Tunisia

Well the whole Tunisia thing ended up on Saturday. The final highlight was a visit to the small town of El Jem which has an absolutely magnificent Colosseum. This is in much better condition than the one in Rome with almost all original stone and many many rooms underneath showing where the slaves and gladiators and animals were held before the show.

Our last night was in Hammamet where we had our best hotel. We visited yet another souk - market - and then had a nice meal in the hotel.

The next morning we travelled to Tunis. We spent the morning in the souk - once again - before making our way to the airport and back to Italy.

We are really enjoying the comments people have left here and at our email addresses.

It is very nearly impossible to write using this keyboard. Some of the keys have four options incuding arabic script and the letters are also in the wrong places.

Yesterday we were in Kebili, an oasis on the edge of the sandy bit of the Sahara. We drove to Douz where we were dressed in arabic clothing and introduced to our friendly camels. Vickys was placid and Graemes was too except for an alarming mouth issue. It kept bubbling and foaming like an espresso machine. The desert was magnificent with the sand the finest and softest we have ever experienced.
We later drove to the island of Djerba - spookily pronounced Al Jazira by the locals - where we travelled on a ferry with goats and cows. We went to a pottery and made some purchases.

Today we visited a synogogue, on the site of the oldest synogogue in the world. We then visited a carpet maker and a shy arab girl showed us how to make a few knots. It takes three months for these people to make a three metre carpet and they do the pattern from memory. We made a purchase here as well! The propieter called Graeme the Doctor and Vicky Brigette all through the negotiations for some reason. He also offered Graeme 1000 camels for Vicky.
We also visited the souk - market - and generally looked about, trying to avoid the all too many spruikers outside each stall.

Tonight we are in Gabes and we travel north to El Jem and then on to Hammamet and then finishing in Tunis on Saturday.

Greetings from Tunisia!

This is day three of our Tunisian experience and it is the first real chance we have had to add to the website.

We are Kebili which is in the south of the country next to an oasis.

We arrived late into Tunis having missed our plane out of Rome for a variety of reasons. We got to bed after midnight and then had to get up at six, which was really five because of the change to daylight saving.

Sunday was all about Tunis and we visited all the sights this place has to offer - the beautiful town of Sidi Bou Said the ruins of ancient Carthage, the magnificent Bardo Museum which features the worlds largest collection of Roman mosaics and then into the Medina, the ancient town centre. We also managed to see a tradtional muslim wedding and a troup of soldiers bringing down the flag in the town centre at the stroke of five.

Monday was mainly the Muslim experience with visits to a number of mosques and holy places as we travelled south to Tozeur. The highlight was visiting a mosque from the tenth century in a town called Kaiorian. This place is the fourth most holy shrine in all Islam.

Today was the Desert experience with a four wheel drive journey into the Sahara. We really only ventured onto the edge but saw plenty of sand dunes and had a lunatic drive across sand roads. We visited a number of oases some of which looked like they were from Hollywood, and others that did not. We saw the place where Star Wars was filmed, visited a berber family at their tent and met their baby goats and camels. We also travelled across a vast salt pan.

The group is only eight - four from Italy and two from Austria. Our tour guide is a real wag and can tell amusing Tunisian anecdotes in five languages. The bus is OK and the hotels are mostly straight out of the sixties except for tonight. Food is interesting and plentiful and alcohol very cheap.

Internet is on modem and keyboards are European !!!!!!!