Tunisia

So our lil cabin in the ferry to Tunis was pretty cool, just a small room with 4 beds that fold down from the wall and a little bathroom with a shower and all.



The beds weren’t too bad, and since the ferry wasn’t as big as the cruise liners you see, there was a fair amount of sway going on. It felt like you were being rocked to sleep.

In the morning Ben and I went to check out the ship – we went out to the deck and WOW was it windy. Humorous trying to walk straight as the boat was rocking so much. I started to feel like I could get seasick, so decided to get back in bed since it didn’t seem to affect me when I was lying down. The video won't load with this slow internet, but you can see from my hair that it was very windy up there.



We docked in Tunis and got stopped for a little while at the border but we weren’t sure why. Seemed like they just wanted more information about where we staying, for how long, etc. We took the train to Sidi Bou Said and hiked up the hill to our hotel. So quaint. We paid more than we would have in downtown Tunis, but it was a pretty decent little place and they included breakfast and wifi etc. Sidi Bou Said is a very picturesque little town on the coast of Tunisia. Most of the buildings are white with blue doors, making me feel a bit like I was in Greece or something. The doors are beautiful, with different designs and archways etc.




We walked around Sidi Bou Said, then went to Carthage which is the city right next to Sidi Bou Said. There are some very ancient ruins there and such but we didn’t want to pay to get in. We could see a lot of them thru the fence anyway. We also got somewhat rained out again. The rain ruined the plans to go to the beach, unfortunately.

As in most tourist spots, there are people selling all sorts of things, or doing things they want you to pay for etc. We walked past a guy with a falcon and before I knew it he came and put it on my arm. I tried to give it back telling him I had no money but he insisted it was free. Thus I ended up with pictures of a falcon on my head and on my arm. I thought of Ty – he loves falcons. After they took my picture with it, he immediately took it and put it on Brian’s head. We took pics of that and then they put it on Allen. Ben had no interest, so no bird pics for him. Of course at the end the guy wanted money. We told him he had said it was free, but he said it was free for ME, we had to pay for Brian and Allen. So stupid. So annoying. We gave him a few coins and left.







The next day we went into Tunis and went to the medina. The medina is basically the old part of the city. Its full of merchants wh0o nowadays mostly hoc tourist stuff. It almost feels like tunnels since everything is is so narrow and its hard to see the light above. One thing I had read about was the Turkish baths, called hammams. I was pretty excited about them . . . . its an ancient tradition and there are several hammam places in the medina. Basically you go in and get scrubbed down by an old masseuse guy and sit in these spa type tubs and such. You get a little massage as well. So we found one . . . and they wouldn’t allow women in. Ha. So I got to sit out in the lobby and wait while the guys went and did it. They said it was an interesting experience to say the least. There’s also a mosque in the medina, but we didn’t want to pay to go int. We wandered around and bought little trinkets and such and then walked around Tunis just a bit.

After that we got back on the train and headed to La Marsa, another little city really close to Sidi Bou Said that is known for its beaches. We took a few pics out there on the beach and walked thru the mall they had there and then went back to Sidi Bou Said. We got our last kebab –there was a little shop really close to our hotel that had great kebabs on pita bread with delicious spices and such. We also got some ice cream, which wasn’t nearly as good as the gelato we had in Italy.

That about covered it for Tunisia. There isn’t a whole lot to do there but it’s a cool place and neat to see. First time in Africa, so that was cool. Its interesting to see the blend of Islamic culture and Western influence. There weren’t quite as many women wearing the head wraps as I thought there’d be, but still a lot. And all the signs etc were in Arabic and French, in fact most of the people there speak French as well as Arabic.

Anyway, Tunisia was interesting. Thursday morning at 4AM a taxi driver picked us up to take us to the airport for our 6:30am flight to Cairo. Tunis Air is pretty cool. It was only a 3 hour flight but they gave us a pretty big breakfast and had the in flight movie stuff and gave us headphones etc. Nice. Thus ended the time in Tunisia. On to Egypt.