Spent our final day in Tabarka walking down to the end of the beach and back; locals call it the tourist beach and its where all the resorts are (much like Mexico and every other less-fortunate country with nice beaches). Made me a little nervous because resorts were pretty much deserted and I think the one we’re heading to in Sousse might be the same.
Sad to leave the great little hotel, we headed to Le Kef the next morning.
Le Kef is a smallish mountain-top town with a cool Kasbah at the top; main reason we chose Kef was because we could do a daytrip to Dougga from there. Upon arriving to the town, we walked to 3 different hotels and went with the last we saw (Le Residence Venus). Nice common area, satellite tv (woot!), and really nice people running it. No english at all (as is now often the case) so having lots of fun trying to converse in French. It’s nice being out of Tunis because no one’s ripping us off, people are friendly (and still staring), and we can walk places without everyone harassing us for buying stuff, giving us rides, etc, etc.
First night in Kef we walked around the Medina, headed up to the Kasbah to check out the view. Group of about 10 18-year old girls stopped us at the top to worship us for about 10 minutes; gave us cookies and were quite funny telling us how beautiful we are. Jen is always “Jennifer Lopez” and Jamie is always “James Bond”; apparently no one knows a famous Gary to relate me to… still trying to think of one everyone will know.
After the Kasbah wandered through the Medina on the way home; sat on the roof of the hotel and watched the sunset while listening to the mosques rescite the Koran (as they do every night at sundown).
Hit the restaurant that the hotel owner recommended and my God… could be the best sandwich in the world. Fries, chicken, olives, tuna, egg, hot sauce, etc, etc, all in a sandwich for $2.20.
Next day took a bus out to Nouveau-Dougga, where it’s a 3km walk to the ruins. Contrary to what I expected, there wasn’t a single taxi bugging us to drive us, and we had no choice but to walk. I was happy to; first through some remote village, through the olive orchards, past a few flocks of sheep with shephards, etc. Felt like what I imagined many parts of Africa to be like.
Ruins were great; ended up paying a guide $10/hour but he was awesome. Huge world traveller and (apparently) born right around there. Highlights were the amphitheatre (still used for annual comedy festival pretty much in its original state), the brothel, and the public toilets.
After walking back to the highway, flagged down a Louage to drive us back. Louage’s are minivans with 8 or 9 seats in them; they’re government run, don’t rip you off (yet), barely more money than a bus, and they’re everywhere. My only complaint so far is they drive erratically, and you’re at the mercy of the driver’s whim (often they’ll change routes, make you switch to another one, don’t leave until they’re full, etc).
Back at the hotel the Le Kef soccer team was staying there in prep for a big game the next day against Jerba (which we went to… explained below). I was disappointed to find them as unfriendly as they were. Finished the day with another delicious sandwich, and a trip to the Huka cafe.
Jen has been quite impressive at the Huka bars. This was our 3rd one so far on the trip, and each time she’s been the only woman in the place. This one even featured (coincidently) a picture of J-Lo on the wall!
Next morning Jamie and I were hacking on the road when we were expectedly swarmed by a bunch of kids. They of course wanted to play and we let them a bit; immediately they wanted to do their soccer moves with it (ie. one kid wanted to play goal keeper while we took shots with the hack). Now I know what to do if we need to make friends. Kid remembered our names and said goodbye when we left which was cute.
Anyway, afterwards we took a taxi to the stadium to watch the soccer game. Guy at the hotel told us to make sure we sit in the blue seats so as to not take sides (which I mistakenly thought he said wear blue shirts at first!). Found our seats, once again Jen the only female, you could cut the tension with a knife. There were seriously somewhere close to 100 cops around the stadium including police dogs and riot control vehicles (and probably only about 1000 or so people watching… pretty unbelievable… and not making us feel too comfortable). But alas, the blue seats seemed to be quite well guarded, the game was exciting to watch, as well as everyone’s reactions to losing 0-1. Highlights were how incredibly violent the game was, as well as trying to find a bathroom for Jen to use at halftime (went to the guys one near where all the police were).
Today we took a Louage to Sousse, and are now staying in a four-star resort for the next 4 nights. Kind of cloudy at the moment so hopfully it clears up for tomorrow to get some R&R by the pool. Turns out the place is much more packed full of tourists than I thought, so in some ways I guess it’s nice (VERY different from everywhere else we’ve been, including Tunis, the capital). Kind of gives me a neat feeling of being well-travelled when I look at all the Western people, knowing they all flew in for a 10-day package deal.
Tabarka – Our sweet hotel Mimossa
Kef – With the gang
Dougga – Olive tree in front of arch
Dougga – Jen and the guide sitting on the can
Sousse – Cat fountain
Sousse – Jen by the pool