On Tuesday 22nd oct I arrived on the balmy, sandy, palm tree-fringed Mediterranean coast of Tunisia - a little slice of Africa, scented with jasmine and fresh fish everywhere you turn. Why on earth did I go to Tunisia?? I was asking myself the same question on my way here, but actually it was one of the best decisions I have made. On my final night in Poland I met a girl with an extremely convincing manner - it was like she cast a spell on me - who had just returned from a few months volunteering in Tunisia. Having loved it so much, she insisted that I simply HAD to go there!!! She assured me that all of her friends would take good care of me and that I would put on a lot of weight trying all of the amazing different deep fried culinary delights!! So, I didn't do any planning for this trip, was about to fly with Syphax airlines (hoping I don't contract some disease like the name sounds) and I realised I didn't know anything about Tunisia! I did a quick Wikipedia search and learned on the plane that it's a strongly European-influenced African country, with the main language being Arabic, but everyone knows French as well, since Tunisia became independent from the French in 1956 (some people know English, but not as many nor as well). I arrived feeling slightly concerned about my lack of knowledge about the country and especially how safe it would be for a single white girl, and the fact that I was relying on Anna's friends to house me! Suddenly for the first time in ages, travelling alone, I felt like what I was doing might be a bit dangerous and naive - just rocking up and trusting random people. In the airport, I was surrounded by people in long African robes and dresses - I was clearly the odd one out white girl in shorts and T shirt! I got slammed with a $75 entry visa I had no idea about, seriously considered turning around and finding the next flight out of there, but built up some courage and was greeted by the lovely Mahdi, who had borrowed a car from a friend to pick me up!! First thoughts outside the airport were - wow lovely warm weather, and holy shit I'm in Africa. Mahdi explained that Tunisia is not really like real Africa - it's more European so he refers to it as fake Africa. But for me, lots of white and pale coloured buildings with flat rooves, old cars buzzing about the road, and many people wearing hijabs - I was definitely in Africa.
Life in Tunisia consists of eating sleeping smoking and being in a coffee shop with friends. Everyone is so laid back and plans are never made until the last minute. Phones are constantly ringing to check, change and make plans. Friends are always coming and going from someone's house. It's one big party usually, with people dotted throughout the house - a few people are looking at something on the Internet, someone is cooking, 3 or 4 are having a siesta on the bed in the living room and a few more are gossiping on the bed in someone's room.
Meal time usually consists of baguette with something - a dipping sauce made with carrot purée, or a spinachy one, a capsicum one, Tuna and tomato, egg, egg with anything, oh and for breakfast, you dip the baguette into olive oil with this sweet condensed fairy floss type stuff. I've also had a lot of deep fried bread with egg and tuna, deep friend pancake with egg and spicy sauce, kous kous and pizza. Tunisians always eat only with their hands, but in order to maintain hygiene at meal times, the cafes and restaurants have a sink with soap next to the tables for hand washing before and after you eat!!! Bread roll with ice cream inside was actually delicious, as was the cup of yoghurt, cream, ice cream, biscuit, nuts, chocolate sauce and fruit all mixed in together!!!
One morning I had breakfast like a real Tunisian - yoghurt from the corner shop - in a jar with no lid- tasted great and fresh, and a hard boiled egg, eaten standing at the counter. Another typical breakfast is a cake called '1000 papers' (translated from the French name) which is essentially a slice of yummy goodness including layers of caramel, custard and pastry, and many mornings I had a baguette piled with sweet condensed fairy floss stuff... I am definitely going to be a whale by the time I leave here!!
Thrilling Tunis
I love the people. I have met so many wonderful Tunisians. Everyone is so friendly, so willing to help me out and show me a good time. Everyone has time for me, or if they are busy (usually with uni) they call a friend or a friend of a friend. Most of the people I have been staying with go to uni, so they actually balance a sense of responsibility with a carefree lifestyle! Mahdi and his friends are crazy and joke around telling lots of white lies, so I can never tell when the truth is actually being told. Achraf and Ahmed invited me to their house for lunch while Mahdi was at uni and I was treated to a decision cous cous and egg spring roll meal. Then Ahmed took me to Sidi Bou Said, a more touristy spot in Tunis, with lovely blue and white buildings- kind of like what I imagine Greece to be like.
We went to the most famous coffee shop and watched the sun set over a cup of suuuuper sweet coffee.
After walking a good 7 or 8 km back home - which everyone else thought was crazy because people are quite lazy here - we were quite hot and bothered, so Ahmed suggested we go for a swim!! The beach is on their doorstep, so I borrowed his underwear and Muna's leopard print pyjama tank top, and bam! we were swimming, frolicking and splashing around in the Mediterranean Sea, watching the gorgeous bright yellow moon ... This was another moment of bliss - I actually felt drunk on freedom and happiness!!! All my luggage and things were at mahdi's but I never made it back that night ... I was just going with the flow, Tunisian style!! One day I went to a uni trade fair/expo with Achraf and the lovely girls Sabrine, Sabrine and Islem... I sat in a meeting listening to the professor talk in Arabic, pretending I belonged there and I even scored a free t shirt which says something along the lines of 'Tunis uni library expo' !!! :)
On the weekend, I caught a 'louage' (minivan that goes to various locations once it fills up- approx 6-8 people in each) from Tunis to Sfax, the second biggest city in Tunisia. Even miss independent me was glad to have Ahmed there to help me buy the ticket and get in the van, since it's quite mad in the louage station and people don't speak much English! Luckily I made a nice friend in the louage, who explained when we were having a pit stop and when it was the last stop! Lovely Rached and his sister, Lobna picked me up in Sfax and we caught the ferry to Kerkennah island, where they have a holiday house. Rached explained that the Muslim holy book is a bit ambiguous about whether women need to cover up or not so that's why some women choose to and others don't. In Tunisia it is not obligatory one way or the other (compared to Saudi Arabia where it is mandatory).
Kind Kerkennah
Kerkennah is so peaceful, quiet and calm. There are no waves at all, just a gentle lapping of water. Life is so simple, fishermen preparing for a day out on the water in one of the super cute little wooden fishing boats that are dotted along the water's edge - all with the same maroon base then a blue and white stripe, whilst other men are repairing and painting old boats along the coastline.
I was so lucky with the weather- blue sky, white fluffy clouds, sun shining bright and a beautiful refreshing breeze, making shorts and t shirt the perfect outfit! I saw the old school way of catching fish that they still use today... Palm tree sticks along the water in line with the current and the fish go along the sticks and into a one way entry net and stay there (alive and fresh) until the fishermen come to collect them. I also saw tonnes of olive trees and ate a few dates from the thousands of palm trees that sprout up all over the completely flat landscape!
It's a pity that the coastline is covered in trash in spots, otherwise it would be even more spectacular. The people really love it here - Rached calls it home, and he knows everyone (population is about 15000). There is one school, one police station, with a few police at the entrance of the island but then no other security after, and there is no crime or need for it! I was treated to a delicious home made prawn marinara pasta, grilled fish with veggie salad, and I even got to watch Arabs Got Talent on TV over dinner. A very refreshing getaway!!
Spicy Sfax
In Sfax I stayed with crazy Fares. Mr I know everyone and everyone knows me, he has almost finished his degree in mechanical engineering, is a terrible student (prefers to do what makes him happiest in life which is partying and sleeping) but is naturally quite intelligent. He has a tiny white Mr Bean car which is pretty much broken in every way - the door opens by jamming it with your shoulder and closes by slamming it - no locks of course, the steering is all over the place (cannot let go of the wheel for a second) and it looks like it should have been buried 20 years ago. He's a real joker, so when his car gets him pulled over by police, Fares gets friendly with them and jokes about how they must respect the old girl because she is his grandmother!!! He always seems to win them over with his charm!!
Fares took me to a local restaurant one night where I had baguette and a tomato spice sauce with bits of meat he tried to tell me was dog!! (I still don't know what it was, but hoping it was lamb!) We got on quite well ...Fares is blunt with a fresh sense of humour, not afraid to give me shit and pay me out! eg. "I thought Australians and Polish people were pretty, so clearly you're not either of those!" I went for a jog one day, which I have done in every country I've been to - but Sfax wins for being the most strange and daunting experience ... everyone (mostly men, and actually some women) massively staring at me, and sometimes whistling and yelling things as I went past! Not sure I'll try that again! I kind of get it, because they are just not used to white girls who are not covered up here... In fact, I actually can't recall seeing another westerner at all, certainly not an Australian, and most of the people I'm meeting say I'm the first Aussie they have ever met!! I feel so ignorant at times, especially when I learned that it is really difficult for Tunisians to get even a tourist visa to come to Australia ... Apparently there is no Aussie embassy here so they need to go to Egypt to even apply and one of their friends has been waiting 2 years after paying a lot of money to try and get a visa!!! Makes me realise how hard it is for various nationalities to travel when there are no international connections between certain countries! One super fun evening with Fares, his Tunisian friends and German girl, we ate pizza, drank beer and wine, discussed important topics like education, politics and different cultures around the world, laughed, danced, sang a lot including the titanic song with full action and drama, took a lot of silly photos and created ourselves a really entertaining night!!
Sunny Sahara
I caught another Louage to Tozeur (the city near the Sahara) and was grateful that I got there in one piece after the van was stopped by the Police, my passport was checked thoroughly and I witnessed a massive screaming match between the Police and the driver (I later learned that the issue was just that he was fined for having part of the windscreen covered with black plastic.) Furthermore, Rached had warned me that there was talk of terrorist activity near the Sahara, which I had looked into and decided was not enough of a threat not to go, but when I got to Tozeur with no one to pick me up, I felt like maybe it was a bit dangerous being on my own in Tunisia. (Note, there was a bomb scare in Sfax the day I returned there, and someone bombed himself in the beachside town I was going to visit a few days later.)
My hotel was nice enough, but there was not one other guest, it was very dark and they spoke no English! Argh. Half an hour later, the one English speaking guy rocked up at my room and invited himself in to chat! At first I thought it was friendly and ok but then I was a bit weirded out... He was kind of creepy and gross, a bit smelly, with dirty teeth and a massive scar across his lip. His English wasn't the best but I managed to work out that I can't go on a 4x4 trip to the Sahara today because there is no group to go with because there are no other people in the hotel!! I was quite upset about this and tried to explain that my friend had called yesterday to ensure there was definitely an option of going on a trip today but what was he going to do now?! Creepy Guy suggested we go to some travel agencies and he would call his friend. The travel agency guy - with good English - said, sure you can go - hiring a private 4WD just for yourself - and it will cost you about $80-90. (For me, too expensive and I didn't want to go on my own!) He explained that it is not tourist season and he doesn't know of any other people who would want to go at this time!! Disappointed, I asked if there was any other hotel he could think of that might have some guests who might want to also go?! (At this point, I was feeling a bit out of my comfort zone being here with no purpose, no other tourists, streets fairly quiet with people staring at me as I walk by, just me and Creepy Guy, and having wasted my time and money). As a last resort, I tried another hotel with a friendly receptionist who had reasonable English and said, no, he also doesn't know of any other people who I could go on a tour with today... How about next week?? Grrr but then he said, wait a minute, let me call my friend (there's always a friend to call here! Haha) ... Yes! There was a couple who were keen to go that day! I was told to wait 10 minutes to confirm the time of the tour and in the mean, a family of 4 from another hotel were suddenly available to go, making a full car of 7 people, to split the cost of the trip - about $10 each!! Stoked, I went for a jog - found a golf course, with the greenery interspersed with desert sand dunes and camels wandering around the entrance, and then found a huge wooden door with big black bolts on it - like from a medieval times - and it was slightly ajar! I got all exited and felt like I had stumbled across the African Secret Garden!! There wasn't a soul in sight so I slowly crept through the door, finding a big open space with palm trees around the edges, and I pretended I was in rural Africa and a herd of animals was about to spring out of nowhere and bowl me over!! Minimal English was spoken amongst the group of Tunisians on my 4WD trip so we just smiled and the company was good enough for me! After a while of driving along a flat road with yellow sand in every direction, we hit the real sand dunes and got a dose of adrenaline and excitement! There was lots of laughter and 'woo'-ing as we drove up and down steep sand hills and along the edge (almost sideways) through the dunes! We stopped at the 'camel's neck' - a rock/sand formation which looked like it's name, saw the site where Star Wars was filmed with the little igloo shaped houses in the middle of the desert, and watched the sun set on the top of some sand dunes - glorious and serene.
Watching the sky turn a myriad of amazing hues of pink and orange, I shared more squeals of laughter with the young girls from the family of 4, running up and down the sand hills. The sand felt so good under my feet, silky and soft. I was so content there on my own, the natural beauty surrounding me, not a care in the world, communicating with body language and mutual joy and laughter.
Back in Tozeur, I demolished a pizza and got myself about 5 different chocolate bars from a snack bar - because I really need more calories right now!! But seriously, I have to try all the local sweets and also I just feel safer with chocolate when I'm alone in strange places!! When I got back to the hotel, Creepy Guy said something about (I think) using my iPad for 5 minutes to check Facebook coz he has no computer!!! Confused and a bit weirded out again, I awkwardly said 'no' with a smile... there was a lot of confusion, he kept saying just 5 minutes and I will come up to your room... (thinking, no bloody way you're coming into my room!) I just kept saying, "5 minutes what? I don't understand, good night and see you tomorrow!!" Ugh. At about 1130pm I got a knock on my door twice, which I'm sure was him but I didn't answer it!! Creeeepy!! For the record, the next day he was not so creepy, and went to buy me a bottle of water when I asked for some at breakfast! Of course I was glad to leave there though and looked forward to reuniting with my new friends again, who now felt like family!
Back in Tunis I had a ball with Ahmed, Monta, Google, Achraf and a few other boys, creating more amazing memories (and a lot of crazy videos and photos) in this unique, relaxed country. I ate Leblebi (spicy tomato, soaked bread bits and bean stew) straight out of the pot late at night with the boys, got my gangster on singing and dancing to a popular song "cha9 cha9" - pronounced "shahque shahque", improved my Arabic and French vocabulary, went swimming at night again, sat at the coffee shop for 4 or 5 hours (without realising the time had passed) discussing relationships, love, monogamy, marriage and the differences between cultures in the approach to life and the future, went shopping in the colourful buzzing Medina, laughing and joking with the beautiful boys all day and night!
I was quite devastated to leave Tunis, having made some incredibly special and long-lasting friendships - I don't know how long the airport hugs lasted but I definitely did not want to let go. The boys begged me to come back and visit, and I'm now sitting on the plane wondering if, when and how I might be able to get back there!! What an overwhelmingly significant and special part of my whole journey this random trip to Tunisia has proven to be!!
