I am now in Tunisia and things are not as settled as in Egypt.
One I am typing away on a French keyboard which is making me crazy...let the French deal with that one!
Plus it is cold here. I know that you are all crying for me, but it is cold. Most of the people homes I stay in, and hotels do not have heating.
I have been staying with several people. One couple Trish and Russ who took are teaching English here in Tunisia. They got me from, the airport and thank goodness! The taxi drivers were Fou - crazy. Yes that is one word I have picked up quickly here. Trish let me do some laundry. Now there is a luxury! I am not a great handwasher but it is nice to have a break!
Trish and Russ were evacuated and brought back from the UK; They had purposefully picked their condo in a neighborhood that they felt was safe. What they did not bargain on was this neighborhood housed many of Ben Ali's family...unbeknownst to them. So at the time of the riots the rioters were very selective which houses they burned and trashed; but again they were not aware of this. So one day they decide because they have a day off to go walking by the water.
Why not we would do the same on our day off?
They were approached by some youths who told them not to go down the road that would lead them home. They told the young men that that was where they lived. They just shrugged and went in the opposite direction. Russ and Trish continued home and as they approached the mass of people and demonstrators, the masses were more and more. They were able to get into their home and barracade themselves in. I suppose for them it seemed as if the world had gone mad. They stayed in contact with their friends and the embassy, but the embassy took several days to organize flights out of Tunisia. They went sleepless for over 60 hours. This is when the houses were being burned just in the next block. They had no idea that the houses burned were extremely selected.
In fact,the demonstrators got the wrong house of one of politians and I think it was the German ambassador they broke into and took all the furniture. When they realized they had the wrong house they brought it all back, putting it all in place and apologized profusely.
Trish and Russ were evacuated. I did not know this but when you are evacuated you have to buy a ticket on the plane departing. And you have to make sure that you have cash to BUY a seat, not at discounted rates either, these flights will not undercut the other airlines.
Trish and Russ were subseauently were told that it was okay to return by their embassy and so they did.
I was not in Tunisia when this happened, but while visiting Trish and Russ and having a nice warm comfortable bed to sleep in where the matress was kinder to the body and I did not feel like I had been shot in the hip, we decided to get out in the deluge of rain I seemed to have brought to Tunis.
Russ and Trish said that they have never seen such a deluge. Well, look on the bright side, you do not have to shovel it, eh? Anyways we decided to take a look at the wreckage of the homes. Holy cow! The rage was apparent. There was nothing left usable in the house. Marble floors smashed to smithereens. The furniture burned and cars burned or if they were valuable stolen. Anything not nailed down or valuable was taken.
The graffiti explained it all in three languages. Wolf...pretty much sums it up.
Russ and Trish exchange some cash for me...won't get that good of exchange anywhere in Tunisia at a bank I'm sure!
I've finally figured out the keyboard. Who knew you could simply change the language to the keyboard...ah, I did, but forgot! Duh.
We headed back home and had a nice curry which Russ made. Yumm. I settled in and tomorrow I will take a taxi to the train station (Le Gar) and head south to Sousse and hopefully better weather. I have contacted through Russ and Trish a guy who is willing to host me and his name is Firas.
The next day between rain storms I head out and grab a taxi on the near deserted street and people are looking at me. I am decked out in full backpack mode. Backpack on the back and on the front. What a sight I must be? And why would I be in Tunisia now?
Anyways I finally flag a taxi down and in my most abysmal french I ask for Le Gar. Little did I know there are two and he is so pleasant and I have to actually act out a train. C'mon folks you know how to do this: Choo Choo! LOL. You do have to have fun.
I get to the train station on time and grab the next train heading to Sousse. It is only a couple of hours and I'm there. I check my bag and will meet Firas later. As I am leaving the station there is a demonstration right outside the station. I just wait inside until it disperses. I look around the train station to see what is there and notice that the internet cafe was trashed and burned. Guess I can't use that internet...
I head outside and walk a bit around but not too far as not to keep where the train station is in my locator in my head. I find a bank and exchange some more cash. I wander around a bit and come back to meet Faris at 5 pm.
Firas has a big smile for me when we meet and he is very friendly. We talk and talk and talk. We have an amazing amount of things in common. He gives me a quick tour around the medina and then we head to his place. He is a single guy and has this humoungous flat. Three bedrooms! The ceilings have to be 15 feet high. Lovely, really. He is next to the harbor and so you can see the sea from where he lives. He shows me my bed and I drop my backpack and then we decide to go out and grab a quick bite to eat. We grab something, and I he asks if I want to take a walk. He is shivering. It is his winter. I tell him no, we can leave that for another warmer day, as he is shivering. We go back to his place and talk and talk and talk.
He works for the Port Authority in Sousse and so his background and mine aren't all that different. As the time transpires we realize the common thread in our lives. Amazing really. He wants to do more travelling and he also wants to further his education. He is currently trying to get a scholarship in Sweden. I can see him there. He also said that there is a possibilty that he will go to Halifax. I told him the winters are kinder in Vancouver.
I decide to go to El Jem on the train the next day. Firas said that it is dead simple. It is. I am the only one in El Jem when I get there. It is kinda weird. I sit in the sun and imagine what it would have been like to be here in the day. The people are kind. I see that they are doing something in the center of the arena and take a stroll down. I speak to one of the men and it turns out he is an archiologist. He tells me I can come down. I do. It is where they housed the gladiators and the animals that the gladiators fought. There is a part where Gladiator was filmed done in this section of El Jem. Actually he shows me which cell Russell Crowe was in during the filming. I have about an hour to myself to visit when a whole seven other tourists show up.
I go back to Sousse and then take the Metro (sort of like the LRT) to another town and by the time I get home I'm tired. All this travelling can take a toll on you. Walking and working out bus and train schedules and locations of bus and train stations is tiring. (LOL). I return and because Firas is working we have arranged to meet at a certain time. But I have this niggling feeling that because of the slight language barrier there might be a problem. I shake it off. I will regret this. I go for a walk and try to locate a internet cafe. It is not easy to do here. There are not many. I ask and ask and although they point me here and there I cannot find one.
I go back to his building at 7 pm and he isn't there. Now I have to find a Publiphone. They seem to be everywhere, but now there is a problem, because everyone has shut down for the night. I stand on the corner and suddenly I am certain that the same guy keeps circling the block. Now, this makes me uneasy. It is a time of unrest in Tunisia. I decide I have to keep moving. I take off. I circle and circle and keep seeing the same guy. I keep thinking where is Firas. I also keep looking for a phone that I might use. Nothing. Finally, as close to 45 minutes goes by, I hear Firas call out my name. RELIEF!
The next day Firas has off, as he works 24 hours on and 48 off. Bugger of a shift!
Today he takes me out to visit a place that he goes regularly to and then he takes me to a cafe that is located on the 6th floor of a building. When you get up here from floor to ceiling windows and the ocean as far as you can see. Spectacular. We talk and talk and talk. And then I tell him that men in his country talk a lot. He asked me if that was good, bad or just an observation. I told him just an observation. But it is true. I notice that the men talk a lot in the Arab nations.
I decide to head south the next day.
I need to remember that I will be on my own and much more of a possible target as there has been a lot of looting and general unrest. I've just been protected because I've been staying with people. I was thinking of going to Tatouinne. I have not heard from my contact and that worries me, as it seems that there is more unrest in the south. Faris does not suggest I go to Tatouine.
Not to mention the fact that there are the Libyian refugees also.
Next day I decide at the last minute to head to Djerba. It turns out to be a good choice. I find the Auberge where I am the only person in my particular room. I meet a French man named Noel who must be 75 years old and I say that I will teach him English if he teaches me French. He really wants to work on his English so I tell him to meet me for breakfast and we will work on his English and my French.
So for the next couple of days I stay in Djerba with dear Noel who wants to now have me come and stay at one of this two homes near Cannes for the summer where I can teach his 16 year old son English and I can live the life of a queen. Sunny Cannes? Heck I would feel like a movie star. He has a a very young wife of 37, so nothing like that. Options, ah that sounds so international, doesn't it? The weather is good but when the clouds come out it is cool. We see the same sights and eat the local food which is fish! Yumm. I am enjoying being here.
I see a lot of refugees in Djerba. They are being bused in from Libya and flown out of Djerba. The planes leave at times one after the other. We speak to some Chinese guys who were working in Libya doing translation work. They feel lucky because along with the Chinese, the Thais were being bused out. The Phillapino's were not the lucky. Their government hasn't stepped up to the plate.
The Auberge is funny. The guys running the place have the TV for themselves only and they keep turning it up as the night goes on. It is obnoxious. Noel has to tell them to turn it down every night. The last night I was there Noel came out and shouted down to them. The thing got shut off pretty fast.
I asked for a hot shower the next day and wouldn't you know it, I couldn't have one until the next day. Huh? I took a cold one anyway...not my favorite thing to do. (No kidding).
I then after checking my flight information thought it would be a good idea if I head back to Sousse for a couple of days and then take the train into Tunis. My flight has changed so that I arrive late into Casablanca. Something that I had hoped to avoid. That is the reason I booked it so that I could get into Casa during daylight.
I chill the next couple of days in Sousse with Firas and then catch the train into Tunis and get to the airport. The flight was further delayed and I didn't get into Casablanca until 2130 hours. Many refugees on the plane.
I really liked Tunisia, and do hope to come again.
One I am typing away on a French keyboard which is making me crazy...let the French deal with that one!
Plus it is cold here. I know that you are all crying for me, but it is cold. Most of the people homes I stay in, and hotels do not have heating.
I have been staying with several people. One couple Trish and Russ who took are teaching English here in Tunisia. They got me from, the airport and thank goodness! The taxi drivers were Fou - crazy. Yes that is one word I have picked up quickly here. Trish let me do some laundry. Now there is a luxury! I am not a great handwasher but it is nice to have a break!
Trish and Russ were evacuated and brought back from the UK; They had purposefully picked their condo in a neighborhood that they felt was safe. What they did not bargain on was this neighborhood housed many of Ben Ali's family...unbeknownst to them. So at the time of the riots the rioters were very selective which houses they burned and trashed; but again they were not aware of this. So one day they decide because they have a day off to go walking by the water.
Why not we would do the same on our day off?
They were approached by some youths who told them not to go down the road that would lead them home. They told the young men that that was where they lived. They just shrugged and went in the opposite direction. Russ and Trish continued home and as they approached the mass of people and demonstrators, the masses were more and more. They were able to get into their home and barracade themselves in. I suppose for them it seemed as if the world had gone mad. They stayed in contact with their friends and the embassy, but the embassy took several days to organize flights out of Tunisia. They went sleepless for over 60 hours. This is when the houses were being burned just in the next block. They had no idea that the houses burned were extremely selected.
In fact,the demonstrators got the wrong house of one of politians and I think it was the German ambassador they broke into and took all the furniture. When they realized they had the wrong house they brought it all back, putting it all in place and apologized profusely.
Trish and Russ were evacuated. I did not know this but when you are evacuated you have to buy a ticket on the plane departing. And you have to make sure that you have cash to BUY a seat, not at discounted rates either, these flights will not undercut the other airlines.
Trish and Russ were subseauently were told that it was okay to return by their embassy and so they did.
I was not in Tunisia when this happened, but while visiting Trish and Russ and having a nice warm comfortable bed to sleep in where the matress was kinder to the body and I did not feel like I had been shot in the hip, we decided to get out in the deluge of rain I seemed to have brought to Tunis.
Russ and Trish said that they have never seen such a deluge. Well, look on the bright side, you do not have to shovel it, eh? Anyways we decided to take a look at the wreckage of the homes. Holy cow! The rage was apparent. There was nothing left usable in the house. Marble floors smashed to smithereens. The furniture burned and cars burned or if they were valuable stolen. Anything not nailed down or valuable was taken.
The graffiti explained it all in three languages. Wolf...pretty much sums it up.
Russ and Trish exchange some cash for me...won't get that good of exchange anywhere in Tunisia at a bank I'm sure!
I've finally figured out the keyboard. Who knew you could simply change the language to the keyboard...ah, I did, but forgot! Duh.
We headed back home and had a nice curry which Russ made. Yumm. I settled in and tomorrow I will take a taxi to the train station (Le Gar) and head south to Sousse and hopefully better weather. I have contacted through Russ and Trish a guy who is willing to host me and his name is Firas.
The next day between rain storms I head out and grab a taxi on the near deserted street and people are looking at me. I am decked out in full backpack mode. Backpack on the back and on the front. What a sight I must be? And why would I be in Tunisia now?
Anyways I finally flag a taxi down and in my most abysmal french I ask for Le Gar. Little did I know there are two and he is so pleasant and I have to actually act out a train. C'mon folks you know how to do this: Choo Choo! LOL. You do have to have fun.
I get to the train station on time and grab the next train heading to Sousse. It is only a couple of hours and I'm there. I check my bag and will meet Firas later. As I am leaving the station there is a demonstration right outside the station. I just wait inside until it disperses. I look around the train station to see what is there and notice that the internet cafe was trashed and burned. Guess I can't use that internet...
I head outside and walk a bit around but not too far as not to keep where the train station is in my locator in my head. I find a bank and exchange some more cash. I wander around a bit and come back to meet Faris at 5 pm.
Firas has a big smile for me when we meet and he is very friendly. We talk and talk and talk. We have an amazing amount of things in common. He gives me a quick tour around the medina and then we head to his place. He is a single guy and has this humoungous flat. Three bedrooms! The ceilings have to be 15 feet high. Lovely, really. He is next to the harbor and so you can see the sea from where he lives. He shows me my bed and I drop my backpack and then we decide to go out and grab a quick bite to eat. We grab something, and I he asks if I want to take a walk. He is shivering. It is his winter. I tell him no, we can leave that for another warmer day, as he is shivering. We go back to his place and talk and talk and talk.
He works for the Port Authority in Sousse and so his background and mine aren't all that different. As the time transpires we realize the common thread in our lives. Amazing really. He wants to do more travelling and he also wants to further his education. He is currently trying to get a scholarship in Sweden. I can see him there. He also said that there is a possibilty that he will go to Halifax. I told him the winters are kinder in Vancouver.
I decide to go to El Jem on the train the next day. Firas said that it is dead simple. It is. I am the only one in El Jem when I get there. It is kinda weird. I sit in the sun and imagine what it would have been like to be here in the day. The people are kind. I see that they are doing something in the center of the arena and take a stroll down. I speak to one of the men and it turns out he is an archiologist. He tells me I can come down. I do. It is where they housed the gladiators and the animals that the gladiators fought. There is a part where Gladiator was filmed done in this section of El Jem. Actually he shows me which cell Russell Crowe was in during the filming. I have about an hour to myself to visit when a whole seven other tourists show up.
I go back to Sousse and then take the Metro (sort of like the LRT) to another town and by the time I get home I'm tired. All this travelling can take a toll on you. Walking and working out bus and train schedules and locations of bus and train stations is tiring. (LOL). I return and because Firas is working we have arranged to meet at a certain time. But I have this niggling feeling that because of the slight language barrier there might be a problem. I shake it off. I will regret this. I go for a walk and try to locate a internet cafe. It is not easy to do here. There are not many. I ask and ask and although they point me here and there I cannot find one.
I go back to his building at 7 pm and he isn't there. Now I have to find a Publiphone. They seem to be everywhere, but now there is a problem, because everyone has shut down for the night. I stand on the corner and suddenly I am certain that the same guy keeps circling the block. Now, this makes me uneasy. It is a time of unrest in Tunisia. I decide I have to keep moving. I take off. I circle and circle and keep seeing the same guy. I keep thinking where is Firas. I also keep looking for a phone that I might use. Nothing. Finally, as close to 45 minutes goes by, I hear Firas call out my name. RELIEF!
The next day Firas has off, as he works 24 hours on and 48 off. Bugger of a shift!
Today he takes me out to visit a place that he goes regularly to and then he takes me to a cafe that is located on the 6th floor of a building. When you get up here from floor to ceiling windows and the ocean as far as you can see. Spectacular. We talk and talk and talk. And then I tell him that men in his country talk a lot. He asked me if that was good, bad or just an observation. I told him just an observation. But it is true. I notice that the men talk a lot in the Arab nations.
I decide to head south the next day.
I need to remember that I will be on my own and much more of a possible target as there has been a lot of looting and general unrest. I've just been protected because I've been staying with people. I was thinking of going to Tatouinne. I have not heard from my contact and that worries me, as it seems that there is more unrest in the south. Faris does not suggest I go to Tatouine.
Not to mention the fact that there are the Libyian refugees also.
Next day I decide at the last minute to head to Djerba. It turns out to be a good choice. I find the Auberge where I am the only person in my particular room. I meet a French man named Noel who must be 75 years old and I say that I will teach him English if he teaches me French. He really wants to work on his English so I tell him to meet me for breakfast and we will work on his English and my French.
So for the next couple of days I stay in Djerba with dear Noel who wants to now have me come and stay at one of this two homes near Cannes for the summer where I can teach his 16 year old son English and I can live the life of a queen. Sunny Cannes? Heck I would feel like a movie star. He has a a very young wife of 37, so nothing like that. Options, ah that sounds so international, doesn't it? The weather is good but when the clouds come out it is cool. We see the same sights and eat the local food which is fish! Yumm. I am enjoying being here.
I see a lot of refugees in Djerba. They are being bused in from Libya and flown out of Djerba. The planes leave at times one after the other. We speak to some Chinese guys who were working in Libya doing translation work. They feel lucky because along with the Chinese, the Thais were being bused out. The Phillapino's were not the lucky. Their government hasn't stepped up to the plate.
The Auberge is funny. The guys running the place have the TV for themselves only and they keep turning it up as the night goes on. It is obnoxious. Noel has to tell them to turn it down every night. The last night I was there Noel came out and shouted down to them. The thing got shut off pretty fast.
I asked for a hot shower the next day and wouldn't you know it, I couldn't have one until the next day. Huh? I took a cold one anyway...not my favorite thing to do. (No kidding).
I then after checking my flight information thought it would be a good idea if I head back to Sousse for a couple of days and then take the train into Tunis. My flight has changed so that I arrive late into Casablanca. Something that I had hoped to avoid. That is the reason I booked it so that I could get into Casa during daylight.
I chill the next couple of days in Sousse with Firas and then catch the train into Tunis and get to the airport. The flight was further delayed and I didn't get into Casablanca until 2130 hours. Many refugees on the plane.
I really liked Tunisia, and do hope to come again.
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