Sat, 30 Dec 2006

Tunisia

Yesterday Belén and I got confirmation from the travel agency: it's now official! We'll be going to Barcelona (third time this month for me) tomorrow, spend New Year's Eve with my cousin and early during the morning of January 1st we'll be taking a flight to Tunisia, to end up in Hammamet for a one week long trip around the country. Before this very late confirmation, the agency was only assuring one of us could come back; the other return ticket was missing, and I wasn't planning on staying there alone. :)

This is pretty exciting because I've never been anywhere in Africa, despite it's very close from where I live, so I'm really looking forward to discovering the cultures of the Islam in Northern Africa. We plan going to way too many places, but I think I'll most enjoy the different Roman buildings in a few of the important cities, specially in Dougga.

If you have any suggestions of things I can't miss in Tunisia, feel free to comment here. Have in mind I'll probably be moving around in louages (shared taxis) so maybe going to places too far away from Hammamet isn't that easy -yeah, I'm thinking about Matmata and the Skywalker's village ;)- and we don't want to spend lots of money.

Hopefully things will be normal at El Prat airport tomorrow, after the distressing news coming from Madrid this morning... More when I come back on January 8th!

16:22 | [] | # | (comments: 7)

"I wasn't planning on staying there alone."

How rude.

Posted by abc at Sat Dec 30 17:38:13 2006

When I was in Tunisia I hired a 3 day tour of the south, we went to the ruins at El Jem, Matmata, and rode a camel at the edge of the Sahara.  It wasn't too expensive and the hotel they put us up in was spectacular... and the whole trip was quite reasonably priced.

Another thing you don't want to miss is the ruins at Carthage (right by Tunis), where they have excavated islamic building on top of christian on top of roman on top of phoenician.  And right near there they have this cool part of the city where all of the doors are blue.  Sounds dumb but it's extremely pretty and photogenic.

Posted by ryan at Sat Dec 30 19:29:20 2006

Visita el desert, és una experiència inoblidable. Si pots, passa-hi una nit, i camina descalç per la sorra. Conduir en cotxe pel mig del desert de pedra també és una experiència (jo ho vaig fer al Marroc).

Més turístic, a Tunísia és on van rodar les imatges de la Guerra de les Galàxies.

També hi va haver un parell de pobles tunisians que van conservar el català fins temps recents. Ara mateix no tinc els noms.

Posted by Marc B. at Sat Dec 30 19:37:53 2006

Close to hammamet visit Korbous, it's a hot water source on a "mountain" and behind the sea.
Off course don't miss the Desert ! During Winter this is THE place to be in Tunisia.
Carthage is overrated, there is only a few ruins, rather prefer Dogga and El Jem (fabulous amphitheater).
If you can have a look to "Bourguiba Mausolée" in Monastir, it's really amazing.
The tunisian people are like everyone else, for the merchants your a client, for the other people you just come here as a consumer. Behave friendly and don't be shy.
Last advise: taste the local food ! Take a mechwi on the road, a brick in the city and a bambalouni in Sidi Bou Said.

Posted by Bader at Sat Dec 30 21:00:24 2006

abc, I didn't mean to be rude, or I wasn't implying Tunisia isn't a good place to stay alone. Sorry if it sounds like that.

It's just I don't want to stay there (or many other places) alone, period. I'm travelling with someone else, and expect to get back when she does. :)

Thanks for the nice tips, Bader, Marc and ryan.

Posted by Jordi at Sat Dec 30 21:42:50 2006

And don't forget to spend some time in a Hammam. There uses to be one in every town, it's really cheap and the most relaxing experience ever.

Posted by Carlos at Sun Dec 31 19:56:16 2006

i strongly advice you to make a visit to the south of algeria, you will be astonished by the hoggar region

Posted by morphado at Sun Dec 31 20:59:28 2006