The Third Phase: TUNISIA

EXCURSION OUT OF TUNIS

There are eight UNESCO sites in Tunisia. We've visited two on our first day, the Medina where we were staying and the ancient ruins of Carthage. Our next day was an eight hour round-trip drive out of Tunis to visit the ancient city of Kairouan and the second largest amphitheater outside of Rome in El Jem.

The city of Kairouan was founded in 670 AD and was the former capital of Ifriqiya (Africa) during the Muslim conquest. Its heritage includes the Mosque of Uqba. It also has a bright Medina with white washed buildings, whereas they are usually quite worn. As in so many buildings after the Greek and Roman period the ancient buildings were used as quarries and building parts for newer construction.

The Great Mosque of Kairouan, aka Mosque of Uqba.

Interior colonnade around courtyard.
All the columns are from previous Greek and Roman buildings.

Interior of Mosque. Note the variety of pilfered columns.

Medina of Kairouan

Plaza in Medina of Kairouan

An old (probably younger than me) weaver in Medina.
Robin bought a cloth from him and our guide was happy because he is such a small shop.

Camel led around in the traditional way of grinding grain.

After our visit to Kairouan we stopped for lunch in El Jem with a ring side seat of the amphitheater. The owner/waiter was a chatty, rotund, jolly man who seemed to want to practice his english with jokes and anecdotes. One of which was Hillary and Chelsea Clinton came to visit the ruin and security shut down the entire town. He couldn't even have his grille out in front of his restaurant. "Ha, ha, ha" he'd chortle. And of course nobody compensated him for lost revenue.

Our restaurant facing the Amphitheater

The outdoor grill that had to be removed for the Clinton visit. Quite the threat.

Lunch on the Barbie.

I was glad this Camel was muzzled as he kept trying to bite me.

Interior covered with carved graffiti in Arabic, French and English from
various conquerers, explorers and tourists.
All the seating material has been quarried over the centuries so only some of the
exterior circulation remains.

Reconstruction Roman house and courtyard of wealthy trader.

One example of the extraordinary mosaics from the homes of the wealthy.
Each room was covered with these tile "carpets".

When we returned it was evening and the restaurants in the Medina were closed. Our guide told us that his father, who's muslim, likes wine and recommended a restaurant just outside the Medina. Tunisia was a French Protectorate from 1881 until their independence in 1956. The second language spoken after Arabic is French. The name of the restaurant was Strasburg. Considering we hadn't had any wine in weeks and that we visited the French city a couple months ago for the Christmas market, we thought we'd give it a go. We left the Medina on our now well known path through the labyrinth (straight out the door, left at the dead-end, wind through the souk, right at the honey pastry shop, continue a quarter mile through the arch and emerge at the plaza with the Bab). From the plaza walk down the main street, and turn down a side street. The restaurant will be on the right. All very comfortable but not a lot of other dining opportunities.

Winding through darkened and shut-down souk.
Every evening all the paper and liter from the day's activity was cleaned up.

Entering restaurant we thought, "what did he recommend?" It was a smoke filled space occupied only by men. The background music was a middle eastern favorite, electronica, with singing that sounds like a call to prayer. Our table cloth was grossly stained and when they came to replace if (for the foreigners) the table surface was worse. Behind Robin were four men quaffing their beers being very animated. During some songs, one of the men, a short bantam weight fellow, would get up and start dancing while the others cheered him on.

Without having seen any alternatives on the walk here we thought "in for a penny, in for a pound" and ordered "du glasses vin rouge". The waiter didn't understand my pidgin French and called the manager over. With many gestures on both our parts he finally left puzzled, but with complete understanding. He brought us a bottle of red wine and two glasses of ice! Glace is French for ice. I understood what happened and we all had a laugh when I explained it (best I could). I decided to give up on not getting a full bottle as it was only $9. We tried the wine and it was terrible. We thought we'd wait a respectful time and then leave. But as we got used to the smoke, and the wine, we decided to stay and indulge on their free popcorn and enjoy the men dancing to the music. The men behind Robin kept making eye contact with me (clearly a foreigner) and when leaving they all gave us round of hearty handshakes - and clasps on the back to me.

Robin being solo woman until later in the evening when another couple arrived.

On the final day before our afternoon flight to Rome, we just walked around the Medina. I mentioned that our host, when picking us up, whisked us through to the Dar without pointing anything out or making recommendations on what to see. Turns out there is a historic mosque right around the corner from our Dar.

Plaza (just a wide street) in front of Al-Zaytuna Mosque, aka Ez-Zitonua Mosque.

Interior of Mosque before I was politely asked to leave as it was prayer time.
Robin didn't even get to enter except to a small walled off prayer room.