cigar Archives - Wandering North

Nicaragua

Two Days in Colourful Granada

Leaving Estelí for Granada

I left Estelí, Nicaragua early on Friday morning. I left the way I came, in a private care instead of on the bus. Friday was a working day for me, and I couldn’t afford to spend half of it in transit, so I hired a driver. The trip took about 2.5 hours. Not a bargain, price-wise, but worth it

Arriving in Granada, I was immediately charmed. This was the colourful city I’d seen in pictures, and it was the city in which I had planned to spend my entire week, before the lure of cigars and tobacco farms took me to Estelí. We arrived in Granada at about 8:00 AM. I would leave two days later. Two days was enough time in Granada.

*main square as seen from my hostel window*

The Poshest of Hostels

I was staying at the Selina Hostel (since changed its name to Socialtel Granada); it was an absolute delight. It’s one of those fancy hostels that feels more like a hotel than than it does just a regular hostel (a poshtel). It is pricier, but you can’t argue with the quality. I had booked a private room, and it was gorgeous. The common areas were full of people hanging out, drinking smoothies and beer, planning day trips to volcanoes, and chit chatting in aesthetically appealing surroundings. As a side note, I did plan to do a day trip to a volcano but it just wasn’t happening while I was there due to volcano activity so I just hung out in the town.

I spent Friday morning sitting on the patio in front of the hostel having a cigar and working on my laptop. With work done, I went out to explore for the weekend.

Wandering Granada

Grenada is one of those places that doesn’t really have tourist attractions per se, it’s really that the city itself is the attraction. It is a gorgeous Spanish colonial town with the oldest architecture dating back nearly 500 years. The buildings are brightly painted, and the streets are cobblestoned. In the centre is a leafy square presided over by a tall bright yellow church.

I know, it’s a lot of photos, but its is just so pretty

It has an active street life, with markets, people playing dominoes, food and drink vendors, add a selection of horses and donkeys.

The central market was an explosion of colours, smells, and fruity goodness.

It is an ideal place for wandering with no destination.

The only downside to Grenada was that it was blisteringly hot and humid. It was hot in Estelí but in a comfortable sort of way. It was so hot when I was in Granada in February that at certain points I felt like I couldn’t see. No matter, the city had an ample assortment of charming cafes and breezy courtyards that I could sit in to take respite from the heat and drink a refreshing beverage or a coffee.

And that’s basically what I did in Granada: I wandered around, I looked at buildings, I took pictures, and I had and I had tasty (non-alcoholic) beverages.

*smoothies, coffee, and a virgin passion fruit colada*

One of the great things about being Granada was that there was a variety of food. It reminded me a lot of Antigua, Guatemala in the sense that it really does cater to tourists and so it has charming cafes with good assortments of vegetarian food. I was in heaven I was able to have vegetarian dishes and nice salads without getting sick. The downside of this was Granada is not particularly cheap. You’re going to pay almost Canadian prices for the pleasures of those lovely cafes. But I was fine with it.

Smoking Cigars in Granada

Of course I smoked cigars. There was one small cigar factory in Granada: Dona Elba. It’s tiny, as their main factory is in Estelí, but there were people in there rolling cigars and cigars were for sale. I made a point of going there and tried a couple of their locally rolled cigars, each of which was only OK. I sat in a rocking chair in their shop area and smoked this very unfortunately named cigar when I was joined by the tired wife of a cigar curious tourist who sat down to talk to me. It was one of those conversations that started normal but then took a turn when this woman, who was from America, began telling me about her COVID conspiracy theories and how Muslims are ruining Europe. Awkward. I obviously don’t agree with her theories and there’s just no point in debating some people. At that point I miss being in Estelí where almost no one spoke English.

*A nice little factory with unremarkable (and one unfortunately named) cigars*

One other note on cigars, don’t buy any here unless it is from a proper cigars store (and even then be careful); Granada was full of egregious fake cigars – not just fake Cubans, but fake non-Cubans, like Padron, Fuente. Nasty looking things, some with beetle holes.

In the evenings I sat outside enjoying the less hot air and smoking cigars, well the people from the nearby hostels marauded about in search of drinks.

It was all perfectly pleasant and was an excellent end to my time in Nicaragua.

Heading Home

I flew home via Mexico City where I had a ten-hour overnight layover. Normally, when flying through Mexico City I’ll go into the city, but I had no desire to go in the middle of the night sleep couple hours and come back to the airport, so I booked a ‘room’ at a little pod hostel just outside of the airport. (izZzleep.) Literally outside the door of the airport and up a flight of stairs. It was my first time staying in one of these little space age pods and I loved it. Great use of my time and money.

Nicaragua was a success I felt fulfilled and rejuvenated.

My next trip would keep me in the Americas: a short jaunt to southern California.

Nicaragua

At Home with Plasencia Cigars in Estelí, Nicaragua

After Las Villas and Rocky Patel, my next cigar factory visit was Plasencia. I was delighted. I had only learned of Plasencia the previous year when I was working in Antigua, Guatemala. The proprietors of the best lounge in Antigua (Antigua Cigars) told me the story of the Plasencia family and introduced me to their cigars. They have been in regular rotation for me ever since.

The Plasencia family started out in the industry in the mid 1800s as tobacco farmers in Cuba after the Plasencia patriarch immigrated there from the Canary Islands. They left during he revolution in the early 1960s and moved their operation to Nicaragua. In the 1970s the turbulence in Nicaragua caused them to move to Honduras where they started making cigars for other brands. In the 1990s they returned to Nicaragua and became one the of the most famous and prolific growers and producers (still for other grands) of the cigars outside of Cuba. In 2017, the family decided to start producing cigars under their own name and the Plasencia brand of cigars was born. They are excellent cigars, the Alma Fuerte being my favourite.

I love how they have been in the business for generations and how they have innovated to grow certified organic tobacco and developed way to grow the crops with less water. They are committed to environmental practices. I should say here that no was is paying or asking me to write this. I’m just a fan.

So I was delighted when I was invited to tour the Plasencia factory in Estelí.

I walked to the factory from my hotel. Long and hot, but manageable. I didn’t want to deal with taxis.

I entered the impressive yellow building and was met with my host.

He took me on a tour of the factory. I won’t go through the steps involved or how this experience enlivened my already deep-rooted passion for cigars, as I have done that in the Las Villas and Rocky Patel posts. I was walked through the same, incredible process of cigar fermentation, rolling, aging, testing, and finishing. All by hand, as it has been done for centuries.

The family’s history is told in a series of photos and the story displayed on a wall after entering the building.

A few things surprised me about Plasencia. It isn’t just a company where these people work; they pride themselves on being a responsible employer. (Take note, corporations.) They pay a good wage, they provide health care onsite, they provide free pre-school for the children of workers, they grow food and use it to supply meals to their workers…it was apparent that this is a company that cares. I usually cringe when I hear an employer calling its workplace a family, but there was a true sense of that here. The walls were lined with quotes from writers and thinkers like Emerson and there were displays about the Plasencia baseball team and about the importance of mental health. It was impressive, and not what I expected. They even make a point of employing blind people in certain jobs where the task can be done by touch. I came in as a fan of the cigars and left as a fan of that and their corporate culture.

The tour ended in their onsite cigar lounge / café / bar, where I had a coffee and cigars and continued to chat with my host.

I left, with a nice gift bag, and my host insisted on driving my back to my hotel. (He thought it was crazy I had walked.) When he turned on his truck, 1980s Madonna blasted from the speakers. “The radio?” I asked curiously. “No. It is a CD,” he replied and said how much he liked Madonna. Full of surprises, down to the final moments.

These three cigar factory visits were incredible. I felt even more zealous about this thing that I love and that has, truly, shaped so much of my life. It was also a reminder of the kindness and generosity of cigar people and how, despite being strangers, we connect over this shared passion.

What a great way to end my week in Estelí. The next day I would leave Estelí for Granada.

Nicaragua

Farm to Factory with Rocky Patel

During my week in Estelí, Nicaragua, and the day after my visit to the Las Villas cigar factory I had the privilege of visiting the Rocky Patel farm and factory.

Rocky Patel is a brand started in the mid 90s by a Hollywood lawyer named Rakesh “Rocky” Patel who became passionate about cigars and sold his law practice to start a cigar company. This is a story that is close to my heart. Today Rocky Patel is one of the best known non Cuban brands in the world.

Factory

The people at Rocky Patel were unbelievably generous with their time. I was met by a representative of the company, a girl named Gissell who spoke excellent English, and she took me on a tour of the factory. She walked me through the entire process from rolling the cigars to aging them, banding to boxing them. I was familiar with the process, and it was fresh in my mind for having visited the factory yesterday, but I appreciated seeing how the Rocky Patel factory operates.

It was a big operation, but like all cigar factories, things are pretty simple. It’s a room with long wooden tables, divided into sections, kind of like cubicles in a library, and a person sits at each one and does their job. There’s the person who bunches the tobacco, creating the blend, the person who rolls the tobacco, the person who takes the cigars and puts them into a wooden cigar press to help them hold their shape, the person who applies the wrapper (which is the outside leaf), and the person who takes each cigar and puts it into a little machine that puffs air through it to check to see if it is rolled correctly. If the cigar is rolled too tight you can’t smoke it easily, and if the cigar is rolled to loosely it burns too quickly and too hot. The man who does the testing keeps track of whose cigars or not meeting the standard.

rollers

We also visited the room where women de-vein the tobacco leaves, the and the room where men are sorting the cigar leaves into bundles to make the blends, weighing them, and keeping the records. Everything is done by hand. Pen and paper.

The factories are warm. There are fans but you can’t have air conditioning blowing on the tobacco. Tobacco is a sensitive product that needs to be kept warm, but not too warm; and humid but not too humid.

The atmosphere of the room is nice. People seem to be having a good time, or as much as you can while working. A lot of them have headphones in but others are chatting with each other as they roll cigars, but they are working quickly. A perfect marriage of speed and precision is desirable. I tried rolling a cigar once and I know first-hand that it is not as easy as they make it look.

After the cigars are rolled, they are aged in bundles on shelves for anywhere from a few months to up to a year before they are boxed and sold.

When it is time for the cigars to be boxed, there is someone whose job it is to separate the cigars into different shades of brown, to ensure that when you buy a box of cigars there is a uniform colour of the cigars in the box. This is purely for aesthetics. The lighter coloured cigars go with the lighter coloured cigars and the darker with the darker coloured cigars. In Cuba, it is said that they separate the cigars into 40 different shades of brown. I don’t know if that’s accurate or if it’s true in Estelí, but the man who was doing the colour organizing certainly had a lot of different shades of brown on the table in front of him.

The cigars are banded, again, by hand, and put into boxes for distribution and sale.

Just as with the day before, I felt amazed by the level of work that goes into making each cigar and how little it has changed over the centuries.

When the tour of the factory was finished, we were joined by Luis, a former lawyer himself, and we took a drive out to the farm.

Farm

This was a new experience for me. I had visited a tobacco farm in Cuba, but at the time the plants had been harvested so it wasn’t much to see. Being at the Rocky Patel farm in Estelí, I was giddy with excitement. It was stunning. The header image on this post is a view of the field. Bright green plants against a clear blue sky. It looked like heaven.

I wandered to the fields and took pictures and gently caressed leaves like a real weirdo.

Another thing I hadn’t seen before, was tobacco flowers. These are the flowers that grow on the tobacco plant. They’re pink! I had no idea.

Right near the fields, were large barns where the tobacco goes after it’s harvested.

Once the leaves are harvested, they go into the barn where they are hung on wooden rods high up into the barns rafters. When they’re hung up, they’re green and as they dry, they turn brown. The racks of leaves are rotated to ensure that they all get uniform humidity and exposure. As with every other aspect of cigar production, this is all done by hand. Women string the tobacco leaves into long garlands; men take the tobacco leaf garlands up into the rafters and hang them over the wooden beams. The barn smells incredible.

They told me that once a year they have fancy dinners in the barn where they bring in a large table and eat and drink surrounded by tobacco. I tried unsuccessfully to wrangle an invitation.

We then visited the building where the tobacco was put into, effectively, big piles, where it ferments for up to a year. The tobacco must be kept at a very stable state of humidity and temperature, and it is monitored constantly.

Finally, and a bit out of sequence, we visited the greenhouses where the little tobacco seedlings start their lives. Future cigars. I have never been so excited to visit a nursery.

The people at Rocky Patel were so wonderful. Explaining to me the entire process, tolerating my ceaseless enthusiasm, and not laughing too hard at me when I tripped walking in the field and landed in a muddy creek. At the end of the visit, they gave me a small gift box with an assortment of their cigars. There’s no people like cigar people.

*me, Gissell, and Luis. I didn’t get the pink shirt memo*.

I felt so lucky to have been able to visit these two factories. An at the time that I visited Rocky Patel I thought that it would be the second of two factory visits that I would make; but that afternoon I got an e-mail arranging for me to visit Plasencia the next day, which would be my final day in Estelí.

Nicaragua

Visiting Las Villas Cigar Factory in Estelí

In was in Estelí, Nicaragua remote working for a week and, as it is the cigar production centre of Nicaragua, I had reached out (with the help of a Spanish speaking colleague) to some factories to arrange tours to Las Villas, Rocky Patel, and Plasencia. This led to one of the more unique and personal experiences I have had, combining two of my passions: travel and cigars.

The first of the factories that I visited in Estelí was Las Villas. This wasn’t a factory or brand that I was familiar with, but they were the first to extend an invitation so happily accepted.

I walked there from my hotel. It took a little less than half an hour but the heat made it feel longer. Along the walk I passed other buildings that had cigar logos on the outside. These were not ones that I was familiar with and appeared to be small operations. Occasionally I walked past a building that had no signage outside whatsoever but I could hear voices and smell tobacco through the cracks in the windows. I don’t mean that I could smell smoke from tobacco I meant that I could smell raw tobacco, and it was apparent to me that these were also small rolling operations. There are entire streets in Estelí that smell like tobacco, or like heaven depending on your perspective.

*other, random factories passed en route*

I walked down some unpaved back roads in a residential neighbourhood and passed a couple of donkeys when I found my destination. Behind the security gate was a small, new-looking building containing the cigar factory.

I was met by a fellow who gave me a tour of the factory, I think because his English was the best of the people on staff. And I feel like a jerk because I wrote down the names of the people that I met but I lost the paper and so I don’t remember his name, but this was him and me in the picture enjoying a cigar.

He took me through the Las Villas where people were fermenting tobacco, rolling cigars, bundling and aging them. This glimpse into cigar production was truly fascinating. I had visited factories previously in Miami and Cuba, but it was still thrilling to see. Something about cigars that not many people realize unless you know cigars is how many steps it takes to make a cigar from when you plant the seed to when you box them up. They go through a long and intricate process of growing, harvesting, aging, fermenting, sorting, rolling, testing, aging some more, banding, and boxing. It is said that a cigar passes through 200 hands on its way to being ready to smoke. It’s one of those rare items that still, today, is made entirely by hand. I find it kind of moving to see all of these people handcrafting this thing that I enjoy so much. I don’t think I take it for granted, but it is very special to see first hand all of the effort that goes into a cigar.

My guide showed me around the factory and took me into the rooms where they were aging tobacco. He gave me a cigar to sample which was excellent (and thankfully it was excellent, because I had never had these cigars before and it would have been an awkward experience if the cigars were bad).

Cigars in various forms. The ones in the middle at the ‘By the Book’.
The little oily pigtail ones on the end are a custom roll for a buyer.

After the tour I was taken into the office of the owner of the company and his brother. Guillermo Pena Jr. Is the owner of Las Villas and of course I forget his brother’s name because I lost the little piece of paper where I wrote it down. The brother didn’t speak English, but Guillermo did. He told me the story of how he and his brother grew up in Cuba and worked as cigar rollers there before escaping to Miami in the early 2000s. They started working initially at cigar factories in Miami before going out on their own to create their own cigars. They eventually created a factory in Estelí, Nicaragua and started rolling cigars for other brands as well as creating their own. They started with eight rollers and today they have over 200. While I was there, I tried a Las Villas cigar called By The Book, which came in a cigar box that looked like a book. It was excellent. Full bodied, leathery, earthy, with a hint of natural sweetness, and a perfect construction in an oily wrapper. It was a truly amazing experience to be sitting in this office on the leather sofa in the middle of a cigar factory in the middle of Nicaragua talking about cigars with these men. bonded over our mutual passion.

I left feeling elated. It was such a unique experience – but it was only the first of three.

The next day I would visit Rocky Patel and tour both the farm and factory.

Nicaragua

Tobacco Town: A Week in Estelí, Nicaragua

Workation

Anyone who’s followed me or knows me in person knows that I love cigars. I won’t go into my personal history with cigars, which has been a life-changing passion going back to about 1997; that is another story for a different blog. When I had an opportunity to do a one week ‘workation’ in 2024, it was my passion for the leaf that took me to Nicaragua. For the last couple of years, I can take one week per year and work remotely in addition to my annual paid time off. The first year I went to Guatemala, and this (second) time to Nicaragua. It’s essential that I do the workation in a time zone that roughly lines up with Vancouver’s. I’ll probably explore most of Central America this way.

But where in Nicaragua? Granada was the obvious choice, as it is so charming, but I decided to go to a less picturesque destination: Estelí.

Estelí is not a tourist destination; It is a regular working town in central Nicaragua that is famous for growing some of the best tobacco in Central America. At least half of the population of Estelí works in the cigar industry in one way or another. I couldn’t get an accurate count on how many cigar farms or factories there were in the area. I managed to find about 30 online but I was told that there was probably twice as many.

Estelí seemed like a good choice. It’s famous for producing something that I love and, aside from that, it doesn’t really have any other sights or attractions that would distract me from my work. (There are some nearby hikes, but that’s it.)

Arrival in Nicaragua

I flew into Managua and then had to make my way to Estelí. Managua is the closest airport to Estelí and the only way there is by vehicle. There are buses, but they’re slow. I was arriving in Estelí from Vancouver via Mexico City, where I had spent the night, so by the time I would arrive in Nicaragua it would be Saturday afternoon and I wanted to arrive in Estelí before it got dark. So I arranged for a car.

I found a driver online – Mr. Ow of Mr Ow Nica Travel – who offers driving services around the country and asked him if he would make this drive for me. He said he would. I wholly recommend him he was an excellent driver and very professional. It was also nice to make the drive from Managua to Estelí in a car so that I could enjoy the scenery as well as ask Mr. Ow about life in Nicaragua. It wasn’t a super picturesque drive, but it was nice to see some fields of green and donkeys pulling carts.

Growing up, the only time I heard anything about Nicaragua was on the news, and it was always violence and political upheaval, and American-born news reporters with no Spanish accent suddenly pronouncing the name Nicaragua as though they were raised in the heart of Managua. (“Nee-Ka-rrrá-Gua”)

While it’s a bit of a stereotype from Nicaragua it’s also true that it was violent and had political upheaval and lots of American political meddling. The country was under a series of dictatorships and revolutions from the late 1930s until the 90s (Somoza, Sandinistas, Contras), with a war and a devastating earthquake on top of it all. In the 1990s, when it started to re-establish itself as a stable state, it was decimated by terrible hurricanes. It’s only really since about the mid 2000s that it’s got on its feet. Or did it?

While there isn’t any active war, Nicaragua struggles with democracy and dictatorships to this day. Political participation is limited, and the current president has been in power for 23 years across two different periods. During his second period, he removed term limits from the constitution and recently made his wife vice president. When I am visiting countries with tricky governments, I try not to ask people too much about the local politics for fear that they or I get in trouble. To the extent that locals talked about politics with me on this trip they didn’t seem happy with the system and spoke about it in hushed tones.

Nicaragua is one of the safer countries in Central America, but it’s still not considered safe. I felt completely safe the entire time that I was there, but I don’t know if that’s a universal experience.

Estelí

We got to Estelí, it also wasn’t that picturesque, but it would be my home for the next week.

Estelí has a population of approximately 120,000. I find that shocking because it felt like a small town, but I gather that I was staying in the centre and that there is more of the city perhaps spread out. The area that I stayed in felt old-ish. There were some cobblestone-type streets and single-story colonial buildings painted in bright colours and at least one square with an old churches.

It looks lovely right? And it was pretty. Not as pretty as Antigua or Granada, but it did have many of the elements of an attractive Central American colonial town. What it didn’t have was things catering to tourists. On one hand this was great; I felt like Estelí was a completely authentic experience. On the other hand, it wasn’t an easy place to spend a week in. Very few people spoke English, so I had to rely on my rudimentary Spanish. Finding vegetarian food was almost impossible. Most nights I would ask people to make me a bean and vegetable burrito. And one night I just had a virgin piña colada and a cigar for dinner. There wasn’t a plethora of cute little cafes with free Wi-Fi like you would have in a more touristy place like Antigua, but there were some. There was one very picturesque little cafe (Coffee Lovers Estelí) that did have free Wi-Fi and wasn’t too far from my hotel and there was a place selling smoothies and there were and there were one or two patios to sit on.

Sometimes when I drive through countries from one destination to another I will pass by a town or small city of no particular note and I’ll wonder what life is like in a place like that; just a regular town with no real attractions. Estelí was that experience. People got up and they went to work and they hung out in the park in the evening when it was hot and then they went home. Men walked around wearing cowboy hats and cowboy boots and jeans and nobody seemed particularly interested in displaying the sights or history of their town. Every morning, a siren went off at about 5:00 AM signalling to people that it is time to start work. I used this as my signal that I should do likewise.

I stayed the Hotel Los Arcos, which is probably the nicest hotel in the centre of the city and I booked myself into the biggest room. I figured, since I’m going to be there doing work, I may as well have some space. It wasn’t ideal for work, lacking any sort of a desk or table. I spent most of my working days sitting on a wooden bench working at a coffee table in the common areas, smoking cigars. That was great, cigar-wise. The place was very cigar friendly. And while the staff didn’t speak a word of English, they were very kind and we exchanged small conversations.

*My hotel and, on the right, where I worked most days*

I did get violently ill for about out two days during my time in Estelí following an attempt to eat a salad ordered from a takeout window at a taco shop. I think that was a mistake. And that put a bit of a damper on things, but I was still able to tend to my work and enjoy my cigars.

And the cigar is really where the highlight of Estelí. I could smoke anywhere, which was a treat, but more importantly I had arranged to visit some farms and factories while I was there. It is possible to arrange for a tour in some cases to visit certain farms and factories there, but they generally don’t do them for individuals. Fortunately, my law firm is one of the sponsors of the Caribbean Cigar Celebration, an annual cigar event in Vancouver, and I used that as my way two reach out to these places. Only three factories got back to me, but that was enough. While I was there, I visited Las Villas, Rocky Patel, and Plasencia. I know that if you don’t know anything about cigars these names won’t mean anything to you, and that’s okay. I will write separate posts about these visits so they’re easy for people to skip if they’re not interested. But for me it was thrilling and one of the more unique trips that I’ve had.

My days in Estelí, apart from visiting farms and factories, were spent with a morning stroll, an eight or so hours of work, and an evening out for dinner, another walk, and a cigar, seeing who I could meet and what I could see along the way. Not exciting, but pleasant.

Would I recommend that people go to Estelí? Not unless you are a huge cigar fan and very excited to learn more about the process of growing cultivating and rolling cigars. Otherwise carry on to Granada or one of the other more touristy regions of Nicaragua.

Moving On

I did go to Grenada on my last weekend, and it was excellent and provided me with all the touristy comforts that Estelí lacked, but the highlight was visiting those tobacco farms and cigar factories, which reaffirmed and revitalized my passion for cigars.

Choose your own adventure! Want to Read about my visits to Las Villas, Rocky Patel, and Plasencia? Click your choice. Want to jump ahead to picturesque Granada? Click here.

Algiers-Nice-Athens 2024 Greece

Athenian Odyssey – Day 2 of 3

After my arrival the previous day, I awoke on my second day in Athens in my little self-contained rooftop apartment at the City Circus Hostel. I looked out over the city and gazed at my destination: the Parthenon. I didn’t have time to mess around. One of the things you hear most about Athens is that it’s overrun with tourists. Maybe that’s more true in the summertime than in February when I was there, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. I wanted to be there right when they opened at 8:00 AM.

*A bread circle for breakfast and the Tzistarakis Mosque in Monastiraki*

I walked from my hostel to the site. It only took about 22 minutes and was a very pleasant walk through the quiet streets. Buying tickets for the Acropolis seemed a little bit daunting; there were a lot of options: skip-the-line, audio guide package tickets, timed tickets, etc. I just decided to walk up to the ticket gate and buy my ticket in person. I was the first person there when it opened at 8:00. About 5 minutes behind me was a group of three or four other people. It wasn’t until about an hour later that I really noticed an uptick in the number of visitors, but even then there were not many. The ticket to enter was only about €20, which I thought was very reasonable. I think there would have been a lot of reasons to get a guide to explain more of the history, but as I felt a little bit short on time and tend to be a little bit impatient with guides, I just decided to walk around and look at all the ruins on my own.

It was an extremely pleasant visit. The temperature was perfect, the views of the city were great, and, as I said, I felt like I had the place to myself. As far as Greek and Roman ruins go, I’m not always a fan. Sometimes I think they are amazing (e.g., Jerash in Jordan) and other times, if I have to do too much work to imagine what might have been there in the past (e.g., Carthage in Tunisia), I can find them underwhelming. The Acropolis was in the former category. The buildings that are there are still intact (for the most part) and some still have their original decorative carvings on the outside. It is amazing to think how long they have stood there overlooking the city (going back to the 5th century BCE). As impressive as they were, I’m not one to linger, so I probably spent about two hours there before I decided I’d had enough and headed over to the museum.

The Acropolis Museum is just at the base of the Acropolis, so it was the next logical stop. I know not everyone is a museum person, but even if you’re not, I think this is a museum worth visiting. It’s a beautiful modern building with lots of light and it’s filled with incredible artifacts and sculptures. Sure, not everyone gets excited about clay pots, but it’s hard not to be impressed with massive statues, many of which still feature incredible detail including some of the original paint. You can take pictures in most of the museum except in one area where the most impressive and ancient pieces are housed. You’ll have to use your imagination for those or Google them, but it’s truly astonishing. I took way too many pictures and am trying to maybe use something that I saw there as inspiration for a tattoo.

From the museum, I wandered back through the city, walking the streets and meandering my way over to the Central Market, which is a great place to go for fruits, nuts, and skinned goat heads. As far as markets go, it was OK, but I greatly enjoyed having coffee at Mokka, a cafe right by the market on Athinas St., which has been in business since 1923. They still make traditional Greek coffee where the coffee is made in a little pot, similar to Turkish coffee, but it’s heated in sand. Truly, I couldn’t tell the difference between it and Turkish coffee, but either way, it was delicious. I had that and a baklava and watched a bit of the street life before carrying on.

I wandered around some more and headed in the direction of the Hotel Grande Bretagne, where I visited the Alexander Cigar Bar. It is, I think, the only proper cigar lounge that I found in Athens. Maybe they don’t need one because smoking is so acceptable in public, but it was nice to find a little refuge. The bar was beautiful, everything you want in a cigar lounge, from dark woods and paintings to a fireplace and jazz music. They do sell some cigars there but they don’t require that you buy one. I smoked a cigar that I brought with me and had a Negroni. They even brought a little assortment of snacks to accompany the cocktail. I love any cocktail that comes with snacks. Truly, it was a little haven.

From there, I took the subway from outside the parliament buildings to the stop near the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (ΕΜΣΤ), for a bit of modern art. I think it was €10 to get in, and it was definitely worth it. It was one of those places that’s full of “weird” art. Interesting installations and video projections with lots of art inspired by political inequality, torture, and identity. I loved it.

I made my way back to the neighbourhood near my hostel. It was dark at this point; I ate another delicious vegetarian dinner with some magical potatoes and smoked a bit of shisha before calling it a day. It was an excellent day; the only downside, if I had to think of one, is that I didn’t really meet anybody. When I went for my coffees, cigars, and shisha, nobody really seemed that interested in chatting. I didn’t meet any other travelers in those places and the locals were, understandably, just content to be with their friends or themselves. But none of that bothered me; I was happy just to have a relaxing day of proper solo traveling.

If that was the end of my time in Athens, I would have been completely satisfied, but I had a third and final day yet to go. I had to do a little bit of research to come up with some additional things to do, but find them I did, including visiting the truly charming Anafiotika neighbourhood. But I shall save that for the third in my trilogy of Athens posts. Read on here.

*So much graffiti & street art in Athens*

Algiers-Nice-Athens 2024 Greece

Athenian Odyssey – Day 1 of 3

I wasn’t that excited about going to Greece. I don’t know why. Everything I had heard about it was good but something about it just kept me away. But on my Athens, Nice, Monaco trip, it just seemed such an easy opportunity to hop over to Athens for a few days. Athens was the place in Greece that I most wanted to visit. The islands look beautiful but boring to me and I have no interest in spending time on a boat. Athens had a sort of appeal in that it looks kind of dirty and a little rough around the edges. That, mixed with all the antiquities, left me a bit intrigued.

I flew in from Nice via Paris, landing in the afternoon the airport in Athens. The train was a bit annoying. I was happy that there was a train into the city, but I had to wait over an hour for it to arrive. In hindsight I probably should have just taken a taxi, but train I did. I took it to Monastiraki station (it takes about 45 minutes) and walked to my hostel: the City Circus Hostel, located in the Psyrri neighbourhood, which is very close to Monastiraki. City Circus Hostel was a funky place in a heritage building. I liked the area immediately; it was mostly pedestrian streets lined with eateries and bars, with the occasional falling down building wallpapered in graffiti. Everyone was smoking. OK, this might not be too bad.

The hostel was great. I had decided to splurge on this little self-contained apartment on the roof with a private patio. It was a great bargain and gave me lots of privacy. I think I could have spent a month there looking out over the city. I even had my own view of the Parthenon.

But there was no time to rest, so I went out and walked around into the night. I had a cigar and a meal at a cute little cafe near my hostel and then just wandered around to get the lay of the land. The squares were full of people, mostly young, hanging around drinking, eating, yelling. It felt lively and not at all threatening. I visited a couple of churches, which stayed open late into the night and seemed to have an endless stream of religious attendees.

I don’t know what one is supposed to do in the evening in Athens, but I think I could have been happy just hopping from cafe to restaurant to bar all evening. Every place looked very appealing and had these and had wonderful patios that were cigar friendly and an excellent assortment of vegetarian food.

I wrapped up the evening on the patio of a bar called the Verve Music Café, which had a very appealing décor that would describe as ‘Rat Pack dive’ and played excellent jazz music.

I was excited for the next day when I would get up early and visit the Acropolis and Parthenon.

Those are my first impressions. Athens seemed pretty cool, easy going, cheap, tasty, an intriguing. It was certainly an easy place to visit. No special visas required for my passport, they use the Euro, many people spoke English, and no one seemed put out that I didn’t speak Greek. (I mean, there’s literally a saying “It’s Greek to me,” which suggests that it’s not easiest language to learn to speak.) And as I walked around that evening it really was dawning on me that I was in this very ancient city a place that invented or made significant contributions to, nearly everything? It looks like a perfectly normal city; you’re just walking around, looking for a place to get a coffee and the-BAM-you are face to face with a 2000-year-old ruins. And on the building around the corner is graffiti telling tourists to fuck off, and next to that is a church full of people praying at 9:00 PM, and people are selling bread circles and getting pickpocketed and getting drunk and aesthetically pleasing restaurant patios are brimming with diners being serenaded with live music while stray cats look for food to run off with… Athens made a good first impression.

I was only in Athens for three days, but I feel like I saw a lot – I certainly took a lot of pictures – and so I shall divide my Athens posts into thirds, one for each day. Read on for day two here.

Algiers-Nice-Athens 2024 Monaco

A Loser in Monaco

On my third day in Nice, I set out to accomplish the reason that I traveled there in the first place, which was to visit Monaco. Monaco, the second smallest sovereign state in the world (after Vatican City). A dot on the map in the French Riviera famous for yachts, gambling, and royalty. I don’t necessarily have a desire to visit every country in the world, but I just could not leave this European micro-state unvisited by me.

Getting from Nice to Monaco

Monaco makes a perfect day trip from Nice. Clearly, the best way to reach it would be by a car; preferably convertible, hugging the curving highways as you travel east; sunglasses on, a cigarette in your mouth, and the object of your affection by your side. But I don’t know how to drive…so I was going to take the train. When I mentioned this to the staff at my hotel, they assured me that I was making the wrong decision. While normally when given the option between train and bus, train is the better choice, in this case it is not. The train travels inland between Nice and Monaco, while the bus travels the iconic highway along the French Riviera. The people at the hotel assured me that if I did not take the bus I would be missing out on some extraordinary views. Who was I question them?

I left early in the morning from my hotel and took the tram to Port Lympia station. The distance was walkable, but I wanted to get an early start. From the station, just around the corner of a church, was the bus stop for #607 that headed to Monaco. I think it’s a good idea to get there early so that you can queue up, because you really want to get a seat on the right-hand side of the bus so that you can see the views.

tram in Nice

Leaving Nice & the bus to Monaco

Most people taking the bus seemed to be locals going to work. As such, the bus was a pretty relaxing journey. Quiet and comfortable. It even had little USB phone chargers. The whole thing took about an hour.

The views were spectacular. I wished that I could have popped out at every city along the way to have a bit of a wander. The road did indeed hug the curves along the mountains looking down at the sea and charming towns and villages. It was impossible to get good photos, but I tried to snap a few through the window.

view of the Riviera

Arrival in Monaco

Upon arriving in Monaco there are numerous stops where one can disembark. You can go right to Monte Carlo if that’s your scene, but I had a few other things to see first so I got off at the Place d’Armes. This allowed me to visit the palace, cathedral, and aquarium before walking to Monte Carlo. As soon as I got off the bus I took a moment to acknowledge that I was in a new country. There was a farmers market happening and I bought an exquisite pear. Seriously, I’m still thinking about how delicious this pear was.

Arrival in Monaco & The Perfect Pear

On the Steps of the Palace

I then walked up the hill to the palace. Monaco is a monarchy. It also has a Prime Minister, but it is more famous for its monarchy. At the top of the hill along with some excellent views of the harbor and various yachts, was the palace. Normally you can visit it, but on the day that I arrived it was closed.

I went to the Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate where Princess Grace was buried. As a lover of old movies, I was always fascinated by this beautiful actress who went from being an Alfred Hitchcock films to marrying a Prince and moving to Europe. I paid my respects to moved on.

*walking around near the palace and cathedral*

The Oceanographic Museum

It was a beautiful walk to The Oceanographic Museum. An aquarium? Really? I’m not normally one to visit such a place, but I had heard that the aquarium in Monaco was indeed worth visiting. The museum was inaugurated in 1911 and is housed in a beautiful Bella pock building that clings to a Cliff over the Mediterranean. For a glimpse inside alone, it’s worth buying a ticket. The facility was headed Jacques Cousteau for nearly 30 years. This isn’t the sort of problematic aquarium where orcas are going to leap out of the water for your amusement. This is more of a scientific type of aquarium and the animals on display are primarily things like fish and eels. I thoroughly enjoyed walking through and seeing the beautiful displays of fish as well as the museum portion of the building which contained fascinating relics from naval and Arctic expeditions. It was also pleasant to get out of the sun for about an hour.

The Casino de Monte-Carlo

From the aquarium, I walked towards Monte Carlo. Now I felt like I was really seeing Monaco. The streets were beautiful and everyone looked wealthy. Beautiful cars and expensive looking shops. It was a short walk. My destination: the Casino de Monte-Carlo.

Arriving to the area in front of the casino there were art displays of Princess Grace and Prince Ranier III as well as depictions of Hollywood stars like Frank Sinatra (with whom Grace starred in ‘High Society’).

My first order of business is walking to the local cigar store to check out the selection. Prices were not too bad so I bought a handful of Cuban cigars and made my way over to the Café de Paris on the square in front of the Casino de Monte-Carlo.

*the Cafe de Paris patio and view of the Casino; my newly purchased cigars.*

The casino closes from noon to 2:00 every afternoon. I had arrived in that blackout, so I decided to have a drink (or two) on the patio of the Café de Paris. It is the perfect spot. It is a large patio with everyone facing towards the square looking at the beautiful buildings and the casino, watching the people coming and going. It is definitely a place with a lot of tourists, but also locals and wealthy visitors. There was a fleet of luxury cars parked out front and on the day that I visited there was also a gaggle of paparazzi pointing their cameras at the casino, but I don’t know for who or what. I know it wasn’t for me.

I had an excellent time sitting on the patio. I had a cigar and two negronis and felt pretty good by myself. The servers were very friendly. All the while I was steeling my nerves to go into the casino and try my hand at roulette.

I am not a gambler. I don’t like casinos, and I think gambling is silly unless you just really enjoy the rush of doing it. I do not enjoy that rush. I would much rather just have my money in my pocket and spend it on something that I like; however, I wasn’t coming all the way to Monte Carlo and not trying a game in the casino. I had decided that I would play roulette because slots are lame and I don’t know how to play any card games.

I did some studying before I went to Monte Carlo, to figure out if there was any strategy to roulette (apart from “always bet on black”) or what the etiquette about it was. I think this was a good idea, because before doing this research I somehow thought that I got to spin the roulette wheel. Apparently, that is a faux pas.

One can enter the lobby of the casino and have a look around the lobby for free. But if you want to enter the gaming salons, you need two things: one is your passport. Seriously, do not go to Monaco without your passport. As well, you need to pay an entry fee. You pay €20 to enter the casino, but if you enter after 2:00pm, €10 of that you can use for drinks or games in the casino. I thought it was quite reasonable.

The interior of the casino is gorgeous. The gaming tables make it seem very ‘James Bond’. The room that has the slot machines in it feels a bit tacky, but the main room is excellent. I felt like a huge fraud walking inside. I don’t gamble, I’m not rich, and I didn’t know what I was doing.

I walked over to the bar and used my €10 voucher towards an espresso martini. I sat down on one of the sofas and watched the action. Unfortunately smoking is not allowed inside, or I would have lit a cigar immediately. It has the kind of atmosphere that begs to be smoked in.

I tried to look cool and watch people playing games. Photos are not allowed inside but I did sneak one just for the sake of my own memory.

I finished my drink and I walked up to one of the roulette tables. There was a couple at it playing roulette; middle-aged European; they clearly knew what they were doing. I had exchanged €120 into chips. A friend had given me €60 to play on the table, and I decided to match their €60 with €60 of my own. This was the most that I have ever spent on gambling and probably ever will.

I didn’t really have a strategy, but I wanted the moment to last for as long as possible so I made small, simple bets in the hopes that I would win something.

The European couple realized that I didn’t know what I was doing and gave me some advice. They were quite kind. I would have thought that people gambling in Monte Carlo would have been snobby, but these people were not. I didn’t exactly feel comfortable, but I didn’t feel unwelcome

Each time the wheel was spun (sounding to me more like ‘The Price in Right’ than ‘Casino Royle’) I had a little flicker of hope that maybe I would double my money and walk out a winner. One time I did win something, and decided to let it ride. Then I lost. Indeed, on every hand other than that one, I lost my money. It didn’t take long before my 120 euros was gone.

I had a good time, but I was a little disappointed that I didn’t walk out winning something. Or at least breaking even. I know that the reason that casinos are so rich is because people generally lose, but I couldn’t help but think that maybe I would be different. Maybe I would have a magical Monte Carlo gambling experience. But, nope.

Leaving Monaco

I walked out of the casino feeling like a loser. I was a loser. I looked around at the square and the fancy cars and the fancy cafe and I was just done with it. The sun seemed too hot, the sky too bright, and I just wanted to get out of there. I walked to the bus stop and waited for the next bus back to Nice. I couldn’t get back fast enough; maybe it was the three cocktails I’d had or the heat, or the fact that I had not eaten since I had the pear, but I started to feel a little bit sick and I just wanted to be back in Nice.

Reflections & Moving on

Monaco was an excellent day trip. It was easy and fun and different. I’m even glad that I gambled even, though it was clearly a huge waste of money, but I think that’s the last time for me. I was much happier smoking my cigars and walking around then I was spinning away my money. But I’ll try anything once.

I had a final night in Nice; dinner in a cigar. The next morning, I had a morning flight to Athens, via Paris.

Algiers-Nice-Athens 2024 France

Two Perfect Days in Nice

Algiers to Nice

I left Algiers absurdly early on February the 13th. My destination was Nice, France. I had been to France multiple times, but never to the South. I was curious to see Nice, but my real reason for going there was to make a day trip to Monaco. But fly to Nice I did; a short hop from Algiers to Paris to Nice. I arrived at about 7:00 AM and I would have three days and three nights in the city before moving on.

From the airport I took the tram from the airport into the city centre. Easy. I walked a few blocks to my hotel, the Hotel du France (which was very nice, with great staff, quince wallpaper, and not too expensive), and dropped off my bag. I walked a few blocks to the sea.

Nice Impressions

I’m not a big fan of the ocean. I live about a block from the ocean in Vancouver and I almost never go to it. I like that it’s there and I like being near it, but I have very little desire to look out at it. I know people who are happy to just gaze out at the sea and frankly I don’t understand what the appeal is. I would much rather sit at a sidewalk cafe in interesting city, or, if I had to look out at nature, I’d much rather look at mountains or a valley than the ocean. But as I gazed out at the Mediterranean from the boardwalk in Nice, I think I kind of got it, at least for a moment. It was so stunningly beautiful. The colours of the water and sky and this uninterrupted stretch of beach were just lovely. And the fact that I could look out at it without actually having to step on sand was even better. They have these strips of chairs along the boardwalk where people can gaze out at the beach and the water. And people did. And so did I.

I liked Nice instantly. For the moment I got off the tram it was beautiful. Beautiful buildings, beautiful streets, beautiful lemon trees, and beautiful people. It just had this wonderfully calm and elegant atmosphere. No one was rushing. It surprised me little. I generally prefer chaotic and loud cities, but something about Nice won me over. And I hadn’t even seen the old city centre at this point.

Day One

I walked through the city and eventually made my way over to the old part of Nice, which was even more charming. The buildings were perfect. They were old and colourful with warm tones of yellow and ochre, coral and tangerine, many with small flourishes of design and just the right amount of weathering to give them character. It was so charming.

Because it is France, many people smoke, and while many people smoke cigarettes they don’t look down their nose at people who smoke cigars, so I was in a good place. I had already mapped out a few cigar stores, some of which had seats outside, but I didn’t need particular cigar lounges, as I was welcome to enjoy a cigar on any patio. I found myself a seat on a patio and had a cigar and a coffee and watched people parade past.

Generally speaking, the people in Nice were dressed beautifully. Even out for a casual stroll they were well put together with smart blazers, jaunty scarves, beautiful bags and sunglasses. Subtly stylish and comfortable. Because I had known that I would be going to Monaco on this trip and I had wanted to smoke cigars and visit the casino there, I had dressed nicer on this trip than I usually do, and I was thankful for it when I arrived in Nice. I didn’t feel out of place. I still had my combat boots (for comfort and possible altercations) but my little black dress, blazer, and oversized sunglasses seemed to work well. Did I look like I fit in? Maybe; but that facade was all done away with once I opened my mouth, and I spoke French like a child.

I walked to the Place Massena where the famous Sun Fountain stands. It features a large statue of Apollo flanked by smaller statues of Earth, Saturn, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. It was originally built in 1956, and was somewhat controversial, because Apollo, who, in mythology, leads a chariot with four horses across the sky each day to bring light, was depicted as without his chariot and with his four horses nestled onto his head like kind of a crown. Moreover, he was nude, and not everyone could agree if he should have been or if he was too well endowed. The artist performed a sort of ‘reduction’ on the statue to please the public, which it did not, and it was taken down for many years and put into storage until finally being fully re-erected, no pun intended, in 2011. Problematic history aside it is an impressive piece, framed by salmon-coloured, curved buildings and set on a black and white checkerboard tiled square.

I spent my first day in Nice walking around and looking at buildings and taking pictures, stopping for coffee and cigars. It was very pleasant. I didn’t really have an agenda in Nice. I just wanted to see it and visit Monaco so I felt no need to take anything off a list, which was good. I had a thoroughly awful meal that evening. I made a mistake of eating at a restaurant that I think catered to tourists and I had a pizza which was gross. (As much as I like France, it still is one of the countries with the least options for vegetarians, in my experience.) While I was eating the pizza (and trying and failing to do so elegantly) outside on the patio, a pigeon flew into the window and landed under my table, in trauma. I spent the entire meal checking on it and trying to give it drinks of water hoping that it would regain its consciousness, but it died around the time I asked for the cheque. C’est la vie.

Day Two

The next day, I made my way back into old Nice (just a few minutes’ walk from my hotel) for the morning flower, fruit, and vegetable market. As if the old city needed to be anymore charming. But it was more charming. I walked around; I ate a pear and had a cigar in a coffee. I had my eagle eyes on the socca stand, waiting for it to open up. Socca is a Nice treat. It’s kind of like a very thin, crispy pancake made from olive oil and chickpea flour, sprinkled with salt and pepper and served from various stands around the city. It’s very tasty.

More beautiful buildings. I couldn’t get enough photos.

It was February the 14th. Valentine’s Day and I was in Nice, in France. I saw people out for romantic meals and holding hands, but none of that was for me. I went on a walk up to the Cimetière du Château – because why not hang out in a cemetery on Valentine’s Day?

The walk up the hill was pleasant, and past an aggressive fountain and various tile work pieces displaying Neptune another underwater creatures. At the top is the cemetery and stunning views over the city and the sea.

I wandered around up there for a while before making my way back to the Old Town.

I walked the streets a little bit more, popping into some of the shops. There are delightful vintage stores in Nice. Tiny little boutiques with well curated collections of clothing and accessories. I bought a blazer in a handbag. I’m really not a shopper, but somehow ‘Nice me’ wanted to go shopping. I then went for a very ladylike lunch of an onion tart, a glass of cheap wine, and a cigar.

As I walked around, I noticed that the hours of the restaurants and shops in Nice. I’m from Canada, where things are pretty much open seven days a week and generally long hours. Some things are open 24 hours a day. Why should we be denied the opportunity to buy toothpaste at 2:00 in the morning? But in Nice many of the shops were closed at least two days a week and their hours of operation during the day were chaotic. For example open Wednesday to Saturday from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM and 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. What this told me was that people there have some sort of quality of life. There wasn’t the need to be working every minute of the day or to be catering to customers 24/7. You want to eat in my restaurant? You fit my schedule; not the other way around. It was kind of refreshing.

I popped into the Palais Lascaris; built in 1648 as the home for the Lascaris Vintimille family until the French Revolution, it is now a museum. It was pleasant to walk through the ornate rooms and there was a particularly good collection of antique musical instruments.

I had really wanted to visit the Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, but it was closed for some sort of renovation. So I went to the Chagall museum.

I’m not a big fan of Chagall, so this museum wasn’t high on my list, even though most lists of what to do in Nice will include this is one of the top attractions. It was fine. I have a better understanding of Chagall’s work now, but it’s still not my cup of tea. However, if you like his paintings this would be a ‘must see’.

That evening, I took myself out for a quasi-romantic dinner-for-one on the patio of an Afghan restaurant in the old city of Nice. Of course I had a cigar. It was exquisite.

Nice had thoroughly charmed me and turned me into somehow a classier more relaxed version of myself. The next day would be my day trip to the micro-country of Monaco.

Algeria Algiers-Nice-Athens 2024

Museums, Monuments, & Massacres: Day 2 in Algiers

My first day in Algiers had been sunny, but on my second day in Algiers, it was pouring rain. Not a little rainfall, but a heavy, relentless torrent. I was soaked through before I had an opportunity to buy an umbrella. I didn’t realize it until later, but the rain had ruined my passport, washing away the details and colours of my photo until I looked like an apparition. Fortunately, the rain was only a morning problem. By the afternoon, the sun was out, and we began to dry off.

I met my guide Rasha (from Fancy Yellow Algeria) at my hotel, and we embarked on a day tour of Algiers, which was about eight hours. This was the first time, I think, that I have ever had a female guide, which a nice change. We started by retracing my steps from the previous day, but this time, I got to see some extra, hidden places in the casbah. Mosques and dwellings were revealed to me behind closed doors. We went to a bombed-out building where the photos of Algerian heroes hung.

*Too many casbah photos? Well then they shouldn’t make it to photogenic.*

The French colonization of Algeria was a theme.

The French were there from about 1830 to July 1962. The French brought more than beautiful buildings and a European café scene; they brought death and destruction. The tales of horrors committed by the French against the Algerians were extreme: rape, torture, burying people alive, throwing them off cliffs, and worse. This was particularly bad when the Algerians fought for their independence and the French retaliated during the Algerian War (1954-1962). While travel tends to teach me that that people are basically kind, history teaches me that we have always done terrible things to each other and probably always will.

We climbed up to a rooftop and had coffee whilst overlooking the city and the sea.

After a very nice lunch, we took the subway to the botanical gardens. The subway is limited in terms of how much it covers, but is a proper, functioning metro.

We walked through the gardens, which were stunning. Interestingly, it formed the location setting for many of the shots from the 1932 movie “Tarzan the Ape Man”. Which was shot mostly in Algiers but many of the jungle scenes specifically in the botanical gardens. The tree and lagoon from the movie are still there.

From the top of the botanical gardens, we took a gondola up to the Museum of Fine Arts. It is one of the largest Fine Arts museums in Africa and has a good collection of European and Algerian art. The museum seemed to be almost empty at the time that we were there which made for a nice experience.

From the museum we walked over to the monument of Algerian independence, a huge and imposing structure with an eternal flame the countries independence and those who died in the struggle. There is also a small museum just underneath it which isn’t a great museum but it does provide a lot of information about the war and if you enjoy viewing awkward mannequins recreating historical torture, you might really dig it.

We took the subway back downtown and parted ways. It had been an excellent and educational tour. My time in Algiers did feel a little bit rushed, because it was a little bit rushed, but I was happy with what I had seen. I had the evening free to myself. I walked around at night, feeling even more comfortable today than I had the day before and took pictures of buildings and mosques as the call to prayer rang out.

I had done some research on where to smoke cigars. I saw almost no one in Algiers smoking shisha, which was a bit surprising to me, but it just doesn’t really have that scene. I also looked into where I could smoke cigars inside and there seemed to be no real answer. I found one blog for many years ago that referenced a restaurant where smoking was allowed but I couldn’t find it anymore. However, I did find a peculiar restaurant that had both smoking and non-smoking sections and I decided to go there. It was called the Brasserie des Facultés and was a watering hole/bistro across from the university. And they do in fact have a smoking section. I was delighted. The place felt wonderfully 1970s. I ordered some dinner and enjoyed a Romeo y Julieta along with it. How civilized.

Dinner, like my lunch in Algiers, was bland. Couscous or noodles with vegetables served in a tagine. Not offensive, just bland, I longed for spicy sauces.

But good food was just around the corner as I was about to leave for France. Algeria deserves more of my time, and I definitely plan to go back to visit the desert vistas of the South, but for now this is all I would see. The next morning, the third day after I arrived in Algiers, I was on the 6:15 AM flight to Nice.

Tag: cigar

Leaving Estelí for Granada

The Poshest of Hostels

Wandering Granada

Smoking Cigars in Granada

Heading Home

Factory

Farm

Workation

Arrival in Nicaragua

Estelí

Moving On

Getting from Nice to Monaco

Arrival in Monaco

On the Steps of the Palace

The Oceanographic Museum

The Casino de Monte-Carlo

Leaving Monaco

Reflections & Moving on

Algiers to Nice

Nice Impressions

Day One

Day Two