University of Bejaia, Shopping, Touring around Bejaia City and the Hotel Royal

This post will be a montage of the two "working" days we spent in Bejaia - Saturday and Sunday.  Algeria, though not a French colony for about 50 years, still regards France as the mother country.  Universities teach in French and the French culture is evident everywhere (everyone speaks French, menus and signs are in French, French bread, French fries and other such foods abound).  In the Bejaia region, people speak at least three languages (first, their native tongue of Kabylie, second, Arabic and third, French).  If they speak English, it is a fourth language. Weekend days are Friday and Saturday though this week was special because the national election was on Thursday, and it was a holiday.

Alice gave a seminar on Sunday (a working day in Bejaia) to a group of faculty and graduate students.  The previous day (on Saturday) she met with the university Rector (President) Boualem Saidani, a youngish, engaging man. University of Bejaia does not yet have any formal interactions with an American University so the institution is enthusiastic to do so.

The main entrance to Bejaia University with French, Arabic and Kabylie

Detail of the Kabylie characters.  While everyone in the region speaks Kabylie as their first language very few know the traditional characters for writing.  The language was outlawed for years in Algeria and has only recently been allowed to be taught in schools.

A view of some of the university buildings.  They are all modern and large.

Rafik and Randy outside of the building housing the LAMOS Research Group, Alice's host group at Bejaia University.  The building is large, modern, well finished but lacks phones or reliable running water.

A campus view from the steps of the LAMOS Building.  On this Saturday very few students were around.

She also spent several hours on Saturday with the Renaissance engineering scholar, Prof. Dr. Djamil Aissani.  Djamil is mathematically trained (Ph.D. in Russia) and leads a large research group in stochastic processes.  He is also a renowned scholar in the history of mathematics and science in Northern Africa.  He has authored a few monographs (in French) on the subject and leads conferences as well.  Bejaia, in historic times, was a center of culture and learning due to its natural port.  Figures such as Fibonacci and Kepler studied during periods at Bejaia.  Djamil is a fount of knowledge on the subject and is a wine enthusiastic to boot.  He and his wife (also a university professor) have four daughters - one studying civil engineering in France, one studying architecture in Algiers and two in Bejaia.

Rafik, on right, with one of his friends on the campus

Rabah in his office

Rabah, Randy and Alice with the University Rector Boualem Saidani in his office on the engineering campus.  He has another office at the campus for liberal arts and other studies which is located across town.

Alice with Professor Djamil Aissani in his office

Alice with the Dean (on left) 
Youcef Khelfaoui and a department chair in the Dean's office

The building housing the research institute is modern and large.  It is fairly well finished though beneath the surface, the building hides its Algerian deficits.  For example, there are no phones in the building because the wiring was never completed.  More critical, there is no water in the building except at a few designated hours of the day.  This makes using the bathroom a strategic issue (using the bathroom is a challenging activity in Algeria due to the limited facilities and amenities).  I was told these faults were because they moved into the building too quickly before it was finished.  Fair enough.  But, they moved in three years ago and it is still not finished!   The university buildings were all large with big rooms but the finishings were spartan and the campus dusty (dust is an inherent problem in the whole country).  Trash was less evident than outside the campus, but still present.  The campus is surrounded by a wall and has a guard gate.  Algerian students attend university free including their housing and board.  University of Bejaia serves more than 40,000 students (most from the Kabylies districts) on two campuses.  Dormitories are abundant.

In any case, the meetings with the Rector (and later, the Dean) and the seminar went well and Alice's visit seemed very much appreciated.  The students and faculty understood and spoke English well enough and everyone was welcoming and friendly.

Announcement of Alice's Seminar.  The timing of the talk coincided with a commemorative march of students from the university to the city center to mark the establishment of Kabylie rights in the region so the attendance was not as large as it could have been otherwise.

Alice on the stage with some faculty and students

Some of the seminar audience

Joking around outside after the seminar (which they term a conference)

The working day at the university (Saturday), Djamil and Rabah hosted a lunch at a nearby restaurant.  Algerian restaurants look like true holes in the wall, but serve up tasty food in clean environments.  Menus are not usually provided but the meat and fish are on display (uncooked) in a glassed in case.  Despite the lack of service at hotels, in restaurants there is good service with a large staff of male waiters.  It is interesting that restaurants almost always bill themselves as "Fast Food" regardless of what they serve or how long it takes to make.  This seems to be a mark of quality to the Algerians though it means something quite different in the U.S. and Europe.  Pizza places for a quick snack are everywhere though the pizza is just as likely to be cold as hot.

One of the ubiquitous butchers shops that exist in Bejaia

Our lunch place and like most others in the city it proudly advertises Fast Food (in English) as a mark of a good restaurant.  Strange and comical.

At lunch with the usual appetizer of good bread and the Kabylie version of humus which is roasted peppers and tomatoes and can be quite spicy

Ferida and Djamil Aissani with one of their four daughters.  This young lady is studying architecture in Algiers.

Across the street is another typical Bejaia shop - a pastry shop that also has pizza

The long term ruler of Algeria was just reelected during our stay in Bejaia.  Very few Kabylie people bother to vote as they feel they cannot make a difference in this Arab dominated country.  Mr. Bouteflika is infirm despite his friendly and robust appearance on this campaign poster.

The day of the seminar (Sunday) was followed by a lunch at the Hotel Royal with a good bottle of Algerian red wine.  Randy joined us for this occasion - the final one that was formally with the university.

The nice bottle of Algerian red that Djamil ordered for lunch at the hotel

We aimed to buy some Kabylie goods - namely two beers (as souvenirs for Alexander), traditional dresses for little girls, carpets and whatever else we could find that would be distinctive and east to transport.  The ever obliging Medjoudj brothers took us around the shops in Bejaia.  Bejaia has no malls or modern stores.  The shops, for the most part, look like holes in the wall but inside they have good service and a surprising array of goods.  There are butcher shops everywhere and fish mongers as well.  Fruit and vegetable markets are on almost every street as are small grocery shops.

Outside of the laundry which washed our clothes within a few hours at a very cheap price

The shop where we bought traditional Kabylie dresses

A caged finch - these abound in Bejaia where people carry their birds around in a small cage with them and the caged birds are placed in or just outside of shops (as this one was)

An interesting doorway in Bejaia city.  The blue color, much evident in Algiers and Bejaia, is also found in Tunisia as the standard color of buildings.

Shopping in Bejiaia with Rabah, Rafik, Yasmin and two of Yasmin's friends

The venerable ice cream place in the city center

Rafik with his impressive choice of ice cream

Another interesting aspect of Bejaia is the traffic control, or lack thereof.  Bejaia is a city of some several hundred thousand people and lots of cars and trucks.  There are no traffic lights and no stop signs.  Let me repeat, there are no traffic lights and no stop signs.  None!  The intersections are usually the typical European style roundabouts.  Somehow the traffic flows well.  The drivers are relatively polite and patient and are used to this unregulated system of driving.  The roads range from acceptable to dreadful so everyone has to be patient anyway.  Everywhere there are speed bumps to regulate how fast vehicles drive on the roads.  These are effective, of course, but so annoying.

For sightseeing, we got a private tour of a historic mosque (originally Roman temple or other structure) that is now a city library.  This is located in the old Casbah area of Bejaia which also has some Roman remnants and fortress walls from the Spanish.  The area is undergoing renovation and so we were not able to see the museum located there.

The sign to the historic area, mostly under reconstruction

The walled old city - apparently a Spanish relic

Rafik explains the statue outside of the casbah to Randy

The historic mosque turned public library in the casbah

We then went to the geology museum - a nice collection assembled by a French professor (still living) and housed in an attractive manner.  The geologist in charge of the museum was out on pregnancy leave but her second in command did his best to escort us personally through the museum (no one else was there).

The geology museum

The museum director explains the collection to Rafik in French who translated it to English for us

The name says it all!

The geological map of northern Algeria - Zeki, this is for you

The museum to commemorate the war for independence with the French was next door and even though they were technically closed, they let us in and the director gave us a brief tour.  This museum is modern and quite large and has a great view over the bay from its terrace.  The museum is mainly of interest to Algerians or those focused on the French/Algerian war.  There are several other small museums in Bejaia but they will have to wait for another visit.

Entrance to the war memorial museum (war for independence with France)

The director showed us around the museum

A map of the areas during the war (1956-62)

On to our hotel.  When we first arrived at Hotel Royal, we were surprised at the lack of comfort and the basic quality of it all.  Our room was spartan but clean with separate large toilet room and then a bathroom with sink and bathtub/shower (though no shower curtain).  One morning there was no hot water so uncomfortable cold showers were in order.  The beds in Algeria are rock hard and the pillows strangely plump but lumpy.  We did have pretty good wireless internet in the lobby and marginal wireless reception in the room.  The room also had a refrigerator and a big wardrobe, neither of which we used much.  There was a wall air conditioner which worked well (we used it mainly to blow fresh air during the nights) and a back window on a courtyard/parking lot.

The Hotel Royal.  There was always a guard (in front) at the entrance but he looked very benign.

Our bedroom with its TV (never turned on) and fairly large bed

The separate toilet area - spartan but functional

The sink and bathtub area with no shower curtain so the water went everywhere

View from our bedroom window on a courtyard and apartment building

Breakfasts were in the bar area (which had a pool table) and were uniformly the same - one croissant each, one breakfast pastry with something dark in it each, a glass of Tang (fake orange juice), coffee, and a yogurt container each.  We bought a bottle of orange marmalade from a local store and ate that with the rolls.

In the lobby outside of the breakfast room was an antique chest with some Kabylie historic mementos including a picture of the Kabylie kings above.  This area was next to the internet room and so had the best connection strength and Randy spent a fair amount of time sitting there with his iPad.

Dinners and lunches were served upstairs in the restaurant which was a large and fairly formal affair.  The menu never varied and the one we got was in French.  We had a friendly waiter each time we ate there who spoke some English.  He was jolly and a take charge kind of guy who recommended strongly to us what we should eat and drink.  He was not often wrong and he was a definite highlight of our stay at the Hotel Royal.  As a shout out to him, he is Mr. Amara Ramdane and he is from the Big Kabylie city of Tizi Ouzou (which we want to visit on our next trip).  Apparently the Kabylie people are known for their work in the hospitality sector and most waiters in Algeria (and many in France) are Kabylie people.

The menu we ended up almost memorizing - the dinner/lunch menu at the restaurant (in French)

Our jolly and effective waiter from Big Kabylie, Amara Ramdane, opens a bottle of wine for us

He brought us a Pinot (Noir?) on our last night for the evening meal accompaniment

Alice's favorite salad - hearts of palm with carrots and asparagus

Amara serves Randy bread with his broiled prawns

The prawns were impressive in size

Alice's final dinner at the Hotel Royal consisted of the salad, French fries and a gratin of cheese and shrimp, which was rich and delicious

Randy tackles a prawn

Alice on the streets of Bejaia between the Hotel Royal and the university.  Goodbye to the this friendly but dirty city.  It was a great visit and we hope to return to this heartland of the Kabylie people.