It was a two and a half hour flight from Istanbul, Turkey to Tunis, Tunisia. All I knew about Tunisia is that French people like to vacation here. It is the northernmost country in Africa and the north coast is on the Mediterranean. Libya is to the east and Algeria is to the west. The southern part of the country is in the Sahara Desert. The country is about the size of Florida. It's a Muslim country and the 2 percent who aren't Muslim are Christian and Jewish. Arabic is the language but many people speak French, and some speak English in the capital city but rarely elsewhere. The weather is in the 70s, sunny - kinda perfect.
After checking in, we had one hour before getting the scavenges. Two thirds into the trip, we have the routine down. Find an ATM. Find a bookstore with English guidebooks and scope out what we want to buy so that when the clock starts, we can come right back, buy the info and hit the ground running. Get something to eat or drink if we need to. Day pack stays packed. (Every night, I replenish water, granola bars, wipes, recharge blackberry and camera).
The Tunis challenges are a bunch of small local run-all-over-the-place like we chose for Istanbul; or big long trips out of town. For Tunis, teaming is allowed for the whole stay - partly in deference to the teams of women. We are teamed with Sherry and Ken. We decided to plan our big outings for the second day and stay pretty local the first afternoon, since we were starting out after 2 PM.
We took a taxi right out to the National Museum of Bardo, a beautiful former palace, and located Eros and Apollo, then to the train for two destinations. First was the absolutely charming town of Sidi Bou Said, a little village of cafes, resaturants and shops. All the buildings are white and trimmed in brilliant blue (think Santorini) with orange trees punctuating the white and blue. Eye candy!!
Back on the train (more like a trolley, but through long stretches of open area). For our second destination, we went to Carthage, where we had two scavenges: locate Byrsa Hill and the Roman Ampitheater; and Tophet site and explain on video what happened. We found a taxi driver who knew absolutely nothing about Carthage (we later realized that he was from Tunis). Although Carthage is the best known of Tunisian archeological sites, the ruins are scattered throughout a residential area. In fact, we had to go in between people's driveways to get to the Tophet Sanctuary. We are not 100 percent sure that we found the right ampitheater on Bursa Hill, but we asked the Carthage museum staff, and people along the way. It was quite suprising that people in Carthage don't know their own ruins. We have an AA Essential Series guidebook and a Lonely Planet in French (they didn't have it in English). Both showed the ruins we sought, with street locations pinpointed; but it was really hard for the taxi driver to find anyone to point them out - including three policemen! When we finally located Tophet, we made a short video explaining it. In what looks like somebody' back yard, wedged between two suburban private homes, the Tophet Sanctuary is a grassy lawn scattered with upright stone cylinders. There are more than 20,000 urns containing the ashes of boys aged between 2 and 12, sacrificed by the Carthiginians in the 8th century BC. The remains were cremated as an offering to the sun god Baal Hammon and Tanit, the moon goddess.
We took a taxi back to Tunis, snapped a quck picture of the exterior of the art nouveau-style National Theater, and went back to the hotel. Fifteen minutes to freshen up and we went right out for dinner to one of the mandatory food scavenges - Dar Bel Hadj in the old city. To get there, you take a taxi to the edge of the medina (walled city) and the restaurant has a golf cart waiting to take you in through the winding streets. It was dark and the market stalls were closed. The driver flew very fast through the narrow winding streets and stopped at a big wooden studded door, which was opened by a beautful woman draped in silk. We were beckoned inside. From the outside, all you see is a big whitewashed wall in the market. You would never know there is a reataurant behind it. It's a beautiful palace and the dining room is in a 4 story atrium with only about 30 seats. We were so excited to walk into this lovely place, be served wine and a lovely plate of appetizers. But, we were full after the apps, didn't want dinner, and when it arrived, nobody liked theirs anyway. We were so tired. We needed to go to bed, so we rushed the check, took the golf cart to the cab, and then to the train station to plan tomorrow. Then, finally! To bed around 10:30 with a 6:10 wake up call requested from the hotel (supplemented by both our blackberries).