The Algerian Escape

What can I say, will this be a rant, a rampage, an hysterical rave, a let off of steam or a sigh of relief? I will describe events and you be the judge.....

12pm Friday midday.
Money on hand: $306US, 20 pounds, 12.50 euro, 1200 dinar (about 13 euro worth).

After finding out before our Sahara tour that the town of Tamanrasset does not allow money to be withdrawn in any way, only exchanged, we had been running a very tight budget of our funds. Having eating some almonds, milk and an old tin of tuna we tried to check out of our hotel. Using an imaginary exhange rate from somewhere in the distant past they quoted our hotel bill at $375 US. A quick flurry of exasperated french and unravelled reciepts from previous bank transactions lowered that figure to $300 US, still $25 above our budget. Off to the airport three hours later for our scheduled 5:45pm flight. At 8:45pm our flight finally left Tamanrasset with some very hungry and irritated Hirst children on board.

On arrival in Algiers, Gini and I left Christian with 300 dinar after we purchased a 400 dinar bag of chips. I was tired and not in the mood for difficulty after the long and unexplained delay in Tamanrasset. An agitated argument ensued, with a group taxi drivers about the price of a 5 minute ride to the hotel we had pre-booked, they claimed ten euro, I insisted it was five. Eventually we settled on 7.50 and we were dropped at the airport at about midnight. Noticing no VISA signs anywhere I enquired whether they accepted cards (as our cash was almost non-existant). A rude 'no' was the answer, but I was told we could go to the bank or the Mercure hotel the following morning to extract money with my card to pay the 6000 dinar bill (about 65 euro).

9am Saturday morning
Money on hand: $6 US, 20 pounds, 5 euro, 600 dinar

Banks are all closed on Saturdays? No. The entire financial system of Algeria shuts down on Fridays and Saturdays. Why? Who the hell knows, I'm guessing some Allah related drivel. Not a single location in the entirity of Algeria would have been capable of making that transaction on my card. How could the hotel have known this? HOW COULD THEY HAVE NOT???

The taxi expenses to discover this, one would think, commonplace piece of information used up our 600 dinar and 5 euro, the remaing money converted into 3000 dinar - half our hotel bill with no way of paying the rest.

After numerous phone calls to embassies, parents, tour agencies, the manager turned up with hand shaking and apologies, although he still cleaned us out by taking our 3000 dinar.

Cash on hand = 0,
possibility of purchasing anything = 0,
last meal = the old tuna and nuts the previous morning
hours until the flight to Barcelona = 6.5
hours until the flight actually left = 9

We arrived in Barcelona at 11pm with no hotel reservation, no money, no idea of whether ATMs where at the airport or if they worked at this time of night (I was not about to start making assumptions about their financial system, I just prayed) and not having eaten for nearly two days.

It appeared at first that no ATMs were in the airport, when at last in the final corner of the airport that we checked we found the glorious machines and withdrew wads of the beautiful stuff, we hopped onto the next bus to Placa Catalunya (my memory of Barcelona coming back to me with vivid deja vu flashbacks) and within minutes of arriving there had checked ourselves into the fanciest hotel we could see. Shortly after some luxurious showers we stuffed ourselves with McDonalds and are now feeling very happy, Gini is sound asleep and I am letting loose onto the free internet here the tension of the last couple of days of being totally at the mercy of fate.
Never have I felt so powerless to influence a situation, the worst part being that Gini had to suffer through it with a brave face (sleeping mainly from the lack of energy to do anything else). I could probably have gone another night without food sleeping at the airport and hitching into town or something, but I was most anxious because I didn't want the ordeal to drag on much longer for her.

But we are here, spirits are soaring as the energy and excitment of this town takes hold of us, beaching, sight seeing (and I might try a sneaky gym session if I'm lucky).

Adios, estoy hablando español una vez mas!!