mmm-yoso!!!

Djerba (Tunisia): Restaurant Aladin and the Green Palm

Our basic travels around Tunisia, except for the last few days in Djerba and La Marsa had come to an end. We were dropped off at the Green Palm by Ben, who would be picking us up tomorrow for a short tour of Houmt Souk and Erriadh. The Green Palm is located, along with what seems like a zillion other "all inclusive" type reports in the Zone Touristique. The objective is to keep you on the property or in the properties clutches the entire time. No outside food or drink allowed on the premises, distances between properties can be a bit of a hike......

The facilities are decent, there are "animation team" (I didn't even know what that was until we got here) events, a large pool, and the Missus started whining from the moment we arrived feeling trapped.

There's a definite lack of atmosphere at places like this.....you can tell, Club Med ain't for us. I will say, the folks here are really nice, more on that later.

So after freshening up, the first thing we did was to go for some lunch.....not in the hotel. We walked about a mile or so and stopped at a place where all the cab drivers were eating called Restaurant Aladin.

You can always count on cabbies, cops, and other civil servants to find places that are reasonably priced with decent fare. And this was not an exception. The food was simple, the lettuce was iceberg, but it was a decent meal, and very cheap.

The brik was a bit overdone, the egg too overcooked.

The merguez was quite good though......

For some reason, the Missus kept wanting more tomatoes.......

It was a decent meal that filled us up nicely.

We picked up some bottled water on the way back to the resort....not knowing at the time that outside drinks of any kind were not allowed.....what ensued when we passed by the guards was nothing short of hilarious. The guards stopped us and spoke to us first in French, then German, the Arabic......yeah, we really looked like we spoke those languages. We kept talking to them in English, which they didn't speak. Finally, they got a clue and asked us, "you.....English?" When we nodded in agreement, they pointed to a sign on the wall......the was WRITTEN IN FRENCH! What? I told them, "no francais, no francais....." By this time, even they were laughing, and they passed us through.

We also came to find out that there was no wifi reception in our rooms, so I ended up getting some "cafe express" in the massive lobby area, while checking email and even doing a short post.

Later that evening, as we were getting ready to go to the dinner buffet, I recall looking out off the terrace at the empty lots and other resorts thinking to myself, "this is going to be a pretty rough two days...."

Tunisia: Market day in Tataouine

We left Ksar Ghilane early in them morning. We were headed to the final stop on our private tour, the island of Djerba. There would be a couple of stops along the way. We were headed to the town of Tataouine....yes, for those Star Wars fans, there really is a city name Tataouine. We traveled through some pretty inhospitable areas.....and yet, people have been living here for centuries. We passed by several ruins of Roman fortifications along the way.

Outside of Tataouine are several Berber hill villages. The most popular is called Chenini....yep, there's the Star Wars connection again. The village is known for it's distinctive white Mosque up on the hill.

We took about an hour to walk around the village. Many of the older homes built into the hillside had been abandoned and turned into storage.

Soon enough we made our way back to our transport and headed off to Tataouine. Since it was market day, the place was hopping.

Ben walked us to this little bakery.

Like Kairouan and Makroud, Tataouine also has it's special pastry called Corne de Gazelle, the gazelle's horn.

The pastry is in the shape of a gazelle's horn. I thought this was very nicely flavored, almonds and sesame seeds gave the confection a nice nuttiness. Like almost all classic Tunisian desserts the pastry was doused with a nice bit of honey. The Missus didn't care for it....I'm thinking it was the sesame seeds.

While Ben had a seat at one of the coffee shops, the Missus and I started walking around the market area. Here are some photos.

You know what this shop sells, right?

I was really enjoying the coffee culture in Tunisia and we decided to take a break at one of the coffee houses....it was a nice stop and gave us some time to take in the environment and people watch. They call espresso "cafe express" in Tunisia.

 It was pretty calm driving from here on out, as we made our way to the island of Djerba. Soon we were driving over the causeway to Djerba which was the last leg of our tour. It had been a pretty hectic couple of days, but I was glad we did this.....there's just so much history in Tunisia.

Tunisia: Matmata and Ksar Ghilane

After passing through the Chott el Jerid and Douz, we headed up into the hills. It seems there's really not much to see, just rolling terrain.

Until you realize a couple of yards away, dug into a large pit in the ground is something like this.

The area is called Matmata and these are commonly known as "troglodyte" villages. These craters are quite amazing, with quarters built into the sides of the crater and sometimes linked by tunnels.

According to Ben there are about 50 of these "villages" left, many leave for towns and more modern homes with things like A/C and such. I don't blame them, really. This looks like a fairly spartan and tough way to live.

According to what I read, people thought the folks who came out of these mountains to work on the olive fields in the villages were part of nomadic tribes that travelled the region. It was not until 1967, when the area was flooded after 22 straight days of rain, that the villages sent representatives to ask for aid that people finally knew of these villages.

Several of these villages are open to the public and this was one of them. I did feel a bit uncomfortable....entering people's homes and all that, but this is the way they can support themselves and perhaps preserve their way of like a bit longer. There's no admission, you just leave some dinar in a basket....most of the visitors leave a dinar or two. We put ten in the basket and the woman there asked us to come back in. She gave us some bread they make and then told the Missus to try Her hand at grinding some of the grain with one of the older women....who I was told was in her 80's!!!!

The Missus told me that it took some effort to work the grinder and this woman was pretty strong.

We were finally seeing a good number of tourists.....and then stopped at another site, a former troglodyte village that's now a hotel called Sidi Driss. Was this where we were staying the night? No......but I'm sure many of you will know why so many were stopping here.....

Yes, it's the Lars dining room......

This pretty much seals it....

There were literally bus loads of tourists stopping here. It was somewhat disconcerting..... we'd seen so much in Tunisia, with nary a tourist in sight, and here there were hundred of them wanting their photo taken with plywood facades..... Oh well, pop culture and all that, right?

We turned back from here and headed back toward Douz, making a turn to a pretty rough stretch of road halfway back. We actually came to some areas where you really did need a four-wheel drive. Eventually, we stopped at a little palmeraie. The place really had a sort of "you're not in Kansas anymore" look. There were encampments with simple shacks and tent set-ups. This was Ksar Ghilane, at the edge of the Grand Erg Oriental ("Great Eastern Sand Sea"), the Sahara. Ksar means something like fort and outside of the oasis, there is an ancient Roman fort named Tisavar which was part of the Lines Tripolitanus defense line a couple of kilometers away. The fort was actually used in the Second World War by General Leclerc during his campaign in Tunisia.

Ksar Ghilane was our stop for the night, but we weren't staying in any of those shacks ot simple tents.....our accommodation was at the Pansea . We were told these were "five-star" tents.....not that I knew what a five-star tent was supposed to be like. We'd soon find out.....

The tents were set-up in clusters...we entered and were surprised...full king size bed, decent lighting, lounge area, shower and toilet....and what we thought was the best A/C we had the entire trip!

Another thing we quickly noticed was how fine th sand was here....it would get into anything. I still had sand in my shoes and bags after we returned from our trip.....several weeks later!

Down the road a bit, you can stop by and even swim in the hot spring that feeds this palmeraie. The water is pretty warm and knowing what grows in warm water....well, nuff said, right?

A few yards further was the Sahara. Now after really enjoying riding camels in Douz, we had Ben arrange for the same here. The sand of the Grand Erg Oriental is a striking red....perhaps you'll remember it from the beginning scenes of the movie The English Patient. It'sreally like that....I can only speak to the beginning of the film. I could never bring myself to make it through even a fourth of it. Man, talk about a slllooooow movie.

I've done quite a bit over just the last couple of years, but for some reason, this is right up there with all of them. The desert is just plain beautiful. We stopped and walked over and around the dunes while the camels rested. I'd been told, but never noticed until now; when resting under normal conditions, camels do face toward the sun!

 I'm not going to bore you with a zillion photos of red sand dunes, but there is something strangely mesmerizing about watching a light breeze lift the fine sand of the Sahara......building the next dune, or perhaps just getting into someones shoes.

There was an Asian couple with us, the guy was Taiwanese and the young lady Japanese. The young lady looked like she was being tortured and was obviously terrified of the sun as she was wrapped like a mummy! She kept trying to get sand out of...well everywhere it seemed. Meanwhile, once the camels stopped, the guy just zipped right past us and was running up and down dunes like he'd hit nirvana! It was quite funny.

At about a hundred wards or so before we got back to camp, the wind picked up, the sky got dark, and sand started whipping everywhere. Ben had been waiting for us and told us..."sandstorm...."

Watching things turn on a dime was awe inspiring. We watched the camels huddle together for comfort.

Of course, it wouldn't have been fun being out there in the middle of things when this occurred.

We got back to our tent, showered and freshened up, and went for a walk around the area. The Pansea actually had built a "faux" Ksar tower, which we would take full advantage of later on that evening.

Dinner was, of course, one of those all too standard buffets...this one was especially poor, but considering where we were, it was expected. There was a desert race group from France and they attacked the buffet like a pack of hungry wolves fighting over the last drum stick.

A couple of them were also pretty cheap dates and seemed like they were pretty ripped after two glasses of wine...go figure.

The main buffet strategy was to stay away from proteins...most are terribly bad and keep with the vegetables and stuff like mechouia. It was also nice that in Tunisia, you could get a decent bottle of wine for pretty cheap.....under ten bucks at times!

After dinner, I picked up a bottle of beer at the bar and the Missus and I climbed the stairs up the Ksar and looked at all the stars....you could see them clearly since there wasn't any light to interfere.

We both slept well and as usual got up really early, before the sun. Though we really wouldn't be able to see the sunrise, we still hiked up the tower. This is what one of those clusters of tens look like at 530 in the morning.

The sun was coming up and after breakfast we'd be on the last leg of this private tour. Though our days were full, time sure seemed to be flying by.

Sorry there wasn't much food in this post. I do appreciate you reading!

Tunisia: Chott El Jerid and Douz

We left Tozeur a hair after 8 in the morning, but the sun was already blazing down on us. We were headed through the Chott el Djerid, Douz, Matmata, then finally arriving in the Sahara at Ksar Ghilaine where we'd spend the night in what was called a "first class tent" in the Sahara.

The Chott el Djerid is a huge salt lake of over 7,000 kilometers and stretches into Algeria. I've heard folks saying that it's not much to see....but the Missus and I were mesmerized by the stark, seemingly endlessness of it all.

There's a causeway about 6 feet over the salt. Ben told us that before the causeway was built, you basically drove on the sand and sometimes took your chances through the water that fills the lake during the short wet season. Ben found a ramp down to the sand and drove out into the salt.

We stopped and got out to take photos....but it's really hard to capture the great, vast, wide, nothingness......

Details really stand out when you have a backdrop like this. Like the little camper parked on the salt 50 meters or so away from us. A French woman peeked out the back when we stopped, then opened the door and gave us a wave. This really isn't the place I'd like to spend a couple of days if you ask me...but the desolation must be attractive to some.

If this place looks a tad familiar, it's where Luke Skywalker contemplated the two suns in Star Wars. Yes, folks, we were on Tatooine. Actually, we visited the Tunisian city of Tataouine a bit further during the trip.

The salt can actually be peeled off in layers...and is quite salty. The little remaining water from the wet season was slowly evaporating in the lower areas leaving a red oxidized residue. All od this, combined with the fata morgana made this quite memorable.

From there we headed through Kebili and then Douz, the gateway to the Sahara. Ben stopped at the outskirtsof town at what looked like a cafe....but was a tourist stop for all things like driving ATVs to flying in an ultra lite, to riding camels. Guess which we picked?

Even though it's a very touristy thing to do, we really enjoyed riding the camels. Once you get used to the way the camel rises up and sits down and the gait, it a pretty easy and enjoyable ride. We also noticed that the camels have some very distinct personalities...they also make sounds that would probably not be real great in the general public. It was indeed much better to ride a camel than to eat one!

This was our first taste of the desert and we were just plain fascinated by the fine sand and the endless dunes.

As we drove off to lunch, Ben told us the desert around Ksar Ghilaine, the Grand Erg Oriental is totally different from here.

We stopped for lunch at a little mom and pop restaurant right outside of Douz.

These restaurants usually serve a complete meal, comprised of brik, soup, couscous, finished with mint tea....which is what we had. It was a pretty hefty meal!

As we were finishing up with our mint tea, a young man walked in with what looked like a giant rodent in his hand......after doing a double take, we realized it was something else....a fox perhaps?  I suddenly realized it was a baby Fennec Fox. I tried to take a photo, but it was too darn fast, this is the best shot I got.

After lunch we headed East....... here we saw tons of camels hanging out along the road. Those camel crossing signs were there for a reason!

There are no wild camels in Tunisia. All the camels we saw belonged to someone and seemed totally unfazed by traffic....in fact, there would be a camel lying right in the middle of the road, refusing to budge. All the cars had to go around it! I was told that one had to drive carefully during the night since camels loved the warmth of the asphalt and would sometimes sleep in the middle of the road. So how did the camels get back to their owners? We were told that camels always return to the same watering hole when in need for water.....the owners would usually find them there.

There you go...more than you ever wanted to know about camels I'm sure! Thanks for reading!

Tunisia: Tozeur - Oases in the morning, around Tozeur, Camel for lunch, wine in the afternoon

Man, it had been a full day....our morning started at the crack of dawn, with a walk through Kairouan's Medina and some "real" brik for breakfast. After packing up, we met Ben and we toured the Great Mosque, the Medina, and bought some makroud to bring home. We then headed to the ruins of Sufetula outside Sbeitla and had lamb on the side of the road. It was getting close to dusk when we completed the last leg of our drive....man, I bet Ben was bushed, but he didn't show it at all. Driving up the hill to our hotel, the Tozeur location of the El Mouradi chain, I noticed quite a few abandoned resort/hotel properties, things weren't doing too well with regards to tourism after the revolution it seems.

The town of Tozeur is the largest city right before the Chott el-Jerid, the vast 5000 square kilometer great salt lake that we would cross to get to the city of Douz, then Ksar Ghilaine and the Sahara. Like almost all cities and town in the area, Tozeur sprung up around an Oasis, which before the advent of tourism provided the main means of work in Tozeur, farming.

The El Mouradi in Tozeur was perfectly fine, in fact, if you took into account that we were, by most definitions visiting a strip of almost desert in the middle of two large salt lakes.....this is not quite what you think your accommodations would look like.

 Of course, dinner and breakfast were included.....the food here was actually better than at Le Kasbah and we started getting into a habit of having some of the local wine, most of it very light with dinner. Tunisia is a Muslim country, but while alcohol consumption in public is frowned upon, years of French rule has ingrained the wine culture here.

After dinner, the Missus just had to get Her constellation app back out and walk around staring, not at the sky, but at Her iPhone.....

The next morning, we got up very early as we usually do and the Missus went for a swim while I checked through emails. We found out that the restaurant actually opened at 5am....I found out that folks heading back to Tunis left really early in the morning. Ben met us at exactly 8, we jumped in the all-terrain vehicle and headed off. Today was going to be an "easy day".....

We were headed out to the very popular Mountain Oases (I just found out that Oases is the plural of Oasis - you learn something everyday). I loved this sign by the side of the road.

Heading west, you'll soon see mountains arise from the barren landscape, then a swatch of green. This is Chebika.

Soon you pass square looking buildings.....this is "New" Chebika which was built after a huge flood in 1969 wiped out the original Berber village up the hill. We arrived at the entrance to "Old Chebika" where a ton of cars and SUVs were parked, with a bunch of souvenir, coffee shops, and restaurants were clustered. This looked like a big tourist mess, something we hadn't run into since we arrived in Tunisia. Ben introduced us to a rotund and jolly gentleman named Mohammed.....who is born and raised in Chebika. With Mohammed we were able to go off the standard tourist trail leading to the spring that fed the oasis.....

 There were some tight squeezes and some rather slippery steep sections, but the effort was worth it.

Because the sun shines directly on the oasis in Chebika, with the two mountains walling off the palmeraie, the oasis has earned the arabic name of Qasr el-Shams, which means "Castle of the Sun". One can easily see how it earned that name.

You could see the ruins of the old village clearly, with the new village in the background from here.

After making our way back down, we walked down the trail and to the spring which is the source off all of this.......which was surprisingly modest.

All of this, the birds singing, the frogs croaking, the dates from the palm tress, came from this little pulse of water flowing from the ground. It was humbling experience for the both of us. We've always heard the phrase "water is life", but never had it hit home like it did here.

After making our way back to our vehicle, Ben told us we'd go all the way to Mides first, since that's usually the last stop for tourists and it wouldn't be quite a busy when we arrived. Mides is a small oasis village, just a kilometer from the Algerian border. When we stopped Ben displayed his cellphone...he was getting hits from Algerian cell towers. As we stopped in the small palmeraie to take some photos, we heard a chorus of "clop-clop-clop" coming from down the road...soon enough we could see a shepherd and his sheep headed toward us.

It was really neat.....not even a look in our direction as they walked past us.

The view of Mides, perched above two gorges is quite dramatic.

The village here was also abandoned after the flood of 1969. If some of this looked familiar, I'm told the gorges were used in the movie the English Patient.....unfortunately, I've never been able to sit through the whole movie, so I can't tell you which scene it was.

The gorges also provided protection for the village....though not from flooding.

We then headed back and stopped at Tamerza, which was a rather modern looking city with ruins of the old village a bit east of the new town. We stopped at one of the man-made waterfalls for a quick look.

Heading back to Tozeur, we stopped at the public market and the medina....most of the action was occurring outside the public market as most of the stall inside the market had already closed for the day.

By this time, Ben had kind of figured out that we were interested in food....thus, for our lunch, he took us to a place that served....well, this.

The name of the place was Restaurant de la Republique and Ben told me he usually eats here when in town. Looking over the menu, the did have Dromadaire on the menu in several forms and also had it available today.

So why not, right?

The Missus ordered the Steak de Dromadaire, I ordered Brochettes (kebabs).

As you can see, it's pretty dry stuff. Also, tough...and did I mentioned pretty mild in flavor?

Not a big deal, unlike donkey or cuy, not something I really want to have again.....

After lunch, Ben drove us to Tozeur's huge palmeraie. Depending who you talk to there are between 200,000 (guide books) and 600,000 (folks in Tozeur) palm trees in the oasis of Tozeur. It was pretty amazing, driving through all those trees. In the palmeraie, it felt almost humid. In addition to all the date palms, we saw figs and other plants and trees.

There are over 200 springs pumping water into this area. A very complex system of equitable irrigation and conservation is used. That system was designed in the 13th century and is still used today, by the man whose statue you see to the right, Ibn Chabbat, a mathematician. Pretty amazing stuff.

It was getting pretty hot and Ben dropped us back at the El Mouradi. The place was pretty empty; I think the afternoon sun had chased people indoors and many were probably still on tours.

The pool area had some of the best wifi reception and it seemed like a good idea to head to the bar and buy a nice bottle of wine, which we had along with some kindly provided olives poolside.

I even finished a post while sitting poolside having a nice light, fruity, and crisp glass of Tunisian Muscat.

After a nap, as is our habit, we headed off to dinner early......we tend to sit in the same area of the restaurant, as strange as that may seem.

It was again the usual suspects for dinner, though the mechouia here wasn't too bad, especially when we poured over a nice amount of the local olive oil.

We had also learned that the most popular brand of wine in Tunisia was Magon, named after the Carthaginian Agronomist Magon, who wrote his famous works on wine making during the time of the Phoenicians. It was a decent bottle, but we were finding that we enjoyed the crisp blancs more as they tended to go better with the food in Tunisia.

After dinner, we took a walk, then drifted off......we would need our rest!

Thanks for reading!

 

Tunisia: The ruins at Sbeitla (Sufetula) and lamb by the side of the road.......

After leaving Kairouan, Ben drove us about 65 miles south to the outskirts of the town of Sbeitla. Here, seemingly in the middle of nowhere are the ruins of the Roman city of Sufetula. I've read that the Roman's ability to maximize usage and conservation of water and the soil proved perfect for growing olives. Sufetula became a prosperous Roman town. One can imagine what this town looked like in it's heyday based on ruins left.....

There's a theatre, which I read was in a poor state, but looked decently restored and preserved to me.

Sufetula's most mentioned ruins are the three temples, which are indeed very dramatic looking.

 From the left to right, the temples of Juno, Jupiter, and Minerva. During the second century, these were considered among the most beautiful in the world.

After the decline of the Roman Empire, Sufetula was still doing well under Byzantine Christian rule. So well, that Gregory the Patrician, for a number of reasons, revolted against Constantinople and declared himself  "Emperor" in 646. It wasn't to last very long as the Arabs invaded and Gregory was killed in battle.

Notice anything? Much like El Djem, we were the only people visiting...... As I pressed Ben on this, I was told, "the Europeans come, they stay on all inclusives, they see ruins in Rome, so they don't think these are worth a visit. The resorts have everything for them, so they think, why leave? The one thing they do want to see is the Sahara, you'll see them there."

Right in back of the temples are the ruins of several churches. In the ruins of one of them you can see the baptismal font, like the one we saw in the Bardo Museum.

Walking down the "streets" was a surreal experience, just the sound of the wind blowing through the grass, birds, and our voices among the ruins.

Walking up the path we came to....well, what looked like an empty field.

We were told that under the soil lies an Amphitheatre. Hopefully, it'll see the light of day again....

On the way out, we checked out the Byzantine "house", which seemed like more of a fort. You had to go up stairs in order to enter.

 The place felt really cramped, no windows means that it must have been pretty dark. Small rooms, some of which looked like held livestock, in a fortress like structure, just seemed to reflect the times......fear, paranoia, a silo mentality.....a feeling of impending doom hanging over you.

Based on history, I guess the fears were well founded as the Arabs destroyed the town in 647AD.

From Sbeitla, we headed off to Tozeur, where we'd stop for the next two evenings. Along the way, we passed a number little shops lining streets. It was an interesting sight; the shops would be grilling meat out front, there'd be a sheep's pelt or two hanging out front, we even saw one where a sheep was being dispatched in front of the shop....the ultimate sign of freshness! The Missus asked Ben to stop at one of these shops....for lunch. A great idea! So driving down one of the roads, Ben picked this one as there seemed to be a good number of customers.

So, what we soon figured, the lamb pelt signifies that the lamb was killed fresh, the more pelts the better....how many lambs you went through during the day. If you enlarge the picture above, you'll see the cuts of lamb....these guys are awesome butchers, hanging from the ceiling. You walk on in, pick your cut, and how much of it you wanted. This place had been busy, only leg cuts left, but with Ben's help we got a half kilo, enough for a nice meal.

As the folks went to work on our lamb, we took a seat.....this being Tunisia, a whole baguette was soon provided.

Along with two different types of mechouia.....the type we were used to having, covered with a nice layer of olive oil.

Which was nicely flavored...this had some seasoning to it.

And a wonderful, smokey rustic version that was my favorite to date.

For me this had the complete package......onions for pungency, tomatoes for some acid, there was some spice to it. The roasted peppers added a nice smokey component. The Missus told me, "this would make a killer salsa..." Which cracked me up; we started calling it salsa from here on out. Even the harissa tasted like it had a bit more bite.

Meanwhile, the folks went about cutting our portion from the leg hanging on the ceiling.

I'd been wondering about the unique smell and flavor of items that we'd had grilled....I was told that they grill over olive wood, which imparts a unique flavor to the food.

Soon enough our lamb arrived.....

This was amazingly tender....I really had a hard time believing it was grilled leg of lamb.....juicy, tender, simply seasoned with salt. It was my favorite meal in Tunisia to date.

After the meal, Ben told us it was nice that we actually spent money supporting the local economy, not only in the resorts. I recall telling the Missus that all these places would need is for somebody "like Bourdain coming here and saying how great it really it is for it to become chic....." Of course we still hadn't met a single American during our entire trip yet!

Kairouan (Tunisia) - The Great Mosque, A tour of the Medina, and Makroud

Buoyed by our early morning visit to the Medina, we were excited to see what the day held out for us. As would be the norm, our driver/guide Ben was perfectly on time. This morning's agenda included a visit to The Mosque of Uqba, otherwise known as the Great Mosque. Considered to be the holiest Islamic site in North Africa and the fourth most holy in Islam, it is both impressive, yet quite understated at the same time. The walls and buttresses are quite imposing.

While we waited for someone to open the mosque up for us, I noticed that some of the buttresses were strangely bent and none of them really matched. Ben told us that many of these were brought from other sites....roman ruins and places like El Djem.

There's an understated grandness to the place. The courtyard look huge in the early morning sun and the minaret soaring over a hundred feet over the mosque.

On the South end, the dome of the portico catches your eye.

The mosque styles here are totally different from what we had got used to seeing in Turkey. But they are no less beautiful.

Since we're not muslim, we aren't allowed into the prayer room. But we were able to view it from the doorway.

Notice the wood topping the pillars. That's because they are of different sizes. These were brought here from places like Carthage and the soon to be seen in an upcoming post, Sbeitla.

As we left the mosque, Ben introduced us to a nice young man who would be our guide through the Medina. We really enjoyed this.....unlike the very touristy.....or to say it like Ben does, "touristic", the medina in Kairouan seemed to be a very functional medina. The winding roads, some of which were fairly wide, housed a number of homes and mosques. There seemed to be quite a few families living here.

We passed many fruit and vegetable stands along the way.

 Along the way little details were pointed out to us. Like the "Hand of Fatima" on the doors. You can tell how many families lived in back of these doors by the number of "hands" on the door.

We were also pointed to the different door knockers on each door. Each was indicated for different family members. You could tell who was at the front door based on the knock.

We got to sample some Berber bread.....

During our breakfast in the hotel and earlier the previous day the Missus sampled the semolina based confection called Makroud. Stuffed with a date mixture and drenched in honey, this eggless confection can keep for months. The Missus and I decided that makroud just might make it through our trip, so we decided to get some. Instead of taking us to one of the bakeries along the front of the medina, we were lead to a tiny little shop down one of the alleyways of the medina. In it, a gentleman made makroud by hand, the old fashioned way....probably for decades.

We watched him roll out and fold the confection with an economy of motion.

 We didn't realize that once formed the makroud is actually deep fried then drenched in honey.

While our makroud was being made we were taken Dar Hassine Allani an example of a 18th century house in the medina. This was actually quite interesting and fun.

 I really enjoyed ducking down the tiny "rabbit hole" of the stairway to the food cellar. The temperature here remains very stable, which helps with the storage of the olive oil and honey.

We were treated to mint tea and makroud on the roof of the museum.

The view wasn't too shabby either.....

There was one last stop before picking our makroudup. We were led up a wide stairway to this contraption.

This is a camel driven "Noria" a water wheel. we were told that if we came back a few hours later, they would be a camel up here working the water wheelof the Bir Barrouta, a holy water well.

Really neat!

A few minutes later we wound our way back to pick up our makroud....which the folks at work actually enjoyed.....almost a month later!

Kairouan(Tunisia) - Morning in the Medina and Brik for breakfast

We slept quite well in Kairouan, the previous day was pretty hectic and the La Kasbah Hotel was quite nice. As usual, we got up very early, about 5am or so. We enjoy taking early morning walks when we travel. You get to see a city waking up and also the crowds are less severe. Kairouan's medina is known as being probably the least commercial and touristy of all the larger cities in Tunisia, so I wanted to see what it was like. We asked the doorman where the medina was and he pointed to right around the corner.

The medina looks quite fortified, surrounded by walls over 30 feet high.  These walls were erected during the early part of the 18th century, though recorded history of the medina goes back to before the 8th century.

If  some of the medina looks somewhat familiar, it might be because it was used to depict Cairo in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's kinda funny, we were hitting a bunch of movie sites during this trip. One of the stories I heard was that the character "Sallah's" house was an actual house in the medina, but when they did a shot panning across the top of the city, they had residents remove over 300 television antennas for a day so they could shoot.

 There is a feeling that the medina here is rather unspoiled....the streets are rather wide, the back avenues consist of residences, I'll show you much more in a later post.

The Missus and I really enjoyed walking through here, it gave us a feel of what daily life might be like in Kairouan. As we made our way through the streets we started to see folks opening their shops and making their way to work in the morning.

It didn't take very long for us to make our way to the other end of the medina.

As we  headed back through the medina we came across this little shop doing quite a bit of business.

In the shop, a gentleman sat, legs crossed, above a large cast iron pan, that looked like a wok. He received a ball of dough from a young man with striking green eyes and hair the color of the Grand Erg Oriental. When I asked Ben about this later, I was told that it's not unusual for Berber to have even blue eyes and blond hair!

I saw the gentleman get the dough started in the hot oil, which never smoked, I confirmed later on that it was grapeseed oil, which has a high smoke point. He then added an egg. I told the Missus, "man, I wonder if that's how brik is supposed to really be made?" I then asked the woman waiting for her fried dough  and a couple of those with eggs by pointing to the dough floating around.....she confirmed it was indeed brik.

Folks were buying this stuff in quantities of four to six. The prices were also pretty cheap, something like 0.4 Dinar (25 cents) for a hefty sized piece of fried dough and 0.6 (35 cents) for one with an egg. Soon the woman had her order filled. The guy behind the pan spoke to another man asking for his order.....he pointed to us, basically informing the "chef" that we were next in line. Folks here in Kairouan were more reserved, but very gracious. So, of course we had to have some brik.

After handing the cook some dough, the young man waved us to the counter in back to have a seat. he also showed us the sink in case we wanted to wash our hands. In a couple of minutes, our brik arrived, steam rising.....

The dough was crisp, light, but still with some substance, and not greasy at all. We soon discovered a very nice thing about the dough, it was studded with caraway seeds, which just brought it up another notch.

The egg was wonderfully runny, it seemed to have been poached. You eat this with your hands, when the young man saw us digging in, he kindly brought us a few more napkins!

This is why we travel....I mean the sights are great and all that, but having brik in the back streets of the medina in Kairouan, well that's like the cherry on the top of the most wonderful ice cream sundae......

 I hope you're having a wonderful weekend.

 

Tunisia: The Sousse Catacombs, Planet Food, El Djem, and we arrive in Kairouan

Like most of the long trips we take, the Missus submitted a list of places She wanted to visit. It's my job to make that happen. Which what I tried to do. There seemed to be quite a few barriers based on the amount of time we had. First, most of the airports in Tunisia only do international flights.....and the airport at Tozuer only had flights on certain days. Second, we could do public transportation, but it seemed fairly long and somewhat disjointed. Third, we'd be pretty much unable to get to Ksar Ghilaine without at least hiring a driver. At this point I put some feelers out.....doing a "tour group" was out of the question for us, but I started looking into private tours. Some of them were surprisingly expensive....but I finally got an interesting response from Experience It Tours. In fact, Alan Burricks, the company's representative in Tunisia was very responsive usually returning my emails within a day. The company offered a bunch of different tours, but when I submitted my own request/inquiry, they found a way to work in out! We pretty much did a 9-10+ tour in six days. The hotels were all rated 4-5 star, all entrance fees were paid(expet for the 1 dinar "camera fee"), and breakfast and dinner included. So private driver/guide and all that came out to just about 3K......which was worth it in the end. Heck, Alan even called to see how things were going and actually stopped by to see us at the end of our tour in Djerba....really nice guy!

We got down to the lobby of our hotel in Tunis and a few minutes later our driver, "Ben" met us. We loved that he was always early or on time. introductions done, Ben took us for some "cafe express" (espresso) and we headed out. We learned a lot about the people, politics, and culture of Tunisia during our drives. Over the course of our tour, Ben slowly figured out what we were really interested in, and we ended up with a nicely tailored tour.

We headed out from Tunis and stopped in the beach resort city of Hammamet, which is basically a resort town. We stopped briefly at the medina and had a look around.......things looked a bit slow and depressed.

The medina was basically a tourist stop and we aren't really interested in souvenirs and that stuff so we moved on........

Our next stop was the third largest city and home to some mega-resorts, over 40,000 beds, and killer traffic......Sousse.

Right past the traffic jam on the outskirts of the city, Ben stopped here:

Catacombs? Now this was something I hadn't read about. Apparently, in 1888 the French army discovered a network of underground Christian burial galleries. Considered a threat to the Roman Empire, Christians were persecuted, and it is believed that they were not allowed to bury their dead in cemetaries, thus they took to creating the catacombs.

The actual entrance itself is rather unassuming....just a little doorway.

Opening to some stairs leading underground.......

And the underground passageway.

I read that there are over 5 kilometers of catacombs in Sousse with over 15,000 gravesites. Only this short area is open to tourists.

Do you notice something about our photos? There's no one in sight........this is not by design; there wasn't anyone visiting while we were here, which added to our experience and creeped the Missus out. After seeing a grave like this one:

The Missus wanted out.........

Even though the streets above were quite busy; the silence was indeed eerie, and with no one else around, those shadows sure did start to play with your imagination.

 After this we headed into Sousse and made a stop at the very touristy medina.......

After which we stopped for lunch....Ben picked a restaurant called....Planet Food????? With US movies playing on the televisions above and photosof Ahh-nold, Angelina, Clint, Bruce, and a whole bunch of movie stars you'd know by just their first names, this was obviously a Planet Hollywood knock-off. So really, Plant Food??? Interesting thing was, the place was full of what seemed like local, or Tunisian tourists...not a European in site. Ben told us that all the tourists just stay in the all-inclusive resorts and places like this now mostly cater to Tunisians.....we were also told it's a favorite date-night place. Kinda cute, I guess....

The menu was a mixed bag of stuff like pizza, which Tunisians claim is not Italian, but Berber in origin, so it belongs here.......kebabs, meat, and seafood.

We started with some salade mechouia, which turned out to be not bad.

This was actually seasoned and had some flavor.

Of course there was harissa provided....along with some very sweet ketchup and mayo.

The Missus ordered the clams and mussels which was cooked nicely, but the sauce had cream in it, which made it a bit too rich for the Missus.

It really messed up the really sweet and delicate flavor of the mussels and clams. As you can tell, the portion size was pretty hefty.

I went with the Veal Merguez and was once again stunned at the "three starch" standard......rice(overcook - bleh), frites (soggy and limp), and more potatoes. Oh, make that four starch, I forgot to mention the bread!

 The merguez had a nice combination of seasonings and was very lean. However, I missed the gamey flavor of lamb.

This was a interesting combination or European and Tunisian flavors with a very Western theme. It seemed a bit strange at first, but after a while it attained a kind of kitschiness with us......

After Sousse, we headed South about 45 miles to the town of El-Djem with a population of about 18,000. Arriving in the little town of El Djem is pretty amazing. Why you ask? Well, towering above the little town is the thrid largest Roman Colosseum known.

It's an impressive sight.

It is estimated that the Colosseum could hold as many as 35,000 people, or almost twice the population of modern El Djem. It was built by Gordian who was declared Emperor of Rome during a rebellion against Maximus I and lastede a total of 31 days. The structure was built between 230 and 238 AD. At the time, the city and area was known as Thysdrus and was extremely wealthy because of olive oil. It is said that Gordian committed suicide within the Colosseum when it became obvious that the rebellion had been thwarted.

Much of the coliseum remains intact, though stones were removed in the 17th century to build the Great Mosque at Kairouan. It's the North side that looks the most impressive, the Ottomans shelled the South side in a rebellion.

You are also able to enter and walk through the underground passages.....

Here you pass chambers which held animals and gladiators.

Who were led down these passageways to daylight above to either meet their maker or perhaps live to see another day. It's probably appropriate that some of the scenes from the movie Gladiator were filmed here.

As you can tell, there were no other people here but us. It was very cool in some ways, but also depressing as well. We were told that Europeans spent all their time at the "all-inclusives" and Americans were too afraid to come.......

After our visit, Ben drove us a short way to the El Djem Archaeological Museum.

Before entering, Ben asked us if we had been to the Bardo Museum. When we told him we had, he asked us to compare the frescoes here to those in the Bardo.

Like the Bardo, we put on shoe covers, and just as before, I felt very uncomfortable walking on frescoes.

As for the frescoes, we both thought the collection here were in much better condition than those at the Bardo.

There's also a street of Roman Villas being excavated as part of the museum.

There's also a first century Roman Villa that was moved here for display called the House of Africa.

If visiting El Djem, making a stop here is worth the time.

From El Djem, we headed the 45-50 miles to the city of Kairouan. The Great Mosque here is considered the fourth most holy site in Islam. Thus, seven visits here is equal to one visit ot Mecca...or something like that.

As we entered the city and passed the Great Mosque, we saw a large number of men....all men, with long beards and dressed in conservative Muslim attire. There seemed to be a rally going on. Ben turned to us and said, "Salafis and Al Qaeda......" Really??? Apparently, 3 thousand conservative Muslims had been bussed in from all corners of Tunisia for a show of power to hold this rally.

It was fairly interesting, perhaps a bit unsettling....but of course we stayed at the fortress like El Kasbah. Not too many accommodations in Kairouan and La Kasbah is the only five star in the city.

We were told that La Kasbah had actually been a French Fort, that had been converted into a pretty nice looking hotel.

Our room here was the Missus' favorite on this tour......

Of course since breakfast and dinner were included, it was sure to be the buffet. La Kasbah's offerings and execution left a bit to be desired......even as buffet food, under-flavored, over-cooked, and just dumped out on the line.

Thus we kept our dinner small and to a minimum.

 There was one thing I just had to try, however. I just couldn't figure out why Tunisians loved pasta...overcooked pasta. There was a line for the spaghetti so I thought I should give it a try.....egads, this was bad. It wasn't overcooked, but that sauce was just plain....well.....think of the dude with the toque whose photo is on a can....

The Missus on the other hand, found something She loved:

It's called Makroud, a pastry of fairly course semolina flour, filled with a date mixture, deep fried, then glazed with honey. It's pretty hefty for it's tiny size.....the Missus just loved this stuff and we'd go hunting for more later on......

It had been a pretty long day.Which meant that we just pretty much crashed out fairly quickly that night....with dreams of frescoes in my head.

I know this is a long one....if you hung around till the end, I thank you for reading!

Tunis: Morning at the Medina, the Bardo Museum, Chez Slah, and a small dinner

After taking our morning walk we headed back to the hotel to have some breakfast. Not much to say, it was nourishment and the woman working there seemed much more interested in getting the television in the corner working so she could watch something on it, than making sure everything got out to the buffet station. On this morning the coffee was ok....the next day it was like mud.

We usually sat outside on the balcony........the best place to actually get some decent wi-fi reception.

While eating and going through emails, we made some preliminary plans for the day. We try not to plan too much. For us, it's better to enjoy what we're seeing in rushing through things. We really weren't feeling in the mood for what craziness the Medina would hold once business was going full tilt. It was however, is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. We decided to check it out early before the crowds are pushing you along and the vendors are grabbing you back......

We walked back down Avenue Habib Bourgiba for what seemed like the tenth time in just under 24 hours......

I snapped this photo of the Municipal Theatre of Tunis. The facade is distinctive of the Art Nouveau movement and the building was completed in 1902. It's still a functioning theatre as a later photo would show.

Most of the shops in the Medina weren't yet open when we arrived....just as we had planned. The romantic notion of a maze of warrens and paths do add an air of intrigue.....

The Missus and I do look at things differently. She was drawn to the brightly colored doors. Each one seemed unique, though we would find that you could learn a lot about who actually owns or lives behind these later on. It seemed that the Missus couldn't help but stop at every colorful door, and there were many of them, without snapping a photo.

I, on the other hand was fascinated by what was above ground. All these buildings were multi-story, blocking out the sunlight in areas.

You got glimpses of some stunning and impressive architecture just by looking up. The combination and contrast of colors are a photographers dream.... I just wish I were a better one!

There are passages that are covered....they can seem kind of spooky at times, but most of them held coffee or shisha (hookah) shops with older men sitting around. It was here that we saw two men in a little shop prepping couscous......

He stood over two large bowls....slowly adding water until he got the right texture......

 Then it was off to be steamed.

In the middle of the Medina is Zaytouna Mosque, the oldest in Tunis. It's a fairly large building and the Minaret can be seen from quite a distance.

We managed to walk completely through the Medina and out to Place de la Kasbah at what is the western entrance on the Medina. Apparently there are some government buildings here as we again saw armed soldiers and placed cordoned off with barbed wire. Still, we saw happy children being dropped off for school....teasing and laughter all around.

Here's a photo of the monument in the square.

Things were starting to pick up in the Medina so we started back the way we came. We ran into a very talkative gentleman while we were looking at Zaytouna Mosque and somehow got talked into checking out the view from on top of one of the buildings........

Here's the minaret of the Zaytouna Mosque.

And another view from above......

So we did the requisite sit through of the carpet dude, then even went to the guys "cousin's" fragrance shop and actually bought some pure citron oil...it would come in handy in warding off mosquitoes later on. Then when we got back to the mosque we offered the guy 10 dinars(about $6.25)...I mean, we know he was getting a cut of the 30 dinars we were paying for the scented oil and all....and he had the nerve to ask for 40($25 US)?!??!! We tried to bargain, but he was adamant on getting 25 dinars($15.50)......in the end, we told him to go get his money from his "cousin". The shops were now open and much of the cobblestone was covered in stuff. It was time to beat as hasty retreat.

On the way back up Habib Bourgiba we decided to stop at the very busy...even for this time of the morning Le Grand Cafe du Theatre, right next to the Municipal Theatre for some "cafe express" (espresso). It was a good cup and the service here was quite nice. Since it was still early, the Missus and I decided to check out the Bardo National Museum. We understood that the place was still being renovated and the revolution probably leaves much up in the air, but we'd probably not be back this way again anytime soon, so why not. We asked our Server about getting to "le Bardo...metro leger". We didn't understand much French except for his pointing and the part about "Place Barcelona".

I could handle "place Barcelona" and unlike Rue de Yugouslavie, it hadn't changed its name! It was also easy to ask about. Place Barcelona is one of the major transfer points for Tunis's métro léger (tram) system. It was easy to ask for the ticket counter and find the gate for the right tram.

We had noticed something a bit earlier....young women, those that looked like high school or college aged, and dressed in more western attire seemed more likely to speak English. And even if they didn't they tended to be nicer, without some "racket" going on. We asked one young lady and when we came to the Le Bardo stop, she made sure to let us know. We actually made it across the busy street looking for the museum.....we walked its perimeter, pass the tents of folks who seemed to be demonstrating or protesting something, only to find out we had gone the wrong way! We back-tracked and made it to the dusty parking lot of the museum.

We found the ticket window and found that tickets during the renovation were only 4 dinar (about $2.50 US) and the usual 1 dinar "camera permit" was waived. It was basically half price. We really didn't expect much as we put on the shoe covers(we didn't know that you'd be walking on mosaics), but our visit surely exceeded the price of admission. There were only mosaics on display, but many of them were beautiful, like this one of Neptune and the Four Seasons from Dougga.

It's hard to put into photos, but you can see how large some of these mosaics were to the right.

One funny thing was that we asked the security person to take a photo of the both of us....he really got into it and ended up moving us form mosaic to mosaic, directing and posing us, taking photos. The Missus and I couldn't help but crack up! It was odd, yet very funny....of course we tipped well, in retrospect, I'm sure this is another source of income for him during these lean times.

One of the most striking objects was the baptismal font from Sbeitla, a site we'd be visiting in a couple of days.

In the end, it was well worth the price...though we'd be even more impressed with the mosaics at another museum a day later.

We decided to catch a taxi back to Ville Nouvelle, the area we were staying. Would you believe we'd done all of this and it was only 11am? We got back to Habib Bourgiba and decided to grab some lunch. After the last couple of meals, I wanted to go "high end"(relative in terms), and the Missus agreed. So off we were trying to find Chez Slah...the address I had was 14 bis rue Pierre de Coubertin. Now finding Rue de Courbertin was fairly easy......but finding Chez Slah took a bit of work. We finally settled on a small industrial looking side street.......

Next to what looked like an auto repair stood a pretty entrance to a courtyard.......

We saw a young man basically scrubbing down the patio area.....man, folks in Tunisia were really clean.....the restrooms of almost everywhere were so clean. Anyway, apparently it was before opening time. The gentleman who opened the door pointed at his watch....we'd have to return at noon. Well, the mall is fairly close by, we took a walk and rehydrated.....and returned at noon.

The dining area is fine, nothing really special......when the wait staff found out that we spoke no French...well, they took our drink orders, but we had to wait for the waiter who spoke English! It was both humorous, but also humbling in a way. We eventually got our orders placed....and the plate of harissa, olives, etc, arrived along with the bread.

The Missus actually loved the piece of "thon" tuna, provided. She also jumped at the chance of finally being able to try some Tunisian wine and order a half bottle of the rose(meh) and the blanc, which was fairly decent, the crispness stood up to the Tunisian influenced dishes.

The Salade Mechoua was pretty good, the best we'd had so far. The Missus; "man, what is it that I'm liking so much?" Me; "they actually have salt in this...."

While it would not hold up as the trip went along, it was the best we'd had to this point......simply because it was seasoned well.

The brik we didn't enjoy too much, the egg was overdone and it was on the greasy side.

But man, the grilled calamari was very good. The amount of salt was right on, there was a distinct flavor, smokey and nutty, that I would later find was because it was grilled over olive wood.

There was a good amount of tenderness and even that slight hint of what I call ocean sweetness, ever so rare in the calamari we have here in the states. Even though I'd have better later on, this was my favorite dish to this point.

I decided to order the mussels; the Missus isn't a big fan of mussels as most of what She's had are dry and tasteless. These were simply done, sauteed in white wine, they were also tiny, but were packed with flavor and almost melted in your mouth.

We didn't enjoy the side dishes very much. I had been excited to try the Tunisian version of shakshuka...expecting eggs poached in a harissa. tomato, and red pepper sauce. This was basically a mechouia base with tomato....eggs were added in and mixed looking like scrambled eggs...sort of like if your were supposed to temper eggs, but screwed up and they ended up scrambled. This was also surprisingly bland, considering the other dishes.

The frites....well, what can I say? How about soggy and greasy? I'd about given up on having decent potatoes here in Tunisia....after just one day!

Unfortunately, we had also ordered grilled "fresh" fish. Going though the offerings, I wa assured that the best bet was the "dourade"......which our Server, who actually knew more Japanese than English told me was "madai"......Sea Bream, which is really good stuff, I've had some awesome madai nigiri. Strangely, because I told our Server we'd be sharing the fish, they ended up chopping it in half! Giving the Missus the back half and me the head! Oh, and it was grilled to death......add to that the slightly sour and fishy taste of something that didn't seem to be real fresh.

The Missus couldn't bring herself to eat more than two bites........

 Still, the meal ended on a high note. We'd requested the seasonal fruit as our dessert. First to arrive was this rather large mixing bowl of what looked like whipped cream.....well it was whipped cream....very old school whipped cream. Ever had those dreams about having some strawberries as a garnish to awesome whipped cream? Well this was it.......

These are what I call "third world strawberries", small, but super tart-sweet and picked when perfectly ripe. I put a dollop of whipped cream on my plate, this was apparently a misstep as our waiter made that clucking noise and proceeded to grab the bowl and put three more huge serving spoonfuls of whipped cream on my plate! Man it was good, not too sweet, slightly sour and tangy....the real deal.

Our meal ended on a high note. Total cost 84.800 TND, about $53.75. To me a bargain, to the Missus maybe not. By the time we left, the place was full of French expats who seem to be their usual clientele. I'm pretty sure the regular person on the street can't really afford to eat here.......

We picked up some "eau mineral" on the eay back to the room. The Missus took a nap while I snuck down to the patio and I actually worked on a post or two. Evening rolled around and we took a walk....we passed a Zara store and found that the prices were the same as the US(She's got it memorized)! And yet, the place was packed! We weren't very hungry and stopped at one of those really cheap Pizza-Panini-Crepe-Pasta plces on the avenue to grab something small.

The Missus went with the crepe de fromage-ouef(cheese and egg crepe), which was pretty nasty but only 2 TND - $1.25:

I went with the Merguez Sandwich, which was not bad.....2.4 TND - $1.50.

The merguz were fine, the bread decent, don't know what to do with the olives since they still had pits....biting into one would have been a surpise had you not checked. The frites were standard for Tunisia. The harissa on the sandiwch worked quite well. Could have done without the guys smoking like it was going out of style, but hey, we're in their country, you gotta roll with it, you know?

Still. the Missus had already gotten Her fill of Tunis. I'd have ot think about something for the trip back!