TUNISIA 2011: Americans in Tunisia – Day 1 (No carpet) December 21, 2011

Greetings from Tunis

Day One

Left London rather unceremoniously but more complicated than ever imagined. Taxi from hotel to Victoria Station; Express Train to Gatwick Airport; train to terminal… and all seemed fine (except for the ungodly hour — taxi pick up at 5:30 am). But when we checked in to the British Airways flight, they asked for proof of a return flight out of Tunisia — which somehow we didn’t have. We had paperwork for hotels, for our United flight to California, etc, but no printed confirmation for the Alitalia flight from Tunis to London. This was apparently a problem, as British Air needs to be sure (I assume the Tunisian Government is the one who needs to be certain) that we are not immigrating to Tunisia! After many rounds of discussion (Thank goodness in English!) and showing that we have a ticket from London to SFO (and it would be difficult to make that flight if we didn’t leave Tunisia!) and having the confirmation number for the Tunis – London flight, they let us move along through security. But that meant not having time to have any breakfast…

We made it to the plane… We were among a handful of non-Arabs on the flight.

Flight was uneventful, until landing — when about half the plane stood up while we were taxiing. We had experienced this before — in India — but not at this scale. Flight attendants were yelling, but it didn’t seem to matter. People were getting their bags and walking down the aisle well before we reached the gate. Imagine doing that at SFO.. I think they would surround the plane with police.

Customs was smooth; they didn’t seem to care if we had a return flight or not… and other than the fact that police had some kind of sub-machine gun kind of weapon at the airport, all was well and friendly. Naturally the search for a taxi was interesting with lots of hawking guys trying to be our “official greeter” and get tipped for walking us to the taxi station — which we ignored. But as we got into a taxi it was obvious there was some negotiation going on as to the driver tipping at least one of these guys.. Took about 30 minutes to get to the hotel, which is charming and right inside the Medina — the 1,000 year-old section of the city.  Small, delightful, and impossible to get to by car (taxi left us off at the entrance to the Medina and then we were on our own.  After walking with our bags for a few minutes, we saw two women who were most friendly and spoke English!  They didn’t know where the “Dar El Medina” was, so they immediately used cell phones and called to get directions.. We were told to just wait where we were and someone from the Dar would come to get us.. which they did. Good thinking because rolling the bags on the centuries-old cobblestone narrow paths and figuring out where to turn and when to go straight would not have been possible. Actually the Dar was quite close but needed to make a few important direction decisions at each “intersection.”

After checking in and settling in the room, we walked to the “souk” area which is just a few turns down the street… mingled in the crowded alleys with everyone trying to get the gringo’s attention… trying out every language from English to French to Spanish to Italian to Polish (“Look at this”  “I know you will like this” — in dozens of languages..)  Began the photography ritual… Unlike the medinas in Morocco..this one abuts the “ville nouveau” from the 19th century… so I strolled out of the Medina for a while (it’s connected by a great square where lots of people are walking and having coffee, talking, and just hanging out). Strolled for a few hours and then returned to the hotel where we crashed for about 90 minutes and now we are up and ready to head to a supposedly very “luxurious” restaurant.. to celebrate Mike’s birthday… More on that later.

First impressions of Tunis:

Cell phones are everywhere!

Fewer burkas than in Morocco (but maybe that’s because we’re not yet in rural areas?) Only a handful of guys in the Star Wars garb Not a single sign of Santa or Christmas; no fake snow; no tinsel (very calming and delightful).. In Morocco we saw lots of chintzy Xmas decorations.. Not here, very very little Western tourism… Hotel receptionist said foreign travel was picking up since the election.. but no real sign of it so far.

Looks more Mediterranean than Morocco did… buildings all pastels.. mostly white and beige and accents in blue.. quite charming; lots of palm trees.

OK.. just returned from tres cher dinner (as everyone told us when they recommended Dar El Jeld for Mike’s birthday dinner…Space quite wonderful — tile on tile on tile… interior courtyards.. no westerners; I assume all the diners were wealthy Tunisians… Not much English. .. we are struggling with French, since menus are so difficult to follow..

Anyway, we survived quite well..

The restaurant had wine, which was good since many of the better restaurants do not have any alcohol.

Appetizer was some kind of tagine, but not at all like Moroccan ones..It had egg and lamb and vegetables all rolled up with some thin crust and I suppose cooked in a tagine.. then we had couscous with giant stuffed squid.. followed by what we would call tagine(?) of sweet lamb with apricots, raisins, dates,  and leeks.. But they didn’t call it a tagine and it wasn’t served in a tagine. Dessert was some kind of cream smothered in cardamon powder.. They called it “black pine”… and of course the obligatory mint tea which is always refreshing and a great topper for the meal…

Oh– Tres cher by Tunisian standards, but about 50% of London standards for non-tres cher eatery… and about 30% of the cost of the super-upscale Paris eateries… so financially Tunisia is a good choice.

Walked back from the restaurant to the hotel .. taking a “short cut” amid construction and lots of cats (all of whom seem fearful of humans..thank goodness!)

OK.. off to bed.. Adventures ahead tomorrow.

Big plan is NOT to buy a carpet.. we’ll see. That was my plan in Turkey two years ago and Mike (not me) was totally succumbed and we wound up with a carpet and a long story.

Fern

PS — As you can see – wireless connection quite successful.. which is making me happy as well as office and clients. So, tomorrow.. a little souk-seeking… the grand mosque.. a little work… some great food…and we’ll see what unfolds.