Tunisia Trip - Post 3
April 10 - 11, Tunis
The tour group started coming together in the afternoon/evening. First we met Anas Abouda, our “Trip Experience Leader” (OAT’s name for a guide). He is a very enthusiastic fellow with a good sense of humor and obviously well prepared to keep us hopping for the next couple of weeks. It seems that all other members of our group are arriving this afternoon. We ended up having dinner together in the hotel dining room with very brief introductions.
After breakfast the next morning we met for an hour introduction of and by Anas of the plans for the week, a few ground rules (don’t be late, switch seats on the bus and no US politics). Our group is from all over the US and with a range of OAT travel experiences including one lady for which this is the 16th. Heading out by bus we visited the Bardo Museum known for having the most mosaics of any museum in the world. Anas gave a very good and complete (maybe a bit too long) explanation for understanding their history, construction techniques and how to tell the quality and age of different ones. This museum has so many that they use some of the less important ones as current floors where we could just tromp across as if they were not over 2,000 years old.
From the museum we drove to the Medina where we were led to a restaurant for lunch and then a short tour to see some of the shops. Anas is always encouraging us to interact with the locals; easier said than done in any meaningful way. After being turned loose to wander on our own for 1/2 hour with instructions to make our way down one street for about 10 minutes to a fountain and large arch to regroup I took off. However, before I got far a man with a tea tray came up to Judy and me and offered tea. OK, interact. I did and accepted tea for both of us and offered to pay. He seemed to respond that it was free. I offered him 2 dinar (about $0.60 US) and he took it and kept holding out his hand for more. So I gave him one more dinar and was about to try and ask him about the tea when he walked off happy (perhaps from suckering the foreigners into paying so much for two cups of tea). The tea was quite good, sweet with mint. Judy was tired enough to be happy sitting on some steps people watching while I went off in a vain attempt to get lost. Halving only 1/2 hour to get lost and then found I was minimally successful only taking one back-tracking turn to get re-found. I did have an interaction where a guy was making what looked to be a very large crepe. I tried to ask him if it was a crepe and his response was long winded enough that it either was, but the recipe was complicated or it wasn’t and I was a fool to ask. My combination of Arabic and French got a response but who knows what that response was. I got back to Judy and we walked to the fountain arriving just on time. However, one other group member didn’t show. She had been more successful in getting lost. Thinking that the road to the fountain was too long she went back to the start to wait to be found. A half our later Anas found her and we could go on out of the Medina to visit a church. With all the standing and walking of the day Judy and I were happy to sit in a pew to pray there was not too much more walking to do.
After a very brief rest back in the hotel it was time to go for our “Welcome Dinner”. We took our bus to the edge of the Medina where a short walk came to a building with a huge door. Anas rang a small buzzer and a small side door opened to welcome us to a very fancy looking restaurant. After a brief musical interlude played on a quanan (like a zither) we were shown to a long table upstairs. The three appetizers were quite varied and interesting but only the seafood one did I find really tasty. For a main course I had lamb couscous, my portion of which was way too huge for three people to eat. While good it was not as tasty as I was expecting. As I found out later, cumin is NOT used very much in Tunisia. Hummm? Some fruit and small sweets were for desert, though I had little because of already being stuffed.
The next day I went to Rome. Judy decided that having not slept well in the past several days and the hot, long standing and walking of the day before she would cool it and recover. Besides if you have seen one broken down Roman city you have seen them all. Indeed, it was just another OAF (Old And Famous), but it was pretty impressive. The Roman City of Dougga, over an hour drive from Tunis was pretty impressive. Complete with several temples, a forum, a large amphitheater and many homes is stretched over a large part of a hill with different levels. We were told that the several statues of toga clad Romans were without heads because it was easier to just change the head when a new emperor was crowned than the whole thing. It seems a new emperor was recently found. After almost two hours walking around it hearing details from the very good local guide we ended up at the public latrine where we could “take our ease”.
- Emperor Stefanous Malonous
For dinner we went by taxi to the main part of town where we sat at a sidewalk cafe with a lemonade and crepe. We then went to the opera house for a concert that Anas had gotten us tickets for. is/was a popular Tunisia singer who uses a back up band of traditional Tunisian instrument (keyboard, violin and four different types of drums) and a chorus of a dozen women who either lip-synched or sang along the same strange songs. 90% of the audience were women (all ages and all type of dress) many of whom got up and danced at their seats or the aisles. The few men I saw there did not dance but sat smiling or on their phone, so I did likewise. It reminded me of going to see the Taylor Swift movie with my granddaughters; a cultural experience.
Emperor Stefanus Malonus, did the wind come up and hide the camels and tents in sand
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