Day Two in Algeria

Day Two, Sunday. Constantine, Algeria.

I flew from Algiers to Constantine last night, arriving at 7:35pm, and I was in my hotel by 8:30.

“Is there a hotel restaurant?” I asked the Ibis receptionist.

“No, but the Novotel next door has one.”

I dropped off my bag and headed to the Novotel, where there was a buffet for $30. I’m one medium-sized human and I definitely didn’t need a $30 buffet, though I was pretty hungry.

After a complex series of negotiations involved my limited French and Arabic, and a cashier’s limited English, we established that he’d let me take one plate from the hot food area for ten dollars. Simple—a small bit of chicken, veggies, rice, and potatoes. What more could I ask for?

The Ibis itself has seen better days, namely whenever it was built. Ibis is like the IKEA of hotels—imagine cheap laminated shelves looking great for a while but wearing out in time, and then add grungy walls needing a paint job and stained hallway carpets. Still, IKEA really hits the spot in some ways, and the Ibis is in the Constantine center, the shower was hot, the toilet worked, breakfast was included, and the wifi wasn’t godawful. I call that a win, especially since Algeria isn’t known for its fabulous lodging.

I walked more than 22,000 steps yesterday, so I slept well in my little Ibis room. Breakfast was a plentiful (excessive, really) variety of bread products, scrambled eggs with optional processed Vienna sausage type meat (I did not opt), a sadly struggling automated coffee dispenser, some delicious yogurt, and a slice of local pomegranate. I regretted the pomegranate when I realized I had no elegant way of extracting the seeds with my little breakfast plate and a fork. The guide, Badro, fetched me at 9, and we drove out of Constantine to a smooth, new highway that took us to Setif over two hours.

“If you don’t mind and it is not indiscreet, may I ask what you do,” said Badro.

“I make comic books,” I said. “Did you see there was just a convention in Algiers?”

“Yes, I knew it! I knew I recognized your name. When I was younger, I read so many comics. Spider-Man, X-Men, Punisher…this is the second coincidence this week! I’m also a metalhead and a guy named Eric Wagner took my tour. Do you know Eric Wagner?”

“No,” I said, laughing, “but was it the same Eric Wagner?”

“No, this man was very old. But it was still funny.”

We drove on to Djemila, which is the Roman ruins I came here for! Well, one of the reasons. Funnily enough, I’ve seen plenty of excellent Roman ruins in Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, and Syria, but I'm a sucker for ruins. Djemila is up in the mountains, using the terrain as protection from…invaders, I guess. Or maybe pirates. There was always something.

We spent a few hours at Djemila and there were maybe 8 other tourists there. We checked out the market, the baths, the temple, the amphitheater, the fancy two-level house (for the rich), and the boxy tiny house for the commoner. Djemila was jamila, meaning beautiful, which for some reason is one of the few Arabic words I retained from my previous job making comics in Kuwait and Cairo.

We drove the two hours back to Constantine, passing camels (“they don’t live here normally, it’s too cold in the winter, so perhaps they are with a nomad family”) and a town of electronics importers (“from Dubai, but they comes there from China”). We stopped at a clean, nice, and cheap roadside restaurant on the way where I had a delicious salad, which was unexpected.

Badro talked about climate change and the number of Algerians who had died during covid. His practical and realistic talks were a far cry from my fanciful walking tour guide of the previous day, which was a relief.

The driver and guide dropped me off around 4 at the Ibis. I stopped in my room then headed out through the old town for a walk through the local market (if you’re ever in Constantine and need grapes, pomegranate, carrots, or chicken, you’ll be in luck). I walked to a restaurant with a view of the gorge, then hurried back as it was getting dark and I didn’t want to be wandering around clueless when I couldn’t see well. There was a large public square in front of the hotel where vendors sell soft serve ice cream, slushies, and cheeseburgers, and I arrived just as they were all shutting down for the night.

Constantine was so far more manageable than Algiers, but I have a day tour booked for tomorrow, so we’ll see!