Rockin' the Casbah!!

 

 We went to the Casbah today.  It is a very historical place.  We toured several of the palaces that were built there and the architecture is absolutely beautiful.  It is also right on the Mediterranean so the views from the rooftops on the top of the hill were spectacular.
Our tour guide took us to the top of the Casbah and we started walking down the hill through the winding and twisting alleys.  It is so narrow and confusing in there....it would be so easy to get lost.  It is also hard to imagine that people actually live in this place. 

 We were allowed to go into several homes and walk around, up to the rooftops.  Kirk took some great photos. It is hard to describe what the views from the roof were....there were clothes hanging on clothes lines all over the place!  In the movies they show people running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop,  and you see all the clothesline on the roofs. It is really like that! There are satellite dishes all over and lots of garbage (unfortunately).  We watched an elderly lady, on her roof, climb up on a rickety chair, right on the edge of her roof to hang clothes on her line.  There are no walls or railings on these roofs!!  I was holding my breath, hoping she didn't stumble off the chair.

                                        

                                        

The smells are hard to describe.  Wish we had "smell-o-vision" so you could  share in the experience.  Wow is all I can say!!  There were cats & kittens everywhere.  They were digging in the trash.  There was a lot of waste everywhere.  There were kids playing in dirty cement lots, playing soccer.  Some of the kids got in a little tiff while they were playing and started throwing rocks at each other, not little pebbles, but good size rocks!! 

At the end of our walking tour, we climbed to the roof of someone's home and sat on large cushions on the ground in front of low tables and were served a tradational Algerian meal underneath a beautiful pergola filled with flowering vines.  We enjoyed the beautiful Mediterranean breezes while we ate and visited.  We started with some fresh bread and water or soda.  Then came a salad with shredded beets, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes and olives (no dressing).  Then came borak, which is like an eggroll, filled with ground meat, cheese and olives and deep fried.  They were good!  Then came the sherpa (soup), which was a tomato based broth with pieces of meat (think it was lamb), still on the bone, and couscous.  Then they brought out large tajines ( a clay pot that has a triangle type top) with noodles and a choice of either chicken broth with yucca & chickpeas or lamb broth.  After that, came large baskets of fresh fruit, followed by pieces of almond cake soaked in something very sweet.  We were very full when we were done!
                                       

All in all, it was a fun day!  We saw some wonderful places in the city that we want to go back and explore.