Onto El-Djem!

Up this morning about 6, and down to breakfast about 7. This morning, R found his sausages from last night on the menu, and very much enjoyed them again, along with some potatoes and grilled veggies and his usual plate of cucumbers and tomatoes. I made do with several croissants with strawberry jam and some cheese, along with my hot chocolate.

We were out the door about 8:15 am and this time, heading basically south on the Africa 1 (A1) highway towards El-Djem. Unlike yesterday, this was basically about 2 hours and a bit of lovely highway driving, and the road got much clearer of traffic just south of Hammamet. The highway is really lovely – and it’s a peage(toll road), just like in France, where there are either toll booths that collect cash, or ticket booths that dole out tickets and then you pay a little further on in the route. In this case, though, R has been trying to work out the Tunisian money. It is very interesting!

On the road to El-Djem

Service area we visited!

Olives trees under cultivation!

The printed currency is what we would consider “normal” – that is, the denomination of each bill is clearly printed on each bill. However, when it comes to the coin part, this is where we differ widely. Where we have the dollar, and it is divided into 100 pennies, and we use the decimal point (.) and have two zeros, in Tunisia, the dinar is divided into 1,000 millimes, and three zeros and use comma’s (,) as dividers. Are you confused yet? I certainly am! So, for instance, the toll in some places was 1,400 (that is, 1 dinar 400 millimes). and in other places, 2,500 (2 dinars 500 millimes). Those tolls translate to 48 cents and 85 cents. Whew! The Tunisians could teach the French something about peage tolls, which can be very expensive! Okay … then, the coins themselves, sometimes have the denomination on them – but on the 1 dinar coin, it is very, very small and hard to see. On the 2 dinar coin, it is much larger, and the 5 dinar coin, fortunately, has a gold rim around it, which makes it distinctive. However, there are coins that have no number on them, at least which I can find, so you just have to look at the picture on it! Whew!

So … driving right along on the A1 South towards El-Djem (which, by the way, can be spelled either El-Djem or El-Jem, depending on what book or map you are using. Beautiful day, lots of blue sky and sunshine, and about 75 degrees. We arrived in El-Djem about 10:30 and found the Amphitheatre with no problem – as it’s the biggest thing in the entire city, not that difficult! Also found very convenient parking fairly close.

First glimpse of the Amphitheatre

The Amphitheatre is the third largest ever built by the Romans, and was the largest ever built in North Africa. (That is, after the Coliseum in Rome and the Amphitheatre in Capua, near Naples, which apparently is no longer really standing, as it has been used as a quarry for many, many years and purposes.)

It really is something to see, and, unlike its bigger brother in Rome, there were not huge lines waiting to get in, no gladiators wanting to have their pictures taken with you, and it was only 12 dinars ($4.09) each to get in and we didn’t need a reservation! We had a nice amble around and enjoyed it very, very much!

Me on the floor of the Amphitheatre

From the Amphitheatre, we then headed to the local Archaeological Museum, which was very surprising! We had thought, after the Bardo here in Tunis, that all of the mosaics in Tunisia must have gone there – but truly, they missed quite a few from El-Djem! Again, a huge building (but obviously not as big as the Bardo!) but filled with really stunning mosaics! Obviously those Romans enjoyed decorating their houses and palaces! The number of full mosaics that have been found and on display in Tunisia is incredible.

Emperor Trajan at the Museum

Villa Africanus

One of the things that we noticed, though, is that there are mosaics that are missing parts – usually faces or around figures. This is because of looters in the past who cut out parts of mosaics to sell on the black market. I am always relieved when I find that sites are being protected – like the fence that was finally constructed around Gobekli Tepe in Turkey – which prevents looting from happening, but as apparently it is a custom (trade?) as old as the pyramids, I shouldn’t be too surprised. At any rate, if you notice holes in the photos, that’s usually the reason.

Loved the tiny elephant!

Loved the Sea Nymph!

Goddess Africanus!

The other really interesting thing about the museum is that it is constructed around Africa House – a Roman villa dating from around 170 AD that was physically relocated to the museum site in the 1990’s. The villa, typical of a Roman house of this period, contained, among other mosaics, a medallion mosaic depicting the Goddess Africa, which represents the Roman province of El-Djem. It is beautiful!

After the museum, we decided to head back to Tunis and our lovely Hotel Belvedere Fourati! Traffic not too bad most of the way, and then of course, crazy once we reached town. It will be interesting to see how things go now that we’re really heading south! Tomorrow we head south again, past El-Djem, to Sfax for the night. From Sfax, we’ll head to Tozeur and our dessert oasis! Looking forward to a couple of days of R&R in the dessert! I’ve always loved that song “Midnight at the Oasis!” Now we’ll see what one is like!

So, more until after dinner!

Much love,

xxx

Oh! I really wanted to write something about our impressions to date about Tunisia! So far, being in the capital of the country, we have noticed that there are many women wearing headscarves, but very few women completely covered. And many women look just like the women we are used to seeing every day, no headscarves at all and very modern, contemporary clothing! Actually, I’ve seen much more conservative dress in Istanbul than here, and we’re not really even at any of the popular resort areas.

Additionally, while this is a Muslim country, we have only once or twice heard the traditional call to prayer, which happens five times a day! Usually, in the other Muslim countries we have visited (Egypt and Turkey) you will hear the call very, very loudly and in many directions. As I say, I think I’ve heard it twice, both times when we were out in the country – never here in the city, that I recall, and certainly never in the hotel, which I thought was odd. Also, there is no indication of the direction of Mecca, which there is always in Egypt and usually in Turkey. Again, interesting to note.

Tunisia actually started the Arab Spring a few years ago, and is the only Arab country (the population is 98% Arab, 1% Berber, 1% other) who has come out of it with an actual functioning democracy, of which the people are rightly very proud!

And, believe it or not folks, this country has absolutely NO McDonald’s! As far as we can tell, the only American chain at all here is one Chili’s restaurant near the airport. Other than that, no Burger King (which has a huge presence in Turkey!) or anything else! And, my final thought (until the next one comes along) – smoking is definitely a problem, at least it is for me! Men in particular smoke a lot, and many women do as well. Here (so far, knock wood) the hotel is non-smoking with the exception of the bar (which is enclosed) and the roof-top terrace.

Apparently, the Tunisian economy is not in very good shape. Major exports are mining, textiles, some manufacturing and agriculture (mainly, olive oil). Tourism is not a big item here. A common sight: buildings only half constructed that haven’t been worked on for a number of years.

More later!

xxx

Just back from a lovely dinner upstairs! I again had their “brick” with shrimp, and again, it was absolutely delicious! For mains, I returned to the chicken breast in cream and cheese sauce. R started with their “Norwegian” bowl – a salad of sorts with couscous, lentils, carrots of two colors (orange and yellow) and a slice of salmon, and then tried their lambchops, which he said were outstanding! For dessert, we both got fondant – R’s pistachio and mine chocolate, with small dishes of pistachio ice cream! Very, very good – all washed down with a nice bottle of dry read Tunisian wine – and all for the very lost cost of approximately $64 total! Incredible!