Adventures in Africa: Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia

After Carthage, our next stop was Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia's answer to Santorini.

Sidi Bou Said is only a short distance from Carthage on the TGM.  

The tourist street, Rue Habib Thameur, climbs upward from the main road past this mosque.

Sidi Bou Said draws tourists simply because of its gorgeous blue and white buildings and its idyllic setting on a cliff over the Gulf of Tunis.

It was now early afternoon and we were hungry after our bike ride, so we certainly enjoyed the atmosphere as we ascended, but really we were looking for a restaurant, the Dar Zarrouk.

It was a hot day, so we enjoyed our first beer in Tunisia, Celtia.  I was surprised to find that Muslim Tunisia even had a brewery, let alone beer served in branded glasses!

Diana suggested we order the sharing platter on the menu, which was a good idea, although we were not always sure what we were eating!

After our nice lunch we walked outside to the patio behind the restaurant (it was too hot to eat outside, but the view was amazing).

We continued up the road, taking in the lovely blue and white buildings and the sea views.

The most iconic Sidi Bou Said photographs are from the Café des Délices, so we stopped in.  Certainly the setting is spectacular!

We enjoyed a couple of cool drinks and some sweets, but unfortunately the place proved to be a real tourist trap (make sure you look at a menu and don't let the waiter push his sweets on you!)

Still, regardless of being ripped off, look how happy Diana is!

As we came back down towards the train station, we passed the mosque again and there was a wedding taking place.  We could only see through some trees, so we did not have a great view, but it was neat nonetheless (sadly a tourist decided to provide some commentary as I filmed the first video...).

Adventures in Africa: Carthage, Tunisia

This morning Diana and I enjoyed breakfast in our dar's dining room, then headed out of the medina to find a cab.

After our exciting cab ride on Thursday from the airport, this one proved quite calm and peaceful, as the driver clicked on the meter without hesitation.  He drove us to the Tunis Marine train station--a trip of about 4 kilometres for 3 dinar (or about $1.50 CDN).

We rode the TGM, Tunis's light rail line, out to Carthage, now a suburb of Tunis, but in ancient times it was one of the most significant cities in all of northern Africa, and the ruins are now a UNESCO world heritage site.

We got off the train at Carthage Salammbo.

Just a block or so away was a bicycle rental place called Le Lemon, where we picked up a pair of folding bicycles.

Le Lemon gave us a nice little map to show us the route to tour the ruins, which are spread out across the mostly residential suburb.  It was Diana's idea to cycle, and it was a good one, because the sites are fairly spread out and probably too far from each other to comfortably walk, but close enough that driving might feel silly.

This was the route we ended up doing, so about 7 kilometres.  What the two dimensional map does not show is that as you go inland there is a fairly significant hill you have to climb!

Our first stop was the old Phoenician port (the semi-circle of water in the map above).

While the port would have probably been the most significant economic and military spot in ancient Carthage, nowadays the more interesting site in terms of the ruins is the Antonine Baths, just a few blocks down a shady street away.

The baths were the largest Roman baths built in Africa, and third largest in the entire Roman Empire.  

Up the hill and inland from the baths, are the ruins of Byrsa, the citadel which would have had a commanding view of the harbour and surrounding area.

The site includes ruins from the pre-Roman Punic city, as well as the later Roman forum.

The Carthage museum is next to the Byrsa hill ruins, but it was closed today.

Interestingly, besides the Byrsa ruins and the Carthage museum, the hill also hosts the Saint Louis Cathedral.

Apparently the building is no longer a church and is just used for events.  We snuck inside and they seemed to be preparing for some sort of party or concert.

Adventures in Africa: Tunis, Tunisia

Diana and I arrived in Tunis from Malta yesterday evening and today we are in the Tunis medina.  Our hotel, the Dar Ben Gacem, has a rooftop terrace, with this incredible view overlooking the medina.

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. 

Near the gate we stopped for coffee and a piece of cake at a Café Ben Yedder.  The Ben Yedder family is a big deal in the Tunisian coffee scene.

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.

On our way back past the Bab el Bahr we encountered a "boy band" of street performers and stopped to watch.

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.