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A deeply Islamic Arab nation with a socialist dictatorship and a violent insurgency, Algeria was virtually closed to Americans, and so I was much an object of curiosity to the passing women in their burkas and chadras as they were to me.
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Once I had reached Algeria's Mediterranean coastline I used its spectacular, dark, lonely beaches as a landmark to guide me toward Tunisia. This was extremely important, for the Algerian police and soldiers would not allow me to have a map in my gear.
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On the edges of the former French resort towns that dot Algeria's coastline were one of the most visible reminders of how much the Algerians came to hate their French occupiers: the desecrated graves of the Frenchmen's Catholic cemeteries.
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An Algerian woman in the usual ankle-length black abaya robe and head covering passing another sign of Algeria's violent past: an abandoned and now inaccessible cathedral.
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A Muslim cemetery that resembled most I found in my walks through the Islamic world: unkempt, crumbling, and seemingly without a single bit of orderliness.
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The photo that got me arrested in El Kala. I was under constant observation in my walk across Algeria, and each time I snapped a photo that could be of value to that country's enemies, I was quickly accosted by the officials.
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At the time, Algeria's soccer team was in the thick of the World Cup tourney, and it seemed every male and female in the country was gripped with "football" mania.
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An Algerian dentist whose family I stayed with. His father, who had been a resistence fighter against the French, still bore the signs of the horrific torture done to him by them.
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I wouldn't have known from this happy lad's face that only 150 years ago the Algerians had been notorious worldwide for their bold and bloody piracy raids on the Mediterranean Sea.
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Indeed that is me heading east long the main highway of northern Algeria. Largely unpopulated, the road's path led me each day alongside one of the most spectacular coastlines anywhere.
Viewed: 334 times.
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