Thursday, November 7, 2024
Keith, too! Keith, too, went to Africa. We were in Tunisia. I said, “We’re in Africa,” a couple dozen times today.
We started at the Tunis Kasbah, or government center. There were a lot of Tunisian flags flying. It is a red flag with a crescent and star on it that looks like the Pixar ball to me – one of the few flags I know.
The stop signs totally look like a little bobsled on top of the word stop. Once you think that, you can’t stop seeing it. Stop bobsledding, you’re in Africa!
Next, we walked to the Medina, or old town. There are twenty mosques here, but we could not go in because they are holy and not for tourists.
Next, was the souk, or shopping area. It is a maze of vendors – many, many selling the same thing – most with aggressive salespeople. They are arranged from “most clean” (jewelry, books) to “least clean” (butcher, tanner) (Hey! Tanner is a job name. Have we thought of that one?) (We collect job names). We walked past so much jewelry, the wedding section, pottery, ceramics, metalworks, copper works, rugs, spices, and more I cannot think of. The vendors called us #17, because we had group number stickers. I was glad to be part of #17, because that was my excuse to keep walking by.
This one is for you, Alexander
We stopped at a ( …darn….) school kids go to before elementary to learn the Koran orally. It is a very honored place, because it is so important to a Tunisian person’s life. We learned there that Tunisian homes have elbow shaped entries. The doors are left open for welcomingness, but you will see nothing of the family, because the living space is down a hall that goes to the right or the left.
We went into a rug (and other things) store and were shown rugs. They were all beautiful – hand made with a gazillion knots – made from a variety of materials – camel hair, cashmere, silk. They are extremely durable – though it felt weird to walk to them. A 9’x7′ rug, including shipping and insurance to the US, cost about $1200. I don’t know much about rugs, but that didn’t seem too awful. There was a saffron colored one we found delightful, but we couldn’t think of any place we could put it. There was a Minnesotan woman in the group who piped up right away during the exhibition with, “How much does it cost?” Abdul, the head salesman, told her right away. He was willing to tell all the prices. She asked a lot of times, which was nice, because then no one else had to. After all the showing and telling, she went into a side room to look at all the green choices. She did not buy anything – she said it was too crazy expensive, even though he dropped the price to $500 inclusive. We would definitely have a rug if that had been me.
They took us to the top of the rug store for a look around.
There were lots of kitties around. I didn’t pet them and pick them up and love them. It was hard.
We left the Tunis area on our way to Carthage for lunch. I was taking pictures from the bus, trying to get a flavor for the area. I found some very uninhabitable looking houses, then some nicer ones, then some nice ones. I also found George Clooney. Lunch was a chopped vegetable salad, followed by a dark chicken quarter, veg, couscous, and some weirdly good, yellow (as in soaked in something that was yellow and delicious) potatoes.
We went to Carthage. We walked around in the part of Carthage that they did sacrifices. They unearthed 20,000 urns from that area and many, many, many headstones. They believed in reincarnation and made beautiful burial chambers for those that were sacrificed.
We went to the Roman baths from oh so long ago. This place was HUGE and grand. The slaves and servants worked on the basement level keeping everything fabulous for the wealthy people. I wondered how the 4ft tall marble crown molding would go in our bathroom…
We went to a small town (Sidi Bou Said) to go shopping. Someone in the ago painted his house white and blue, and everyone else followed suit. It is very Santorini looking. We ate beignets called babaloonies (or somethings like that [bambalauni – ed]). Chewy and crispy and very sugary. So good. I “bartered” for some earrings by just saying no, I can’t, until he gave a price that was okay. I am okay with overpaying, if that is what I did, because I was buying something from a guy in Africa.
Me, and my earring bartering guy.
When we were leaving the shopping town, I remembered that I hadn’t looked for a Tshirt for Keith. I had seen one that made me laugh. I know they would not have his size, so I wasn’t too sad to not have looked, but I had eyes out as we were driving away. I saw it across the bus and took a shot and got it!
Driving back to Tunis, I took some city pictures. I got a picture of a tree that I thought looked like what I think African trees should look like. It was in the middle of a parking lot.
On our way to dinner, we walked past two ladies at a card table. They offered us a free massage sample. I did not hesitate for a moment and sat right down. I cannot express how much better she was than random family members you lure into rubbing your back. Those people are heaven sent and much appreciated, but this! This was amazing! It costs an eye-watering amount, so I won’t be doing that, but I sure enjoyed the free sample. Dinner at the buffet was spectacular. It was German night, and I had really good schnitzel and a pretzel with some sauce I found in another part of the buffet and oddly compelling chicken bites in chili sauce. Then I had several shortbread tart dealies. MMMMmmmmm.
We played identify the celebrity from a youth picture of them with some Canadians. So hard! We could identify people who were famous in the 80s, but not people who were born in the 80s. (Two sections of game) More than half of the 80s babies were singers, and I don’t know what they look like now, so that was not possible.
We went up on deck at 9:15 to watch Top Gun: Maverick. It had rained, which we missed (sing something about rain down in A..a…frica…) making the chairs and blankets wet. We wrapped up in pool towels and went for it. I loved it. About an hour in a guy came by with a blanket. It sprinkled for a while, but we dug in and covered up. We were cozy and engrossed.
Today’s view out our stateroom window:
