert! Travel within the country is difficult because of security concerns, but our security folks determined that one particular area right on the edge of the Sahara (a oasis town called Taghit) was OK, so off we went! That’s right, I have now been to the freakin’ Sahara desert.

But since Taghit is a teeny tiny town with no airport, we had fly into Bechar, where there is an airport (more of a large hall with high ceilings sitting next to a tarmac where airplanes stop by every now and then than an airport, but it served its purpose). We also had to stay the night in Bechar in what is hands down the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed in (and this includes hostels). The photos don’t really do it justice. If you imagine a strong smell of sewage when looking at them, you’ll get a better sense:

Also the sheet wasn’t quite the right size, so sleeping on the gross mattress was an inevitability. Also it was freezing cold. So yeah. Not much sleep that night.

Anyway. We survived the night and loaded into a rickety bus the next morning for our trek to the Sahara, complete with our police escort (as the Algieran government requires of us when traveling outside of the capital). I’m not in the photo because I was taking the picture. Our bus driver took one with me in it, but he decided not to include the bus in his.

After about 90 minutes on the road, we arrived at our hotel in Taghit. There were enough of us from the Embassy to take over the entire place, which was smack on the edge of the desert. Check out the view from the roof of the hotel:

The hotel was a massive improvement from the night before; the rooms were basic but had tons of character and, most importantly, no sewage smell. Also, did I mention the view of the sand dunes???

After a bit of negotiation with the hotel manager (negotiation with him would be a key challenge of the trip, and probably the only negative to the weekend), we rode camels. It was awesome. And when we stopped for a photo op, two of them did some kissing. Kissing camels are really cute.

We then went on a walk through the town of Taghit – walking through the entire place at a leisurely stroll too about 15 minutes. It’s a small place.

During our 2+ days in the desert, we had a dedicated tour guide, Kadr, who told us his family had lived in Taghit for 1000 years. Not totally sure if he was being honest or just telling the westerners what we wanted to hear, but he was a good tour guide. He also shared with us that he loved him some Jack Daniels, which led to the revelation that outside of Algiers people are much, much less uptight about the “no drinking” part of life. In fact, life was noticeably more laid back out in the desert, which I guess makes sense.

Anyway, our second day in Taghit, Kadr took us out into the “brown desert” (as opposed to the “gold desert” which is the fancy sand dune kind). The excursion involved the group cramming into 3 dilapidated four wheel drive vehicles, driven by buddies of the hotel manager, and going off-roading through the desert for about 45 minutes until we reached a rock pile featuring etchings from 6000 B.C. It was more fun to climb the rock pile and check out the awesome view from the top than to look at the etchings, but either way it was a cool outing.

The piece de resistance of the entire weekend was an combo platter of afternoon hiking out into the Sahara, watching the sun set, then sitting around a campfire at a bivouac while listening to local musicians, drinking tea, and then eating succulent chicken that was slowed-cooked beneath the campfire.

Walking up and down sand dunes is as tough as you’d expect, but totally worth it!

Looking back at our bivouac site as we headed out into the desert:

The making of the tea – main ingredient: an insane amount of sugar. It really makes American sweet tea seem bitter! Of course, that didn’t stop us from indulging!

As the sun went down, we huddled by the fire for warmth while being entertained by the group of local musicians, who were basically just having a jam session (they told us the next day that after we left, they stuck around and played together until 4am!)

Finally the food was deemed cooked and one of the cooks dug it out from underneath the campfire. It really was the best chicken ever.

The following morning we went on one last tour of the town – this time to purchase souvenirs, though there was little selection. Turns out even in a tiny town on the edge of the Sahara desert, there’s still a bunch of tourist crap for sale. Then it was back in the rickety bus to get back to the airport in Bechar to catch our plane back to Algiers (but only after a 4 hour wait in a freezing airport since our security people required us to be off the road before dark and our flight wasn’t until later in the evening.) But despite the one or two difficulties of the trip, it was hands down the best trip I’ve taken in Algeria since I have been here. I feel very lucky to have had this opportunity!

Upon moving to Algeria, I quickly learned to have zero expectations and go with the flow because, really, anything could happen. However, despite my “expect anything” attitude, I did not think I would be going to see Shakespeare in Algiers. And yet, shortly after New Years, that’s exactly what I found myself doing.

It was all part of a very very cool two-year-long, worldwide tour of Hamlet that the Globe Theater is doing in honor of the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth. And when I say worldwide, I’m not kidding. They intend to go to every single country. Check it out here. As I write this, they are performing in Khartoum.

Their performance in Algiers was at the National Theater, a building whose architecture is very reflective of Algerian history. The facade of the building reflects the country’s 130 years of French rule, adorned with a series of stone arches and intricate flowery accents (albeit chipping and rundown due to a decades-long lack of upkeep). Then the stark, cement interior of the building harkens back to a newly independent Algeria’s Soviet leaning in the 1960s, when the goal was to get as far away from France and the West as possible.

The organization of the event was purely Algerian. For some reason, the decision was made to admit theater-goers on a first-come, first-served basis. Which meant when the group of us from the Embassy showed up 45 minutes before the show was to begin, there was a massive throng of people crammed up agains the yet-to-be-opened doors. At least twice as many people as there were seats to be filled. Our group had received special invitations to see the show, which we naively thought might allow us to bypass the crowd. No such luck. So we joined the masses and subtly tried to edge our way through. At one point we thought we had gained traction when one of the security guards noticed the invitations we clutched. But this particular gentleman quickly found he had no clout with the people who had the authority to let us in, and abandoned us almost immediately. However, this brief glimmer of hope had allowed us to get closer to the front of the crowd, right before they opened the one door through which they decided to funnel all those people.

At this point, it was a complete free-for-all. It was the first time that I’ve realized how people can get crushed to death in such crowds (it wasn’t that bad, but it was getting there). Some people were funneled through the metal detector, others avoided it in their haste to get in, so the security precautions were basically pointless. Our group of 8 successfully made it through the door, which turned out to be just hurdle number one. Next up: find a seat. We managed to snag 4. Then it was standing room only. But, we made it in, which was more than many of our fellow Hamlet hopefuls still waiting outside.

When the performance finally started (an hour late, which is really on-time by Algerian standards), we were treated to a fantastic, abbreviated (2 hours and 40 minutes as opposed to the usual 4 hours) version of one of Shakespeare’s biggies. Now, theater-going is not common in Algeria, so the etiquette isn’t quite what one might expect at a Shakespeare performance, but once we blocked out the chatting, phones ringing (and being answered), and the constant moving around of the patrons, it was great fun and quite the mixture of cultures. A rough French translation of the Elizabethan lingo was projected onto the back wall of the stage. And when half the audience departed at intermission (some perhaps tired of standing, some perhaps not quite enthralled by the somewhat rocky translation, some perhaps caught unawares as to what they were getting themselves into), it got even better as many of the audience distractions departed with them!

When we finally headed home, we counted ourselves lucky to have experienced one stop of this epic global tour, despite (or maybe because of) all the cultural idiosyncrasies involved! All in all, a fantastically adventurous and entertaining evening! If you happen to be in a country where the tour hasn’t yet stopped, I would highly recommend heading out for a night at the theater, regardless of your enthusiasm for Shakespeare.

Happy New Year to all! I returned to Algeria just in time to ring in 2015, which happened with a little fanfare and a whole lot of wine. But the good news is some embassy folks organized the perfect cure for all that wine – a New Year’s Day “Polar Bear Plunge”!

We first had to endure a 45 minute ride in a bouncy bus, but it was worth it to get to an Algiers beach that is reasonably clean and trash-free (ish). Upon arrival, we discovered that the ring leaders of the group had gone ahead and gotten a bonfire started, all ready to warm us up after the so-called plunge. With warm clothes and warming fire at the ready, there was nothing left but to go for it.

OK, so admittedly a Polar Bear Plunge in the Mediterranean when it’s sunny out isn’t the most torturous form of the plunge. Polar bears probably would have thought the water felt like a nice warm bath. BUT it still felt cold until we got back to the fire and our sweats.

And just for fun, we got certificates! It was very exciting.

The rest of the day was spent chatting and roasting marshmallows and hot dogs around the fire. Not a bad way to celebrate the first day of 2015!

A couple of days later (we had a 4-day weekend to start out the year due to a local holiday), I continued my participatory attitude by joining an embassy-organized walking trip around Algiers. We started by heading to an old Christian cemetery from the colonial days. While you don’t find many Christians around these parts anymore, there are a couple of small congregations, and an Anglican church is supposedly charged with the upkeep of this particular cemetery. Nevertheless, the cemetery was pretty dilapidated. Apparently after independence, it was ransacked, and repairs have never really happened, which I guess makes sense. Not at the top of the to-do list, I imagine. You can see below how all the crosses are laying down on the tombs – at one time they were standing straight up on the brick-looking stone at the head of the tomb. No longer.

The French did know how to pick a spot for eternal, rest, though. Check out the view from the cemetery:

And a particular point of interest for us Foreign Service-types: a former U.S. Consul in Algeria who died while serving here during World War I is also buried in this cemetery:

Apparently he’s not the only U.S. Consul who died while in Algeria – there’s another one as well in a different cemetery. We’re hoping to leave it at two.

After the cemetery, we swung by the Martyr’s Monument (Maqam Echahid in Arabic), which I had yet to see up close during daylight hours (although I can see it from my balcony, so I figure that counts for something…). It’s a very Soviet-looking structure, which is the direction Algeria leaned as they tried to move as far away from France and “the West” as possible after they gained their independence in the early 1960s:

From the monument, there is a cable car leading down to a lovely park (the Jardin d’Essai). It’s a bit of a rocky ride, but we braved it and lived to tell the tale.

And the park at the end was worth the ride. It was a gorgeous day, and this is one of the most well-kept parks in the city.

And the piece de resistance of the park is the “Tarzan tree”. Apparently the original Tarzan movie in the 1930s was filmed right here in Algiers! Have to admit I haven’t seen that or any other Tarzan movie, but it’s a cool old tree, at any rate!

So that wrapped up my first weekend of 2015 – beautiful weather, good friends, and an extra long weekend are a great way to kick things off! Here’s to more excitement to come!

So here’s for the last post to wrap up 2014. I’ll start with the Marine Ball, an opportunity for us Embassy folk to get all gussied up and celebrate the Marine Corps’ birthday. This ball was an especially good one; it took place in the Hilton ballroom and had all the required pomp, circumstance, and speeches, which then gave way to drinking and dancing.

Later in the evening, I had my first Algeria clubbing experience. Now, I’m not really an enthusiastic clubber in any country, but I felt like this was an experience I should have before I leave. Algiers doesn’t have too many clubs, and they are mainly attached to major hotel chains. This one was no different (it was at the Hilton – easy access from the Marine Ball). The club was large, a little run down, and very very smoky. So basically a club in the U.S. before smoking was banned. And now I’ve had that experience and probably don’t need to go back.

Thanksgiving was up next – fairly uneventful, but nice. Those of us who remained in town for the holiday gathered at the Ambassador’s residence. Her cook prepared the bird and the rest of us brought sides and dessert. Definitely not the same as Thanksgiving with family, but it was a lovely alternative!

After Thanksgiving I moved quickly into the Christmas season with the annual gingerbread house party. There were collapses, successes, mulled wine, and lots and lots of sugar:

So we’re in December now, and my last trip to the U.S. before leaving Algeria for good. The trip started with a week of training in DC to be an Equal Employment Opportunity counselor, so now I am officially qualified to counsel people who have discrimination complaints.

After a whirlwind week in DC, which included entirely too much dental work and some great catching-up time with various friends, it was down to Orlando for the wedding of 2 friends of mine who met in our foreign service orientation class! It was a fabulous weekend, a great reunion with a group of good friends, a beautiful wedding, and dancing. So much dancing!

All too soon, it was time to say goodbye to friends in Florida. But the last big thing of 2014 was Christmas in SC! Which was a wonderful, relaxing week and a half involving movie-going (Annie, The Hunger Games, Into the Woods), shopping, running (outside, on sidewalks), eating, drinking, and general merriment!

Whew! Got through 2014 – I’m almost all caught up. A few things have happened so far in 2015 that might be blog-worthy, but I’m calling this caught-up enough for now! Happy New Year to all!

I left off the previous post with the Embassy July 4th party. Which happened in June due to various Ambassadorial scheduling issues. Which was great, because it allowed me to be in the U.S. on the actual 4th of July. I was back in DC for a week-long training class on Fraud Prevention, but first I celebrated Independence Day in our nation’s capital with 3 NYC friends and “Freedom Margaritas”. Seriously, that’s what they were called. Nothing says “yay USA” like tex-mex!

After 5 days of learning how to detect and prevent fraud in consular work, I bounced down south for a few days to hang with Mom and Dad, spending some time in SC and fabulous beach trip to Tybee Island for some fun in the sun and relaxation before returning to Algiers.

After a couple of months of hard work adjudicating visas and preventing fraud, I escaped to Rome for a very quick labor day weekend trip, meeting up with a friend from NY (you can also find evidence of this friend in prior posts about my October 2013 trip to Nice and Barcelona). Anyway, this time we met up in Italy.

Our Rome hotel had an alcohol vending machine right next to a rooftop terrace! Tiny rooms, but great location if you’re ever in town.

Aside from some amazing food and wine, highlights of the Rome weekend were a tour of the necropolis underneath the Vatican (no photos were allowed on the tour, but here are a few from afterwards):

Another high point was a nighttime tour of the Colosseum. I’d been to the Colosseum years earlier, but it’s a whole new story at night. Reservations-only, small group tours, very cool. I highly recommend it.

A few weeks after returning to Algeria, I experienced another first – a beauty pageant! I have to admit, attending a beauty pageant has never been at the top of my to-do list. BUT when you’re invited to go to the “Miss Algerie” pageant, you don’t say no.

In true Algeria style, the pageant that was supposed to start at 8:30 didn’t actually kick off until about 10:45. (Actually that’s a bit more extreme of a delay than typical Algeria-style). But we had been invited by a local language school and had been seated in the front of the massive tent where the stage was set up, so it would have been very noticeable if the Americans got up and left. Which meant we were in it to win it until it ended a while after 2am. While waiting, we took a photo with last year’s winner:

Once the event finally kicked off, we were treated to 4 rounds of competition (all various types of dresses including traditional Algerian-wear. No swimsuits, though). While the ladies were changing clothes, various Algerian musicians took to the stage. Overall a very interesting evening, if a little long and late 🙂 Here are a few photos of the contestants:

The new Miss Algerie, plus the 80s-tastic host of the show:

Shortly after the pageant, I turned 31. Which my friends helped me celebrate by throwing me a birthday brunch! It was great (some of my friends are really amazing at the cooking thing):

In short order, after a bit more quality time in the office, it was back to the States for a friend’s wedding in NY. Well, actually, the wedding was in NJ. Which proved to be problematic when driving to the wedding. I was riding with the husband of another friend of mine who was in the wedding and had to get there early. Long story short, we got stuck in crazy traffic on the GW bridge and missed the ceremony. We pulled up as the wedding party was leaving the church. BUT we were there in plenty of time to enjoy the reception. The bride was one of my former colleagues at MSNBC, and there was quite the crowd from the network!

After the wedding, I had another day to hang in NY, so took a quick trip out to my old stomping grounds in Astoria:

The next morning it was back on a plane and down to SC for a few days. Mom, Dad & I drove up to beautiful Asheville, NC. We were a little too early for the fall foliage, but the drive up the Blue Ridge Trail was gorgeous nonetheless!

Once we came down from the mountaintop, it was time to leave the U.S. again, but the vacation wasn’t over. There were still a few more days of leave to use up, and I opted to meet some friends in Dubai. These are the same girlfriends I’ve met up with a few times before – foreign service friends who all happen to be serving in countries with easy-ish access to Europe. But this time we thought we’d change things up, hence the Dubai choice.

Dubai is a somewhat bizarre place – we went on one of those bus tours of the city and every sight the tour guide pointed out was either a 5-star hotel or the biggest/tallest/widest structure in the world. The piece de resistance of the whole tour was the Atlantis hotel. The bus stopped for a good 5 minutes to allow us tourists to take pictures. Really remarkable. Also we stopped for this “light show” at one of the zillion malls in Dubai:

Since we were in Dubai, we figured “When in Rome…” and splurged on a super fancy hotel, the Al Qasr, a huge complex right on the beach. By far the fanciest hotel I’ve stayed in or will probably ever stay in!

We ended up going to a mall or two, going up the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world), and relaxing by the pool in our hotel complex, as well as taking advantage of the spa.

Finally, we finished things off with a bachelorette party for our friend who was getting married later in the year (more on that in the next post). Dubai may be wealthy, but it’s still in the Middle East, and they frown on traditional U.S. bachelorette party-type activities (in fact, visitors can’t even buy alcohol except in hotel restaurants/bars and at duty free, so we stocked up), so we stuck to our hotel room, followed by a frolic on the beach!

OK, this gets us caught up to early October. One more post to come to wrap up 2014!