Last four days of the first week in Algeria by Leen

Hello darlings! The next couple of days we are going to visit cities in northern Algeria, so first of all I am going to share some general information about this side of the country with you.

Oil and gas reserves were discovered here in Algeria in the 1950s but most Algerians live along the northern coast, which we are going to visit this week. The country supplies large amounts of natural gas to Europe and energy exports are the backbone of the economy.

The capital of Algeria is Algiers and is also the largest city of the country. The modern part of Algiers is built on the level ground by the coast and the old part, the ancient city of the deys (a title given to the rulers of the Regency of Algiers under the Ottoman Empire), climbs the steep hill behind the modern town and is crowned by the citadel (casbah in Algerian), 122 meters above the sea.

Thursday 3 March 2011: visiting Oran

As we are crossing the country from south to north we visit the cities also in a certain order. From today until Sunday we are going to visit, from west to east: Oran, Algiers, Blida and Constantine.

Port of Oran

Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country. This city is also a major port, and since the 1960s it has been the commercial, industrial, and educational centre of western Algeria. Sonatrach, the country’s biggest oil and gas company built a new congress centre in Oran where the 16^th International Conference & Exhibition on Liquefied Natural Gas was held last year. Because they expected to attract around 3,000 visitors and major companies from around the world, new hotels were built to accommodate all visitors.

        

For lunch we went to a restaurant and there we met a resident, whom told us that they have a popular local legend in Oran. This legend tells that in the period around 900 BC, there were sightings of lions in the area. The two last felines were killed in a mountain near the city of Oran, which is now known as La montagne des Lions ("The Mountain of Lions"). In fact, there are two giant lion statues in front of Oran's city hall, hence the twin lions' mountain is Oran's symbol.

    

  One of the two giant lion statues

Especially for my boyfriend Angelo, who I am really missing, I asked the man if there were any special sports events, like running competitions. He told me that Oran held its first international marathon on 10 November 2005. The event was sponsored by Toyota of Algeria and attracted runners from Morocco, Libya, Spain, France, and Kenya. The marathon served to publicize the health benefits of running and to provide a novel form of public entertainment for the city's residents.

So baby, maybe one day Belgium will be added to the list of participating countries, thanks to you. 

After a whole day visiting Oran we went back to the hotel to have a massage, a delicious dinner and to go early to bed, because tomorrow we are going to visit another city. But before we went to our rooms, we asked the receptionist if it would be save that we would visit Notre Dame d’Afirque and the Bay of Algiers tomorrow. Luckily for us, she said that peace fully returned after the severe riots between the police and the population on 12 February in the capital. Now we do not have to afraid to be attacked.

Goodnight and Cya 2morrow! Kisses!

Friday 4 March 2011: visiting Algiers

Friday morning:

GOOOODMORNING !! As we told you yesterday, we are going to visit Algiers, the country’s capital. Tonight we will post another message to describe our day.

-xx-

Friday evening:

Today it was another interesting day, as we learned that Algiers is built on the slopes of the Sahel Hills, which parallel the coast, and it extends for 16 km along the Bay of Algiers. The city faces east and north and forms a large amphitheatre of dazzling white buildings that dominate the harbor and the bay.

Algiers’ panorama

Before we went to the Notre Dame d'Afrique (Our Lady of Africa) we had to take a cable car. It was the first time in my life I sat in it so it was a new experience and actually I enjoyed it. While ‘driving’ to the basilica, which is located on the north side, on a 124 meters cliff, you get a nice view over the city and the Bay of Algiers.

The basilica was inaugurated in 1872, after fourteen years of construction! The church has a Neo-Byzantine style and can be considered to be a counter piece to the church of Notre-Dame de la Garde in Marseille, France. The inside of the church is a bit unusual as the choir is situated on the southeast instead of the usual east side of the building.

After we visited the basilica, we took the bus (ETUSA: urban and suburban bus transportation for Algiers) to the indoor water park, where we spent the afternoon.

Saturday 5 March 2011: visiting Blida

Blida is located about 45 km south-west of Algiers and lies surrounded with orchards and gardens, 190 meters above the sea. The abundant water of the Chiffa gorge (= canyon) provides power for large corn mills and several factories because the city has a flourishing trade, chiefly in oranges and flour. We visited the orange groves and Nouredinne Maurice, the fruit growers’ chief told us that the plantation contains over 50,000 trees. The Chiffa gorge also supplies the town, which has numerous fountains and irrigated gardens. In some of the public gardens there stand magnificent olive trees.

Nouredinne Maurice

The present town of Blida is French in character and has well-built modern streets with many arcades, several mosques, churches, extensive barracks and a large military hospital. The principal square is “Place d'Armes”. This place is surrounded by arcaded houses and shaded by trees.

We had an interesting day and I already ‘miss’ Nouredinne because he was such a charming, smart man. He even gave us some oranges as a present, that is very kind, isn’t it?!

Goodnight and sleep tight! Kiss !

Sunday 6 March 2011: visiting Constantine

Today it is our last day that we visit cities in North Algeria and our last stop is Constantine.

Constantine is the capital of Constantine Province in north-eastern Algeria. Slightly inland, it is about 80 kilometers from the Mediterranean coast. Regarded as the capital of eastern Algeria and the centre of its region, Constantine has a population of over 750,000 and this makes it the third largest city in the country after Algiers and Oran, which we visited earlier this week.

In Constantine we took a guided tour and our guide told us that the city is situated on a plateau at 640 meters above sea level and that it is framed by a deep ravine, which is crossed by a viaduct. Constantine is the railhead of a prosperous and diverse agricultural area. It is also a center of grain trade and therefore it has flour mills. They even have a tractor factory, and industries producing textiles, wool, linen, and leather goods, which are exported to the whole country and to Tunisia.

A viaduct crossing Constantine’s ravine

As we are students ourselves we visited later on the day Constantine’s universities: Mentouri, Zerzara, and The Islamic University of El amir Abdelkader. A teacher in one of the schools told us that the city will have another University town but for now this is still under construction.

Student of The Islamic University of El amir Abdelkader

                                         

Link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/world/africa/13algeria.html