Tunisia
by Eric Todman
Several of those who look at this site will remember the days when Eric Todman used to undertake major journeys and then write about them in NMR!. Well, we are all a bit older now, but Eric can still write up a holiday better than most. This is actually lifted from his unique Chr9istmas Round Robin letter. Enjoy.
Another of the advantages of living in Prague was the vacation allotment. Five weeks a year felt quite intoxicating to one who’d had to make do with two or three over the past twenty years. I was slightly flummoxed when I was told that I had three weeks vacation to use during the last six months of 2004. I was quite absorbed by my new life in Prague and (oh heresy!) didn’t feel the need to take time off to travel. So I carried over five days to 2005, went home to the US for Christmas, and spent a week in Madrid, primarily to visit the world class art museums. Come 2005 I hit my stride and spent two weeks in Tunisia, and a few days in both Berlin and Budapest. I also visited the city of Dresden, which still has some very impressive architecture, despite the fact that much of the city was destroyed by Allied bombing. There’s a walking trip in Cyprus and a sightseeing trip in Cambodia to come, but they’ll have to wait for next year’s letter.
Tunisia was one of my main trips of the year. It was, in some ways, a compromise choice. I had wanted to take a trip during the spring but found that air fares to some of my more favoured destinations were horrifically expensive. This was partially due to the time of year, but also due to the fact that the Czech Republic is not a large country with a large travelling population, thus there is little competition to keep fares low. So I decided upon Tunisia and, as usual, travelled with the British-based Explore company.
The journey to Tunis from Prague was mercifully short, unlike my customary haul from JFK. Tunis airport was quite large and modern, testifying to the high volume of tourism that the country attracts, although immigration processing was surprising slow. I was greeted by the tour-leader; a jovial middle-aged woman named Polly who was something of a footer nut (Liverpool, actually). Most of the group had already arrived. We were thirteen strong: mostly British but also including a New Zealand couple and a Canadian family of three. My first view of Tunis from the bus that took us to our hotel was interesting but not especially appealing. The city was quite modern and very busy. Part of our journey was along a multilane highway and there were newly built office blocks to be seen. Today, a Sunday, was also Independence Day and the roads were crowded with car loads of celebrants and holiday revellers.
Our hotel was in the older section of town and, although the plumbing was a little primitive, it was quite pleasant. The surrounding streets were narrow and crowded. Most of the people wore western clothing; only the elderly men showed a little tradition by wearing the national headgear, which resembled a low-rise fez. Indications of modernity abounded. There were shops selling mobile phones, DVD players, digital cameras and other high-tech commodities. The streets were choked with vehicle traffic. The souqs, regrettably, were mainly given over to tourist tat.
We spent a couple of days in Tunis. We visited the Bardo museum which has a magnificent collection Roman mosaics and sculpture, and Sidi Bou Said a small, attractive, but somewhat crowded, town on the Mediterranean coast. Sidi Bou Said was very picturesque with its brilliantly coloured blue and white buildings (seemingly the Tunisian national colours) and there were good views of the coast. The following day we visited the somewhat sparse remains of Carthage. Modern Carthage, by contrast, is now a well-heeled suburb of Tunis. We spent our evenings in restaurants in the new city which was built very much in the style of its French creators, with wide tree-lined boulevards. Soccer fever has certainly reached Tunisia – they even watch EPL matches on Al-Jerez satellite TV - and it was not uncommon to encounter large groups of noisy, but very much non-threatening, fans. Thankfully the Tunisians have leaned to enjoy the game without recourse to violence.
Our first visit after leaving Tunis was to Kairouran, one of Islam’s seven holy cities. Its Great Mosque, first built in AD 670 before being rebuilt in the ninth century, is North Africa’s most holy site. The town, as one might have expected, was noticeably more conservative than Tunis, although most people still wore western dress and, as I noted throughout the trip, there was a marked lack of muezzin’s calling the faithful to prayer. We also visited the Mosque of the Barber and found two marriage ceremonies in progress. Neither of these was an actual marriage but was, in each case, a legal formality that precedes marriage. The ceremonies were being performed for both a man and a woman who were not, we were informed by our local guide, marrying each other. We spent sometime watching the man’s ceremony. He sat cross-legged surrounded by male friends and relatives. The surprise was that there was one young girl amid the exclusively male gathering (was it significant that she was pre-adolescent)? It wasn’t obvious what was taking place during the ceremony. The atmosphere was of good natured banter and did not appear worshipful. It felt more like a restrained stag gathering. When the ceremony ended, the groom was embraced and kissed by his male guests. The attendees, including ourselves, were doused with rosewater and offered fig cakes. Our presence hadn’t disturbed anyone, and it was quite a privilege to have witnessed the ceremony.
During the next few days, we travelled south to the desert. We visited El Jem, the third largest Roman coliseum in the world and probably the best preserved. It was a truly magnificent structure that could seat an audience of 30, 000; a number considerably larger than the population of the local town, so there was the expectation that people would travel for their entertainment. The stone from which the coliseum was constructed had been hauled thirty kilometres; a gargantuan task. We stayed overnight in Sfax, Tunisia’s second largest city and very much not on the tourist map. The medina markets sold mostly food, clothing and household items and were very much geared to the requirements of local shoppers. Modernity was still very much in evidence though and there were also stalls selling washing machines, CDs, and VCRs. There were cameras and mobile phones on sale as well, although they looked to be out of date models.
The following day we drove to Matmata and visited a Troglodyte home. These are pit dwellings which have a large central courtyard and small rooms hewn into the rock. They are very much functioning dwellings and their occupants have resisted concerted attempts by the Tunisian government to move them to conventional homes. The home that we visited was quite large – including about eight or nine rooms – and appeared to be the home of an extended family. We arrived late in the afternoon and the family looked somewhat weary from dealing with a large number of visitors, but they welcomed us cordially.
The next day we drove to Zaafrane from where the camel trek was to begin. The trek lasted four days and was enjoyable without being exciting. The organisers, or cameleers as we were encouraged to call them, were constantly staying in touch by cell phone and this militated against any sense of adventure and romance; as indeed did our occasional encounter with concrete buildings. The desert could still look beautiful though, even during our restricted foray, and despite the pain in the arse that I endured while riding them, I was quite taken by the camels. Their wonderfully wise faces and low melodious gurgling, particularly from the randy males, was highly appealing.
The final third of the trip was devoted to visiting provincial towns, Roman archaeological sites and hiking near the somewhat sensitive Algerian border. The highlight, for me, was a visit to La Kef, a town that attracts very few tourists. The town was 750 metres above sea-level and the weather was quite autumnal. We even experienced a little British-style drizzle. The surrounding countryside was lush and green, by Tunisian standards, and many of the nearby farms kept herds of sheep. La Kef’s market was large and bustling and sold everything that the townsfolk could want. The kasbah was well preserved but unfortunately scarred by the presence of a TV mast. There was a small but quite informative museum devoted to early Tunisian life. The people, probably because they were unused to tourists, found us quite fascinating and were happy to be photographed (not always the case on this trip). La Kef turned out to be a wonderful example of Tunisian provincial life, and Tunisia really wasn’t a compromise at all.