Malek's Moorish Tales

I think I have posted sometime ago on how much I love Algiers, and on how hard it is for me to get there ...

Well, once again, it was really complexe and time consuming to get there for my office launch speeches.

First, the visa took a long time (More than a week, until I had to cancel the procedure at the Algerian consulat in Casablanca, and use another invitation for a conference of Arab investors, and get my visa through the ambassy in Rabat on Friday afternoon).

Then, there was no direct or reasonable flight that could get me to Algiers in time for my first presentation saturday afternoon, so I had to go through Paris where I had to change airports and spend the night, before taking an early morning from Paris to Algiers.

Once there, at the Sheraton hotel, I learned that a customer can't check in before 3pm (I had to be on stage at 2:30pm, having spent the night awake to be sure I don't miss my flight, still wearing my clothes from the day before, and having not had my shower ...).

There were a couple more incidents in Algiers I will relate on a separate entry.

My return flight on Monday was even more amazing : I didn't know I had to register my luggage 90 minutes before the flight, and when I got to the airport around 10:40am, Check in was closed... There was this friendly gentleman at the Air France check-in area that helped get in touch with the escale chief, who in turn was very friendly, and got me on a flight to marseille, assuring me that I will find a hostess waiting for me upon arrival at Marseille with my boarding card for Paris ... Off course, she wasn't there, and I had to go back and forth between terminals before I got the issue resolved (less than 10 minutes before departure), and got on that flight to Paris. There were no further incident on the Paris - Casablanca flight. I finally got home at 11:30pm ... It would have taken me less time to get from Casablanca to Chicago or Dallas ...