Poscht ausm Wilden Weschtn

... and that is my tiny chat algérien called Zizou, whom I found at the restrooms of Boumédienne International Aiport in Algiers! Or should I say, he found me? My vet told me it was a classic case of the pet picking its owner. He suddenly sat there crying and shivering, when I was about to exit the men's toilet, while Said was waiting with my luggage in the check-in queue. I told the cleaning lady "Hey! Un chat!" but she just shrugged, so i picked up the little tiger, who immediately started purring. Just a few seconds later, I had already made up my mind and put him in a little laundry bag inside of my hand-luggage. The people in the check-in queue didn't bother, and - amazingly - the people at the luggage screening didn't notice. My hand luggage was scanned twice, in Algiers and in Paris, but none of the clerks discovered Zizou, who also didn't give himself away by crying, for God's sake. He seemed so relieved to be removed from that neon-bright and co...

It took me a while to settle down from the emotional rollercoaster ride that has been my 2nd week in Algeria, and to be able to write about it in retrospect. After I left Constantine, both minor catastrophes and small miracles seemed to happen to me alternatingly, in a twisting plot that could have made any movie writer envious, and that finally made this holiday the unforgettable trip I was hoping for. I left to Biskra on Thursday, August 16, 2009 with a certain feeling and intuition that the highlights of my trip were still ahead of me. However, not even in my wildest dreams could I have predicted what would happen to me over the next (and last) 4 days in Algeria. I felt quite sick, and I knew I was on a tight budget (I had about 75 EUR left) but as it turned out, that was only the beginning... I had split up with Salah, the brother of my pen-friend Hassina (with whom I had done most of the travelling up to that point), the previous night and decided to do the trip to Biskra on my ow...

Nach genau einer Woche in Algerien finde ich nun erstmals die Zeit laenger im Netz zu surfen, und meine bisherigen Eindruecke ein wenig zu ordnen und zusammenzufassen. Diese Verschnaufpause kommt aus mehreren Gruenden gelegen: erstens fuehle ich mich gesundheitlich nicht auf der Hoehe und hab soeben 2 Aspirin eingeworfen, zweitens brauchte ich schon dringend mal einen Abend fuer mich alleine, und drittens befinde ich mich jetzt an einem Wendepunkt der Reise: ich habe mich heute von der feuchtwarmen Mittelmeerkueste verabschiedet und bin jetzt auf dem Weg ins Landesinnere; das heisst in Richtung Sahara. Zu diesem Zweck hab ich mir heute ein Hotelzimmer in Constantine , der Hauptstadt Ost-Algeriens, geleistet. Constantine liegt etwa 160 km im Landesinneren und bietet sich als Ausgangspunkt geradezu an: die Stadt thront majestaetisch auf einem Hochplateau und wird von einer tiefen Schlucht durchzogen, ueber die mehrere spektakulaere Bruecken (nichts fuer schwache Nerven......