TUNA OR TUNISIA??????

So, the question comes up if Tunisia is named after tuna or if tuna is named after Tunisia. There seems to be a plethora of this fabulous fish, my personal favorite as many of you know (note the sarcasm?) Or, maybe it is Tunisia that is named after after tuna! I personally am voting for it being tuna that is named after Tunisia. There is not a menu that I have found, well at least in my paltry five days here, that does not feature this proud, fine fish. In fact, it is near impossible to get away with ordering a sandwich, crepe or pastry/pie thing without tuna appearing in it somewhere. I have already been blesssed with it on a couple of occasions - on my first day it appeared in an empanda type thing. Feeling quite good about having managed, yet again, to communicate in French ( I am really thanking Mme. Miller these days for being such a strict French teacher in High School as I am getting by passably well in Morocco and Tunisia with my little remembered French). In any case, I cleared up right away that the pastry did not have tuna in it and was told that it was formage et salami. Sounds OK right? Well, if that was cheese and salami, they have a very interesting version of cheese and salami. First bite was OK, nothing really but their very spicy Harissa sauce. I looked inside and saw something that looked like cheese, took another bite and found it to be potato. hmmm, interesting. The next bite yielded more spicy stuff and something a little fishy, if you get my drift (hee, hee - OK bad joke). At that, I looked a little deeper into the pastry and sure enough, TUNA!

I tossed that and headed for a crepe shop where I requested a cheese crepe. The waiters was shocked that I did not want tuna and I explained that I did not eat tuna. Apparently he didn't care about that and decided to give me a crepe with tuna anyway. I returned it, and he took away the offending one, which he was more than happy to do as he just ate it and made me a new one. Since that I have managed quite well in avoiding the offending fish and have had many a pleasant meal (although a few small panic attacks with me shreaking, "wait! no thon!" as they were reaching for it> I found a fabulous little place in Tunis called Carcassone - well I didn't find it, Lonely Planet did. I went there on my first night in Tunis, second night in Tunisia. Has a great set meal for 5D and that is for three or four courses depending on if your second course has meat and veg or not. I went for the couscous so only did a three course. I ended up there my second night in Tunis as well and they recognized me from the night before and greeted me like I was family, smiled, took me back into the kitchen to taste the soup before I ordered it and showed me what the other stuff was they had on offer.

Sounds silly, I am sure, to go to the same place two nights in a row, but let me explain why. This country, like most Arab countries, is very male dominate and the restaurants are full of men. At night, the coffee houses, snack shops, bars, and restaurants are all full of men and not very welcoming for a single female. Especially a single Western female as all they do then is sit and stare at you. I am quite happy to hide behind a book but it is a little off-putting when there are 20 of them sitting there staring at you and seemingly doing nothing else. For the most part, it is also not clear what places are appropriate for me. Many of these cafes and restaurants are "men only" and so I am not even welcome in them. Apparently the women friendly places tend to be cleaner and better decorated but I have seen few of those and even fewer that have females in them at night. So, that said, after getting back late at night from the ruins in Dougga, I opted for the easy, I know it will be good, route and headed to the same restaurant. Had a fab time and another good meal. It has been extremely frustrating not being able to find places to sit and have a tea or a quick snack easily and I have already spent many an hour wandering aimlessly looking like a forlorn street urchin in search of something to fill her stomach. I am surprised that I have not begun digging through trash cans...oh, guess that would require that trash cans be available as well! At least Tunis has an amazing central market that I an escape to where I can pick up fresh bread, fruit, cheese, meat and fish. Clearly I am not picking up the fish but the cheese, fruit and bread is all quite tasty, not to mention the olives. The vendors are all also quite nice and they have let me graze my way through their stalls before deciding on my purchase. The fresh herbed ricotta cheese is to die for and with some olives, bread and strawberries, makes a fab picnic! I must say though, that I do miss all of the mint tea that I was drinking in Morocco. While do certainly do have the tea here, it is harder to come by and not nearly as tasty...besides they charge and arm and a leg and don't even give you a small silver pot of it, just a little tiny glass.

So other than scoping out the food scene, what have I been doing...I arrived in Tunisia via a night in Barcelona. Sounds stupid to go to Barcelona on the way to Tunisia given that I was in Morocco and only an hour and a half flight away but the ticket was a couple hundred dollars cheaper if I did it that way. Sure I spent a load in Barcelona, but hey, I got a night in Barcelona. I do wish I would have spent a couple of nights there but for reasons I will not bore you with, that did not happen. Turns out that it was probably for the best as the one night in Barcelona cost me about three days of living in Tunisia. The hostel was an exorbitant 22 Euros, and as they did not give sheets or blankets, I was very happy that I was still dragging along my sleep sheet. Basically the cost gave me a bed in a dorm room with a pillow and a bathroom with a shower tap like those in public toilets that you press and they run for 10 seconds then turn off. Very frustrating when you have soap in your eyes and have to find the tap again.

For as short as my time was in Barcelona, I really enjoyed it. I spent the afternoon walking around Las Ramblas checking out the street actors (incredible - I have never seen anything like it. I would have posted pixs but as I don't have a camera anymore, you will have to go there to see for yourselves). I also wandered over to a few of the Gaudi houses and churches and checked out the outsides of them. They were all closed by the time I arrived so I guess I will have to save those for another time. From the outside they looked like something from Alice and Wonderland mixed in with Nightmare Before Christmas and Dr. Suess. One of the buildings had snakes and lizards crawling down it and snails up it with spires that looked like soft serve ice cream cones with little orange gum drops dotting the sides. I still need to see Spain so figure I will be back at some point in my life anyway. I did have a plan to get up early the next morning and go out to the beach and possibly try to get into one of the buildings before I left. Apparently I was a bit more tired than I thought and I slept until 9:40 and had a checkout of 10:00 from the hotel. It was a quick up and out and then off to the airport to head to Tunisia.

Flight was uneventful and mostly empty. Headed out of the airport to take the bus into the city and ended up meeting a very nice non-traditional Tunisian woman who tipped me off to a bus that went directly from Tunis to Bizerte, the city I was planning on heading to the next day. Lonely Planet didn't mention anything about a bus from the airport to Bizerte so I assumed it was not possible and was standing outside waiting for the bus to downtown Tunis. I had asked her what time it was expected and she checked for me and told me it was about a half hour out. I decided I just might take a taxi and went across to the taxi stand where they wanted more double what it should be. I said no, they dropped it to about double and I still said not and headed back over to the bus stand. Leila (Tunisian woman) asked me what happened, I told her and she confirmed that it was WAY too much. We got to talking and that is when she mentioned she was heading to Bizerte. I decided to go straight there and as the bus to Bizerte was late, we spent a couple of hours chatting in broken French and English and have a coffee in the coffee shop.

She was an interesting woman, worked for HP, lived with her fiance (very bad thing to do here - well, really not done here) and had given up her French citizen ship to be Tunisian (I believe she was born in France but her parents are Tunisian). We had a good bus ride and when we arrived in Bizerte, she helped me find my hotel, which was a very good thing as while it was on a grid, the planners decided to throw in a number of diagonals and curvy roads just to make it more fun.

Once settled in I headed out to find something to eat (hah!). It did not go so well and the first place I had hoped to eat was completely empty inside (never a good sign) and had several grumpy looking men sitting outside scowling at me as I walked by. I didn't stop but kept walking. Target #2, I never managed to find. It might have been the conflicting directions or lack of street signs or diagonals that kept running across my path or even the annoying guy that decided that he should escort me there and chatted incessantly in my ear and then wanted to come eat with me. When I insisted that I did want to keep walking in the direction I was going, he informed me that I was not going the right direction (although he had no idea what restaurant I was looking for) and said I should go somewhere else. At that point I finally said "Please leave me alone!" and he replied "But can't I come eat with you?" Thankfully they seem to take "No" for an answer and go away.

I ended up circling back to a pizza place that I had read about (also another popular item here) and ended up either in areas with men filled cafes or down dark streets that did not look so inviting. I decided braving the men filled cafe areas was better than the dark streets and headed back up that way. As I was doing so, a nice man in a business suit asked if I needed help. I told him where I was going and he took me there "Directly!" but then had the awkward moment where I think he too was wanting to come eat dinner with me. I pretended not to understand what he was getting at and just said "Merci!" and ran off into the restaurant.
People here are very friendly and very very helpful. They actually seem to want to help you rather than bring you to their cousin's, brother's, sister's, aunt's shop or somewhere else that you don't want to go.

On my way home, I had a bit of a water mis-understanding. I stopped in a shop and asked the price and they said 3.50D (over 2USD). I said "La Shokran" (no thanks) and headed out of the store...of course I also told him that I thought that was very expensive. I was used to being told super high prices for cheap things in Morocco so assumed the same here. When I got back to the hotel, I asked the receptionist for a glass so that I could get some water ( you can drink from the taps here) and he could not understand why. I told him that water was expensive, he said "no", and then brought me back down the street with him to get the "right" price. Turns out the shopkeeper wanted 350D (that would be around 25 cents - some things are in the thousands here). I apologized, got the water and before I knew it was in a conversation about how much the guy liked Americans and how much he disliked Bush. Wasn't quite prepared for that in French so spent a lot of time saying "oui" and "non" and hoping that I was saying yes and no to the appropriate things.

The next day, I took a wander around the port city of Bizerte, seeing the kasbah, Spanish fort and beach. Bizerte was quite a lovely little city with very friendly people. Although the guides who wanted to take me on a city tour for 10-15D (USD8-12) were a little annoying as they kept saying, "Oh, that is cheap, very little money" and there really wasn't all that much that needed an explanation. the Kasbah was pretty and had tiny, windy streets with blue doors, shutters and window gratings along with some fabulous arches. It was sprinkling and a bit overcast so the streets were quite empty and lovely to wander about. The Spanish Fort, which is really Turkish, had great views out across the bay and ocean as well as the town. The med has such lovely water. The beach was fairly decent for a city beach - that is once I waded past all of the trash coating the upper part closest to the city. This isn't the main draw anyway and most people go to beaches just outside the city. It was fun to dip my toe in the sea regardless and I met a very lovely old man with one of those crinkly faces that lights up even more when smiles come upon it. He was walking down the beach shepherding his three grown camels and one baby camel. The baby was absolutely adorable and I called out to him to tell him so. At that he walked over to me with the baby camel following along side like a child clinging to its mother and fed the little beast some french fries from his sandwich. When I petted and scratched his soft brown curly head, he looked at me with those big, brown, baleful eyes and nosed my arm and nudged me with his head. So very sweet.

In the late afternoon the rain picked up so I sought shelter in the coffee shop in the Kasbah ramparts where I sucked up several mint teas (shockingly reasonably priced here), looked out over the water, listened to the pitter patter of the rain and continued to slog through my Wilbur Smith book (hope to dump that soon). When it had lightened up a bit, I headed back to the hotel to collect my belongings and head off to Tunis. I decided to walk the mile to the bus station and boy, you should have seen the looks I received. I am fascinating enough to the men here without my pack on my back but when I put that on, boy do I become some alien creature. At least it stops all the tisking and "bonjour!", "Alo!", "Ma Gazelle!" Well, not all of it, but certainly cuts down on it.

First night in Tunis was fairly uneventful. I stayed at a hotel that Lonely Planet called "An Oasis" but was actually far from that. True, the owner was very fastidious, nice and cheerful and happily gave me the largest room in the place, and charged me for it (it could take three people). After seeing what a true "single" looked like, it was probably for the best and I was much happier with that and spending the 5D more. The squat toilet could have used a few more cleanings though and the fact that I was the only female staying there and the only westerner was a little discomforting. I spent part of the night scoping out other hotels and even Lonely Planets mid-range hotels were not that great. I settled on one that was very conveniently located and seemed to have decent, clean, airy rooms. The shower turned out to be a bit of a 'thing' though. When I first checked out the place and after seeing the room and the toilet, asked to see what the shower looked like (it was outside the room), I got a very vague answer and was told to see it tomorrow when I checked in. When I checked in the next morning and asked to see the shower, I got another odd response and when I pressed it, was told that the shower was in use and to ask at night to use the shower. When I returned from Dougga that night (around 10:00) and asked to take a shower, the night guy told me to take one in the morning and said that there was no hot water. Very strange. At this point I was beginning to wonder if they even had communal showers. So, the next morning, I asked for the shower, as I had been told to do, and the morning guy told me to ask at night. I told him the night guy told me to ask in the morning and we went around in circles a bit until the guy finally said "OK" and told me that the showers were not supposed to be "Gratis" but that he would go ahead. He called one of the cleaning ladies and they had me use a shower in one of the rooms that had a private shower. I am still not clear on what was going on with the showers but it sort of made me not want to stay there after Jules had arrived, which I was planning on doing. It was a little too strange.

On my first day in Tunis, I actually left Tunis and went out to some fantastic Roman ruins in a town called Dougga. They are quite well preserved and many of them still have the mosaics on their floors. It feels strange to walk across something so old and have it still be so vibrant and beautiful and relatively intact. To imagine how long they have been there and how many feet have stepped over them is just awesome. Half of me wanted to skirt their edges and not walk on them at all for fear that another footstep would help deteriorate them even more and the other half of me loved that I could stand there in the middle of them and look at all the tiny pieces used to make such a lovely image. Of course, the best ones have been moved off to the Bardo museum in Tunis so they are well preserved. You could wander almost everywhere on the site and through most of the buildings. It was quite easy to imagine what it would have looked like and the amphitheater, that once seated 3,500 people was still mostly intact. Prosperity of the village was at its height in the 2nd to 4th centuries with an estimated 5,000 inhabitants. In fact, people were still living amongst the ruins until the mid 1950s and even today shepherds were grazing their goats and cows were roaming amongst the ruins on the edges. It was particularly lovely at the ruins right now as they were covered with yellow daisies and bright red poppies. It was absolutely stunning. Jackie, it would have been a painters dream for you - so many colors and so brilliant with the bright blue sky and ruins in the background.

It was quite impressive although made for a very long day as the bus ride was just over 2 hours and then it was another 3km from the crossroads to the site. I got lucky and as I was walking out to the site, got picked up by a lorry driver about 1/4 of a mile into the walk. On the way back, I walked it all but as it was mostly down hill, it was not too bad. I also had the promise of a cafe to sit in at the end of the road. Yes, I did a bad thing and invaded an all male cafe. It wasn't too bad though as the boy working the counter was a real doll and ran off to get me a coke (they only served coffee) and then sat down with me and wanted to have a chat. Made it much better and easier to avoid all of the eyes that were on me, wondering, I am sure, what the hell I was doing sitting in 'their' cafe. He even whistled down a Louage (like the Grand Taxi but a mini van that actually has a seat for everyone) for me and made sure that I knew how much to pay so that I did not get ripped off. When I got back to Tunis, I was recognized by the metro ticket taker who was thrilled to see me again and chatted away merrily. I am really amazed by the warmth of these people.

The next day, after finally getting my shower, I headed off to the coastal town of Nabeul for a couple of days. It is about an hour outside of Tunis and sits on the area called Cape Bon. It is also very close to some lovely long white sandy beaches and Punic ruins. It has a lovely local feel but you can also see the effect that the British and German package holiday makers are having on it as the small souq is loaded with trashy trinkets and souviners and men shouting, "Bonjour! Cava? Gazelle!" After receiving many different versions of the directions I needed to get to my hostel, I finally found it - Auberge de Jeunesse. It was a little hostel right on the beach - so close the waves should have been crashing on the back wall. A lovely little couple was running the place, which made it all the better. The only drawback that I found, was the mosquitos but I had those in Tunis as well. There is nothing better to disturb a nights sleep than those little suckers buzzing about in your ear all night long. Apparently I got a few of them as I found a couple dead in the bed and some blood on the pillow. Made me feel a smidge better for having got one but did not help with my fatigue.

I spent they day wandering the market and walking 3kms out to a weaving center that was closed when I got there and about which no one seemed to know, which made it all the harder to find. My lack of French did not help matters either but alas, I found it and found it to be closed. Couldn't be bothered to walk back out there again the next day but that is OK, the stuff looked like I could pass on it anyway. I headed back to Nabeul and began the search for food. The places that Lonely Planet had recommended had all changed quite a bit and were really targeting the tourists. The big ole VISA, MASTERCARD, AMERICAN EXPRESS signs on the window tipped me off to the fact that I probably did not want to eat there. I settled on a little sandwich/kebab shop and had a great chwarma made by two 19 year olds who were just excited to have me in the shop and kept trying to show me different things and explain the menu to me. It was quite fun.

So, this is where I had a bit of a break and an "I cannot believe it!" and me fed up with the men in Tunisia and pissed off to the point of almost crying that I was so absolutely horrified and disgusted. I cannot find words to express my sentiments and really I thought if I heard one more "Gazelle" that that person saying it would have felt the wrath of my rufy and would have had rained upon him a shower of words in a language that he did not understand but that would be quite clear from my angry red face. Clearly I am alright now as this happened about a week ago but it did have me in a piss for about 24 hours. The day had actually started out quite well and did go back and forth througout. The lady who owned the hostel was not doing breakfast but she decided that she would invite me into her living room, make me tea and press on me some biscotti like biscuits for breakfast as she did not have anything else. We had quite a nice time chatting away in her and my broken French but it worked and was very sweet. She even boiled some hot water for me for a bucket shower as the hot water heater on the shower went out. Think she was just glad to have someone in the hostel and looking forward to a chat with someone new. After the tea, I headed off to see Kerkouane, the worlds best preserved Punic ruines. They are positioned right on the water so I figured at the very least it would be a spectacular view. Even got a very nice Louage driver who after I tried to explain that I needed to get a taxi to the crossroads to the site and that I would walk from there, took me to a taxi driver and explained it all to him. I was very thankful as I was not sure if I could manage another pathetic attempt at French and another drawing of roads without knowing the word for crossroads or "I need to get off here". They were all very impressed that I wanted to walk the 1.5km from the crossroads, which I thought was quite funny as it is not far at all.

So, made it to the ruins and well, the view was spectacular and the ruins quite nice but really not all that much left to see of them. It was pretty much just the bottom foot or so of the ruins and then some very cool seated bathtubs, which are unique to this site. You could definitely tell that it was a spectacular spot even if there was not much to see. The location, for me, was what was really impressive - completely phenomenal! You could look both directions down the coast completely unhindered with waves crashing at your feet. I envy whoever had the waterfront houses as you could not get a better location. Had a lovely chwarma (kebab) sandwich on the rocks overlooking the ruins. Again, no other sea holds my heart like the blue of the med. sigh...I feel relaxed just thinking about it!

OK, after all that, I headed back to the crossroads and caught a lift back to the town of Keliebe (sp). This is where my little pissy, frustrated angry moment came in. In short (Dad, don't you worry, all is good an remember I have backup now!) the guy driving the car asked me if I would have sex with him and when "I said NOOOOOOOOO! I am not that kind of girl!" he offered me money. This did not make me feel any better and I still said "NO!" and then I got, "See, I have enough, it doesn't matter, how much do you want???" At that I tried to get out of the car. Needless to say, I got dropped about 1km from where I needed to be to catch my next taxi but at that point, it was probably a good thing. I was so angry and upset that I probably needed the km to calm down anway. After that I got a taxi down to the Port of Keliebe to go see the fort. Matters were not made any better by the guy on the scooter that decided to drive back and forth past me incessantly until I gave him such an evil look that I think he thought I would jump off the sidewalk and tear him off the scooter and pummel him. Too bad my eyes aren't blue, the evil eye would have worked much better!

The fort was actually quite lovely and has been a stronghold for many a year fromt he time of the Cathageneans (sp). It has been rebuilt adn built upon quite a bit so stands as a fairly intact fort, which is nice. Again, endless views out over the med with the sea stretching out on one side and rolling hills on the other. I don't think I will ever get over my love for the med sea - no other body of water holds my heart like this one with its shallow sandy areas reflecting a pale turquoise, getting darker as it gets deeper and over the rocks and finally merging into a deep sapphire blue. Absolutely stunning! Post fort, I settled my nerves a little at a cafe that looked out over the sea and a grove of olive trees. This and a tea al pignon (pine nuts) with a book was just what I needed for a bit of peace and quiet. Nothing like a cup of tea, eh? Although, maybe at this point, I could have done with a cocktail. Clearly I was still pissed off a bit about the sex and money thing...what in gods name are these men thinking? Or really, maybe it is all these stupid western women that I should be pissed off with. The ones that come out here and tart around and then make it frustrating for people like me.

Anyway, after that, I headed back to Nabeul and found a friendly face in the lady selling snacks. She tried to help me find an appropriate place to eat but I never did find the restaurant and ended up in a little touristy cafe where they were very sweet and and again, more than willing to explain the menu and everything else to me but fleeced me when it came to the bill. Left a pretty bad taste in my mouth and sent me walking home again thinking that these Tunisian men were all a bad lot. Guess I will have to avoid restaurants that don't have the menu with prices clearly posted smack in the middle of the place.

Next morning, the cute little lady at the hostel showed up at my door asking if I would like tea. She again had me into her living room and pulled out some bread and split her chocolate coated waffle with me while her friend (guess she stayed a bit late so slept over) snored peacefully on the other side of the coffee table from us. That part was a bit odd and I kept trying to be quiet for her but the hostel owner didn't seem to care how much noise she made and frankly, the woman sleeping on the floor didn't seem to mind the noise either. Guess you get to be a good sleeper when you share living quarters like they seem to here.

After the nice breakfast and more strange middle eastern soap operas and videos, I headed back to Tunis to meet Jules. I was quite happy about having her come out and spend a couple weeks with me especially after all the frustration I had been finding with eating and with comments from the fine (or not so fine) Tunisian men. Boy did I get a suprise, when I arrived at the hotel to meet Jules, there in the lobby also stood my tent buddy (first tent buddy from the overland trip) Sus! I was so excited I just about jumped on her and knocked her over, although I would be hard pressed to do that as she is 6ft tall and well, I am just a wee shrimp compared to that! In any case, it was all quite grand to have Jules AND Sus with me and got our bags settled in the hostel and went for a wander around town and to the Bardo Museeum to see the extensive collection of mosaics (the ones I still think should be out at the sites!)

We finished the day with beers at a mostly male cafe (yeah! I can finally sit down and have protection from the stares...well, at least not care at much about the stares!) and then headed off to the restaurant that I had found when I had last been in Tunis. They were quite excited to see me and welcomed Jules and Sus with open arms and fed us like we were queens! Even came out with appetizers and finished it all off with a couple of glasses of mint tea. Really was looking forward to the grand adventure the three of us would be having over the next bit. Headed to Carthage the next day but as I am just about up for time here and Jules really has no need to be on internet, that will have to wait for next time. Also, again, I have been quite verbose! Sorry about that!