Chilling out in Hammamet !!!!

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I woke up around 830am; took a shower. Celine’s door was padlocked so I figured she had gone somewhere and wasn't sure if she was going to be back before I left. I went to the bakery downstairs and got half a baguette and a custard pastry. Got back to the house and went through the fridge looking for some butter as I desperately needed some butter to eat with my coconut sambol. Any Sri Lankans reading this would figure what it is to have coconut sambol (pol sambol), bread and butter. Yes something to die for ;-) at least for me; I didn't find any butter so it was just plain bread with pol sambol. Had my pastry and then Celine comes home. She had brought some bread as well greedy as I was I had some of her bread with Nutella while she ate bread with pol sambol.

It was time to leave now and I got directions from her to the closest internet cafe and left. I got to the internet cafe at about 1045 and I had to wait as it was full. There was this girl seated next to me and I asked her if she had been waiting for long and she said about 5 minutes and we got talking. She said she was from Kairouan and said both her parents are from there. Apparently there are still certain cities in Tunisia where they only marry from that city. Apparently she was engaged to someone from a different city. I asked her if it was arranged and she said no it was out of love and if it were to be arranged it would have been from her city in Kairouan.

I got a computer at about 11am and the manager asked everyone to leave 12pm as it was prayer time.

I got to the louage station near the bridge. A louage is a shared white colour van with a red/blue or yellos strips in the middle. The colours indicate if it is inside the city or regional. The ones with the yellow band are mostly found in Southern Tunisia and are called Camionettes. On my way their Celine had told me about this fruit cocktail place so I made sure I had a fruit cocktail. I’m so in love with these fruit cocktails (smoothies with fruits, nut and dates) I can't get enough of them.

The louage took about an hour to get to Hammamet and I got there around 3pm. I headed to the hotel Maison de Jeunes which cost 6 dinars for a single room with 2 beds. On my way to the hotel this car came through a street and turned left. I saw a girl and a guy in the car and then it did a u-turn and came back and stopped next to me with the girl starring at me as if wanting to talk to me. I guess there is a reason why lonely planet calls Hammamet the sin city of Tunisia. I kept walking and completely ignored them.

Got to my hotel and got to my room and I had a beech view which wasn’t anything much. I put a walk towards the fort and walked inside taking many pictures. It is strange to see when you get to certain lonely areas you find couples a bit like the Vihara Maha Devi park in Sri Lanka.

At about 6pm I had dinner my usual bread pouch with harissa tuna and fritas and walked about 1.5kms on Ave de la Republique and then got back to the centre and walked on Ave Habib Bourguiba for about another 1.5kms and I was hungry again. Got back to the centre and I had a crepe with the Tunisian version of Nutella. That was N I C E !!!

I walked along the cemetery on the coastline to the hotel, passed the hotel and walked about another 1.5kms and got back to my room. I wanted to take a shower and to see there was no hot water. I had to decide either I take a cold shower now or tomorrow early morning at 7am and decided now was better. It’s been a long time since I had a cold shower in this cold climate. Jumped into the cold shower quickly washed soaped and jumped out in less than 3 minutes; but the feeling after is fabulous I must admit. Got back to my room and then only I realized that I had left the two books I brought to read this vacation "The Power of Now" and "New Earth" at Celine’s place. I had also left a desert that I bought in Sidi Bou Said at her place. I went to bed at 945pm.

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