We made it to Tunis! Zowee!!
Up this morning at 3 am after a not very restful night. I think that knowing you need to get to sleep kind of prevents you from really doing it … and when you have to get up that early (which is early even for us!) – it doesn’t make for getting lots of sleep! At any rate, we were both up at 3, showered, dressed and heading downstairs by 3:45 am. Our cab was already there, which was wonderful, and we had a nice and relatively traffic-free trip to CDG.
All our flight information told us to arrive by 4:25 am … for a 7:25 am flight. We got there, found the right place to be, got R’s bag tagged … and then were told to wait in a line! Which didn’t move for something like 25 minutes! What, we all were asking ourselves, were we waiting for?! When it got past 5 am and there was no movement at all, some Air France person got on the phone and then – suddenly – we were all moved into lines to go up to the counters (with no people behind them!), scan our luggage codes, scan the tags on the bags, and then send the suitcases on through – all without a check-in agent! And, it obviously worked, as our suitcase arrived safely! Yay!
From there to the “All Other Passports” line to get our passports stamped – about another 15 minutes, and then through security. Funnily enough, though, we didn’t have to take ANYTHING out of our bags - no computers, no liquids – everything went through without a pause! So! Can’t really complain – or maybe we were just too tired to complain!
Found our gate, K34, close to the end of a long corridor, and sat to wait the remaining hour or so to board. Flight was very full, but they finally succeeded in stuffing everyone on, and off we went. To be honest, I kept falling asleep, I was so tired, but my head kept falling forward and I’d jerk awake! Not very restful, I can tell you! In a little over 2 hours we were landing in Tunis, and soon were off the airplane and trying to figure out what to do next. Turns out, that would be border control.
Talk about lines!! Multiple lines leading to passport control agents. Finally just picked one, and slowly edged our way forward until eventually it was our turn to have our passports inspected; probably took about half an hour. Then out to find R’s suitcase, and there it was! Piled things up onto a cart and headed out through “nothing to declare” to find the rental car place. Renting this time from Camel Rent-a-Car (appropriate, don’t you think??); we found it easily enough and in probably 10 minutes, we were being walked to our vehicle by a very nice man! Turns out that most of the people here speak French, but not too many speak a lot of English – so, French it will have to be, which, fortunately, is fine with me!
Got to our rental car – a nice VW Jetta!! MANUAL transmission! I am SOOOOO happy! AND, added bonus, it has a KEY! A real KEY – not a FOB! I am SOOOO happy! (oops, said that already … sorry, but I SO miss our manual.) Out on to the street, and into Tunis traffic – and wow! It’s like southern Italy all over again, but with a lot more foot traffic and bicycles thrown in! Definitely have to pay attention, that’s for sure!
Robert was able to find our hotel on the GPS and with Emmy’s help, we got here in about 20 minutes. Oh! I forgot! At one point, I needed to pull off the road so that Emmy could find our hotel, and so I turned into a gas station – and when I looked down, it was a good thing I did, as the car was almost empty of gas! I know that in most places rental cars come full, but occasionally (like today!) they’re not – and the deal is that you return it at the same level you picked it up! Oh boy!!
At any rate, we made it successfully to the Hotel Belvedere Fourati – although we drove by it the on the first pass, as they are renovating the exterior, and the name wasn’t appearing! Very confusing! Second time around, though, we found it, and were guided to a great parking space right in front (free!) And, even though it was just about noon, our room – suite actually - was ready for us! We’re in 209 on the third floor (remember, the ground floor is “0”) and it’s really lovely! Huge bathroom with a great tub and shower, then a nice comfy living room with couch and big-screen TV, and then the bedroom – lovely king-size bed as well as a desk with great working area behind and plenty of light. What makes it even better is that the big window can actually be opened, and the breeze is wonderful! Being only 3 floors up, we don’t have much of a view, but the room itself more than makes up for it! For, as R says, we’re not going to be spending that much time in it anyway!
Lovely suite 209 
Living room with fruit basket!
I got unpacked and organized (sending laundry out tomorrow!!!) and R set up the computer, and then we were off first, right across the street to an ATM where we picked up dinars, the currency of the country. Turns out, this is a much more cash-oriented society than we’re used to, so we’ll be taking $$ out more frequently, for sure. There is even one hotel we have towards the end of our time here that ONLY takes cash, so we need to be prepared! We then caught a cab right in front of our hotel to take us to the National Museum of Tunisia, the Bardo. As I hadn’t had a lot of sleep, and we didn’t know if there would be any parking available (turns out there was!) we figured cab would be easiest …
Cab ride was 20 Dinars (~$6.81) right to the museum. Lovely day outside, about 70 degrees, but with dark clouds in the area. Turns out that the museum started life as a palace, and has been worked on and renovated since the 1880’s when the French needed a place to start storing and displaying artifacts.
Carthaginian Goddess 
Reminded us of Boca di Verita in Rome!
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| Musee Bardo entrance |
We decided to start at the top floor (1st, i.e. U.S. 2nd) and work our way down, and later found that was definitely the way to go! That floor housed all of the really ancient (Carthage and then Roman) things, with our interest being mainly Carthaginian. Really some beautiful works – but it’s interesting because once the Romans moved in after the third Punic war, they basically took over and build over much of what the Carthaginians had – thereby destroying much of the original workmanship. The Romans also burnt the entire contents of the Carthage library, so much of Carthaginian thought was lost for all time. So much of their religious and burial practices are even today just a guess, which is so sad!
Great Punic mask! 
Ancient Punic Cow Goddess 
Stele from Carthage 
Another stele from Carthage 
Loved the arms on this pot!
From the Carthaginian artifacts, we moved to Roman – and my goodness, did the Romans like mosaics! They were, quite literally, everywhere! We were commenting that we hadn’t seen so many mosaics since our last visit to Gazentep in Turkey, and their (fairly) new mosaic museum! Turns out, the Bardo holds THE largest mosaic assembly in the WORLD! It goes on for room after room and floor, after floor! One of the security guards, seeing our interest, pulled us aside, and then led us all over the place! Turns out that the Bardo has a 3rd floor that is totally closed right now for renovation – but not to us! We got in through the “old” music room, and then up the side (closed) stairway to the closed floor and guided through the entire expanse! Room after room after room! It was incredible! (Just sshhh! Don’t tell the guides! We assured him we wouldn’t!) Haven’t had anything like this happen to us since Egypt! Interesting that baksheesh works here as well!
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| The mosaics are everywhere! |
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| Fortunately, the rooms are huge! |
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| Lots of "sea" mosaics |
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| A golden Roman hoard found in the 1970's |
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| Muslim room and ceiling |
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| Music room in the palace ceiling; undergoing renovation |
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| Another ceiling "where we weren't supposed to be" |
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| Interesting having the place to ourselves! |
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| Upper register is Poseidon |
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| Take a break on the terrace! |
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| Our Welcome Rainbow over Tunis!! |
After that, we were ready for a sit-down, so went to their little Café, which was out on a lovely courtyard patio. I got some wonderful potato chips, and we both had glasses of freshly squeezed (by hand!) orange juice! Shades of Turkey and Greece!
By this time, we had covered everything we wanted to see at the museum, so decided to head back to the hotel – at which point, it finally (after threatening since we landed) started raining … wow! We decided that – how bad could it be?? Answer, pretty bad! We both got pretty wet heading out toward the street to find a cab … but eventually we did find one, and while we were heading back to the hotel, we had the most beautiful full rainbow!! Wow! Welcome to Tunisia!!
Back now and still have an hour or so before dinner – starts at 6 and we’re eating here tonight! So! More later!
m
xxx
As we hadn’t really had anything at all to eat today, until my wonderful potato chips at the Musee Bardo, we were more than ready for dinner … which didn’t begin until 6 pm. In the meantime, though, we both took naps which I, at least,, desperately needed!
Down to the restaurant on the 1st (not ground!) floor and were seated at a table next the window. Fortunately, I had my sweater on; R wasn’t so lucky, but as he always runs warmer than I do, he was fine!
The menu was a QR code unless we wanted it in French or Arabic … so we opted for the QR code (which gave the menu in English), which worked well. For R, who has a much wider palate than I do, there are quite a few things from which to choose. For moi, not so much, especially as I’m not a fish eater! However, for tonight, all was great! I had penne bolognaise (my comfort food!), and R had their 4 cheese ravioli with a red sauce. My pile of penne was HUGE, but R finished his ravioli. For dessert, R had a fresh fruit platter which look fabulous, and I had their delicious chocolate fondant (warm cake with chocolate inside!) with pistachio ice cream! YUMMY! We also both had glasses of very good dry red wine, and a large bottle of sparkling water. All terrific!
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| Delicious starters -- the red stuff is Harissa -- HOT!! |
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| R's four cheese ravioli |
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| My penne bolognaise |
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| R's fresh fruit plate |
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| My yummy fondant chocolate cake with pistachio ice cream! |
We are now back in our suite, well satiated and guess what?! We’ve actually got a football game on TV! The NFL! We’re watching Buffalo vs. Miami LIVE – although the commentary is in German, but I’m not going to let that bother me. I can follow NFL football without any commentary!
Closing up for the day now, as I want to get this posted. Tomorrow we are heading out to Carthage, although the Carthage Site Museum is still closed for a renovation – bummer … but then an excuse to return! So, until then!
Much love,
m
xxx
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