pas de soussis

our next stop in tunisia was the seaside town of sousse (pronounced soussa), which we got to via the preferred mode of transportation, shared taxi or 'louage'. basically you wait until a van fills up with enough people to go to your destination. seems sensible enough though as we discovered it takes patience.

sousse itself wasn't terribly impressive - sort of a beach resort town - but we still had a good time exploring the old city and, naturally, the markets. after a long lunch, accompanied by a creepy yanni tribute concert, we walked along the beach and enjoyed the other side of the mediterranean. we continued on until we reached the walls of the medina where we found the ribat which translates approximately to fortress. from there we had a nice view of the city and the port below. it reminded me quite a bit of the medieval castles i've been to in england.

we continued wandering the rest of the medina, finding the souqs (markets) much less overwhelming than in tunis. this must have showed because we all walked away with some kind of big purchase - poufs (leather ottoman), carpets, spices, brass plates, all kinds of little wonders. the best purchase by far, however, was made by paloma. it can best be described as a diaper dress -it has a long piece of cloth that goes under your legs and comes back over your shoulders. she insisted she was only trying on clothes for jasmine to see which is why we were all stunned when she walked out of the store with the weirdest thing she had tried on. it did make for a lot of fun jokes though.

around dusk, just after the call to prayer we bought a sampling of pastries and wandered back to the new part of town where we hoped to find a nice place to sit along the water. once we got to the water we were greeted by a stunning view of the full moon coming up over the water and, just around the corner, a perfect little seaside cafe for tea and hookah. i had a delicious pine nut tea and we sampled/devoured the pastries we had bought. it was a nice end to a nice day.