December 31

View from my hotel bay window

A night of pouring rain and even a little hail was no discouragement for my tripping off around the countryside. My driver picked me up and I discovered that he had absolutely superb english. He is half Tunisian half French and has the rather incongruous name of Ludwig.

First stop was the Bardo - Tunisia's national museum. A very nice guide gave me a flying tour of some of the stunning mosaics and historic objects in this lovely building. I don't know if it is true, but he solemnly told me that Tunisia had the best collection of mosaics in the world. Certainly some of them were really stunning. Rather than spending ages making thumbnails, here are links to photographs.

After the Bardo, Ludwig and I headed for the Medina in Tunis. Inside the ancient walls, the souk is a labyrinth of shops. I am glad to be here in the low season, as things would be pretty cramped in here in Summer. We had lunch at a cafe within the medina, in a very distinctly non-tourist section, and enjoyed gorgeously tasty grilled lamb.

Ludwig then took me up through a carpet shop to emerge at the top of a building. Apparently women used not to be allowed out on the streets, so would go up to the roofs and talk and chat to each other from roof to roof.

This elaborately tiled roof has a lovely view over the whole of Tunis.

After lunch we headed off to Sidi Bou Said. This pretty town is apparently named after the legend of St Louis who came there to wage war, but instead fell in love, married a Berber princess and stayed. He changed his name to Abou Said ibn Khalef ibn Yahia Ettamini el Beji and became the patron saint of the village.

In Sidi Bou Said we visited the house of the Mufti. This home is still owned by the family generations later, and part of the house is opened up to the public.

Ludwig took a photo of me sitting in the lounge, but as I think the photo makes me rather resemble Jabba the Hut, I am not going to put that up here on the site.

The sun was setting and it was time to head back to the hotel. Not a bad first day eh?

But wait... there's more!

It is, after all, New Years Eve. Because I don't know anyone in Tunisia (apart from Ludwig) I decided to go to the hotel's "extravaganza". This was a dinner, with various "stars" performing all night long. I was all dressed and ready at 8pm when it was supposed to happen. I was the ONLY person in the foyer. Hmmmm.... I went away and returned at 8.15. Nope, still the only person there. I went away and returned at 9am... there were some people in the foyer by then, and I introduced myself to an English couple and we chatted while waiting. The doors eventually opened at about 9.45pm. I ended up seated at a table with an Algerian man and his two daughters, and an older Algerian couple.

One of the daughters (stunningly lovely) rearranged herself so she was sitting next to me, and we had pleasant and halting conversations in French.

Dinner was extraordinarily late. Entree was served at 10.30 and we didn't get the main course until the next morning! (tee hee) The music was sort of rock and roll Tunisian style.(film clip 7.34mb) There was a belly dancer and very enthusiastic musicians playing violins and drums. The piece de resistance though, had to be the "Syrian Star" Walif Wahbi.

Now you have to imagine the scene... a large banquet room filled with conservative muslims, Tunisian and Algerians. A young man walks on stage. He is wearing leather trousers and a silver chain around his hips. His shirt is black lycra with a cut out section on the side, and only has one sleeve. The bare arm is covered with glitter... He starts. Singing, dancing, gyrating and shaking his everything. The expressions on the faces of the blokes were priceless. Check out the video clip (8 mb) or just admire the photo (note the bemused expressions of the musicians)

We were each given a bag which contained a mask, noisemaker and hat. I do have a photo of me in my collection, but don't think I will put it up as it is a very bad photo. I am sure you won't miss it.

December 29

so I said to the travel agent... send me somewhere warm. Anywhere. I don't much care where it is, as long as it is warmer than Geneva! "Tunisia" he says. "Ok" say I; thats at least 500 kms south, so it has to be warm, at least in a relative sense. "When do you want to go?" "Tomorrow". "Oh". Ok.

Next morning I am on my way to Tunisia.

I am staying in a terribly fancy hotel called the Abou Nawas Gammarth, which is (woohooo) 5 stars. My room is huge, bigger than my apartment in Geneva, and looks out across the garden and pool to the beach. The sand isn't white like home, but there is at least moving water in front of me. But... There is a catch. Torrential rainfall and hail type catch. Sigh... it seems the weather has chased me here. So much for my warm escape!

The hotel is pretty empty; not sure yet what I will do for new years. They have an event on at the hotel, which I will probably end up going to, but I am not hugely enthusiastic about it at this point. But then, this is the first night and I am tired and feeling a bit low and lonely. I am sure I will be more enthusiastic tomorrow once I have ventured out into the wide world. I am hiring a driver for the day to take me places. I don't know much about Tunisia so its all a bit new and exciting but people keep mentioning Medina, and I am not far away from Carthage and I definitely want to see that! I just hope the rain settles down overnight! I am very keen to walk along the beach at some stage.

I have already been chatted up by the taxi driver that brought me to the hotel from the airport. virtualtourist.com did warn me that Tunisian blokes just loooove pale women, but it forgot to mention that they loooove large women even more so. Still, as long as they behave themselves I am happy; they can admire all they want. The flight went over the alps and boy were they spectacular today. I do sort of regret not staying in Geneva, but I really did feel that it would be a waste of my week off to spend it doing nothing, which is what I know would have been my activity if I had stayed.

I was very fortunate.. There were only two free seats on the plane when I went into the agency last night. Today when I got on the plane, there was only one. And it was next to me!!!! I love it when that happens. The lady in the aisle seat was kind enough to lend me her pen to fill in the forms, and it was only when the plane landed and the section I was in was disturbed by barking, that I discovered that her carry on luggage was a dog! It was silent for the whole trip!

You just wait till you see the photos of the hotel! I am still a bit nervous being here by myself as a woman, which is why I am hiring the driver for tomorrow; I figure they can rescue me if necessary. enough for now... I can only take so much of an arabic french keyboard!

December 25

Waifs and strays Christmas.

On Friday night my friend Terry flew in from London. His contribution to the Christmas feast to come was the Christmas pudding and Christmas crackers. Sadly it was not to be. He arrived (two hours late) and discovered that Swiss Air had decided to remove half the baggage off the flight. Seriously. Christmas eve and fully half the people flying in from London didn't get their Christmas presents or clothing. No ski gear. No clothes, no presents. They weren't told about the decision until after they had arrived and stood waiting vainly for their things.

Apparently the plane was overweight, we believe with freight, so they decided to remove half the luggage. No apologies, and no explanations given to the passengers at all. Worse the bags would not be put on the next plane, because that would be the next day... Christmas day. No, he would have to wait till Boxing day. We had had plans to go travelling on Boxing day for a few days, but sans luggage it was no longer practical. In the end, the bag didn't come until the morning after boxing day.

Despite all these problems, Christmas was grand. Here are photos of Christmas lunch, and then dinner of the left overs the next day.

We armed ourselves with left over turkey and ham sandwiches and headed off for the Mont Blanc tunnel. On the other side, the weather was icy cold and snow filled.

The photos above were taken, first at the entry to the Mont Blanc Tunnel, then in the Aosta valley, a roman bridge and rather impressive fortifications. I also saw a very odd sight. A nativity scene, but underwater.

Guess who has a new couch!?! Good guess. Here it is... isn't it lovely? Well, it is to me anyway. $1200 of lovely comfy goodness.

As you can see it is convertible; so when you come to visit, this is where you will sleep.

So... I am sure you are wondering what I have been up to. To be truthful, not all that much. Life is a bit crazy because of the housesitting. I did manage to fit in a trip to Annecy to the antiques market, where my friend Malcolm has a stall. One of my Australian friends had a farewell because she is heading back to Australia so I went to her farewell party, then on to the Leopard Bar. It was snowing as I left the bar at 1am. In the end, I spent all of Sunday lazing on the couch watching episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Not a highly productive day, but good for the soul, if you know what I mean.

12 December

The weekend went mostly as planned... Saturday we did indeed go to Lyon, which I rather like. It reminds me of both Paris with a rolling river running around it and long bridges, and Venice with narrow alleys filled with fascinating places to explore.

The city was lit up with the fete de lumieres. Although we didn't explore all the lights, we still had a lovely afternoon and evening.

When we got home, I decided that I didn't want to go out to the ball after all. So I had a lovely quiet night in. This evening I went to the Escalade, to see the lighting of the bonfire. I bumped into Yunkun, who is in my french class and met his son. There were all the people on horseback in costume, trumpeters and fife players... all in all quite spectacular. Unfortunately the photos weren't brilliant because of the bright light of the bonfire against the dark surrounds, but here are a few of the better ones.

10 December