Escape from the City...

I can scarcely think of any better welcome to a North African Muslim country after 15 hours of transit than to arrive sans baggages aka Alitalia didnt board my backpack on my flight from New York and though we arrived on the 17th in Tunis, I didnt get my bag until this morning (3 days in the same clothes - way to travel light) - right before we decided to move on to the seaside town of Sousse...

Tunis was a very bustling capital city full of both obnoxious men and very kind and jovial types like the reception people at Hotel Marhaba - a lovely little pension that our Rough Guide marked as safe for women travellers. We had a little double room for only 15 dinar (1 Dt is roughly 90 cents or so) It was a delightful little place in the very heart of the souk (bazaar market), only a few blocks from the train depot, fresh market and next door to an amazingly cheap little restaurant where you could eat an entire meal of way too much couscous for 3.5 dinar. yummmmmers

The metro was an experience, we also saw the Musée Bardo and ruins of Carthage. This trip is going to be a whirlwind of the Roman territories.

So much more to describe and this is such a slow internet connection with a french/arabic keyboard which makes typing very tricky (always typing z instead of w or a...)

Today we arrived in Sousse which is incredibly lovely and still standing are the ancient walls of the city and the mosque just down the road from our next cheap and amazing hotel, and delicious pita sandwiches...(more to come later with a better computer connection )

suffice it to say that sunbathing on a beach in Tunisia = treacherous on a Saturday with throngs of 12 year old boys subtly (rather, very obviously) trying to edge closer and closer...We were saved by some older guys who were clearly also enjoying the view but much more tactful and told the little pests to scram...hahaha

Off to climb the Sousse Ribat tower and catch the sunset atop our roof terrace (AWESOME)

tomorrow to El Jem and onward to Sfax

ps they have Coca Light here : )