Five weeks ago, when I first arrived there, I didn’t like Algiers very much. The city disappointed me because it was a place I expected to love right away and I didn’t. In my journal I wrote mainly that the coffee was good and that the men constantly spit on the sidewalk. But the last […]
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Graham Greene, again
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I’ve been thinking a lot about Graham Greene lately, and not just because of my afternoon drinking with priests. I read Monsignor Quixote on this trip, and am currently re-reading The Lawless Roads. In Roads, Greene describes the Mexican desert and says that he cannot see beauty in landscapes that are “unemployed or unemployable.” For […]
In Constantine
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I decided to travel north instead of back south for S’bou. I have only a few days left in Algeria so I wanted to travel to places I haven’t yet been rather than return to Timimoun. So I am in the north where the orange trees are not yet in bloom but the hills are […]
Wedding Night Jitters
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Just when I thought my French was getting better… Last night I was listening to a shopkeeper across from my hotel tell me about the traditions of the Muslims in the area. He was talking in French and I was pretty proud of myself that I was understanding most of what he was saying. Then […]
March
15
Taghit Oasis and the Search for New Superlatives
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
There are places in the world that can defy a travel writer’s art. There are scenes that are so breathtaking that they completely defeat him. I feel that dunes of Taghit have defeated me.Taghit is an oasis village on the edge of the Grand Erg Occidental, Algeria’s western sea of sand. It is a small […]
March
01
Photos from the Camps
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Here are a few of my favourite photos from my days in the Saharawi refugee camps. This girl was part of the parade marking the Saharawi ‘National Day’, February 27th. They celebrated the day before, however, because all the foreigners who were in the camps for the race were leaving on the 27th. A Saharawi […]
February
26
Among the Saharawi
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I feel like I am a long way from anywhere right now. I am in Smara, the largest of the Saharawi refugee camps in southwestern Algeria. These camps have housed Saharawi people since the mid-1970s when thousands were expelled from their land in the Western Sahara by the Moroccan army. In 1981, the Moroccans built […]
From Dead to Red to Med
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Greetings all. I am in Algiers now after nearly two weeks of luxury. I attended my first travel media tour in Jordan and while bus tours and big groups are not the way I prefer to travel, I could get used to five star hotels and free meals in posh restaurants. The tour brought us […]
Welcome to Elsewhere
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Greetings, and welcome to the first posting of Elsewhere.I’ve been thinking about starting a blog about my travels and writing – and the writing and travels of others – for quite some time now. Today, just hours before I head to Algeria and Morocco to begin research for a new book, seems as good a […]
