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Published: November 17th 2009
Tunis Coast
From Sidi Bou SaidFor the first time in our trip we are seeing a culture that is significantly different than ours. Tunisia is where Nadine and her family lived for a year when she was 14 years old. Her and her sister (Annie) went to a French school in Sousse for a year. So Nadine is trying to go down memory lane…but apparently, Tunisia has undergone many changes in the 27 years since Nadine went to school here.
She remembers the roads being clogged with horse or donkey driven wagons, bicycles, and people. Today the roads are still clogged…but now with other cars, trucks, mopeds, and people! People outside of Sousse compare Sousse today with New York city…in reference to its neon signs that have sprung up over the past decade. So it has changed, but it is still very exciting for Nadine and Annie to return and to introduce us to a part of their past.
Where does one start to try to reflect our amazing experiences here? It has to be the people! On first impressions, the Tunisian men come across as very intimidating…they have dark eyes, dark hair, dark skin, and several days beard growth…but of course when you
talk to them, they smile easy, like to laugh, are eager to assist and are fine people. In contrast…these same features on the Tunisian women are not intimidating but rather very attractive (except the beard of course...I mean they don't have one).
I have seen many acts of generosity to others, and all of the Tunisian people have been very nice to us. We made contact with several people from Nadine’s past that reside in Tunisia. Nathalie, her husband Sofiane, and their 2 children. Nathalie is from Sherbrooke and is a friend of Nadine’s sister Annie. We had dinner with them the day we arrived in Tunisia and quickly learned a local custom that you buy dinner for visitors to your country (note to selves…go befriend more Tunisians). They were very good about our bombardment of questions and insights into Tunisian life. Nathalie helped us find the bed and breakfast in Tunis that we stayed in for a couple days and she returns to Canada annually to see family and friends.
We rented a car for our few weeks in Tunisia…at a fraction of the cost of a car in Spain…not only is Tunisia, the country, developing, but
so are the driving rules! Drivers generally ignore speed limits, stop signs, signal lights, and lines on the roads (I guess this would make many cities in Canada ‘developing’ as well). It is a free for all on all streets. I commented that it would be depressing to buy a new car here as it would not stay new for long as most cars have dings and scratches and something broken somewhere. This comment must have been the kiss of death, because just as I was getting fairly self-inflated about my driving skills a post jumped out of nowhere in a parking lot as I was backing up and put a scratch and a dent in our rental car. It was a sharp pin in my driving ego balloon! As was the belief that there are no rules of the road here. On our second day in Tunis, Nadine and I were to run a few quick errands and we left the kids at the bed and breakfast. We parked the car on the side of the road, behind and in front of several other parked cars, to run into a grocery store, when we came out our car, and
all the other cars were gone. We were towed to an underground parking lot just around the corner where we paid 30 dinar to get it back. Live and learn.
Forget about maps! We had several maps given to us from hotels and tourist offices that we could not figure out. The streets on their maps have names, but someone forgot to put up street signs with the names on them. They mostly navigate by major landmarks here…so if you do not know those, you will be exploring more than you will be navigating. To find several of our accommodations in various places in Tunisia, the standard method is for you to call the proprietor upon arrival in the village at some landmark, and they will come out to meet you so that you can follow them. In pretty well all cases…this was more than necessary, as there do not seem to be any straight forward streets here and getting anywhere seems to involve many turns.
Our experience in roaming Tunisia almost every day involved walking through a market or ‘souk’ as it is called here. Shopping in Tunisia in the souks, is unlike anything we see in
Canada…outside of a carnival! Walking a souk, and looking like a foreigner, or worse…a tourist…requires a certain personality…that Nadine has but I do not! The problem is that we cannot help looking like visitors…so they know right away. They also know with the first word that comes out of our mouths that we are quebecois/ canadian. We have noticed a very large number of people from Quebec are visitors here…which makes sense as they are very likely to visit French speaking countries, moreso than the Anglophones. There are hundreds of shops in the souks of clothing, souvenirs, leather jackets and bags, shoes, jewelry, and so much more and each one has a proprietor that wants you to come into his shop (haven’t seen a female proprietor yet). Within the 15 seconds it takes to walk past their shop, they try to become your best friend…they know what language you speak, where you are from, your name, your kids names, your wifes name, and what color underwear you have! A polite ‘non mercy’ is not enough…these are persistent people. Once you pass one shop then the next proprietor is on you. If you are buying, then the games progresses to the
next level…the negotiation! There are no fixed prices in these markets, so it is definitely a survival of the hardiest type of scenario…who is going to blink first? In some of our experiences for instance, Nadine’s sister bought a camel skin bag…the starting price was 250 dt (1 dt = ~.7 cdn), when her sister was finished negotiating (45 minutes) she bought it for 30 dt! Nadine bought a plate that started at 60 dt and bought it for 10 dt. It is an amazing process and one that I would not be good at, as an overly trusting humanist, which has a difficult time saying ‘no’.
After a couple of days in Tunis, where we squeezed in Sidi Bou Said and the very impressive Carthage ruins, we moved onto Sousse, 1.5 hours south of Tunis, which is where Nadine and her family lived 27 years ago. We were met when we arrived by Imed…one of Annie’s classmates from way back then. Facebook helped Nadine and her sister reconnect with a number of classmates before we departed Canada and they also planned a class reunion while Nadine and her sister were in Tunisia. Imed found us the apartment we
would be staying in for the next week, and of course came to meet us when we arrive and we followed him to the location. It was an apartment in a building which is only five months old. Everything around it was still being constructed, and it fit the bill very well. Imed, his wife Naouel, and there 3 year old identical twins were fantastic to us all week. We went to their house for a traditional Tunisian meal, Imed went all the way to Tunis to pick up Annie, Ian, and Lea from the airport, he helped me connect with his friends autobody repair place to assess my vehicle, and so much more. Imed and his family’s hospitality dramatically increased our enjoyment of Sousse. We thank them so much for contributing to our travels.
The reunion that was planned was in a tourist resort town between Tunis and Sousse called Hammamet. It was taking place at a beautiful five star resort, which just happens to be managed by one of the classmates (Haykel). So we were able to stay at this five star resort for a very generous and nominal amount thanks to Haykel. The kids very much
enjoyed this special place, if only for a day, but they really enjoyed the evening and breakfast buffets. I never saw them eat so much! The reunion dinner took place on a Sunday and was attended by about 7 classmates and everyone enjoyed themselves.
The following day we drove to El Jem where the 2nd largest roman coliseum in the world is still standing (the one in Rome is bigger). We found a fantastic mosaic museum in El Jem of old roman house floors. Nadine and I find the mosaic floors to be fascinating! So artistic, beautiful, and complex to create and yet no attributions to the actual artists. It was amazing! We also found a little restaurant where we had lunch with superb Tunisian food. I had a barley soup that was very spicy hot. They use red peppers and olive oil to make a hot sauce called harisa. I love it! It blows away any vinegar based hot sauce. The Tunisians have it on everything…we saw them eat it for breakfast by dipping bread into it.
As a tourist in Tunisia, you have to go to the Medina’s of the cities. The Medina’s are the ancient
parts of the cities, and typically involve a souk. We went to the one in Sousse and gave the kids each 5 dinars to go and bargain for something they wanted. Alex got a chess set, Gabriel got a necklace, and Nicolas obtained a hand drum. Fun stuff!
When we left Sousse we went further South to a town of Douz…the door to the desert! On our way we stopped at Matmata to see the famous troglodyte houses (houses carved into the stones). We also saw a couple of movie sets from one of the star war movies. I do not think that Matmata would exist without the tourism the star wars and troglodytes gives them. This is a very hard town to take…people literally jumping on front of your car to stop you to sell you a guided tour of homes or star wars stuff. If you say no thanks they will get on their scooters and continue to chase you and ask you. At one point we were backing up down a street, which must be a tell tale sound of lost tourist to these guys (again…didn’t see one female doing this), because one of these fellows
from across a field stood up looked around, spied us backing up, and literally sprinted across this field to try to sell us his services. I could not get out of that town fast enough and I really do think those type of actions hurts rather than helps the tourism. Anyway, the venture to Douz made it all worthwhile.
While one has to do some touristy things when visiting a foreign place, the highlights of the trip come when you get out of the touristy areas and get closer to the real lives of the locals. We found a few places to do this in Tunisia. A little town of Nabeul with Annie, Ian, and Lea allowed us to have lunch at a local café with traditional food, experience the non-touristy souk (even though these souks still know how to deal with tourists…see souk discussion above) and have a fantastic day being eyed by the locals. While on the drive to Douz, we went through several small towns, which were in the process of slaughtering sheep. So all right beside the highway for the length of a couple of small towns we went through, sheep carcasses in various stages
of slaughter were hanging out in the open air. It was very traditional.
Nowhere was our non-touristy experiences more perfect than in Douz. We stayed at a fantastic bed and breakfast and we took a two day trek into the desert aboard dromedaries. For those of you that did not know…camels are two-humped creatures, and dromedaries are one-humped. We had a fantastic trip into the desert, which has the softest, smoothest sand I have ever felt. The experience included couscous cooked over a sand fire, traditional Arabic campfire songs, one of the starriest skies you will ever see, sleeping on the sand in a typical beadoin tent (a blanket propped up with sticks), and breakfast which was bread cooked in the hot sand under the coals (very neat).
Our Douz experience included befriending the owner of the bed and breakfast, Caroline, who showed us the Douz souk and introduced us to her friend Jamel, who owns a shop in the souk and who entertained us in his hop one evening with a traditional Tunisian meal. I have gotten the sense that businesses here are very much part of the social gathering scene. Me and the boys got our
hair cut and the shop was full of friends talking to the barber while he cut. This was fairly common place at most businesses. Caroline and Jamel made our stay in Douz extra special and we are very grateful.
Tunisia has been fantastic…great people, fantastic food, new friends, and new experiences…everything we could have asked for. All this enjoyment and without much beer or wine at all. With a country that is 98%!m(MISSING)uslim…finding a place that sells alcohol is difficult…most restaurants do not sell alcoholic beverages, and in Sousse, a town of a few hundred thousand people we only knew of two stores which sold alcohol…but there is nothing wrong with that. It’s a good thing though…can you imagine these drivers after a couple!!!
In the end Nadine found and visited the church and school she used to attend, but not the house as the area they used to live has changed considerably. But for Nadine, it was a great visit to her past...for me and the boys a great visit to a wonderful area!
Things we learned: * Tunisia has a higher post-secondary participation and graduation rate than Canada! It turns that students are designated
careers at the completion of high school based on grades and interests. So you could be designated a computer programmer if you get excellent grades and made it one of your preferences. You would then go to the appropriate university for your designated topic and complete your degree. The biggest problem is finding a job in your field when you are done, which we are told is very difficult. Jamel graduated with a computer science degree but could not find a job in his field. So he sold back his degree to the government, and used the funds to open his shop in Douz.
* Who you know can make an incredibly huge difference in Tunisia…many doors can be opened or favours provided by simply being related to a minister in the government or having friends in high places.
* You cannot exchange the Tunisian dinars for another currency and you cannot leave the countrty with them. One of the kids asked the question, "Are they prisoners? How do they take a vacation?" Nathalie informed us that the residents are allowed to exchange 4000 dinars annually to allow for vacations and the like.
Observations: * the moped
is the two wheeled vehicle of choice and not the fancy scooters we were seeing in Spain and France
* construction is going on everywhere…not only in Tunis and Sousse but the small towns as well. While the jobsites seem to be active, it seems like everything is half finished…it looks like some have been half finished for quite some time…what I do not understand is that they seem to work all day and six days a week on them! They start by 7:30 AM and go until after 4:00 PM…there was a national Tunisian holiday last Friday, so they did not work that day, but much of the construction was back on the go again on Sunday. Everything is made of these unique red bricks and concrete...no wood or drywall to be found!
* they still are in desperate need for some type of system to manage the garbage being created by a burgeoning population and increasing tourists
* there are an incredible amount of police in the country and they are everywhere! They are posted at most major intersections in the cities and towns…and you can find them on the highways…just standing there in the
Befriending Gabriel
One of the rouses to get you to buy something middle of nowhere. We still do not understand what role they play…they pull cars over for random checks…but do not care about speeding, bad driving, or other infractions that would indicate the laws they are upholding. The number of police officers almost seems like a form of job creation.
Up next we head to the potentially most interesting country in our itinerary...the small and very poor country of Burkina Faso. Hope to hear from you soon...until then take care...
Nadine, Dana, Alex, Gabriel, and Nicolas
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Norma Hamilton-Smith
non-member comment
Tunisian trip
Just love your travelogue and find it most interesting! Keep the reports coming - I'm saving them all and re-reading regularly. Love to you all. Norma