Trip to Tunisia

I just returned from a trip to Tunisia with 4 friends from Saudi Arabia. We're all Canadians with roots in Calgary, except for one Texan, who is now an honourary Canadian, since we always responded 'Canada' when asked where we're from.

Tunisia is a small Muslim country in north Africa, sandwiched between Libya and Algeria. At one time it was a French colony so the languages are Arabic and French (somehow we managed with our smattering of recollections of high school French). However, it has a flavour all its own, neither African, nor European, nor Arabic - truly its own style with a lot of diversity in landscape and culture. Tunis - the capital city

The Fez is the typical hat worn by older men. This man is a milliner (hat maker) who I convinced to have his photo taken because I loved his mustache. Then he gave us a demonstration.

These are my traveling friends - me, Michelle, Lynne, Cathy and Therese. Notice the door - very typical in style and colour here.

The ruins of Carthage, the 3rd most important centre of the Roman Empire. From here, Hannibal set out to conquer Rome with his famous elephants in tow.

Sidi Bou Said is a quaint village, very picturesque with its white buildings and blue doors and windows; blue doors were everywhere in Tunisia. Here we wandered the streets, had lunch and in our typical style, found great shopping opportunities.

It wasn't quite warm enough to be tourist season for Europeans yet, and North Americans haven't really discovered Tunisia yet (except for those from Quebec who come because of the language connection). We did wander along the Mediterranean several times though.

Fishing is the second most important industry, after tourism. Unfortunately 14% of the population is unemployed. We couldn't interpret a word at the fish auction, but the transactions and process were clearly understood.

I was in heaven with all of the pottery for sale. We each came home with several pieces and miraculously it all arrived without damage. The vendors were quite agressive in their sales approach, but we were hard bargainers. More than one salesman said, "Canadians - hard women", but it was all part of the fun.

Since all of our husbands are employed by Aramco, we had to take some photos of the petrol for sale - imported (smuggled?) into Tunisia from neighbouring oil-rich Libya.

In many ways Tunisia seems caught in a time-warp. We visited some local berber homes, caves cut into the mountain sides. This demonstration of an oil press inside a cave, gave us an appreciation for the centuries-old process of making olive oil. We read that Tunisia has more olive trees than any other in the world, and it seemed true from the miles and miles of neat and orderly orchards we passed.

One highlight was the time we spent at Ksar Ghilane, on the edge of the Sahara Desert. We slept in luxury tents (with modern plumbing).

Me on a camel in the Sahara Desert at sunset. (We all bought headscarves).

The Sahara Desert at sunrise.

Quite a few scenes from the Star Wars movies were filmed in Tunisia and we visited several of the sites. None of us are great Star Wars fans, but it was fun to say we were there. It was apparent why the area was chosen as 'another planet' for the movies.

El Jem has the 2nd largest and best preserved coliseum of the Roman empire. We also visited a coliseum at Carthage. It was eery to think about the gladiators, Christians and lions in these places.

Bizerte is a fishing village along the northern coast, along the Mediterrean Sea. The canals are reminiscent of Venice.

These early morning fisherman, only found one small fish in their large net.

It was a great trip - lots of diverse and beautiful scenery, historical sites to investigate with interesting people to photograph and places to explore. Sharing friendship and laughter is always a bonus to any trip! Thanks to my terrific 'Canadian' exploring buddies - here or away.