Tunisa- Deserts and Doors

December 26, 2008- Jan 1st 2009
Tunisia-
Deserts and Doors and a Camel or Two

We flew to Tunis on the evening of Dec. 26th and returned AM of Jan 1st. Happy New Year! We would have enjoyed a longer stay, but it was good to get home and have 3 days to unpack, do laundry, make our way through the piles of x-mas “stuff” that were still scattered everywhere, before returning to work and school. I even made our “Thanksgiving Dinner” on Saturday nite. (Yes, after traveling to Prague for T-giving, I still wanted a traditional dinner, including homemade Butterhorn rolls.) So this week we’ve enjoyed turkey pot pie and are making homemade noodle soup for supper tonight. For those who don’t have a world map placemat to eat on, Tunisia is located in N. Africa on the coast, in between Algeria and Libya. Matt told us they consider themselves “Mediterranean”, neither Middle Eastern nor African. They depend greatly on tourism, which many Europeans seem happy to provide.

Anyway…. We spent the trip with our friends, Joy and Matt and their three boys, Jaymison, Jordan and Joseph, who are 14, 13, and 8. I had met them years ago in Japan, and we were in CT together where Joy was my Creative Memories consultant. I’ve spent many a late nite at her home cropping and sharing stories of our families, both the joys and frustrations. They’re having a wonderful 2-3 yr stint in Tunisia. The guys had gotten acquainted when Matt helped out at Bill’s job for a few weeks several years ago. It was so nice to vacation with friends! It this case, it eased the stress for all, and was great for the kids and grown ups.

Day 1: We finally got loaded up and out the doors around noon- with the GUYS car, (Bill, Matt and the 2 older boys) and the GIRLS car, + Joseph. Matt does a great job speaking French at this point and Joy holds her own with a little bit of Arabic now, so they were the linguists for the gp. My French and Italian seem to become increasingly muddled together. They were great and had the itinerary all planned out. We made an all too brief stop (a bit of off road 4 wheeling it to get there via the back roads) at El Jem, where there’s a beautiful Roman amphitheater, that’s huge. Unfortunately, we had time only for a “photo opportunity” vs a real visit. Than I backed their Explorer all the way down a long alley, and we were back on the road, in hopes of making the rest of the trip in daylight. Not to be…..

During daylight, it was a pretty drive- areas of olive trees, scrub bushes, a lg number of sheep and goat herds being looked after with a shepherd and desert. I found interesting the little “towns”- more like a very small pocket of civilization- rows of a few eating establishments with fresh sheep carcasses hanging outside each one to advertise fresh meat, and than stands set up with Gerry cans to buy gas, as there were no stations at that point. At night, they used an empty can with a lantern inside to make it glow for advertisement, or maybe just to help keep from getting ran over, as otherwise they’d be impossible to see standing at the roads edge. With the exception of a short stop to get some version of a flatbread and egg sandwich to eat, we drove straight through and finally made it to Douz, our destination, about 8:00 pm. We made it through the mountains at a very good clip, considering the roads. We eventually even found our way to the hotel, and wearily went in for their buffet dinner.
Our hotel, The Golden Palace, was ok, but not great. But considering the price (3 days that included bkft and dinner for 4/$350) it was a fabulous deal. The outer corridors were beautiful; the bougainvillea in bloom, and it was quiet. Clean rooms and the buffet meals were decent- I enjoyed the couscous, fresh flatbreads and we all loved the fried dough for breakfast. Bill loved the harissa hot sauce. The biggest down factor were the beds; only twin beds pushed together with a big gap (I’m told this is normal all through the country) that were only a small improvement on camping on the ground- my arms kept going numb they were so hard- and the pillows could have been used as a body weight to throw someone in the river! And like all the rest of the country, the desk had no change.

Day 2:
Douz is a small town in southern Tunisia, I believe only 12,000 or so. We were there for the last day of their annual festival- a very big deal, as we understood. So the next day was spent seeking out the festival. We didn’t have much luck finding the organized events. No one seemed to know a whole lot about where things were happening or where to go, except for the stadium in the afternoon. So, being good tourists, we went for our camel ride that morning. We found a gp offering rides at the edge of town, and took 3; Bill and Rachel, Alyssa and I, and Joy and Joseph. The others opted to walk and Matt was the official photographer. WE all loved it! There’s a huge lurch as it stands up (lean WAY forward), then a comfortable swaying as the camel walks, and than you lean WAY back as it kneels back down again. Our guide was quite obliging and sang a traditional Bedouin wedding song- a sing song chant- could have been about goats mating for all we knew- but made great atmosphere for our adventure. The Sahara stretched out in front of us as far as you could see- undulating sand dunes broken up by the occasional palm tree. The kids had a great time playing in the sand, digging, making sand angels, etc. It is the finest sand that I have ever seen or felt. I better understand all the dirt that rains down upon us here in Naples that is partially dust blown from the Sahara across the Med. When you throw the sand in the air, it just keeps swirling up, like a balloon, and finally dissipates before your eyes, vanishing.

For lunch, we grabbed 3 roasted chickens and some baggettes, and headed for the town stadium. At 1:00, we staked out what we thought was sufficient area for all of us to be comfortable. Show wasn’t due to start till 2, or 3 or so. We all enjoyed diving in and tearing apart the chicken while we waited (except Rachel- who pouted and wouldn’t touch anything but a bite or two of bread!). By the time the show stuff started, the crowds were thick around us, with more people crowding in all the time. The entire concept of personal space and what’s polite is a LOT different! We constantly kept fighting to keep enough room to not fall over each other, and Matt just wanted out of there. It was fun to see the groups of people parading by in a variety of costumes, listen to odd music and drums and occasional gun shots, watching camels running a short race, greyhounds chasing rabbits contest, and a horse exhibition (races had finished yesterday-bummer!). I think in addition to the excitement, we most enjoyed afterwards when many of the riders (horse and camel alike) were “offering” rides, for a small fee of course. Each of the younger kids, Joy and myself all enjoyed a short ride on an Arabian racehorse. As we waited for traffic to die down, the kids once again had a ball digging in the sand.

Day 3: We found our way to part of the special souk (market) that had been there for the festival and came away with 2 new wool rugs- blue and white of course! One is more Persian style, and the other is much more simple and rough- straight geometric designs that make me think of Native American. Best of all, I bought them from the woman who made them. She said it had taken about a month to make each one. As a side note, the “rough one” is not laying flat very well-some ripples through the middle of it- so if anyone has ideas to fix it…. Let me know!
Next we set out for what we thought was to be a 1 1/2 -2 hr drive to Ksar Haddada and hopefully Tataouine as well. It turns out that quite a bit of the old original Star Wars movies were filmed in Tunisia. The big brown heavy cloak that Obi Ben Kenobi wore are very typical of the Berber men from the Douz area. We saw many a man wrapped up in one, walking along with socks and leather bedroom slippers. Our drive was very pretty, going back through the desert mountains, saw “troglodyte” homes built into the ground, mountain sides, etc., passed donkey carts (widely used to transport goods within towns, fetch water or firewood, etc), stopped for a late lunch in Matmata, filled up gas from the infamous Gerry cans, and kept driving in search of our Star Wars adventure for the boys (and to just enjoy the scenery).

Now it’s no big surprise that driving narrow 2 lane mountain roads and eventually gravel roads, getting stuck behind ancient trucks, etc. the journey goes much slower. Understatement! We finally reached Ksar to explore the cave homes (I think these were the slave quarters of Mos Espa on planet Tatooine in the 99 film) about 20 minutes before sundown. Whew! At least we made it and we were the only ones there- no bus loads of other tourists! Good fun- and laughed at the idea that they were supposedly opening a bar/discotech/restaurant on the premises in 3 weeks. These were originally built, I imagine as homes, about 1000 A.D. and amazing that for a long period this actually functioned as a hotel, that closed only 10 years ago. There were still the remains of a toilet in many of the “rooms”.

Than the true fun “roadtrip” began. It was after 5:00, dark, we only had a few snacks and water in the cars, and it was a long way back home. We attempted a different and hopefully shorter route and succeeded for awhile. Like all good road trips, there were problems with bodily functions, but I won’t name names. We stopped first to pee, a second time to poop, (“Mommy, it’s too cold out here!) and a third time very abruptly after poor Joseph vomited all over in the car. While he was outside, Rachel stuck her head out the now open window. I yelled at her to get her head in so I could “roll” it up-using the electronic control on the other side of the car. The window stopped and I turned to see she still had her head out. I yelled at her again when Alyssa quietly said “Mommy, I think her head is stuck!” I panicked, got the window down as fast as I could and Rachel fell choking and gagging into the car. Now I really panicked and so of course yelled again, demanding why she hadn’t screamed. She told me she couldn’t, as she couldn’t get her mouth open enough. Fortunately, it caught her under the chin, not truly on her neck and airway. Note to self- check on location of ALL appendages before rolling up windows in the future! In retrospect, I have to giggle hard, but at the time I was terrified. Maybe Rachel learned a lesson too. That was just the beginning of the fun. We got lost, the road sort of petered out under construction with big boulders on the side and piles of gravel and sand on the road, using Bill’s GPS they eventually figured out what direction to generally aim for, we hit fog so dense you could barely make out one car length in front of you, and there was also some blowing sand on and off! Hopes of returning to the hotel before dinner ended at 9:00 slowly were dashed. Only after eventually making it back to the hotel, we found out that Matt had one of the front tires on the LandRover go flat, and by the end, was truly completely flat! Now there is something magical about sharing these experiences with friends. When not vomiting, the younger kids happily sang a million repetitions of Jingle Bells- so and so smells…. made up silly games about a blind baby who danced a lot, accepted squished granola bars, clementines, and peanut M&M’s for supper and eventually all slept. Joy and I laughed at what else could possibly happen and all were fine. If it had only been my family alone, I would have been scared stiff and we’d all have been at each other’s throats. The good news is the dining hall was still open, with a little bit of food left when we finally made it back. Whew!

Day 4: We hit the road to return to Tunis. Given the previous day’s adventure, we revised the itinerary and shortened our circular return route- slightly. We headed Northwest over the desert and through the salt flats – very beautiful to have absolutely NOTHING around for miles with mountains in the distance. WE stopped for a fun stretch break to let the kids out in the wind, explore the salt piles, and buy a “desert rose”- these very cool crystal formations found buried in the sand. We made it to Tozeur for a short roadside lunch (why is it that lots of people around the world put egg and tuna on pizza- what are they thinking!) and then headed Northeast through Gafsa and on up to Sbeitla. Once again, we barely made it during the last of twilight to briefly explore more great Roman ruins. There was a large settlement there that included three great temples that were beautiful. Still amazing to realize how far reaching the Romans were and how much they built that was so advanced for their time. Supper tonight included nuts, a warm yogurt and a piece of cheese and rice cake in addition to the tasty treats aforementioned. We finally made it back to their home around 9:00 pm and figured out we’d driven over 1000 miles during our 3 days of adventure and I lost count of how many hours spent in the car!

Day 5: For our final day in Tunisia, we enjoyed a little sightseeing and shopping in a very picturesque area called Sidi Bou Said. All through our trip I had enjoyed the simple whitewashed homes with the metal doors painted a pretty aqua blue, with all kinds of interesting patterns placed on them using metal scroll work or rivets, etc. In Sidi, we found countless striking examples of old doors to photograph, beautiful views looking out over the Mediterranean, and numerous shops filled with tempting wares. At other times I’ve purchased my family all kinds of strange gifts from all over the world. I think they’ve somewhat tired of it, or at least I don’t know what they truly would like, so I focused on ME! : ) WE safely packed away a few “treasures” of blue and white ceramics, an olive wood salad bowl and some adorable stuffed camels for the kids which I hope they’ll like. Joy did volunteer to return to shop for me if there’s something I can’t live without.

We also visited the American cemetery and monument that is there from WWII. Like those in France, it is moving and I am thankful for all those soldiers who were willing to fight and died to help make a difference at a crucial time. We accompanied the Lanes’ to one of their friend’s homes (French family) that evening to help celebrate the NY, but given our early morning departure, we returned to home before midnight.

New Years Day: We had an early morning flight to Rome (delayed an hour or so of course) and easy drive home (3 hrs). We thoroughly enjoyed our trip, our time together as a family and the chance to also be apart a little and share with friends. Bill and I often remarked that the Tunisians were often much better drivers than the Neapolitans and most of the roads were better. Toilets- well, even the “No Seaters” of our area were much better than many of the very dirty ones there, if you could find one at all. But it’s always helpful to appreciate what you’ve got when you experience something different and more “rustic”.