Tunis, Tunisia

Tunis, Tunisia
Nov. 5 - 9, 2009

I've made it to AFRICA!!! It was not easy - our tickets (paper tickets; apparently TunisAir hasn't made the switch to the 21st century) were changed three times before the trip, on the day of the trip Ben and his mom were put on a different flight then I was, and then at the airport when we had it all figured out with the same itineraries (first we were flying through Lyon, then Paris, then Rome) -- our first flight was delayed! We missed our connection in Rome, so we ended up spending the night there and catching a flight out to Tunisia the next morning. At least the three of us were together, though. When I woke up in Holland on the morning of the trip, I never expected to be spending that night in Italy!

So anyways - we arrived in Tunis and after bumbling my way through an immigration check at the airport (arrival card was only in Arabic and French) we got to go through a temperature checker! (I'm sure there's a more scientific term for that.) Guess they don't want any swine flu. To top off our difficulties with getting there, we waited for about an hour for Judy's luggage with the other passengers only to be told that there had been a strike in Rome and the baggage was never loaded onto the airplane. "It should arrive tonight at midnight." Ah well. Judy got her stuff eventually!

Tunisia itself - it's a country with a complex mix of Arabic culture with French colonial remnants. The capital, Tunis, could be a Western Europe city with its sidewalk cafes and wide, tree-lined boulevards. Walking around, though, one begins to realize that the ratio of men to women is unnaturally high. There are women out, for sure, and not even the majority of them wear headscarves, but there still are many more men. The sidewalk cafes, with their tables lining either side of the sidewalk, start to feel like a gauntlet with gobs of men stopping their conversation to stare at you as you walk by. I discovered that the last thing they expect is for you to stare back at them. It's kinda fun to beat them at their own game...or so I told myself.

The old city of Tunis, otherwise known as the Medina, is part of the city enclosed by centuries-old walls. There are winding, narrow roads with tons of shopowners hawking their wares in between colorful apartment doors and mosques. Very high-pressure, bargaining type of shopping - not for the faint of heart. I watched several British, American and Japanese tourist groups being completely hounded by these retailers and even being chased after when they decided not to purchase. Yikes.