Tunis

Find a desert, add some people of Arab descent, give them French tendencies, and layer in a rich history all the way back to B.C. Where are you?  Possibly Tunis.

For me, one of the big attraction in Tunis was the doors.  Yes, the doors.  Go visit and your "huh?" will change to "ahhh..."

I headed to Tunis for a weekend recently and had a great time. I can definitely see a progression between Nigeria, Dakar, and Tunis. Tunis is strikingly French and Mediterranean feeling. Nigeria is most definitely not. Dakar is in between. They speak French, and there is some Mediterranean feel in the main palm-lined boulevard, but you don’t ever forget you are in Africa.

Another door.

Tunis is also home to the remains of Carthage. There isn’t much there anymore, but as I stood on amongst ruins looking out into the harbor, I couldn’t help but wonder what would be different if the Punic Wars had turned out differently.

I thoroughly enjoyed Tunis. The architecture that is exposed is what I would expect to find buried in layers on top of each other -- Roman ruins, old Arabic/Moorish souqs, more recent French Colonial stone buildings, and modern bland white/square block apartment complexes like you will find in the Middle East.

At the end of the first day we found ourselves near the main plaza (the Place d’Independence, which is also the name of the main square in Dakar). It is a wonderful place at night, and I thought that I was at a parallel-universe version of the Champes Elysee and Arc d’Triumpe. Lots of Tunisians sat on the rim of a large fountain in the middle of the central roundabout, watching the night. Couples and others were strolling down a wide, tree-lined boulevard lined with coffee shops. The night was crisp, and it was a perfect place to join some of the almost-all-male spectators and sit in the roundabout watching the procession. You could also watch the Tunisian traffic cops in almost comically French uniforms directing traffic with white-gloved hands, many with great mustaches.

The city is generally much cleaner than the other African cities, but not without its trash.

I have no words for this.

The people were friendly. One guy found us wandering in the wrong direction and walked with us for about 10 minutes until he got us to our destination. We instinctively were prepared to tip him, but he turned on his heel and walked off without hesitation, obviously not expecting a tip. We had a basic conversation in English, and I suspect his motivation was a combination of friendliness and a chance to exercise his English.

If the strolling people at night were strongly male-dominated, the market offerings were not. We spent part of a morning wandering the narrow alleys of a market. It was a very Arab market and I enjoyed the walk. We started off in an area obviously patronized by locals, because the shops sold basic kitchen goods, clothes, etc. What struck me most was 99% of the clothes were for girls. I recall one or two stalls selling t-shirts and polos for men, but otherwise it was stall after stall of girls’ clothing, with lots of tight jeans on slim plastic hips.

We ended in a tourist area, and I got to sit outside a shop while my colleague went looking for something. I decided that owning a stall in an Arab market has some great perks: there is usually a good banter between shop owners when not busy, and they get to watch a mix of people all day long.

Tunisian cafe.  Everyone gathered to watch the football game and enjoy a shisha.

It was then off to the Bardo Museum, which is full of mosaics. When I say “full,” I mean that all of the floors are lined with them in addition to all of the walls in this three-story building covered in them. I really like mosaics, so this was great. They were mostly floor mosaics, so many had more pattern than story (in contrast to ceiling mosaics in Byzantine churches).

Yet another door, this one to Oz!

We also burned part of an afternoon at a café. All of the chairs were oriented toward the TV once the soccer game came on. People smoked cigarettes and shisha and talked as if the day would never end. One thing I noted both here and at the cafes on the main boulevard was that no one was on an iPhone, blackberry, computer, etc. Anyone who was alone at a table was either reading or just watching the crowd. The weather was perfect, and I don’t think I’ve enjoyed sitting around at cafes that much since Vienna.

The only downside to the city was that smoking is allowed everywhere, including inside the airport and in the hotels.

Tunis is a steal. I was surprised since I would assume the many European tourists would make things more expensive than they were. A taxi cost 0.03 dinars for 1/10 km. That’s about $0.32 per mile. Contrast that with Germany, where a taxi cost $4.80/mile. Then again, there are no Benz taxis in Tunis.

Overall, I would definitely go back to Tunis for a relaxing weekend with some history. I would also like to drive deeper into Tunisia to explore the Berber areas.

 One more door as a bonus for reading this whole entry.