Friday the 30th of January and when the train stopped at Souk Ahras, just before the Tunisian border, we had to buy special tickets from Souk Ahras to Ghardimaou in Tunisia which meant we paid twice for that section - you really can't argue about this! Once on the train, the Tunisian official said that I needed a visa for Tunisia, contrary to what we'd been told in Algeria, so we had to get off at Ghardimaou and apply for one. This wasn't too bad as the alternative was to return to Algeria and get a visa and re-enter Tunisia. As it was, I could only get a 3-day Visa so we wouldn't have long in Tunisia - hopefully a boat to Italy leaves on one of those 3 days.
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| Ghardimaou - Internet photo |
We had only 2 Dinars left and were not wasting money too much. The 3 day Visa was approved and we had to wait another two hours until 5:30 PM for the train to Tunis. A train conductor "befriended" us, and began as usual to ask nosy questions, hoping for a confession that we have sex with each other every other minute but when he didn't get what he wanted, rudely left. All he did was add to the cliché of frustrated, sexist Arab men.
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| Train, Tunisia - Internet photo |
On the other hand, a guy with a young daughter bought us a bread and egg as we only had .30 Dinars which was for the train from Tunis station to The youth hostel. Then there was the train trip. One hour down the line of a 3 1/2 hour theoretical train trip, a very strange guy got on the train without paying and sat down. Shortly afterwards and official got on and tried to kick him off. It seems he had just left an institution and had no money or ticket. Some of the passengers, 99% male, convinced the official to leave him on the train and then took up a collection of money and cigarettes for him. We were pretty impressed. However true to form and luck, after sunset, the train broke down in the middle of nowhere and the lights went out, leaving us in total darkness, and I mean total - nothing was visible.
Well, people started generally lighting matches, talking and making jokes, a repeat of El Harrach to Constantine trip. Shortly afterwards the train came to another rather shuddering stop 100 m from a station for what looked like it was going to be all night. As usual, the train was crowded, cold and hard to get comfortable but the strange guy started talking, telling stories, and reciting poetry and singing songs mostly in Arabic but also in French. In quite a reversal, the ‘useless’ member of society was the one to keep people spirits up. Anyway as the night wore on, we talked to two students next to us, one of which seem to be quite the idealistic and revolutionary which all seemed a bit passé. If it's one thing we've learned on our travels, it’s that it doesn't matter what the name of the regime is, it’s whether it is doing the best that it can for the people and the country.
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| Modern Tunis - Postcard |
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| Tunis map |
Anyway the train eventually arrived at
Tunis at 2:30 AM, 5 1/2 hours overdue for a 3 1/2 hour trip. The father of the young girl offered to put us up for the night, and trusting our judgement, walked with him and his daughter through the deserted streets into the maze of the medina.
Well, their place was on the first floor and looked pretty poor. There was a large bed with one tiny kid a cat cot, with another one and another about 10 or 11 curled up onto sheepskins laid over pieces of cardboard and a blanket for warmth. There was no water in the room as water facilities and toilets were shared by all the residents on that level. His wife heated some spicy noodles and he bought some fresh bread to share with us - that was the first meal we had for 24 hours.
After dinner the wife filled a large basin with warm water for her husband's feet - it seemed like a regular ritual or maybe it was because of his return from a long trip. He put his feet into the tub of water and invited me to do the same, I did. Danielle watched and thought "that looks good" and I invited her in. Danielle thought it might be a breach of gender etiquette, but not being a stickler for it, she joined in. Both wife and husband kept dead pan looks on their faces, then Danielle caught the woman's eye who was behind her husband and invited her in too. She wagged a frantic "no" finger at Danielle, then broke into a large smile and put her hand in front of her mouth to restrain laughter - she was obviously enjoying the break in gender protocol. The husband kept a neutral straight face as we wiggled our toes for a little while. Danielle, withdraw first, thanking him but he stuck to his neutral expression, not hostile, probably shock. The wife woman handed Danielle a small towel, but when in sight of hubby her facial expression was also dead neutral. The climax of a fairly cross-cultural day.
Later they cleared some space on the floor for us to put down our ponchos and sleeping bags, and with our two blankets we were reasonably warm. We thought the Le Yannous in Paris were poor but these people were much worse off.
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| Victory Place, Tunis - Postcard |
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| Jasmine seller - Postcard |
The next morning, the husband took us to the bank so we could change some money, and bought us coffee.
When we returned to their place, we offered him some money which he accepted immediately. They couldn't even afford to be proud, not like the Le Yannous.
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| Sidi Boud Said - Postacard |
We caught the train out to Carthage (also called Sidi Boud Said and a suburb of Tunis and a historic area) to go to the Youth Hostel and found that it had closed seven months ago! If nothing else, north Africa has gotten us used to travelling setbacks.
So, back into Tunis, after stopping at the port to try to buy tickets and find a hotel. The shipping office was totally deserted except for a couple of leering Arabs. Eventually, after much hassling we succeeded with both. We had dinner in the medina and went looking for some mint tea, but at least found a cafe that had fresh orange juice and grenadine - very good.
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Flamingos at the Tunis Zoo
Postcard |
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The Medina, Tunis
Postcard |
Tunis is a very cosmopolitan city with heavily accented French architecture, with some parts looking very Parisienne. We went shopping in the morning and tried to spend the money we weren't able to change, but I piked out so we still had some left. Couscous for lunch, then we walked in the general direction of the zoo, passing some of the poorer area outside the medina. The zoo, apart from being cheap, was surprisingly good and situated in a nice park.
We continued in vain to spend the extra Dinars we wouldn't be able to change at the port and bought a goodly supply of postcards. We got to the port in good time, and had to wait a while. While waiting, we met two English guys who changed our remaining Dinars and embarked (1 Dinar = $4 AUS). I can’t emphasise how much trouble it was trying to manage the many currencies that we needed to deal with as we travelled.
This section was written with my new pen, found in the streets of Tunis in an unprecedented turn of good luck.
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| Cameleers - Postcard |
Our overall experience in north Africa was mixed, partly coloured by the friction between Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia with their very different histories and governing structures. We saw more poverty than we’d ever seen before, which partially explains the desperation of merchants and hawkers to separate tourists from their money.
We experienced more overt sexism than anywhere else we’d travelled. On the other hand we met some fantastic and generous people, had some fantastic food (we didn’t get sick), and saw some fantastic scenery and architecture.
Tomorrow we leave by boat for Palermo, Sicily.
