The last week has been a bit of a blur. We arrived in Hammamet on a Sunday and yesterday evening we arrived here in Sardinia - back in Italy. In the meantime, we covered some 200 km by car, 1000 km by bus and jeep and 240 nm by boat. It was quite a trip.

Our exploration of Tunesia started with a taxi ride to go shopping in Hammamet. Amazing contrasts. Butchers without refrigeration - meat and poultry hanging from hooks in or outside the store.

Women - almost exclusively older ones - in head scarves.

Some men in traditional skull caps. But young men and women wearing what they wear in the West - jeans and t-shirts. LTE connection on the smart phone - everywhere. A SIM card for my redbox router on the boat - 25GB for $8. The Tunesian wine - it's supposed to be good but you can't buy it. Why? It matters if you are here during Ramadan, which we were. Moslems cannot eat or drink - whether water, wine or coffee - from 3 am to 7:30 pm every day. 95% of all Tunesians are Muslims. Although not all observe Ramadan, all stores selling alcohol are closed or alcohol is off the shelves. Street cafes and many stores are closed. At night, the streets are deserted - everyone's inside at 7:30 pm to eat - a lot.

We also visited the medina of Hammamet - the old muslim town.

Hammamet medina and minaret - notice the speakers to call for prayer 5 times a day - from before sunrise to 9pm - a good Muslim never rests!

Inside the mosque in Hammamet Medina - womens' side - men's side is behind the partition

It is there where we first encountered the hyper aggressive salesmen of Tunesia. Everyone tries to stop you to look at what he's selling. "America"? "Need a [whatever]"? "America"? Incessant and they will try to physically stop you. One needs to avoid having a conversation with anyone at all cost. When they pretend to be helpful, try to show you the sights, it's all about luring you to the store they own or about getting some Dinars out of your pocket. It really distracts from the nice things to see - at least it does for me. If you buy something, you cannot accept the price quoted without haggling. Kim was trying to buy a shawl to use as a head scarf where needed. The price quoted was DT 100 - about $40. He ultimately took DT 28 (or so), which was still a rich price.

One of the nicest houses in the Hammamet medina. Generally in Tunesia, even if the entire house looks run down and completely lacks paint, the entrance always has some sort of columns or ornaments.

The second day we rented a car to drive up to Tunis, the ruins of Carthago and Sidi Bou Said, a high end vacation spot for rich Tunesians. We took the A1 - the Trans-African Highway. Two lanes each way, looks like any highway in Europe. Olive trees everywhere. Carthago was a bit of a disappointment, not much to see. The best was probably the roman villas and the mosaics found there.

We had a nice older Tunesian archeologist showing us around, who used to work for the Ghetty foundation and knew a lot about the area. He told us that Americans are very well regarded generally in Tunesia, and that those positive feelings were largely based upon extensive aid provided by the US government during the Kennedy administration. Surprisingly, he had no adverse comments about the current administration

....

Gym in Sidi Bou Said

Tunis and the great Medina and Zaituna mosque there were also worth a trip. Tunis is a bit like Athens - lots of life in the streets, even during Ramadan.

Tunis street scene

In the Medina, there were more of the aggressive salesmen, of course, and unfortunately, as a non-believer you can only see the inside of a mosque during the mornings.

Arch at the entrance of the Medina of Tunis

Outside of the Zaituna Mosque in the Medina of Tunis

That wasn't to be, but based upon what I saw in Hammamet, there's not much to see inside a mosque anyways. No ornaments, no pictures, no colorful glass, only some prayer rugs, chandeliers and a big pile of rubber slippers which people change into when they enter the mosque.

The highlight of our time in Tunesia was definitely our two day bus trip with a group of Americans, Germans and French. We covered 1000 km in two days and we saw a lot. Tunesia is a fascinating country with a lot of beautiful landscapes but people are very poor. A nurse makes DT600 ($200) per month, a teacher DT 1500, a doctor DT 2000. A lot of houses are under construction - why? According to our excellent guide, people usually build their own houses and it takes time to make the money for the materials and then to build! There is a lot of trash lying around - everywhere in the cities. Doesn't seem to bother anyone who lives here ....

Old Roman colosseum in El Jemm, one of some 200 Roman settlements in Tunesia apparently.

Berber home in a cave in the desert. Their two daughters are at the university - so the next generation will live here no more.

Typical desert town

Are these camels or dromedars?

Camel ride! Definitely a step down from an Iclandic horse, not to talk about an Amel 55!

Sunrise over the 250 km long salt lake Chott Djerid - we had to get up at 3 am for this! During the winter, all this salt desert can be under water up to 80 cm deep.

Security everywhere where there are tourists

No camels are wild in Tunesia. Most belong to beduins but these are being raised for meat. Sadly, we couldn't taste the meat ....

Oasis and old Berber village near Torzeur - now deserted

Fatamorgana or mirage - there is no water in the Sahara ...

Village where Star Wars 1 was filmed - nobody lives here

Fun in Toyata Landcruisers - these things hold up better than the passengers ....

Kim &Kerry with our tour guide, who explained everything in German, French and English - he talked a lot!

Typical town in the countryside

Mosque at Kairouan - again, we were there in the afternoon and couldn't get in. The columns were apparently taken from some of the Roman ruins nearby - which explains why they are less well preserved ....

So we got back to Marina Yasmine in the evening and in the morning we were off to Sardinia. The routing was a bit tricky because we were trying to stay on the North side of a low that had formed over Algeria to avoid getting into the Northwesterlies on the West side of it. So we did a big loop to the North - staying in strong Easterlies the entire way. Unfortunately, this meant rain for almost the entire 30 hours of our trip to Cagliari - but on an Amel, that's not a problem. The winter garden is all closed up and setting, sheeting and reefing sails happens from the inside! We had to stay with the system so we pressed Kincsem hard and were rewarded with excellent speeds when the wind was up. But when we arrived, we had to get into our foul weather gear to dock - bummer!