Today I gave my best shot in going to Tipaza, the Roman ruins about 1.5h out of town. I had trouble finding the bus station based on what I read in my guidebook and the internet. One of the bus stations is now a park. By about 0900 I had given up and elected to spend the day in the room and in bed doing business admin. Yep, sightseeing fail!
Popping out for lunch, everything was closed. Oops! It is Friday. It would have been a bad day transport-wise to visit Tipaza anyway, even if I had found the station. It took me quite a distance before finding a few places open for lunch. I opted to eat lunch at a French bistro which I had earmarked for dinner.
The grilled turkey breast fillet was surprisingly nice and not too dry. They didn’t have any crème caramel which I had been looking forward to since seeing the menu yesterday. But fortunately I tried their chocolate mousse which was divine. It wasn’t light and moussey but was rich and dense; it took me a couple of mouthfuls to appreciate it.
Walking back, people were returning from Friday prayer. Many were holding a rolled-up or folded prayer mat. I haven’t seen that before. Perhaps in most countries, the mosques have prayer mats already?
Even at dinner time, many shops were still closed. I managed to find a cheap eat-in fast food place. In my bid to help finish my Dinars, I treated myself at an ice-cream parlour. A banana split with the three scoops cost DZD400 which is ridiculously expensive compared to a full chicken kebab meal plate which cost DZD550 (but I was again undercharged at DZD500).