We're Back! Tunis - Tunisia.

Macs With Packs is back! Yes, we've handed our house over to friends of ours, packed the packs, said a sad goodbye to family and friends and headed off.

This trip will largely be a Mediterranean one. We start in Tunisia, on the north coast of Africa, then go to Greece (yes, again!) then Turkey and maybe Moldova. We'll stop for a couple of weeks in Indonesia on the way home to go snorkelling.

First stop was Singapore where we have a few friends - too many to catch up with in the time we had (sorry Jelissa - next time!). After a hectic few weeks leading up to us leaving, we were prepared for our crazy short stay in Singapore. We checked into our hotel at 9pm - the same time we were supposed to be meeting a very good business friend for dinner (our plane was late). We quickly threw on a change of clothes and headed straight out. We hadn't seen our old friend for quite a few years so it was great to catch up. We had a great dinner then decided to head somewhere else for a drink as the restaurant was closing. The hotel we were staying in had multiple restaurants and a bar so we went to the bar but it was closed on Mondays. So we tried the lounge but it was just closing too. Not to be outdone, we walked to another hotel. It too had nothing open. I know it was late but I thought Singapore would be a happening city, even on a Monday night. Our friend knew his way around though and led us to a place that was more like a nightclub than a bar. There was a live band, the drinks were flowing and soon we were up dancing. I danced with some girls that I met on the dance floor for a bit, lol. Finally we staggered back to our room at 2am Singapore time, 4am Melbourne time, 22.5 hours after we had got up! 

Needless to say, we were a bit worse for wear the next day. But still, the show must go on and we caught up with John's old uni mate, Neil, and his wife Kimarie. We didn't realise when we arranged the catchup that it was Kimarie's birthday. We ordered one desert and asked to get a candle in it for her. Strangely, they brought out six deserts! They were all delicious.

John spied some special port they had in a huge bottle so we had to try it. Getting it out of the bottle was entertainment in itself!

Needless to say we were completely stuffed with delicious food and wine and we had a great time.

We had breakfast at the airport the next morning. It has almost become a tradition for me to find a masala dosa here and I found one. It was sensational!

Our next leg took us to Doha. The plane was only half full and we had a great flight. We stayed in the hotel inside the Doha airport again. We caught up on a few things and wandered around the airport to stretch our legs. We ate at an amazing Lebanese restaurant and got talking to the very international staff there. They came from Kenya, Morocco and even Myanmar. I don't think we'd ever met someone from Myanmar before. We loved the dips here.

It was a good stay but we were up and at it at 3.30am just because we couldn't sleep.

We filled in a few hours then it was time for our final flight to Tunisia. We often start to get an understanding of the culture of a new country on the flight there and this one was no exception. They boarded this flight by zones, in theory loading the back of the plane first. When they made the announcement for zones 1 and 2 to start boarding nearly everyone rushed into the line. There was no attempt by the staff to make all those not in zones 1 and 2 sit down and the huge line snaked its way around the boarding lounge and looped almost back on itself. We had to bus to the planes and we got to experience the 44 degree heat outside for the first time. When we finally got on board, we found the plane was completely full. People kept getting up to get things from bags or go to the toilet, well after we were all supposed to be sitting down with seatbelts fastened. 

There were quite a few babies and I couldn't move without bumping the guy beside me. It wasn't the best flight we had by a long shot although the lovely Japanese steward was a delight to talk to, as were all the other international stewards we had on our Qatar flights. After the plane landed in Tunis, people started getting out of their seats while we were still taxiing in. I've never seen such blatant disregard for air travel rules before. Clearly Tunisians aren't big on obeying rules!

There were long queues for customs. John made the comment that it took so long to get through the customs queue that our bags would be waiting for us by the time we got though. If only. Neither of us remember experiencing bag deliveries this slow. The carousel crawled along at around half the speed of a normal one. The bags came out one ................................. at ........................................... a .......................................... time .................................... with ................................ long ........................................ gaps ...................................... between ............................. them. Hundreds of us waited and waited and waited. We have bag trackers in our bags that are connected to an app on my phone and, ironically, we could see that the bags were within metres of us when we first got to the carousel. It took another 1.5 hours for them to make it onto the carousel. Unbelievable. This was all a bit of an eye opener as to what to expect from Tunisia.

We checked into our small hotel in the medina, the old part of town, in the capital city, Tunis. The hotel was much fancier than I expected. Built in an old house, it was a maze of stairs, courtyards and rooms. We were forever getting lost between reception and our room and it wasn't that far! There were gorgeous tiled recesses, stunning old wooden fretwork windows and we entered via an amazing yellow door.

We were in bed by 8pm but John only made it to 1.30am before he was awake for the day. I made it to 3.30 which was a pretty good effort.

We had a delicious breakfast on the rooftop that morning. The views were great.

We spent our first day exploring the medina, the old Arabic part of the city. The medina is very much like the ones I remember from places like Istanbul, or Marrakesh and Fez in Morocco, but without the hassles. The weather was warm outside but, in the souks, the arched or vaulted rooves kept the heat at bay. 

Different souks (markets) specialised in different products. The clothing one was large. You could buy anything from t-shirts to the cover-all dresses that many of the Muslim women wear. Some were very narrow and crowded.

In another one, tinsmiths beat tiny dots into metal trays to make intricate patterns. There was even a small souk that specialised in making the fez-like traditional hats that many people used to wear, although they're not commonly worn these days. We saw very few tourists, which was refreshing.

The medina is awash with yellow studded doors. In some streets they're everywhere. They're usually well-maintained and are really eye-catching. We've never seen yellow doors like this anywhere before.

Not all were yellow though.

I was struck by how much the medina looks like the old parts of some Greek towns. The narrow cobblestoned laneways, whitewashed buildings dripping with pink bougainvillea and plethora of cats were so similar. If the yellow doors were replaced with blue ones I could have been in Rhodes or Paros.

Beautiful old carved timber windows, designed so Muslim women can see out without being seen, perched high on house walls.

This very happy guy was carrying a tray of bread. He said hello and chatted a few words as he passed, all delivered with a big smile.

Mosques were dotted throughout the medina, their tall minarets graceful and beautiful.

Ksar Mosque is one of the oldest mosques in Tunis, the earliest parts dating from 1106.

I took a photo of a building then saw I had captured some local women. Most women wear modest clothes like these.

We found a street that sold a lot of street food. They call these chapatis. They fill them with toppings similar to pizza toppings then bake them in this clay oven.

These are 'sandwiches'. They fry up vegies, cheese and egg (or tuna, beef or liver) and serve them in a hot roll. Like most other simple eating places, this one had no name. There's just a sign showing pictures of the food they sell plus prices. Strangely, even though the price clearly said our sandwiches were 8.5 dinars each, I gave the guy 17 dinars and he gave me 5 back. I dunno!

We were in bed early again and finally had a huge sleep. 

The next day was to be a big one. Our first stop was the sites of the legendary ancient city of Carthage. We caught a taxi and the guy was really friendly. Not to miss an opportunity, he suggested he could pick us up again afterwards and take us where we needed to go. Our transport for the whole day was arranged with very little effort!

The drivers here seem to have blatant disregard for any road rules, however there isn't the congested craziness of other countries we've been to. This vehicle was an exception, not the rule.

Carthage is huge so, when I saw a cycling tour advertised, we decided to go for it. The bikes weren't great but it was a worthwhile thing to do. Weirdly, the site of ancient Carthage is now mostly buried under a suburb. We rode our bikes along suburban roads between sites. Only about 10% of Carthage has been exposed. The rest is under houses. There are places where they've excavated right up to the edge of neighbouring properties and just can't go any further.

The tour turned out to be more about telling us about the history than seeing sites although many of the sites aren't in great shape anyway. The city was founded by the Phoenicians who bred with locals and became the Punics. Thanks to its ideal location for trade in the Mediterranean, the city was taken over by Romans, Vandals, Ottomans, etc, etc during its 3,000 year history. 

It was interesting to learn more about the layers and layers of history and how it can be hard to distinguish fact from myth. For years it was thought that the Punics sacrificed children but it has since been decided that this was more likely to be a rumour spread by the Romans in an attempt to turn people against the Punics as the Romans wanted the city.

A map of the city during the Roman period. The circular and rectangular ports at the bottom of the map were really interesting. The circular port was used by the Roman navy. It was entirely walled so that nobody could see in. Inside they built a round island and had a sophisticated system where they could pull boats out of the water for repair. The rectangular port was used for general trade. We saw both of these but this map shows them better than any photo.

Archaeologists were working at one site while we visited Apparently the guy in the blue shirt on the right is very famous.

The site with the most preserved remains is the huge Roman baths. Most of it had been pulled down and the stones reused elsewhere years ago but the underground water system still remained.

Our final site was the top of a hill that was the political centre of all the civilisations that lived here. The views out over the bay and the Punic ports was lovely.

The most prominent feature on the hill was a spectacular church from the 1800's. Sadly it was being restored and we couldn't see inside.

We drove to the famous village of Sidi Bou Said. We shouted our driver lunch and he told us that once we eat together we are family, not just friends. I'm not sure how much of a line that was but he was a nice guy. We learned that he lives with his extended family in a building that the family has owned for 150 years. There are 26 of them living in three apartments in the one building!

We then walked around Sidi Bou Said. It's famous for being very picturesque. Whitewashed buildings with blue, not yellow, doors, tumble down to the sea. We knew it would be touristy but we weren't prepared for the onslaught of tourist shops, tourist buses and well, tourists! It was impossible to even see the apparently lovely buildings in the main street as they were buried under mounds of souvenirs. It was really awful. It was only once we could get off the main road that we were able to see the lovely buildings and doors.

Overall, I was quite disappointed in the day but part of the interesting thing about travel is that you never know what each day will bring. 

Due to us being tired at the end of each day, we keep eating at our hotel as it's just easier. There's a wonderful staff member there who slipped us a few tasty tidbits from a big birthday party that was happening there one night. She told us she was getting some more for us (even though we kept saying no as we were full!) but we needed to go to bed. Just as John fell into bed there was a knock at the door and a whole plate of delicious finger food turned up! 

The next day would be our last one in Tunis before we headed out of the capital to explore the rest of the country. We only had one destination this day - the Bardo Museum. We aren't huge museum buffs but I knew this one contained one of the best collections of mosaics in the Maghreb and I'm a bit of a sucker for mosaics. We got there early to beat the tour buses and for the first hour there were only a handful of people there. As if to make up for the day before, the museum was simply incredible! I have never seen so many incredible mosaics in one place before.

The surprise was the building the museum was in. It was an old palace dating from the middle ages and was extended in the 17th and 18th centuries. The rooms went on and on and on. There were no directions so it just a matter of wandering and hoping that we found everything. John, still suffering from jetlag and not as interested in mosaics as me, had a look then waited while I wandered around in bliss.

The palace ceilings were out of this world. There were carved ceilings, pastel ceilings and a spectacular gold ceiling.

The walls of special rooms were lined with tiles.

And I'll give you one guess what was on the floors - yep, mosaics. Mosaics of every pattern imaginable lined the main walkways and rooms. When one stopped the next one started and we just walked all over them. I guess that's what they were built for. It was impossible to avoid them.

Walking on a sea of fish.

There wasn't a lot of furniture or items form the original palace but this bed was pretty spectacular.

The heavy doors, like the ones in the medina, were studded to create patterns.

The rooms housed the old mosaics that were brought in from other places. I don't like the concept of ripping up mosaics from various places and housing them in a museum. The same applies to statues etc. I think we would get a far better appreciation of them if we could see them in the building they were designed for, however I also understand that preserving precious historical items in scattered locations is problematic. 

Apparently, this is the world's largest collection of Roman mosaics and I'm not surprised. There were also mosaics from many other eras and they were all incredible.

Is that blood coming from the head of the kneeling boxer?

There were mosaic headstones.

The colours in some were so amazing.

I don't think I've ever seen a mosaic before that depicts African wildlife like this giraffe.

This one was incredibly well preserved. It looked like it was made yesterday. It was of Virgil, the Roman poet, and some muses.

This one was really eye-catching, despite (or because of?) being incomplete. He's a sea-god.

Some of the details were incredible.

There were also a few other interesting museum pieces.

Ancient sarcophagi were beautifully carved.

I love this astrolobe, used in sea navigation.

Next time you think you're being cool and trendy wearing your earrings, think again. There were many earrings here from the 6th and 7th centuries BC!

In another town with historical significance, they wanted to build a museum. They decided to do an archaeological dig under the proposed site to make sure nothing was there before they built. They soon found a broken urn with some gold coins in it. As they cleared away the dirt, the coins started to spill out - and they kept coming and coming. In the end they counted 1,648 of them! They were all from a particular period and there were only two types of coins. The best guess is that is was some sort of government money (hence the regularity of coin type) that was probably stolen during a war. The thief buried it with the intention of coming back but never returned. Maybe he was killed in the war? Nobody will ever know but what an amazing find!

I dragged myself out of there and we caught a taxi back to the medina. Taxis are so cheap here. We got dropped off at a clothing market where donated clothes come in from all around Europe and north Africa. One section was in the shade of a huge old tree.

Some of the prettiest streets were near where we were staying. This laneway always has people drinking tea and coffee and homemade lemonade (which was awful!). 

You can't get much more photogenic than a whitewashed laneway with a Vespa parked in it!

One last yellow door, lol.

We ended our stay in Tunis with yet another delicious meal at our hotel rooftop restaurant. Most of the staff were fairly lacklustre but Aida was a standout. She was bright and bubbly and was always trying to slip us extras. 

Our Tunis stay was perfect. We were very comfortable in this gorgeous hotel, we could eat on site when we were tired and we got to see a lot. Tomorrow we head out into the wild blue (or dry desert-coloured) yonder.

Til next time,

Heather and John.