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Trip Report from Tunisia, Christmas 2003



 
 
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Old November 11th, 2004, 02:10 AM
Ian Sewell
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Default Trip Report from Tunisia, Christmas 2003

My wife and I visited Tunisia for two weeks during Christmas 2003. Why
Tunisia? We visited Morocco in 2001 and loved it - and we thought this
would be similar. Also, it's a relatively cheap destination - during
peak period, the ticket from Paris only cost $300 (and $800 from San
Francisco to Paris). We were looking forward to shopping in the
medinas, visiting the Star Wars Hotel, visiting the desert and the old
Berber villages, and of course, Roman ruins.

For lots of slideshows and pictures from our trip (including this same
trip report but with pictures interspersed), please visit our website
http://www.ianandwendy.com
The direct link to the Tunisia section is:
http://tunisia.ianandwendy.com

We travel independently - we are backpackers, stay at cheap hotels,
and eat at cheap restaurants. We had a rough idea of the route we
wanted to take before we left, but nothing was set in stone. For
example, when we arrived, we only had our first night of hotel booked.
This, of course, is the big advantage of backpacking, especially
off-peak. We ended up visiting many more cities then we had thought we
would. In fact, with the exception of Tunis, we visited a different
city every day. We would sometimes wake up and not even know where
we'd end up that evening - depending on the transportation, weather,
and sights. Tunisia has lots to see overall, but it's pretty spread
out, and there isn't any one place (except Tunis) that has more then a
day's worth (for us) of worthwhile sights. Luckily, getting between
places is exceptionally easy, with a fantastic system of Louages
(communal shared taxis), with fixed prices, organized by the
government.

In this trip report, I will start out with general discussions: the
people, safety and security, quality of budget accomodation, the
weather, the food, and getting around. Next, I will discuss our trip
itself: Tunis, Carthage, El Jem, Sfax, Gabes, Tataouine, Djerba and
Houmt Souq, Matmata, Douz, Gafsa, Sufetula (Sbeitla), Kairouan, and
Sousse.

Accommodation:
The hotels are in general not good value for the money. They are
expensive compared to other third world countries - especially
considering that they have no heat. Although we are usually happy to
stay in the `budget' category of hotels (per Lonely Planet/Let's Go)
in the case of Tunisia, the budget hotels were not up to par - they
were not as clean as we would have liked.

Weather:
Bring warm clothes in the winter, as nowhere is heated - neither
restaurants nor hotels. There was even snow while we were there. So
much for Africa being so hot! Apparently, in the summer, the heat can
be quite extreme, especially in the desert. So make sure you dress
appropriately!

Food:
My wife being vegetarian made restaurants difficult to find, but we
found that even when nothing was offered on the menu, they were always
willing to try to help. In general, we did not have many very
memorable meals - but our choice of restaurants was restricted. We
would often seek out the only pizza place in town - hardly authentic.
We did enjoy many pastries from great bakeries. It's like French
baking, with a distinctly Tunisian twist.

Language and the People:
We speak French fluently, which certainly helped us navigate the
country. Unlike Morocco, almost everyone speaks French - not just
people involved in the tourist business. Both old and young, educated
and non, all had a working amount of French. It's a really nice
feeling to be able to talk to everyone - we met lots of people on
louages, at train stations, restaurants, etc. and really got a feel
for the people. Almost any time we walked anywhere, someone would
always stop us and welcome us to Tunisia, ask us if we were enjoying
it, and thank us for visiting their country. At first, we were
suspicious with this attention, waiting for the inevitable `hook'. In
Morocco, we quickly learned that whenever anyone talked to us - it
would always end in a `come visit our carpet shop, I will take you to
a great restaurant', etc. But in this case, the `hook' never happened!
People were simply genuinely really happy to see travelers, and always
went out of their way to help us. It's a wonderful feeling to be this
welcome - especially being Western tourists in an Arab country.

I must admit something, however - we are Canadian, and we have
Canadian flags plastered to us everywhere. However, I do not suspect
that had much to do with the exceptional treatment we received. We met
a backpacking American family in Matmata (the only Americans we saw
the whole time!) who told us they were also having a great time and
were treated well by everyone. I'm not sure how much of a problem it
would be not to speak French - I suspect not much, since everyone is
so ready and willing to help.

Safety:

We've met some people who thought we were brave to go to Tunisia
independently. We never once felt threatened. The only time we felt
vaguely uncomfortable, was sort of our fault. We sat down in a cafe in
Douz. Cafes, even in tourist towns, are for men only. My wife got a
few strange looks, and after about 10 minutes of no service, we, the
geniuses, figured out we weren't welcome there and left for a
restaurant.

Getting Around:
Inside the cities, taxis are a pretty cheap option, if it's too far to
walk. We never tried any local buses.

Between the cities, there's bus, rail, and louage. Some buses are
government run, and the rest are a hodge podge of local companies,
using buses that by all rights should have been retired a long time
ago. It is relatively hard to find out information about buses, except
at the bus terminal. Tourist offices didn't have timetables. The few
buses we took weren't really on time, and the guidebook time estimates
were usually pretty far off (some faster, some slower). However,
everyone is very happy to help you get on the right bus and figure out
how to buy a ticket, etc.

The train network goes up and down the eastern coast, and also cuts
inland farther north. There is a also a "TGM" (light-rail) route that
will take you up the coast to Carthage and Sidi Bou Said from Tunis.

Tunis:

We arrived in Tunis late at night, as we had wanted a full day
stopover in Paris. The airport was easy to navigate, with an ATM right
at the exit, and soon we were on our way to our hotel. We stayed at
the Hotel Maison Doree . The cab driver even gave us a guided tour on
our way in at midnight, as we tried to stay awake.

The hotel was a three star hotel that I guess used to be much nicer.
The main entry was off a deserted side street. The location could not
have been more convenient for the medina, the train station, and the
trams. The large room had a very comfortable bed, dodgy looking rug
(we wore sandals), and a shower with sometimes hot water (about half
the time we tried to use it. Unfortunately, there was no rhyme or
reason to when it had hot water - we just learned to try morning and
night and hope for the best). (Hot water did not seem to be Tunisia's
forte).

The next morning we headed off to the medina. First up, we wanted to
visit the Great Mosque, as the courtyard is open to visitors only
until 11AM. The mosques in Tunisia were constructed in a minimalist
style, so they aren't as impressive as what we saw in Morocco. Also,
as in Morocco, it is not possible to get past the courtyard if you are
non-Muslim. Some of the wood carving (especially around the doors) was
very ornate and impressive. The medina itself did not have the number
of authentic souqs and craftsman's shops we saw in Morocco's big
medinas. I'm guessing that a lot of the souvenirs were actually bulk
produced in India. However, we did see chechias being made in (these
are the round red hats that you see Tunisian men wearing), as well as
some woodworking. The medina was not that crowded, and the storeowners
were not that aggressive (despite the lack of tourists). There are
several walking tours that are possible through the medina - it's
pretty easy to navigate.

Carthage
The next day we took a day trip out to Carthage. Carthage is about a
30 minute train ride outside of Tunis. The
TGM is the name of the train line that took us there - it's a small
train line that runs up the Tunisian coast past Carthage and Sidi Bou
Said. Getting to the TGM station proved to be non-trivial. Its Tunis
terminus is located just outside of the downtown area, and not really
a pleasant walk. So we tried to take the tram (LRT). The
ticket-sellers were less then helpful in directing us to the right
tram, and there was no signs in the main tram station (outside the
train station) indicating where we should wait. We had to keep asking
people - and we still managed to get on the tram going the wrong way.
Stops are not announced, and often the station signs (if they are
there at all) are impossible to see, due to a crowded tram, or bad
positioning of the sign. Basically, we had to ask a lot of people a
lot of directions. Of course, everyone is extremely nice, so this
isn't that much of a problem. The TGM itself is very easy, however
(it's impossible to get on the wrong train!)

Carthage proved to be a bit of a bust. Our guidebook didn't tell us
clearly what stop we should get off at, and the people we asked
onboard seemed to disagree. Turns out, it is better to get off at the
Carthage Byrsa stop. We walked around small deserted residential
streets in Carthage, completely lost, in the pouring rain. There were
no signs, and the Lonely Planet's map was lacking. Obviously Carthage
is aimed at the package tourists and not the backpacker crowd. We were
trying to climb the Byrsa Hill to get to the Cathedral of St Louis. We
eventually made it, and also visited the museum next door, but it was
hardly worth the trip. We saw a few ruins scattered around the Hill,
but they were not well preserved.

We had planned to continue on the TGM to Sidi Bou Said, but decided to
head back to Tunis due do the weather. We spent the rest of the day
trying to figure out the best way to head south.

El Jem:
Our next destination was El Jem. The only reason to go to El Jem is a
magnificently preserved coliseum. It is directly off the train line
heading south out of Tunis. We couldn't decide whether it would be
better to take the bus (which had more flexible times) or the train.
We visited the tourist information office, but they were less than
helpful - they could only provide train times, and had no idea of bus
times. We ended up walking to the bus station to get the times, and
ended up on the first train out the next morning. The train has a few
different classes. We took "first class", since it had guaranteed
seats. It really wasn't necessary as the train was empty. In the
summer, first class offers air conditioning which would be more
useful. There is also the "comfort" class which is the same as first
class (only more expensive) but with wider seats. In El-Jem, the
coliseum is a 5 minute walk from the train station. It's impossible to
miss, as it dominates over the town. The day we were there, it was
extremely windy and cold. It was so windy, in fact, that it was very
uncomfortable climbing up the different levels of the coliseum. The
sand was blowing in our face, and the stairs at times were quite steep
and didn't always have railings. The natural comparison is the
Coliseum in Rome, and it actually compares quite favorably. It is
possible to explore everywhere, even underneath the main level in the
tunnels where the gladiators and animals were kept. It was quite empty
the day we were there, so this also added to the experience. Of
course, given the weather, it wasn't really a surprise that it was so
empty!

Sfax:
Continuing south from El Jem, we were headed to Sfax. Our Lonely
Planet indicated that the bus station was right outside the train
station, but, well, it wasn't there. It didn't really exist - one
simply has to stop on the road and wait for the bus. There is no "bus
stop" and no timetable, and the locals seemed pretty shaky on the
times. In retrospect, we should have taken a louage (communal taxi)
south, but we didn't know the wonders of the louage system this early
on in our trip.

So after an hour of waiting in the cold with sand whipping around us,
the bus finally came. Sfax is a big city that is not on the normal
backpacker route, but we were interested by the authentic medina -
there are no tourists here. The bus had dropped us off at the wrong
end of the city, but a cheap cab ride took us to the train station,
where we dropped off our bags in the lockers and headed towards the
medina, which is just 5 minutes away from the train station. It was a
relaxing stroll through the medina. We saw some craftsmen at work,
bought a shi-sha (water pipe), and visited the Dar Jellouli Museum,
which is a house built by a wealthy merchant in the 17th century, and
displays jewelry, and some painted glass.

In Sfax, we weren't hassled at all - I think a few people were
surprised to see tourists, but it was an interesting view of Tunisian
life. Of course, the downside to it being more authentic was that the
stores were selling mostly modern useful goods, not handicrafts (yeah
I know, probably made in China) that appeal to simple-minded tourists
like us.

Gabes:
Continuing our trek south, we took a train to Gabes. There isn't much
to do here. We stayed at Hotel Regina, because it was late and we
couldn't be bothered to find anywhere else (navigating this town is
not an easy feat). The hotel was unheated except for a space heater we
rented (that was way too small for the room, we should have saved our
$2). The toilet leaked, the shower splashed everywhere, the taps were
backward - the whole place was a plumber's worst nightmare. The
bathroom had a window that couldn't be closed, etc. In the morning we
got a cab to the far end of town (we're glad we did, it would have
been quite a hike) to the bus/louage station. It's right next to the
palmeraie. While we were waiting across the street in the sun for the
bus that left an hour later than advertised, a kid (probably about 9)
came up and started begging us for money. It was actually quite
unusual - we didn't see anywhere near as much of this as we saw in
Morocco. There was no one else around, so the kid just kept whining at
us for some money, pushing her hand into us. We could have just walked
away from our little spot in the sun and lost the kid, but I was too
cold. So we started talking back - but she didn't understand a word of
French or English. So out came our trusty phrasebook. I did my best to
sound menacing, yelling "Go away, leave us alone! Shame!" in Arabic,
while motioning to shoo her away. My wife just kept smiling, which
didn't really help our cause, but the kid finally took the hint and
gave up

Tataouine:
The bus turned out to be a very old accordion bus - which I thought
was an odd choice for a 3 hour trip to Tataouine, especially
considering that the bus was mostly empty. However, once we reached
Medenine (about half way there), the intercity bus turned into a local
bus for a twisty drive through town. Finally we popped out the other
end and continued towards Tataouine. Tataouine is a compact, easy city
to get around in. There isn't much in the way of nice hotels - there
are a few expensive tourist hotels out of town that cater to the coach
potatoes, but in town the quality goes down. Our hotel (Hotel La
Gazelle - not highly recommended, but it's probably the best in town)
was more than happy to hook us up with a tour guide / taxi driver who
would take us to the Ksour. The Ksour are abandoned Berber
settlements, and are the main attraction in Tataouine. We started by
visiting Ksar Ouled Sultane. This was definitely a highlight of the
trip. The granaries are four stories high, and are really
other-worldly. We were there at the end of the day, and had the place
to ourselves. Our cab driver ("Ali Baba!") left us alone - even the
lone guy running the obligatory cafe let us be. We got some great
photos in the fading evening sun - be sure to check our website to see
them.

We ate a bad dinner at the hotel (`tourist menu' - we should have just
asked to have whatever the locals were having on the other side of the
room). Again, the restaurant was unheated and we could see our breath
as we ate. The next day, we headed to Chenini and Douiret with Mr.
Baba. These are abandoned hillside villages, with more granaries
(though not as grand as Ouled Sultane). We climbed to the top of
Chenini, and got a great overview of the valley below and the Mosque
perched just below us on top of a ridge. Douiret was in rougher shape,
apart from a few granaries that had been reconstructed just a bit too
well.

Djerba and Houmt Souq:
We headed back north. Given that we were seeing things faster than we
thought, we decided to head to the island of Djerba and see Houmt
Souq. To get there, we decided to give the louage system a shot - we
should have done so much before. We got to the Louage station, waited
20 mins, and split the fare with two other guys. The 2 hour cab ride
cost us about $5.

Djerba is a holidaymakers island, but the place gets very quiet in the
winter months. Accommodation wasn't a problem. We stayed at the Hotel
Erriadh, which is an old funduq. A funduq is a former lodging house
for travelling merchants of the camel caravans that stopped there in
Ottoman times. The top floor was for the merchants, and the bottom
floor was for the animals. Definitely an interesting place to stay.

We went shopping in the Medina and experienced some high-pressure
selling. We could tell they were used to a steady stream of European
tourists. Things were priced accordingly, and they didn't really take
`no' for an answer. The hard sell wore on us after a while - but what
drove us out more than anything was our visit to a mosaic seller. He
had nice stuff, and we hadn't seen mosaics elsewhere. We were tempted,
until he pulled out a photo album showing them being made by young
children. I kid you not. He proudly informed us that children make
excellent workers because of their small hands. We'd had enough, and
we wandered around the town and walked to the port.

The fishing port is a short walk from town. There are thousands of
terracotta pots littered about (they look like ancient Greek amphora).
They are used by local octopus fisherman in a traditional technique
called gargoulette. The pots are tied together and sunk to the ocean
floor. They make great hiding places, so the octopus crawl in, and are
lifted to the surface. We bought one from a fisherman for $1. (we're
not sure it was actually his, but our karma was intact). Now that's a
souvenir with a good price.

Next, we hired a taxi for a few hours ($20) and headed out to Erriadh.
It used to be a Jewish settlement, but now is mainly Muslim. This is
the site of the most important synagogue, El-Ghriba (the Stranger).
Security is pretty high, as there was a bombing here a few years ago.
The inside was unlike any synagogue we'd ever seen - and a great break
from all the austere Mosques! We visited an olive oil factory on our
way back to town.

Matmata:
The next day, we headed to Matmata. To get there, we decided to take a
shared taxi (louage) - in this case, it was a bit of a miscalculation.
On our way in to Djerba, we had crossed on a causeway to the island.
However, it didn't make sense to go this way when heading towards
Matmata, so we had to take the ferry. Unfortunately, the ferries don't
run very often, despite how popular a route it is. We ended up waiting
close to two hours before we finally got on a ferry. Turns out, the
government-run buses that we could have taken have priority boarding
on the boats - and we actually saw several of the buses go ahead of
us.

Arriving in Matmata, we stayed at the hotel which was also the main
reason we were there - the Sidi Driss Hotel. This was the hotel seen
in the first Star Wars Movie. The interior shots of the Mos Esley (Mos
Eisley) Cantina were filmed here, as well as several other scenes. The
hotel isn't very expensive, and consists of several underground cave
rooms. The traditional homes in the area are actually built into the
ground like this, because of the desert extremes of temperature. Most
rooms are set up in a sharing arrangement and have quite a few beds in
them - we got one of the only ones with only two single beds. The only
thing in the cave was a bed (with no bedding, as such). There was no
lock on the door, although if you had your own you could lock it. To
get to the restroom, we had to cross a few courtyards to get to some
very claustrophobic stalls. The whole restroom / shower situation was
pretty much a disaster, with water leaking everywhere, nowhere clean
to put things when you take a shower, etc. It was definitely a
no-shower evening for us. We would have been more excited to stay in a
cave room had we not done so a year and a half earlier, in absolute
comfort, in Capadoccia, Turkey (en-suite restroom with shower), for
the same price. All that being said, however, we still got to stay at
the Star Wars Hotel. And we got our obligatory pictures with the parts
of the place that are decorated with Star Wars movie set items.

Besides wandering around the hotel, we had a walk out of the town to
get a view of the pretty surrounding landscape. There really isn't
that much else to do, except to spend money perpetuating a growing
industry of locals pimping out tours of their `authentic troglodytic
living' homes.

Douz:
Our next stop was Douz. In about 2002, they built a new road directly
between Douz and Matmata. Until then, it had been necessary to loop
back up to Gabes, and go through Kebili. What used to be a 3 hour
journey - more depending on the louage connections- now takes about
one hour. The only catch is that there are no public buses or regular
louages running between the two cities. The only way is to organize a
private taxi, which costs about $60. We found a few people to split it
with (this probably won't be a problem, as the backpacker route
frequently heads from Matmata to Douz).

During negotiations, the louage driver warned us that there was an
international festival going on in Douz. We had heard this line
before, usually as a preface to getting us to stay at the cabdriver's
cousin's hotel room, which was claimed to be the only room left in
town. Except, well, we got there, and this time it turned out to be
the truth. Most people make reservations for the International
Festival of the Sahara 6 months in advance - and here we were showing
up for the Opening Ceremonies without a reservation and without a
clue. We found a payphone - every hotel was full, from the $5
ultra-budget sleep-on-the-roof options to the $250 luxury hotels in
the zone touristique. One of the last hotels told us that instead of
calling around, we might have more luck in person. Our last hope was
hotel El Medina (on rue el Hanine), where again, we were turned down.
However, when we expressed our disappointment at having to leave to
another city, the lady told us "One minute please!" When she came
back, she showed us the kitchen staff's room, which we happily took!
No hot showers, no locks, no heat (and it was so cold that we could
actually see our breath in the bedroom as we slept!). We saw later
that the kitchen staff was sleeping on the floor next door - we hope
they got a cut of our $40!

The downtown area itself was not that exciting- just a few kitschy
souvenir shops in an open square. We headed down to the Place du
Festival, an area outside of town, for the opening ceremonies. There
is no admission fee. We should have gotten there earlier than we did
as the stands were already absolutely packed. We saw camel races,
horse showmanship, and presentation of all the different countries
involved in the Sahara Festival. A hound chased a poor bunny rabbit
around the field. One of the camels broke away and tried to break for
the desert, but a horse rider finally reined it in. All in all, it was
a pretty amazing display, and lasted two hours. After the show, we
were able to go on to the field and get some amazing photos from right
next to the performers as the sun set. (although our photos paled in
comparison to the French guy we met who was passing himself off as a
journalist, so he could get on the field itself!)

There are also some sand dunes in Douz, and it seems that every camel
(regardless of its health) had been pulled in to meet the festival
demands. We passed on the camel treks. If you want impressive Saharan
dunes (like you saw in Lawrence of Arabia), we would suggest heading
to Morocco instead.

There were many more events and competitions in the next few days of
the Festival, but we decided to move on.

The next day, we headed north again. We weren't sure how far we were
going to make it. We took a louage through the Chott El-Jerid. This is
a huge salt lake, and on a sunny day there are some amazing optical
effects, as the lake is miraged and takes on the exact color of the
sky, making it look like the edge of the lake by the road is actually
the edge of the earth.

We arrived in Tozeur, but didn't see much reason to stay after reading
our guidebook. We changed fairly smoothly to a taxi heading to
Metalaoui. Then we changed to a bus going to Gafsa. (Turns out we
should have taken the more expensive louage. The bus was incredibly
slow and packed).

Gafsa:
In retrospect, we should have pushed on past Gafsa, but we don't like
traveling in the dark. The bus didn't end up being a good choice over
the louage - even if we had to wait for the louage. The bus was
packed, and wasn't comfortable. We stopped in many small towns.
Arriving in Gafsa as the sun was setting, we found our three star
Hotel Maamoun (the highest rated hotel in town). In a word, it was
awful. The carpeted hallways looked like they hadn't been vacuumed in
years and were strewn with garbage - like something out of a bad movie
about living in the projects. The first room we were offered actually
had what looked like blood smeared on the wall. The second room was
marginally better. We were tired, and since it was supposed to be the
nicest hotel in town, we chalked it up to experience and slept with
our clothes on. We walked around looking for a restaurant that was
better than the hotel's restaurant but without success.

Sufetula (Sbeitla)
We were up early the next morning, very motivated to get going. We
took a few louages (with great connections) and a few hours later we
were in Sufetula (Sbeitla). The only reason to visit this city is the
impressive ruins just outside town. The Louage dropped us off right
next to the site. We dumped our backpacks in the visitor's info center
and headed in. The whole site is tree-less, so it must get pretty hot
during the summer. The temples at the center of the site are the
centerpiece. Apart from that, there are some nice mosaics, baths, and
a fully reconstructed amphitheater.

Kairouan:
From there, it was about a half hour walk to the louage station. We
were told that there were no more Louages headed only to Kairouan, our
next stop, as the louages only run in the morning. We ended up paying
the fare to go all the way to Sousse (well past Kairouan), and they
dropped us off on the outskirts of Kairouan where we got a local cab
in to the old city. We had originally intended to stay at the 5 star
Hotel de la Kasbah, thinking that we would treat ourselves after the
previous night's accommodation. But unfortunately, the price we had
thought it was, $70 US, ended up being per person. So we headed
through the medina, and ended up staying in Tunisia Hotel. It was
actually a nice hotel, well located, with hot showers (in the
morning). Kairouan is the religious center of Tunisia. We visited the
not very impressive Great Mosque (Sidi Okba Mosque), although, as
always, non-Muslims are not allowed inside. The town is full of pretty
blue-wash painted buildings. There is one main route through the
medina, with a few offshoots, but it's impossible to get lost. There
was some horrible sounding tourist trap of a blindfolded camel pulling
water out of the ground (Bir Barouta) but we passed. I can't really
remember that much more about the city, which is not a very good sign
for it's worthiness as a stop along the trail.

Sousse:

In the morning we made our way by louage to Sousse. It's a pretty
frequent route. The louage station there is huge - a cavernous
warehouse. Outside, we grabbed a cab to take us to the old city. We
suspect it was a bit of a circuitous route, but we got there. We
stayed in the beautiful Hotel Medina, just inside the walls of the
medina. This was the nicest hotel we stayed - it was very recently
redone and modern. The only hiccup was that the radiator was leaking
on the floor. But given our experiences in other hotels, the radiator
is hardly worth a mention! Off-peak, the rate was very reasonable.

I really enjoyed Sousse's medina. It's pretty big, it's got a good
atmosphere with a nice mix of stuff for the locals, and stuff for the
tourists. We visited a few shops selling locally made handicrafts /
modern art (nice stuff). We explored some side streets that went up a
big hill with a nice view over the ocean (with cafe's where you can
stop and get a view). There were some "fixed-price" tourist shops,
with absolutely ZERO hassle and almost every souvenir we'd seen
elsewhere. Prices were perhaps a little higher then could be haggled,
but for us, being able to take our time looking at everything was
worth that extra price.

We stopped at a great Italian Pizza place, way down the far end of Rue
el-Maar (or was it Rue el-Hajira by then). (my wife is vegetarian, and
that proved quite challenging in Tunisia - pizza was always welcome).
We got some exceptionally tasty baked goods at a local price (we had
been gouged with tourist prices elsewhere). We tried some olives (you
can only pass so many olive trees on the road before developing a
serious craving!).

Tunis, Part Deux:
The next day, we headed north back up to Tunis. We took a train -
there are lots of them from Sousse, and it dropped us right downtown
next to our hotel, the Hotel Maison Doree (same place we stayed in on
our arrival). We were in Tunis for New Year's, although we didn't end
up doing anything too exciting. We ended up going out for a fantastic
meal at Restaurant La Mamma, (complete with a guitar player singing
and playing a very halting `This land is your land' - I bet Woody
Guthrie had no idea he was big in Tunisia). We celebrated New Year's
by taking a hot shower.

The next day we headed to the Bardo Mosaic Museum. We went by taxi
(LRT is possible, but it wasn't worth it, since the taxi is only $3
and much faster). The Bardo is the premier museum for mosaics in the
world. It's a huge museum (3 floors) and every available square inch
is occupied by a Roman mosaic. The building itself is quite a sight
too - it occupies the former Bardo Palace. We spent about 2 hours here
before we were all `mosaiced' out. There's a little souvenir shop that
sells mosaic reproductions, but the prices were about triple what we
had seen further south in the medinas (of course, maybe these aren't
made by children!).

It was a beautiful day so we finished up our trip by going to Sidi Bou
Said. This is a tourist town at the end of the TGM line - an easy 30
minute ride by train from Tunis. It features beautiful white buildings
with blue doors (somewhat reminiscent of Greek island architecture).
There were lots of souvenirs at very unreasonable prices. We ate lunch
at a cafe overlooking the bay of Tunis. We walked away from town and
got a beautiful view of the port and beach below. It was certainly a
pleasant way to spend a sunny afternoon, and a nice end to our trip.

In the morning, we had the hotel call a cab for us (big mistake - the
price doubles - we almost couldn't afford the fare with our remaining
Dinars!). Upon arriving, the Departures Information Board told us our
flight was cancelled. I won't bore you with the details, but chaos
ensued. The Air France workers in Tunis could not have possibly done a
worse job dealing with the cancellation. We almost saw a fistfight
break out between a Tunisian and an American passenger. In Air
France's defense however, when we arrived in Nice (Tunis rerouted us
to wherever they could just to pass the buck), we had an employee
dedicated to sorting out the mess Tunis had caused, and getting us to
Paris as soon as possible.

Please feel free to ask any questions (and make sure to email me as
well, as I don't always read this group).
 




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