Into Africa

We're nearing the end of the first quarter of 2010, and alarmingly we've only done one weekend away so far this year! We deliberately didn't plan anything for end Feb / early March, which has lived up to expectations of being a very crazy time at work. But now, we're overdue for a vacation! Thankfully we've got a trip to the States coming up - including a nice 5 1/2 day break over the Easter weekend holiday that we booked within days of our return after Christmas.

When we did manage to get out of dodge, we ventured south to Tunisia - our first trip to Africa. For those who have as little idea of where Tunisia was as I did before booking the trip, it is on the north coast of Africa, nestled between Algeria & Libya, and on googlemaps appears to be a stone's throw from Sicily & Sardinia. Known as one of the most moderate Muslim countries, there is little to no English spoken (Arabic & French), and for these westerners it was definitely one of the most 'foreign' places we've traveled. (Notably, it's also where Star Wars was filmed, but we didn't make it to the deserts in the middle of the country.)

We chose Tunisia because it promised to be warmer than London at the end of January, and because I won a beach vacation in a bet with Jason, having beaten him in our Fantasy Football league finals (the wager was: loser has to take me on a beach vacation). Jason thinks this counted - see evidence below:

From Tunis - January '10

The picture above was on our day trip out to the resort town of Sidi Bou Said and Carthage, where we walked amongst Roman ruins from the area's hey-day. Please note that, while the view was beautiful, I was not dressed in anything close to a bathing suit.

Back where we stayed in Tunis, the capital, there were a few things we found particularly notable:

• While we found plenty of interesting things to look at (mosaics, mosques, market stalls), Jason appeared to be the most interesting thing for the locals to look at.
• As definitive 'outsiders', we found that when we did have the opportunity to interact with the locals, we found them to be warm & welcoming -- and even more so when they found out we are American.
• It's not a place that gets many tourists (hence the 2 first points) - but that was very nice. Unlike Istanbul (where we've visited) or Marrakech (where we haven't), we didn't feel like someone was out to rip us off at every turn. We encountered some entrepreneurial sorts, but very little pushiness or swindling to be found.
• It is nearly impossible to find a place to sit and have a beer or other drink. We did manage to find a hotel's rooftop bar, 'Bar Jamaica', and ended up going multiple times. It is possible to find restaurants serving beer or wine, but never in view of the public (in fact, one place we went had the windows papered over).
• Women and men socialise in different circles, which was brought home to us when we went for dinner on our first night, and I was the only female in the busy, rather large restaurant ... for the entire evening. This also made it seem a little strange that I was the only one to speak directly with servers during our trip, given French was required. I should note, though, that I encountered absolutely no hostility.
• So as not to appear out of touch or offensive, we kept PDA to a minimum (even more so than normal) - meaning not even any hand-holding while walking down the street. This proved remarkably, surprisingly difficult.

Overall, it was a delighful and eye-opening couple of days in a completely different culture, and we definitely recommend brushing up on you French (or Arabic) and checking out Tunisia! Meanwhile, be sure to check out our pictures!