Tunisia Vol. III

Day 5: Left Douz very early once again, about 5 am, and it was very cold, so I didn't sleep much on the bus. We stopped at a cafe about 2 hours later, and looked at a map of Tunisia painted on the wall. This is the point at which we realized that we had traveled to all the inhabitable parts of the country in about one week. Crazy. We got to Kairouan, the Holy City of Islam, a few hours later. Here, we visited the mosque, the mausoleum, and the Musee de Bardo, all of which will very, very beautiful. The Musee de Bardo was my favorite because of the elaborate tilework and painted walls. For lunch, we had frittatas and cous cous. From Kairouan, we went to Hammamet, a coastal town that resembled an abandoned Las Vegas, huge empty hotels everywhere. Apparently it's a popular summer tourist destination for Spanish, French and German people. It was a very windy day, but we tried going to the beach anyway. After a lot of haggling, Riley and I bought fezes. Fezs? Fezi? I don't know. We bought wine for 3 dinar (about 1.5 euro) at the grocery store, and had a little gathering in our hotel room. We invited Maria, our professor. She happily answered all our questions about Italian politics and Tunisia, until the third time the front desk called to tell us that we were being too loud.

Day 6: Got to sleep in until 7 am today! We got back on the bus, headed for Tunis once again. We stopped at the ruins of Carthage, which happen to be right next to the President's house. You aren't allowed to take pictures of the President's house, and there are little tents scattered around the area under which stand guards with sniper rifles. His face is all over the country in the form of very photoshopped pictures that make him look much younger than his 77 years. The ruins of Carthage weren't as big or as complete as Pompeii. Then we went to the Acropolis of Tunis, where stillborn babies were sacrificed. Our next stop was the North Africa American Cemetery, full of white marble crosses and very much resembling Arlington. It was strange to see a big American flag again. After the cemetery, we went to the very picturesque hilltop town of Sidi Bou Said, with lots of white buildings and blue doors. Later that afternoon, Caroline, Momoko, and I took a taxi to the souk for 2 dinar. But shortly after we got there, it began getting dark and the metal gates came crashing down over the shops. We got out of there quickly, but it was over an hour before we got a taxi to stop for us. Meanwhile, it began to hail, thick chunks of ice, and we tried to take cover under a tree. After the hail stopped, the weather turned to a regular lightning storm accompanied by lots of rain. One taxi stopped, and we ran towards it but the driver hopped out, took the sign of the roof, and drove away. When we finally got a taxi, Momo slammed the door after her, and the driver freaked out. He had his hands on his head and was speaking angrily in Arabic. We sat there soaked and petrified, hoping he wouldn't make us get out. After a few minutes, he started driving. Caroline asked "La bez?" (How are you?) and he gave the typical response in Arabic: "Hamdu lilah" (Praise be to Allah.) After this, everything was fine. It seems that people there really appreciate it when you make any attempts at using the language, not the case everywhere. The rest of the cab ride communication was difficult as he only spoke Arabic and French, but we did managed to find out that he has a brother who lives in Venice.
Day 7: Back to Rome, where it was pouring.

Tunisia Vol. II

Okay, here's some more stuff about Tunisia. Also, if anyone knows how to format pictures more effectively, please let me know.

Day 3: We left very early again, headed to El Djem. The major feature there was the Colosseum, the 4th largest ampitheater in the world. Four hours later, it's about 75 degrees and we're definitely in the desert. Scattered along the way are lots of troglodyte houses, marked by white or sand-colored walls with two blue handprints on either side of a blue fish above the doorway. We stopped at a house

where the guide knew the woman who lived there. I loved how the houses were designed - they were carved out of and sunk into the surrounding landscape, and maintained the same temperature throughout all seasons. There was a small courtyard, and about 5 rooms stemming from it. There was a kitchen, storage room, and three bedrooms, one that had a bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Later, we came to Tatooine, where Star Wars was filmed. We also stopped at the lunar landscape at Matamar. I'm not sure exactly what that is, but it was a beautiful view. Finally, we got to Douz, which is the gateway to the Sahara Desert, and dropped off our stuff at the hotel. A little ways down the road, we came to the dromedary market, where we were handed scarves to wrap around our heads and black-and-white striped cloaks. Something I didn't know: dromedaries have one hump while camels have two. Dromedaries are very tall, and they kneel for people to get on them. They have very soft, hairy feet that plop along, very differently from horses' firm steps. We rode half an hour, dis-mounted and gave the camels a break while we watched the sunset. The sand of the Sahara is very golden and has the consistency of flour. The dromedary guide pointed to my nose ring, and then pointed to one of the camels who had a ring through its nose. He thought this comparsion was hilarious, I did not.

Day 4: Watched the sunrise on the bus as we made our way towards the salt lake of Chott el-Jerid, where we stopped to explore. The dried salt looks like frost on the ground, but in some places piled up into crystallized mounds. Since it had recently rained, there was a lot of water, but usually there isn't as much, and you can literally walk on the water because of the dried salt. A few hours later we arrived at Tozeur, where we would go to a Tunisian university to meet students studying Italian and English. It turned out that we didn't actually get to meet with them because they had a class, but all 45 of us were ushered into a tiny room with a giant banner that said welcome in English and Arabic, and the professors and staff of the school clustered around us, video-taping and taking pictures. Probably the time that I've felt the most blatantly observed in my life. After some questioning, the dean of the school told us that he had a surprise for us. We went outside and he ushered us into horse-drawn carts, which was definitely a cool way to see the city of Tozeur.

The destination was the date palm oasis. Here, we saw date trees

in various stages of growth and we watched some date harvesting. Date palms have to be climbed three times: 1) to pollinate; 2) to check for pests; and 3) to harvest. The trees are scaled barefoot. After this, we took jeeps into the desert to visit the mountain oases of Chebika, Tamerza, and Mides. Our driver was dressed in a khaki safari outfit, and was very gruff until we gave him some makrouds, and he taught us how to say "thank you very much" in Arabic, which is "shukran jazeelan". He put Tunisian music on the radio and drove 130 km/hr, which felt very very fast. On the way back to Douz, the water of the salt lake and the sky blended together in such a way that there was almost no horizon line. We st

opped again at the salt lake and watched the sunset. Everyone was in a good mood on the bus and we turned out the lights to look at the stars. Our professor taught us some children's songs in Italian until we got back to Douz.

Tunisia Vol. I

Good evening friends,














I decided that it was high time to update this little blog of mine. Last week, for my spring break, I went to Tunisia for about a week, with 50 other Temple students and the amazing Maria Ponce de Leon, an Italian professor fluent in English, French, Arabic in addition to Italian. Her friend Mounir, a Tunisian Italian professor, also came along. We piled on to a bus every day at 6 am and covered a lot of ground. In fact, the last day we looked at a map of Tunisia and realized that we had to traveled to every inhabitable part of the country.

Day one: We arrive in Tunis, the capital, after a one-hour flight from Rome. There are little red and white Tunisian flags everywhere. I'm a big fan of this flag, I find it pretty visually interesting. There are also posters and billboards all over featuring the President, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, on a background of purple, his favorite color. After trying for two months to learn as much Italian as possible while being constantly surrounded by American students, it was mind-warping to be surrounded by Arabic and French. And all the Tunisians that I met first guessed that I was Spanish, then French, then English, then Dutch, then Russian...but never American. Strange because most Italians can tell that you're American instantly, but I guess that many more Spainards and Italians make it to Tunisia than Americans. In the afternoon, we went to the Medinah of Tunis (the city center) and the Kasbah. Our professor took us to one of her friends' shops, a tiny profumeria, and he showed us how he makes concentrated perfumes. The currency here is the dinar, about 1,80 to 1 euro. We also went to the souk of Tunis, the giant marketplace that winds in and out of dark tunnels with vendors hawking leather goods, jewelry, pastries, household items, and ceramics. Here we stopped to get lunch, tuna sandwiches with french fries inside, which gradually became a staple of the trip. French fries showed up almost every day here. That evening, we stopped at a hookah bar and had traditional sweet mint tea with pine nuts and date-honey cookies called makrouds.

Day two: We left Tunis early for Port el Kantaoui, a very touristy place with lots of very tan, very old people. However, there were lots of stray cats to remind me of Italy. Port el Kantaoui is on the Meditteranean, and I tried to go wading, but it was very cold, although it was about 65 F.
There was also a zoo there with huge guinea pigs with miniature tables and chairs in their habitat. We then left for Sousse, and checked into a giant hotel with more tan old people. But this hotel had Arabic and square dancing lessons, the latter which we joined in that night with some very funny German tourists, who apparently come to Sousse and stay for the winter. In Sousse, there are white buildings everywhere with blue doors. We wandered through the crazy Sousse souk and bought 4 kilos of makrouds to share on the bus. That afternoon we ended up in Monastir to see the massive maseoleum with two towers.

But that's all for now, because I've got to catch the overnight train to Venice. Ciao ciao ciao.