At 5 am, my phone alarm went off. It did not pick up the time change until 6 minutes later. My husband K's phone was just fine. We wisely checked the TV for the correct time and sent our daughter a J a text to do the same. More than a little frustrated, we went back to bed.
At 5:55 am, we gave up five minutes before the alarm. Waiting for J to arrive, we had time to go out on the verandah and take photos as we sailed into Tunis, Tunisia. Africa, let alone Tunisia, has not been on our bucket list. However, we had prepared ourselves at home by watching travel videos. All we'd ever really heard about Tunisia was in relationship to the Arab Spring. We did know that you could not get any of their money from our banks, nor could you bring any of their money out of the country. This has never happened before. So, this would be a unique opportunity to see some place very much out of our wheelhouse.
When we went to breakfast at 6:30, it was 73 degrees. Between the three of us, we had a pretty good meal.
Back in the cabin, we gathered up the things we needed for the day and made sure we had the immigration forms we'd been given. Looking outside, we could see that we'd docked. Some camels and dancers were gathering. The camels struck me as odd, since the Sahara was relatively far away in the southern part of the country. It felt like pandering to tourists. Anyway, we could also see a building that looked like a castle with white roof sections. It looked like we'd have to go through it.
We were at the World Stage at 7:25, and were given a sticker that was red or orange, depending upon who was looking at it, but definitely #11. We were sent off the ship almost immediately. As we headed for that aforementioned building, we had time to look at the camels. I also noticed the beautiful trees by the fence and found out they were prunus.
Immigration was quick and we were on the bus at 7:50. Omar was our driver and our guide was Anas. We were soon on our way. As we drove through the city, I noticed that white was the predominant color for buildings, with yellow thrown in once in a while. I also noticed that most of the pedestrians were men.
As all guides are required to do, Anas gave us a history and geography lesson. During the Punic Wars (264-146 BC), the Roman Empire destroyed the Carthaginian Empire. The people of Tunisia are Roman and Carthaginian.The country covers 100, 000 sq miles ( I later found out it is only 63, 170 sq mi). It is 45 % desert. It has 12 million inhabitants. It is seen as a leader in the Arab world in women's rights. Most of the population claim to be Muslim, while 2% are Jewish and 1% Christian. We happened to drive by the Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul, which means some of those Christians are Catholic.
Arabic is the official language and the Tunisian dialect is a mixture of languages. French is its second official language. On March 20, 1956, it gained its independence from France.
We drove past a theater with a lovely facade. A street with blue jacarandas made an impressive display.
At 8:52, we pulled into the parking area of the National Monument of the Kasbah. ( Once again, I can't get Rock the Casbah out of my head.) I have since found out that it is a memorial to several events in Tunisia. What events? That I can't find. We noticed some people gathering with signs, seeming to indicate a protest is brewing. But, we've noticed a guy in a suit and sunglasses-very Secret Service looking. We have a minder. That's not weird at all. No, of course not.
We were told not to take photos of the Old Casbah across the street. It is now the Department of Defense. Seriously? What is up with this place? To make it worse, we saw police with assault rifles casually slung over the front of their bodies.
We set off across the street and went past the Finance Ministry, which is in an attractive building.
We were being led to the Medina, which dates to the 8th century AD and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yes, another of those for our collection. I've seen the area described as a labyrinth of buildings and streets. And those streets are narrow.
We saw the Al-Zaytuna Mosque, which means Mosque of Olive, which also has a university. Saw as in just the outside. We were not allowed inside, which was also true of the Hammoud Pacha Mosque. That one is an historical monument.
One of the first things we saw when we got to the souk was a pizza place. That was unexpected! The place's name was weird - Shakshuka. I've made shakshuka and it is nothing like pizza.
We started to see shops of all kinds, but we were not allowed to stop. The vendors certainly tried to entice us to come in.
Ah, if you look at the bottom of this photo of the architecture, you'll see our tour guide with the 11 sign in his hand trying to wave us forward. But, the main thing to notice is our handler behind him!
As we proceeded to our destination, I saw this lovely tilework.
Our destination was reached at 9:25- a carpet shop. We climbed killer stairs up out of the showroom. On our way to the third floor, we paused to see a woman making a carpet. When the men were not looking as we left, she tied a piece of wool around my wrist, kissed the back of my hand, and held out her hand quite obviously for money. I was totally nonplussed and hurried up the next set of stairs. Up there, we were directed to sit around the perimeter of the room. I recognized this, because J and I had done this twice in Turkey on our cruise 6 years ago. The men from the shop started bringing out carpets of various sizes. Prices were never mentioned. But, if anyone so much as leaned forward to get a better look at one, someone swooped in to try to make the deal. They even said the small ones would fit in a suitcase. Meanwhile, we were served mint tea, just as in Turkey. Some of the patterns were quite lovely.
When it was wrapping up, a woman was making a purchase. Anas told us there was a restroom on the roof. Quite a few of us hustled up there and those stairs were even worse. As we waited in line, we had time to look out over the city. It was better than looking at the trash on the roof. I have no idea what the green and red boxes are.
By the time it was our turn, there was no toilet paper. I didn't discover there was no paper to dry your hands until after I'd washed them with water and hand sanitizer.
It was absolutely horrible going down the stairs. My knees were beyond furious. We were the last down and there was no shopping, because we immediately headed for the bus. This stop hadn't even been a half hour.
The walk back to the bus was not pleasant. We were being hurried along. When we got there at 10:08, we got a look at the building behind the buses that were parked there. It definitely had an Arab look. I liked the green accents.
We had hurried up to wait, it turned out. Evidently, 3 buses had to travel together. When we finally left at 10:20, we were led by a police escort. I wondered whether they were worried that if something happened to us, that would kill their tourism. The traffic lights even worked in our favor. Still, I saw heavily armed police at some intersections.
It was so hot in the bus, that I felt absolutely soaked. Anas, the guide, tried to distract us with more info. He said that "Berbers" was a Greek term for Africans, although it is my understanding that they were a group separated from the rest of Africa by the Sahara. Their kingdoms were interspersed with rule by Carthage or Rome. He continued, saying that they varied in skin color from very white to swarthy. Some words from their language survive in the Tunisian dialect. Only 49% of the population have Arabic origins. The rest are Berber/ North African in ancestry.
There were 3 Punic wars, he told us. Carthage had the best fleet. The second of the wars gave us Hannibal. I don't remember if he told us that Rome was the winner of each of the three wars, although he had said earlier that they were the final victor.
Along the way, I took photos out the window. One thing I noticed often was the amount of litter everywhere. I thought the Shell sign was amazing for being the standard sign in English with a little bit of Arabic, where the price should be. I was surprised to be able to spot our ship off in the distance.
At 10:55, we arrived at Byrsa Hill, the civic center of ancient Carthage, an archaeological park, and now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Signs reminded us that Arabic is read from right to left.
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It was so hot in the sun, that it is difficult to remember details of what he told us. I do remember having a bit of time to look at some ruins near the entrance and to look off into the Gulf of Tunis, where we could see naval vessels. We could also see the nearby city of La Goulette, which was the port where our shipped was anchored.
We moved on to the uncovered ruins. Evidently had filled the Carthaginian level with rubble and built over it. So, these Carthaginian ruins were not in terrible shape. They are called the Punic quarter and feature houses. The word "Punic" comes from the Latin word "Punicus", which was the Roman word for Phoenicians. The Romans considered the Carthaginians Phoenicians.
We had some time for photos and a restroom stop. K was kind enough to check the gift shop for me for a postcard, but no luck. Meanwhile, I went to read a sign and was shocked by what poor condition it was in.
I did get some nice shots of hibiscus and wildflowers that were growing there. Oh, and a shot of the access shaft to a Punic burial chamber.
We finally got back on the bus at 11:31 just to get some air conditioning.
All three buses were underway again at 11:42 following a black sedan.
It was only an 8 minute drive to the Baths of Antoninus, that are considered part of the Carthage site. There wasn't really a parking lot. The buses let us out in front of houses that seemed to be totally closed up.
These baths were built during the reigns of the Roman emperors Hadrian and Antoninus (145-162 AD), but named after the latter. Before we went in, Anas warned us to not take any photos of the Presidential Palace on the other side of the site. Again? This is a nervous country. He told us they are about to have yet another constitution.
It turned out that the entrance area of the park was a nice tree-filled area. This ancient site was also the site of some Punic tombs. If there were tree then, it was a nice cemetery.
It never fails to thrill to walk across ancient paved road and to see ancient stonework.
When we reached the baths, I could see past the huge site to the water and I could see boats or something zipping around out there. Zooming with the camera made me decide that they were probably security for the presidential palace to our left.
The bath complex was pretty impressive. It is evidently the largest Roman baths in Africa and the largest outside of Italy. There were hot baths and cold baths. Baths for women and baths for men. It was actually a symmetrical complex. There were two handy signs to show what it used to look like.
We were given some free time to explore, but decided we could see better from the main road. So, we did not go climbing around it it. Rather, we worked our way to the modern buildings at the end of the road. We did take note of the channels for the water. It must have taken a lot of work to dig this all out starting during WWII.
When we got down to the modern buildings, we found that one sold food and drink and one looked like souvenirs. Many from our group were frantically trying to buy something cold at the former. The latter was up a couple of steps. So, I asked J to check it out. She managed to get a few postcards before we exited and went up the street looking for our bus.
When we found it and boarded, I noticed that drivers of taxis and other buses had retreated to the relative cool afforded by trees across the street. It seemed wise considering the heat.
We were on our way again at 12:24. During the 26 minute ride to the port, I tried to get some idea of life in this city. We really didn't pass much that wasn't far off apartments. One pretty building may have been a hotel.
At the port, we were let out in a large lot in front of the castle-like structure. We gave Anas a 5 euro tip and passed a guard as we entered. We also passed a map of the complex that was rather interesting.
Inside, we realized that this was our "souk shopping experience" that was part of the title of this excursion. They'd made a clean, safe souk for the cruise ship trade. I was just glad we had a chance to shop. We found spices, as we'd hoped, and I got a bar of Tunisian chocolate. I found an adorable stuffed camel for our coming grandchild. We bought other items, too. Other than perhaps silver trays and such, it looked like a lot of the items we'd expected. There was a restaurant and an outdoor area. We, of course, planned to eat on the ship.
When we left, we found some of the tourists riding camels, others belly dancing, etc. So, basically, being tourists. We also saw the line of folks at the welcome tent of the ship getting the damp washcloths to wipe off hands, face, etc. and accepting very welcome cold water.
We were in our cabins at 1:25 and discovered they had not yet been made up. I checked the temperature and it said 82, feels like 84, but it felt worse than that.
When we went to lunch at 1:40, I decided I wanted a pizza from Grand Central Pizza up on Deck 10 overlooking the pool. I left my drink card with J to get me my Coke Zero and I went upstairs. I ordered and was given a pager. I wound up waiting so long, that I had to ask a waiter for a glass of water, because it was so hot. I didn't get my pizza until 2:10. It was good, but I'm not sure it was worth the wait. I shared some with J, who had had sausage and fries. Due to the heat, ice cream seemed like a good dessert.
We finished lunch after 2:30 and went out on deck to take photos of the surroundings. One thing I noticed about the port and the horizon was the haze, which may have been smog. We don't have it where we live, due to being in a small town, and I'm not sure I always recognize it. I did recognize that that mountain in the background of the oil tanks was volcanic in origin.
It turned out that the ship that we'd seen sailing in was a container ship. Well, at least partially. There were definitely containers in the front. The back, however, had some already mounted for a semi.
At 3, while K went off to a whiskey tasting, J and I headed down to the room, where we'd been coloring. Today, we were learning origami. The crew member in charge showed a video, stopping at times for us to catch up. We did each thing with white paper as practice before getting colored paper to do a better version. J had to help me with my flower. We were pleased with the results, which will decorate our cabins for the remainder of the cruise. Oh, and at 3:15, we got the first rain of the trip.
We set sail around 4. At 4:45, we were back in our cabins. I stepped out onto the verandah in time to see the pilot boat coming up to take the pilot off. I looked out a bit and I was not surprised to see a military boat not that far off from us. In the distance, you couldn't even see Tunis, just the mountains. Thus ended our visit to Africa.
We went off to dinner at 5:30. My starter was Chicken and Tabbouleh Salad as a nod to where we'd just been, while J got Arancini Pomodora, and K got the non-sharable Seafood Deviled Eggs.
My main course was Orecchiette with Eggplant and Pork Ragout, since we were headed back to southern Italy. J got Beef Pot Roast and K ordered Cod with Endive and Caramelized Orange, which was, once again, non-sharable.
K and I both ordered the Chocolate and Whiskey Torte, while J ordered the Chocolate Delight No Sugar Added. Eka decided that these were small and we needed vanilla ice cream, so he brought us some. This is why he's a great waiter. That and he is good at seeming interested in the guests. Although, when he and J got to talking about the Marvel Universe one night, he was more than animated. I think, he would have sat down with us had it been allowed.
We were out of the Dining Room at 6:45, which gave us time to get to Effy for their 7 pm spiel. Once again, we won no jewelry.
When it was over at 7:25, J and I were ready to just go back to our cabins. K, however, had energy. So, he went to the dance show and the port talk.
My phone shows 9,171 steps for a total of 3 miles. It also lied and said I'd climbed 1 flight. We know it was far more than that in that rug shop.
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