Our experience of Tunisia began somewhat poorly last night, as we negotiated for a taxi outside the Tunis-Carthage airport. Google is full of advice and stories that had prepared me for some pain, but I was taken aback nonetheless. In the end, after encountering a cabal of cabbies who seemed uninterested in seriously negotiating, we got into a cab whose driver promised to use the meter. I pushed to agree on a price, but the cop nearby, who seemed trustworthy enough, confirmed that the cab should use the meter and that there would be a 3 dinar airport surcharge. In any case, it did not seem like we had a whole lot of choice.
The cabbie started out and did not turn the meter on, which I pointed out to him, but now he did want to negotiate a fixed price. We went back and forth, and obviously he was not going to start the meter. I was insistent that I wanted to pay no more than 15 dinar--even then that was 5 dinar more than the 10 dinar I understood was the upper limit of reasonable. At some point his negotiating tactic involved pulling into the shoulder of the highway and literally getting out of the cab and walking off! Unfortunately these dramatics worked, because Diana had had enough, and I was not exactly enjoying this any more, either. We paid him 25 dinar, which seemed to be as low as he would go.
Once we settled that, the taxi ride was relatively relaxed, and we reached the medina around 19:00. The Dar Ben Gacem was down this alleyway.
We checked in, and were shown to our room.
A few minutes later there was a knock, and we were presented with a tray of mint tea and sweets. Quite the hospitality!
Dar Ben Gacem is in a 17th century house, beautifully restored and maintained.
We went out to find some dinner, and were surprised at how quiet the medina's streets were. Eventually we found the Dar Belhadj, and ate a dinner of bread and harrisa (spicy red paste), lamb, couscous, and so on.
This morning we began our day on the dar's rooftop, tucked away in the little alcove, which was among the most comfortable spots in the dar.
Breakfast was served on the main floor in the magnificent dining room.
After breakfast it was raining quite a bit, unfortunately, but we borrowed umbrellas from the dar and headed out to explore the medina.
Our pictures make it look quite quiet, and it was, in places, possibly partly because of the rain, but generally much of the medina just seems quite quiet. Still, there were some places, especially the souks, or markets, where there were many people--they were just less ideal spots to stop and photograph!
Around lunch time I "dropped" Diana off at the dar and went for a haircut. The barber I found seemed happy to have me, although we could barely communicate. He charged me 6 dinar ($3).
With my hair cut, I joined Diana in the rooftop alcove for coffee and to enjoy the open air while still being covered. It had stopped raining, but everything was still really wet.
Eventually we trusted the weather enough to head back out. More or less we wandered, although I was hoping to find a post office. We went eastward out of the medina by the Bab el Bhar ("gate of the sea").
The Bab el Bahr leads to Habib Bourguiba Avenue, a major thoroughfare which if followed long enough would take one to the sea.
After coffee we kept walking, and were surprised to see the Cathedral of St Vincent de Paul along this street, apparently the only Catholic cathedral still operating in all of Tunisia.
Another impressive building was the Municipal Theatre, evidently also a left over from French colonial times.
More or less where the pedestrian-friendly portion of the Habib Bourguiba Avenue ends there is a large roundabout with an impressive clock tower.
Past the clock tower I found a post office, but it was apparently going to be a LONG wait based on the crowd, so we turned around and left. On our way back towards the medina we were intrigued by the Canadian flag on this tent, so stopped in to see what was happening.
It turned out to be a market for rural women entrepreneurs, or something like that, evidently sponsored by Canada, among others.
The weather had really improved over the course of the afternoon, and since we had mostly skipped lunch, we enjoyed a stop at a sidewalk cafe for some drinks and a snack.
Later that evening, the restaurant I hoped to go to for dinner was closed, so we wandered on to get shawarmas. The shawarma was good, but the funniest part of the meal was the ketchup and mayo plate with the bread, apparently a fast food substittue for harissa and oil!
On our way back from dinner we cut across the medina . . .
. . . and walked through government square, which is surrounded by the Government Palace, Tunis City Hall, and so on.
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