gran torino

the last stop on my italian tour was turin. i arrived mid-morning to be greeted by my friend simona and one of her friends. from the train station we started our tour of the city; we walked down the big shopping streets, past famous cafés and into big piazzas (piazzae?). along the way we stopped for an authentic italian coffee - probably my first - which, as a good italian, you drink quickly at the bar. no time to sit. simona also treated me to a box of pastiglie, typical turin candies.

we continued walking, saw the university, the main building of which apparently appears in architectural textbooks as an example of "what not to do". here we met her fiancé for lunch. the place was called shortbus (after the movie, i was told), which initially concerned me. but it ended up just being an artsy little cafe/resto with an out-there bookshop. we continued walking, where i saw the palace, the "castle", and the church without a façade. simona was an excellent tour guide, telling me all about the city's traditions and history. when italy was unified in 1861 it became the first capital and the king of turin became the king of italy. also the city is famous for its roots in magic. at the gates of the palace there are two equestrian statues (the gemini twins) that are said to mark the boundary between the good and evil parts of the city. another part of the city has a fountain that shows black magic triumphing over white magic, pretty unusual. also, according to this website i just found turin apparently forms a triangle of white magic, along with lyon and prague. who knew!

as the afternoon went on we saw the rest of the city, including the mole antonelliana, the symbol of the turin. you can see it in the distance at right; it's interesting in that halfway up the tower portion there's a full neoclassical facade. we paused at the famous caffè al bicerin (above) to sample its namesake. we continued on and crossed the river po for a look back at the city. (turin, like lyon, has two rivers.)

at this point we met up again with simona's fiancé and some of their friends for a delicious pizza dinner before the comedy show. i hadn't planned on going but after hearing about luttazzi, who berlusconi has banned from tv, i ended up using their extra ticket to see the show. perhaps not one of my best decisions, as the show was over 2 hours and my italian's a little rusty (read: nonexistent). apparently it was very funny. after this we met up with other friends for drinks across town, where i spoke french and english (thank goodness!) before catching the bus back to simona's neighborhood.

the next day, my last in italy, i think i got a taste of typical italian lifestyle. i had a small breakfast before heading out to do a little shopping. saturday is market day and so we got our bread and pasta as well as henna for simona's hair (so italian!). we came back to simona's for lunch where her parents had prepared an amazing lunch - spaghetti with homemade pesto sauce, a salad (eaten after the main course) with maybe the most delicious oil and vinegar i've ever had along with a soficcino (sp?), something like a fried pizza pocket. then they offered me focaccia and cheeses and fruit to end the meal. how could i say no? then simona's aunt came to join us for the requisite after-meal coffee and see simona again before she left. a very sweet woman, she tried very hard to communicate with me (did i mention no one in their family speaks english? and only simona speaks french) and gave me her email so we could be friends on facebook. simona and i went to her grandmother's apartment, about a block away, for our coffee. she's a typical sweet old italian grandmother, kissing me on the cheek as i walked in the door. she proudly showed me the view of the city - pretty impressive - before doting on us and giving us coffee and sweets. she even gave me a bag of cookies to take with me. what an adorable woman.

after being thoroughly spoiled by simona's family we headed back into town to see the egyptian museum, one of the city's biggest landmarks. it's the second in the world after cairo, and certainly very impressive. there were entire rooms filled with monumental stone statues, not to mention mummies and room after room of smaller artifacts and hieroglyphics. we (now four, with simona's boyfriend and his friend) continued back through the center of town where we had tea at the famous caffè reale, inside the palazzo. the decorations consist of cabinets full of the king's china.

just past the palace is the duomo which houses the shroud of turin. we had to wait for mass to let out and then we were able to see the glass case covering the box that holds the shroud. it's only taken out about every 10 years (with the exception of 2000, being a very big year) but they have giant photos and x-rays on which you can see the outline of the shape. so i suppose i can say i saw it, in a matter of speaking.

we continued on, getting hungry, and opted for a dinner at an aperitivo. we doubled back across the city near the university where they're plentiful. we went to one that's particularly popular, la drogheria. it was so popular in fact that we ended up eating outside but the food was delicious - pastas, pizza, vegetables, polenta. we had thirds. after chatting over our drinks we headed back to simona's and i bid farewell to the city. i think turin was one of my favorite cities; it really surprised me. but then again perhaps it was because i had such an excellent tour guide and host. it was a nice way to round out my time in italy.

the next morning we left early for the train station and had our last italian coffee before the train. the first leg i spent sitting between two small families, which was entertaining to say the least. the view passing through the mountains was lovely and i was admiring the clear sky (simona tells me this is normal; italy is the land of the sun) along the way. just as we were approaching (or maybe at) the french border our train made a particularly long stop. in typical italian fashion they waited until about 25 minutes later to tell us to get off and board another train to lyon. literally in the span of that half hour, the clouds rolled in and by the time i got on the second train, the sky was completely covered. welcome to france. the next train was direct to lyon where i arrived and was greeted by gray skies and drizzle.

now it's time to settle back in and remind myself why i like this country, too.

not just a cookie

the next stop on the italian tour was milano. there seems to be a bit of a prejudice against milan among the northerners. all the italians i spoke to were curious as to why i was going there and were concerned when some friends were planning on staying several days. i can see where they're coming from, as the city is the financial center of the country but has little else that wouldn't fit in a day's visit.

luckily my stay was only one day and it was a perfect amount of time to enjoy the city. i arrived late at night, navigated the metro and then walked 20 minutes through a suburby type area to find my host. the next day we left in a hurry and it wasn't until i was on the metro until i realized that i had forgotten my tickets to the last supper. not only had i already paid (double-digit), but it was likely sold out and i was not going to miss my one chance to see it. after silently panicking for a moment i calmly realized i could just find an internet cafe to print off a new one. this turned out to be more difficult than i had imagined, but several unhelpful italians and a few euros later i had the ticket. whew.

my first view of milan proper was, fittingly, the duomo. (i shot it in several types of light - monet -style - but i think this one is a favorite) i always remembered thinking it looked very pointy in the slides/textbooks. in person i mainly noticed the flatness. the inside is rather unremarkable, except for a nice ceiling on either side of the nave. but perhaps i'm just spoiled when it comes to cathedrals. shortly after seeing the duomo i met up with another assistant, gemma, and her friend from home (in sydney). they're both musicians which meant that at random intervals they were likely to burst into song, talk about the acoustics of a particular building, or comment on the off-key busking. they made for very good company. we walked through the galleria (fancy shops with a marble hallway under a glass dome) and tried on sunglasses in prada. we also saw the facade of la scala opera house - not really even worth mentioning - where they had seen a ballet the night before. for lunch we popped into a cafeteria-style yet nice restaurant where i had traditional risotto milanese for a mere 3,50. this is what's wonderful about the primi platti - just as delicious as the main course but smaller portions and less money.

after lunch we parted ways as i had a date with leonardo. i arrived at the santa maria della grazie 20 minutes prior to my appointed time, as requested. i was told to wait an additional 30 minutes past my ticket time. in the meantime there was a small anteroom with explanations of the painting and its destruction/restoration.. all in italian. the english version was in the next room, where we spent about 30 seconds before being let into the climatised room. i'm getting used to that. the refectory itself is a large empty room, bigger than i expected. the painting itself is up pretty high on the wall and they keep you a good 15 feet away. even so, you can see how masterfully it's been painted. especially when you compare it with whatever nonsense is on the opposite wall.

after a quick look around the castle and its 5 museums (only 1,50 for admission to all of them) and the rest of the old city, all located conveniently in walking distance, i met up with gemma and matt again. it was gemma's birthday so we had a small dinner of delicious pasta and questionable dessert (the lemon cake was chewy..). this turned out to be unnecessary as afterwards we met up with a few french guys (one of whom she'd met on the train) who took us to an aperitivo. one of italy's best accomplishments, as far as i'm concerned. you pay 7 euro for a cocktail of your choice and then have your pick of the extensive buffet of appetizers. they had quite a spread, including gnocchi, polenta, paella, and even chips and salsa. as we were stuffing ourselves, a waiter came around with foccacia and then nutella sandwiches. i think it was heaven. in between platefuls we managed to chat with the frenchies. it felt surprisingly good to speak french again, and they even said i parled vachement bien. if only they knew how good i was at franglais. at any rate, this ended being a nice end to my stay in milan and a good transition to my final destination...

voila verona

in continuing with the alliterative trend, my next stop was verona. i left with another couchsurfer, daniela, in hopes of catching the first train into the city to meet two other girls and tour the city. the morning was interesting.. a sort of comedy of errors, if you will. we were dropped off at the train station only to find that the train had left ten minutes earlier. and the next train from this tiny station? three hours later. greaaat. we quickly decided to hop the next train to vicenza (backtracking) in hopes of catching an earlier train from there. when we arrived we happily discovered that there was another just 20 minutes later. we dutifully went to the track, awaiting its arrival. it never showed. no reason, just didn't run. so we were faced with waiting until 11.30, what we had been hoping to avoid. to pass the time and get an errand out of the way we decided to head towards an internet cafe. so we set out towards the city, luggage and all. the first place we were directed to (luckily daniela spoke italian) was closed on wednesdays. naturally. the next place had only one broken computer so we were directed to another on the main street. eventually we were able to get what we needed, but only after allowing the proprietors to make copies of our ID (apparently this is standard practice in italy). all this, and it wasn't even a tuesday!

at any rate, we eventually made it to verona, though we had no way to track down our other friends. daniela and i spent the morning wandering the city and only managing to find its most touristy locales. stop #1: juliet's house. obviously this has tourist trap written all over it, especially bearing in mind that juliet is a fictional character. it's basically a very old house that dates to juliet's era with a courtyard and balcony. some local entrepreneur took it upon himself to fill it with period furniture and film memorabilia and charge people 8€ to go inside and take their picture on the stone balcony. well done. additionally visitors have taken to drawing graffiti (romantic graffiti?) and hearts all over the walls and stairwell. the whole thing was amusing to see but perhaps not one of the more authentic corners of the city.

daniela and i walked through the city until the early afternoon when she had to leave and i met up with amanda, another couchsurfer, and a random italian man who had started guiding/following her. it was very bizarre. he just followed us, occasionally advising on where to go when we tried to explain what we were looking for. he seemed perfectly content and didn't blink when we would intermittently laugh at the strange situation. in this way we walked around the city, seeing its various bridges, castles, and piazzas until we headed back to the train station. nothing really stood out as remarkable, it was just a nice little italian town that probably has shakespeare to thank for the bulk of its tourism.

v for venizia

the second day of my trip i made it to venice, which had been my initial reason for going in the first place. i had planned on staying there three days but with the cost of the hostel i opted to couchsurf instead. if i hadn't i wouldn't have seen some of the smaller or towns or met any of the people i did so it turned out to be a good decision.

i got on the train early to enjoy a full day in venice. on the hour-long train ride i was trying not to notice the overcast sky and hoping it would clear up. italy once again came through as the skies cleared just as i was crossing the scalzi bridge from the train station. venice is interesting because on the one hand it's very easy to get lost, with all the meandering canals and dead ends; but on the other hand, it's difficult to go anywhere without running into signs that direct you to san marco or the rialto bridge.

i headed towards the rialto first where i saw the fish and vegetable market down below. on the way i passed all sorts of stores, some interesting but the majority peddling the same kitschy carnevale crap.

since i had been to the city before i didn't feel obligated to hit all the usual highlights and opted instead to visit the islands. murano, the glass-blowing island, was just a short boat ride away. i don't know that i've ever been in a place where the 100% of the stores sold the same product. the glass was fun to see of course but i was disappointed that i wasn't able to see more actual glassblowing. good thing i don't have a weird glass fascination or anything. after walking to my satisfaction and seeing a number of public large scale sculptures, i island-hopped over to burano.

the process was more strenuous than hopping; the boat ride was at least half an hour. but when i arrived i was not disappointed by the cuteness of the island. as promised, it was full of canals lined with colorful shops and houses. i had only a little over half an hour but i found that was ample time to eat my sandwich and explore the entire island - it's tiny.

boarding the boat to return to the main island i got my first taste of the carnevale madness. there were several people (generally pairs) in costume who seemed to be trailed by either personal photographers or very accomodating friends with large cameras. other people were surrepitiously taking pictures of them; it was a little strange. once we arrived i continued on foot towards piazza san marco, where i was hoping for more carnevale excitement. i was not disappointed. the square was beginning to fill up with people in costumes and masks. i'll say this for the masks: they are certainly beautiful and detailed but it is a little creepy to see the same hollow face everywhere. that didn't stop me from taking pictures, however. as far as i can tell the festivities (on an admittedly uneventful day) consist of people in costume posing endlessly for onlookers to take pictures. i can't understand what would motivate a person to do that, but i took advantage of it anyway. also there were three large bird/dinosaur/dragons on stilts, complete with sound effects.

once i had had my fill of the carnevaliers, who continued well on towards the grand canal and past the palazzo ducale, i begrudgingly paid 1€50 to go the bathroom (that's the "low season" price) and walked on. i wandered through the canals, popping out occasionally for a view of the grand canal at dusk. i also made one stop (and one of the few purchases of the day) for gelato. the flavor? nutella. how quintessentially italian can you get?

i wandered back to the train station where i came across the canal just as the sun had set and the lights were coming on. then it was back to vicenza for another dinner filled with home-cooked food, lively conversation and other couchsurfers.

veni vidi vicenza

my first stop on this whirlwind tour of italy was padua (sorry for the misleading title; i couldn't think of a good pun for padua). the highlight of padua was my first stop, the capella della scrovegni, which, for some reason, is also called the arena chapel. the chapel is giotto's masterpiece; the inner walls are covered with his frescoes. i waited in a climatised room for my fifteen-minute visit during which i watched a nice video on the paintings' meaning and restoration. as the previous group came out we were allowed in.

the chapel itself was bigger than i had imagined and the frescoes were quite impressive. you could really see giotto's skill in demonstrating depth and capturing emotions. before masaccio even. he's a bit like the cezanne of the 14th century. apparently he also used relief in some of his paintings, like with leaves or tears. the sequence of paintings is like a giant comic book depicting the life of mary and jesus. but honestly even knowing what was supposed to happen it was pretty hard to follow the order. after fifteen minutes we were ushered out and, i have to say, i don't like being given a time limit with art.

at any rate i continued on, being shooed out of the adjoining museum (apparently closed that day). i walked the rest of the city, stopping occasionally for interesting buildings or spectacles. speaking of which. well, padua's known to be a big university town; the campus dominates the better part of the old city. it's the second oldest in italy and galileo taught there. (i know, i know. galileo.) at any rate students are a common site but on the particular day i was there, there was some strange sort of demonstration. in several spots there were students dressed strangely covered in foodstuffs, reading from a poster in italian. at certain times they would have to variously drink something or get hit with something (likely more food), as well just generally being gawked at. (it was kind of like when dreiss wore a baguette on his head and read dali.) italian hazing? i'm still not sure.

i continued on, finding mainly churches - including sant antonio's. he's the patron saint of the city and receives all kinds of pictures, letters and general supplications. these things as well as the devout (who have no trouble walking through you in order to get to his tomb) somewhat overshadow the giotto fresco on the wall behind it. upon returning to the main squares i found a big produce market and nearby bread/pasta shop where i bought my lunch fixings. (i was particularly proud of myself when i completed a transaction in italian and gave the correct change - "perfetto"). afterwards all that was missing was a sunny spot to eat. i turned the corner and what do i find but a group of benches in the middle of a piazza. thank you, padua. (vence could take a lesson from this).

i figured i wasn't going to top that so i traveled back to vicenza. this is where the title becomes a bit of a stretch, as i did not so much conquer the city as walk around it aimlessly and take picture haphazardly. you can't walk more than about 50 meters without bumping into a building designed by palladio. some of the bigger estates are naturally outside the city limits and the biggest of these, the villa rotunda, does not open until march. so i walked until the good lighting faded and made my way back home. that evening my couchsurfer host and two other guests shared a meal of beef, vegetables, couscous, an omelette, and of course wine. it is nice to have a home to come back to, even if it's not yours.

lost in transition

so after my fantastic week in tunisia and less than 18 hours back in lyon i switched gears completely for a week in northern italy. instead of traveling with a great group of friends i was flying solo and instead of sometimes questionable lodging situations i was staying comfortably in real apartments with real italians (thanks to couchsurfing).

my vacation got out to a shaky start. let me share with you the story of my first night in italy and preface it by saying that i never claimed not to be an idiot.

i left lyon and arrived at the airport without a problem (the shuttle wasn't striking this time, thankfully). i went terminal three, a very temporary looking circus tent type of apparatus that's used for easyjet flights. the flight itself was very short and uneventful, as easyjet requires you to pay for any and all snacks. there was a really lovely view over venice at dusk when we were landing which, unfortunately, i did not have a great view of from my aisle seat.

i landed, retrieved my bags and determined which bus i needed to take to get to vicenza, my first destination. the woman was rather short with me and told me to get off at the train station at the "second stop". as the bus pulled away i was feeling pretty confident. hungry, but confident. we drove a bit on land and then across what i suppose was the lagoon until we reached venice. here all i could see was a parking lot full of buses and tourists as it seemed like everyone got off the bus. i got nervous and thought maybe the woman had meant the second stop including the airport as the first. i tried to ask the driver how to get to the 'mestre' station and he directed me towards the parking lot. i assumed the station was the big building behind it so i took my bag and walked on. first mistake.

i had an uneasy feeling as i continued towards the large building and after crossing several streets (with difficulty) it became clear to me that this was not the train station at all. i started to feel panic a bit but instead joined the tourists smushed together in a line for one of the buses. when it arrived i confirmed (once again in broken italian) that the bus went to the mestre station. i crammed myself and my suitcase onto the bus and hoped there was no sort of ticket involved. though i don't think a controller could have fit on the bus anyway.

we drove back over the lagoon (hmm..) and at one of the stops the nice old italian man directed me to get off and walk back towards the train station just after the overpass. i clumsily thanked him and got off in search of the train station. i had thought i knew where it was but upon doubling back i found myself stuck in a parking garage and then walking down a seedy-looking street. i gave up and turned back around and crossed the overpass back to where i had started. at this point i thought it best to try to ask someone, which i probably should have done in the first place (second mistake.) i was directed to follow the street i was on, which was parallel to the street i had been on before except that it was in a 'not so good area'. whoops.

eventually i did find the train station and even after all that i still just missed the train by about 2 minutes. the next train? not for another hour and a half. ouch. luckily there was a waiting room where i was able to sit and watch all the colorful italians. i really think they might have more crazies per capita than any other country.

i was worried about being late for my couchsurfer but it wasn't a problem and as it turned out he picked me up at the same time as another girl (from peru) and we were taken to a group dinner at a local restaurant. most people were just ordering so i wasn't even late. i comforted myself with a delicious, authentic italian pizza and good conversation. benvenuto indeed.

desert-ed

our main objective in coming to douz was to visit the desert. we left with our guide, zou, at about 2 in the afternoon, when the saharan sun was still high and bright. we took a van from the center of town to the outskirts where we met our camels. they were loaded up with our stuff, and then we jumped on ourselves. and when i say jump, i mean we hoisted ourselves over the layers of blankets and held on for dear life as the camel lurched forward and back. the extra joint in their leg makes the process rather interesting.

we continued on in pairs, with my camel at the lead. his name is amir, incidentally, which means king. we learned a bit about our camels during our two-hour trek. firstly, if left to their own devices, they will eat any vegetation in sight. secondly, camels have a very interesting mating practice. and apparently mating season is december-february. it consists of them sticking a big, lumpy tongue-like object out of their mouths and make a gross gurgling noise that sounds something like jabba the hut swallowing. no spitting, though.

the camel ride itself was rather uncomfortable but not altogether unpleasant. we were really enjoying the hot desert sun and exploring the terrain. once you leave civilization, the expanse of empty land is quite impressive. the white sand was different than the red sands of morocco.

when we arrived at our campsite, we were asked to gather brush and sticks for firewood. once our guides got the fire going we took it upon ourselves to play in the desert, walking around barefoot, jumping off dunes and making fun silhouettes when the sun went down.

once our dinner (couscous with vegetables and lamb) was prepared we gathered around the campfire for traditional (or maybe current top 40) tunisian songs accompanied by zou on the drum. once the stars came out we heard about the constellations over a dessert of oranges and tea. we ended the night with more songs and jokes until the moon came up and we were too tired to stay awake.

we retired to our tents, two people in each. the one that jasmine and i shared had a broken flap so we were instead given zou's paper-thin dress/shirt as a covering. even with our four thick blankets and my nice warm socks it was a long, cold night. we woke up several times, waiting for the sun to come up. this was not made any easier by the prospect of going to the bathroom out in the cold. "the sun comes up at about 5 right?" more like 7.30. it was the longest awaited sunrise of my life. wow.

when it was finally light outside we gathered around the fire and sat in a stupor, wrapped in our blankets. dazed and still cold, we watched as zou's partner (mufta?) stoked the fire and made delicious desert bread out of just flour, water and salt that he baked right in the sand under the hot embers. it was delicious and filling. after we had eaten our fill of sand bread (surprisingly sand-free) we remounted our camels and continued back to douz. our camels were lively, making plenty of disgusting noises (some of which i'm convinced lucas must have been inspired by).

it was quite an experience, and i think we were all glad we had done it. plus now whenever i have to do something i don't want to do, i tell myself, 'i peed in the desert; i can do anything.'

hammaming it up

our next destination was the small town of douz, which was the most remote and least touristy of the cities we visited. one of the most memorable experiences in this little town was our visit to the hammam, essentially a public bathhouse. men and woman visit separately (for obvious reasons) and after vince explained his trip there we thought we knew what to expect..

we arrived in the morning, when the women usually visit. we were directed into the first room, which is lined with lockers for clothes. this is why we were somewhat surprised when a woman came in and motioned for us to give her our clothes to put outside (?). we reluctantly obeyed. slowly we undressed and continued on to the back room (the first room) in our underwear. this room was what vince described to us as "the rainforest", basically a giant sauna where the women use scalding hot water to scrub themselves. we quickly realized we were the only ones who were not half naked so.. doing as the locals do we decided to follow suit. (it was awkward for us at first but as you'll see by the end, we quickly got over that.) this ended up being a good decision, as we were covered in sweat within a few minutes.

once we had stayed in the rainforest as long we could stand it, one of the hammam ladies ushered us into the next room where we were expecting our massages (as per vince's description). the woman asked who was first and we graciously volunteered paloma. we quickly learned that it was not a massage so much as a complete bathing. the women treated us like giant babies, washing us quite literally from head to toe. they had no shame, setting us on their laps or pulling our underwear this way and that. they scrubbed us until our skin was raw; jasmine's right arm was red for several days afterwards.

after the scrubdown (not rubdown), we went to the individual showers to soap up and wash our hair. this we did by pouring water from buckets. after the hammam ladies (with whom we had become fast friends) asked for our shampoos and body gels we went back to retrieve our clothes and redress. in the meantime another girl came by offering putting makeup on us. we kind of felt like giant baby dolls. we were still damp as we left the hammam and went back into the cool morning air. as they say, it's harder to leave the hammam than to go in. but we definitely felt refreshed and our skin felt cleaner and lighter. probably because we left half of it on the hammam floor.

kairouan, southern sun

the next stop was kairouan, which i had pretty high expectations for. it is, after all, the 4th holiest city of islam and home to one of the world's oldest mosques. in addition it's called the "city of fifty mosques." as we arrived in town we were greeted by many shops with cow's heads hanging in the window. (not particularly shocking after seeing goats' heads and cows' hooves in the markets in tunis).

we enjoyed walking around in the warm southern sun and exploring the winding streets of the old town. i suppose the streets were very similar to the other towns we had been to - simple white walls with colorful doors and windows - but somehow it seemed less touristy and more 'real'. eventually we made it to the great mosque which we weren't able to go inside (we had just missed its open hours) but had a lovely view of from a nearby terrace. we stayed at the store to be polite, and for a nice carpet show with tea. kairouan being the carpet capital of tunisia, we were able to see some beautiful silks as well as big berber rugs. we were all enjoying ourselves but jasmine's enthusiasm was apparent - particularly when she lunged for the carpets, fingers splayed. needless to say she ended up spending a little dinaro (ha) there. not one, but two rugs! they were beautiful, of course. somehow as we came back we found ourselves in another carpet store where paloma and vince bought rugs as well.

we returned to our hotel, right next to the medina. it was a splurge at 13 dinar (around 7 euro) for our private room. its best feature was the open rooftop which we decided to take advantage of. we went up just before dusk with the idea of spreading out on our rugs and enjoying our hookah and pastries as the sun went down. we had some issues setting up the hookah - it turned into a 2-hour ordeal of replacing parts and finding a working lighter.

but in the meantime we enjoyed a beautiful sunset and watched as the lights went up in the medina during the call to prayer. we waited until the stars came out before we went out for a dinner of 2 dinar chapati (omelette, tuna and veggies in a pita) during which we were invited into what we think was a living room and serenaded by american hip hop music. a fun ending to our nice evening.

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.

ruined?

our second full day in africa was spent outside tunis in the neighboring towns of carthage and sidi bu said. we were hopeful because the skies had cleared and we could see some blue. we set out for the train station, about a 15 minute walk. we reached it and were first directed to the metro across the street and then to the other train station across town. we were told to continue on and follow the tracks. we did, and they led us to a part of town i doubt we would have seen otherwise. along the way we saw lots of jackhammering/construction, empty restaurants, a dead dog (yeah, sorry), and an old couple wading through a small flood in their street. we were literally walking on the tracks and eventually we did approach the train station, though likely not how most people do. when we got there we realized we could have taken the major boulevard the entire way down. but we preferred our scenic route anyway.

the train to carthage, which was really more of a metro but sounded like a car, got us there in about half an hour. and our first site in this ancient city? monoprix. nothing like a french convenience store to put you in the old world mindset. at any rate we continued on to the site of the basilica (not the basilisk, as jasmine referred to it) where we found the remains of a church and some (authentic?) mosaics which we did not disturb at all. ahem. the highlight of carthage was probably when jasmine and i decided to 'translate' the historic guide we were given by making up a history of our own. the best part was when vince took a picture of the "original phoenician remains" of the stone wall under the "subsequent roman construction". it wasn't until they discovered that there was no description of the basilica that all was revealed.

the remains of carthage itself are pretty minimal, as we had heard. we climbed to the top of the hill where we could see the mediterranean as well as the ruins that remained. several columns, some statues and the outlines of buildings below. another fun fact about carthage: it contains the presidential palace, which cannot be photographed under penalty of up to three years in prison. we had heard rumors of this but saw no trace of the actual palace. nor do any come up in a google image search. we're still skeptical as to the palace's actual existence. after exploring carthage the rain began so we ducked into a restaurant where we had a lovely lunch of bread/olive oil (seems to be the standard appetizer) and pizza and pasta that we realized afterward we had eaten in silence because we were so hungry.

from there we went on to sidi bu said, a lovely little tourist trap known for its white walls and universally blue doors and windows. it was charming but would have been even more enjoyable had it not still been cold and rainy. nevertheless we wandered the streets taking pictures of strangers' doors and lemon trees. we had a look into a private home in what i think is known as the 'family house' where we enjoyed mint tea and a view from their rooftop terrace (the precise moment at which it started to rain again, naturally). the city was cold but still cute and totally redeemed itself with a lovely hookah bar that was beautifully appointed and had delicious flavored hot chocolate. we gave it 5 out of 5 smoke o's (our hookah rating system).

despite the weather, we had a fun day outside tunis and still made it back in time for the delicious hostel dinner (approximately 2 euro).

open door policy

i've just returned from a lovely holiday in tunisia, or, tunissiya, as the brits (apparently) call it. the four of us (jasmine, paloma, vince and myself) spent a week there and were completely enamored of this fascinating country. we experienced some interesting aspects of the culture and i'll try to hit the highlights for you.

vince set the tone for the trip on the taxi ride (naturally, the shuttle was on strike that day) to the airport: "i assume there will be low to minimal judging on this trip." it ended up being very appropriate, as lodging (read: bathrooms) were sometimes questionable and showering was never a certainty.

we began our journey in tunis, where we arrived at the airport and took a cab to our hostel in the medina (roughly translated to old, walled, wind-y part of the city) which was surprisingly easy to find. we knew we were in a totally different place. the obvious things of course, like the language and the labyrinthian city. but also little things like the money: they use three decimal places which means they count up to millimes (thousandths). for example a coin with 100 on it is really 100/1000 or one tenth of one dinar. but a 1/2 dinar coin would be 0,500. this took some getting used to. also, the locks in the doors turn backward. no righty-tighty here. what a country.

immediately two aspects of landscape became very apparent: the flags and the doors. both were everywhere but the latter was the more captivating. for those of you who don't know, i happen to enjoy taking pictures of interesting doors. i had heard tunisian doors were particularly beautiful (and warned my travel partners about my habit well in advance) and i was not disappointed. door capital of the world, as far as i'm concerned. it seemed like every door was painted a bright color or patterned with studs. it doesn't seem like much, but it really added so much to the city.

more to come...

by the numbers

as it's a new month i thought i would give a little preview, in numeric form.

here are
the number of...

• days in february: 28
• days of vacation i have: 16
• days i have work: 5.5
• countries i'll be visiting: 2
  
• cities i'll be visiting: 13

if you didn't hate me already, there's a good chance you do now.
i apologize.