October 21, 2022 One of the highlights of our O.A.T. tours in what is termed A Day in the Life when get to experience how a family lives in the country we are currently traveling in. Today was that day.
The forecast was 90 degrees today so shorts were the order of the day.
You do what you have to live.
Soon we would be leaving the heavy traffic of Tunis behind.
The license plates are a bit different.
I was sitting right behind the bus driver when this took place. All he appeared to do was check a number of papers the driver carried.
Everywhere we go there are vendors along side the streets.
Drivers seem to expect the other person to yield the right of way for them. This person turned left right in front of us.
Something we see everywhere around the world, plastic trash seems to be everywhere. I find it interesting the people who produce the plastics as well as the companies who make products from them and also the companies that use the products claim they have no responsibility for the trash that piles up around the world. It is always someone else’s problem as far as they are concerned because any responsibility on their part could hurt their profits. End of rant.
Scenes from a Berber camp we stopped at which was right beside the road. The tattoo on the older woman’s chin identified her as a Berber.
Later at an olive grove.
I helped this two ladies sort the olives then posed for a photo with them.
Our hosts who would be spending time with.
Scenes from their home.
Then it was off to the town market to buy some items that would be used to prepare lunch.
Seen but not bought at the market.
The best tasting olive oil we have ever had.
Linda had fun grating and chopping vegetables.
Guess who feed the trimmings to the chickens. The “girl” who had the same job when she was growing up.
Trying my hand at bread baking.
Marked with an “L”.
The food was awesome both in looks and taste.
Where’s my bread?
There it is.
Yep, that’s an “L”. We split it in half and each of us at our half, it was that good.
Visiting their orchard.
Our first time ever eating pomegranate just off the tree. There is no comparison to what is in the stores at home.
I do believe the maid really appreciated the tip we left. Long day tomorrow as we travel to an island on the Mediterranean.
October 20, 2022 Traveling outside of Tunis today. Testour is an interesting town in the Tunisian wheat belt, while Dougga is the ruins of a Roman town.
Our tour experience leader, aka tour guide, Hammadi describing what we will be experiencing today.
I have no idea what it says, but the smiley face is a neat touch.
This area of Tunisia is field after field of wheat, or it will be when it sprouts and grows.
Looked inside a prayer room at a large service center on the toll road we took today. just inside the entrance was the wash room.
The prayer room was small with this gorgeous carpet.
Stork nest.
Tunisians buy their lamb very fresh.
The Moslem women work while the men sit, talk and drink tea.
Tower of a mosque.
Highly decorative door.
Arabic writing goes right to left, so the clock on the mosque tower goes counterclockwise compared to ours.
This man came down the street we were walking on. We learned he was going to get a load of used construction materials from a building that was being torn down. He earns about 30 Dinar or $10 dollars a day with his donkey and cart to support his wife and 3 children.
He took some of our ladies on a ride.
Tight fit.
Narrow streets are problem.
A refreshment stop.
Visiting the site of a Roman town. Below is a gallery of a small part of what we saw.
Some of the rooms had wall that were covered in marble. You can see the broken edge of the marble in the photo above.
This area would have been covered in marble.
Roman manhole.
What went into the underground sewers that need manholes.
October 19, 2022 Long day today, but we saw and experienced many interesting things. This post will hit some of them using photos and few words, I hope.
The view out our hotel room window and we staying in a very nice hotel.
Breakfast buffet.
Seen from the window of our bus.
There is political unrest in the country so the miltary is making its presence know at key demonstration locations.
Heading to the market the term street vendor is taken literally
Below is a large gallery of photos taken in the market, hopefully to give a sense of what it is like. It is not just what is being sold, it is also the colors and sounds that make it what it is. Click on an image to enlarge it.
The market is amazing with all the vendors in the seafood section shouting out what they have for sale. The volume is what it actually sounds like in the video I recorded below.
As we walked from the market to the medina the street itself became a market.
Our first stop in the media was at a guesthouse where we were treated to a talk regarding women’s rights in Tunisia by a University lecturer. Afterwards there was a lively question and answer period. Tunisia is the most liberal Middle Eastern country when it comes to women’s rights, but women still have a long ways to go to achieve true equality.
The Traditional Tunisia Salad plate I had for lunch. I have really enjoyed the salads during our brief time here.
In the market I had spent time talking to this vendor, he spoke very good English, about the “tortilla” looking pieces of dough he was selling.
Linda had the dish called Brik, prounouced breek, for lunch. The sheets of dough were what the gentleman in the market was selling. Small world.
Tunisian style fast food stand.
The walkways in the medina, though worn, are quite uneven.
We visited several mosques.
Cats are a common sight, dogs are very rarely seen.
A very small sampling of the sights in the shops in the medina. It is something that has to be experienced to understand.
A well in a mosque. Note how the ropes used to lift the buckets of water from it had worn grooves over the centuries.
The columns were all salvaged from a nearby town.
Linda wanted her picture taken while touching the columns. You may have heard of the town in a high school history class. It was called Carthage.
Tonight’s dinner was at a really excellent restaurant in the medina.
Linda was sure about this dish when it was set before her. Then she tasted it. It was wonderful. Just be glad I didn’t bore you with more of the hundreds of photos I took today.
October 18, 2022 Travel day to Tunis, Tunisia and a walkabout in the town.
5 AM at the Frankfurt airport, so not many people. We checked in online yesterday and had our boarding passes on our phones. This morning it was just a matter of using the self check baggage drop, through security and out the gate.
Just had to show this as i was amused by what is the upper right corner of this hand dryer.
It’s Dyson doing a little advertising of some of their products.
Today’s walk to the gate was much easier than the last time. Then we were leaving from gate 69, the last gate on the concourse No. 69. Today we were at gate 15.
Breakfast is served. You can easily guess which was mine and which was Ms. Healthy Eater’s.
Always a selfie.
We had a connection in Munich, also on Lufthansa. It turned out the person right in front of us was also on our OAT tour. Small world.
Off to Tunisia selfie.
A final look at Germany.
The Alps?
The Mediterranean .
The coast of North Africa.
On approach to the Tunis airport.
Everything at Frankfurt was done electronically. At the Tunis airport it was several with pieces of paper showing what things went where.
Just confirming we really did arrive in Tunis.
It didn’t take long to discover that lane markers and traffic lights were just suggestions for drivers as to what they might want to do.
Welcoming drink at the hotel. It had a taste we were not used to. Easy to tell which one was mine.
Welcoming fruit bowl in our room. Those dates were the best I’ve ever eaten.
The other 7 people on the tour were arriving early this evening so the four of us who were here set out to see the old city with our guide. What follows are a number of photos to give readers a sense of what we saw and experienced.
Yes, it is a synagogue.
Mural about women’s rights.
Sidewalk fruit vendor.
Even Linda ate one. I’ll say they were very good, but messy to eat.
Promenade
Clock tower.
Many buildings reflect the fact that Tunisia was once a French colony. Our guide said that the older people often still can speak French, but the young people only learn English as their second language and can’t speak or understand any French.
Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul.
Interior which was completely refurbished because of a visit in the 1990’s by Pope John Paul.
Of course we had to take a photo of Linda sitting in the sign.
This woman had two bags filled with plastic bottles. We have been told to only drink bottled water in Tunisia, and from the number of empty bottles laying around on the streets it looks like most everyone else does.
There are a lot of sidewalk vendors.
Our guide said meat is the most expensive food.
This was all the fresh meat in this large store.
Liquor is readily available.
One Dinar is equivalent to 31 cents, so the Old Lady gin was $10 a bottle.
This vendor sold incense and other potions.
I always enjoy talking to people like this through our guides.
The strips of bark are used to clean your teeth and mouth.
In the end he gave me a piece of the bark even though I never asked for one, then posed for this photo. That smile of his is absolutely genuine and it why we enjoy traveling to all these countries around the world. People are all the same where ever they reside.
We took a taxi back to the hotel. What follows are a few of the things we saw on the ride.
60% of all cars in the entire country are in the city of Tunis.
The three courses at dinner. We are going to enjoy eating in Tunisia.
