Already Time to Say Goodbye

I just started making some friends, getting a little comfortable with the language, and somewhat used to the spicy food and then my time came to an end. I spent my last few days saying goodbyes, eating at my favorite Chawarma restaurants, and shopping in the Medina. After I was already packed my friend’s mom gave me over ten pounds of homemade couscous, red chili powder, a Tunisian chickpea dessert, and a few other items. Luckily I was able to cram it all in my bags!
After two days of traveling I’m in the states now and feeling extremely jetlagged. I miss Tunisia and my friends there! I miss the all the friendly shop owners, the Chawarma sandwiches, the cats, the bakeries, and so much more!

Lots of Cats, no Rats

I’ve written about the all the cats roaming the Sousse streets before, but just in case you’ve forgotten I thought I would write about them again. I’ve really grown to appreciate them these past three months. Unlike the dogs that roam the streets in the D.R., the cats are very quiet in the night, they take things out of the garbage cans instead of knocking the garbage cans over, and most importantly they take care of rat problems. As you can see in my pictures they really are everywhere; in the gutters, on the cars, on boats, in the parks, in the garbage cans, etc.  

A Haircut

I went with my friend to the hair salon this week and had a great time. They washed my hair (with warm water, unlike what I’m used to in the D.R.)), gave me a little head massage, cut my hair in layers, and styled it very nicely. And they did all that for just over $12 US!

To the North

In the past, when I would think about Tunisia; palms trees, deserts, and camels would often come to mind. I’d heard some rumors of mountainous forests and even snow up in the North of the country, but I had to see it to believe it.  
After two train rides my two travel companions and I found a nice little restaurant in the center of the medina in the town of Beja. There were no other tourists to be found, the prices where very cheap, and all the people we met were very friendly. 

  After a good lunch we found our way to the louagge station (shared taxi) and headed on to our final destination, Tabarka, a town along the Mediterranean sea and very close to Algeria.

Being on the road (or train tracks) for roughly 8 hours was a bit tiring but arriving in the beautiful town that looks like it came straight out of a storybook was rewarding. Our hotel was great too. It had a great view of the sea and the Genoese Castle, a fire place you could curl up in front of, and good meals.

   
That afternoon we scouted out the town for the next day’s adventure and walked along the sea. Fortunately we didn’t get drenched by the enormous waves hitting the rocks (some other tourists weren’t so lucky).

The following morning we walked along the beach, checked out the fishing boats at the fishing port, and hiked up to the lovely Genoese castle.

In the afternoon we took a bus up to a town even higher up in the mountains, Ain Draham, known for it’s forests of cork oak, wild boars, and snow. (I don’t know how often it snows there, but we were told that last year they had a meter of snow.) There we met two girls who kindly took us up to a forest and showed us around town.

The following morning we took another walk around Tabarka, packed up our bags, got some really good Chawarma sandwiches and went on the long eight-hour journey home.

More on Eid

Here’s a few more pictures from last weekends holiday. The first few are from my time with a family here in Sousse and the  second half are from my time in a smaller town called Sidi El Heni.

 

 

From One Feast to Another

I had a great Thanksgiving meal on Thursday afternoon; I ate way to too much, played board games, and enjoyed time with friends. Afterwards, I rushed home and packed up to spend the night at my friends house. I was given another big meal that night, but the real feasting started the following day at 10:30 am after the Eid sheep had been slaughtered and the barbequing began.

By 1pm I’d eaten three different lamb meals (barbequed, fried, and stewed) and then headed off to another friends house outside of Sousse. 

There, in Sidi el Heni, I was again given more lamb meat (stewed in a spicy sauce) in celebration of the feast. I pretty much passed out at 8pm that night from eating so much!

The next day I was too full to eat breakfast or lunch, but in the evening I went to my friends mom’s house again where we had even more lamb meat  (barbequed lamb and a sausage type thing) all in the spirit of the holiday!

Happy Thanksgiving

I read once that Tunisia was the world’s largest turkey consuming country, but that was about ten years ago. From what I can tell, it looks like Israel is presently the country that consumes the most turkey per capita. But either way, turkey meat is very accessible here. All the fast food restaurants use turkey meat for their infamous Chawarma sandwiches, you can get any amount of turkey meat at super markets, as well as at little poultry shops that are all over the place. So if you like turkey, as much as I do, this is a good place to be!

Well all this talk about turkey just to say I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving and ate lots of turkey!

Time to Buy a Sheep!

Have you ever heard of Eid al-Adha (Eid Kebir in Tunisia)? Well, I never had until now or maybe I just never paid attention. But it’s a really, really big holiday for Muslims. 
Eid al-Adha (عيد الأضحى‎) "Festival of Sacrifice" or "Greater Eid" is a holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate Abraham’s obedience to God when he was willing to sacrifice his son. The three day long holiday will begin with a special prayer (I’ve heard people put on their best clothes for this), then every family will sacrifice an animal (usually sheep, but also camel, cows, and goats) as a symbol of Abraham’s sacrifice. (The animals must meet a certain standard to be considered acceptable sacrifices). Charity and giving are strongly encouraged and there is great effort made to make sure that impoverished Muslims have meat during this holiday. It officially begins this Friday and lasts till Sunday. I’ll be heading back to Ibtisem’s house in Sidi el Heni for a night or two which should be fun. The holiday feeling is already in the air and there’s also tons of sheep everywhere you go!