flashback friday

We had to say goodbye to Frenchie again this this week.  We were really happy he made it back to London before we left Europe, but it still stunk saying goodbye again without knowing exactly when we’ll see each other next. 

As an adult I find it really difficult to make friends.  I don’t mean I find it hard  to be friendly with people or that I don’t thoroughly enjoy meeting new people and socializing.  I’m talking about good friends, as in people you really, seriously care about.  I just find it’s much harder as a grown-up to really connect with people in a truly meaningful way. Back home I have very few friends that I haven’t known for 10+ years and I bet if you think about it your nearest and dearest have also been the ones who’ve been around the longest.

That said, we’ve made some incredible friends on this journey, people who we have no doubt will be in our lives forever and Frenchie is definitely one of them.  No matter how far away we live from one another the experiences that we’ve shared have allowed us to forge fast, but also everlasting, friendships.  That’s something I totally wasn’t expecting when we set off for this wild ride, but it is something I’m insanely grateful for.

Today’s post is actually a recap post of our last round with Frenchie before he rolled out of the department.  It was just us three last summer and even aside from the fact that without him we wouldn’t have even been able to order dinner, we really couldn’t have picked a better person to spend those 2 months in Tunisia with…

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

time to reflect...

The differences between our first and second stints in Africa are as vastly different as the continent itself. From the bush to the desert southern and northern Africa are like night and day.

Tunisia has been a country of surprises for me. Maybe if I hadn’t tried so hard to decide what it was all about before I actually got here it wouldn’t have been. I like to be prepared and sometimes that leads me to prejudge more than anything else.

I won’t lie and say I wasn’t a little concerned about coming to an Arab country bordered by Libya and Algeria. Our only other experience with Northern Africa was Egypt and although many of the people we met were absolutely wonderful and warm and welcoming (I’ve run out of w’s) there were also people that made me feel incredibly uncomfortable and a little too welcome if you get my drift. It was and still is the most difficult country I’ve ever visited. But, Tunisia has been easy. It's been comfortable and with the help of our translator and pal, Frenchie, it has turned out to be a lot of fun.

Tunisia has been round of pleasant surprises like our favorite town, Pheobe Buffay (aka Sidi Bou Said)…

the amazing ruins at Dougga…

and the vastness of the Sahara…

Our location in northern Africa allowed us some pretty amazing weekend travel outside of Tunisia, like our trip home with Frenchie…

our trip to Luxor…

Istanbul…

and the jaw-dropping Petra…

It’s been a round full of laughs…

Ali Baba’s hat…

and jumping in each other’s photos…

We’ve really had a great time this round, but like all good things it must come to an end.

We’re moving in just a couple of days. I’m ready, the Wife is ready. We’ll think we’re not ready when saying goodbye to Frenchie, but it’s time to go...and that's what we do best these days- go.

flashback friday!

a little clip from our sahara tour in tunisia. we were on the edge of the sahara so you can see some of the salt lake and just the vastness of it all. you can also see the ridiculous hill we were about to go down in what the wife refers to as the "party wagon". because of the wind you can't hear it, but our guide had the music blasting through our entire trip.

time to reflect...

The differences between our first and second stints in Africa are as vastly different as the continent itself. From the bush to the desert southern and northern Africa are like night and day.

Tunisia has been a country of surprises for me. Maybe if I hadn’t tried so hard to decide what it was all about before I actually got here it wouldn’t have been. I like to be prepared and sometimes that leads me to prejudge more than anything else.

I won’t lie and say I wasn’t a little concerned about coming to an Arab country bordered by Libya and Algeria. Our only other experience with Northern Africa was Egypt and although many of the people we met were absolutely wonderful and warm and welcoming (I’ve run out of w’s) there were also people that made me feel incredibly uncomfortable and a little too welcome if you get my drift. It was and still is the most difficult country I’ve ever visited. But, Tunisia has been easy. It's been comfortable and with the help of our translator and pal, Frenchie, it has turned out to be a lot of fun.

Tunisia has been round of pleasant surprises like our favorite town, Pheobe Buffay (aka Sidi Bou Said)…



the amazing ruins at Dougga…



and the vastness of the Sahara…



Our location in northern Africa allowed us some pretty amazing weekend travel outside of Tunisia, like our trip home with Frenchie…



our trip to Luxor…



Istanbul…



and the jaw-dropping Petra…



It’s been a round full of laughs…




Ali Baba’s hat…





and jumping in each other’s photos…




We’ve really had a great time this round, but like all good things it must come to an end.

We’re moving in just a couple of days. I’m ready, the Wife is ready. We’ll think we’re not ready when saying goodbye to Frenchie, but it’s time to go...and that's what we do best these days- go.

2 mouths...

yes, i actually updated our foodie blog twice in one month! check it out.

it is right over there. look to your right. there it is.

just want to make sure everyone remembers it still exists.

especially now that i seem to have finally remembered.

Sidi Bou Said, Dougga, Bulla Regia (“What are places I’ve never heard of before, Alex?”)

We had planned to stay in Tunis this weekend and check out the neighboring city of Carthage. We usually favor low key for the first weekend, especially when we are dealing with the demon known as jet lag. Then we decided to go ahead and do a road trip weekend out to some Roman ruins in Dougga and Bulla Regia. Then we realized they weren’t that far away and there weren’t any hotels out there even if they had been. So, we did technically stay in Tunis, but we also did a ton of sightseeing.

Friday night we went out to an area called Sidi Bou Said. It seems this country is going to continue to surprise me over and over. Sidi Bou Said has been the best surprise so far…



Whitewashed houses with incredibly ornate blue doors, I thought we somehow took a wrong turn and ended up in Santorini.

We walked around, dipping in and out of shops while I fretted over exactly how I’m going to get the 14 tons of pottery I plan on buying back home to the U.S. and eventually had dinner at a lovely restaurant …dinner that included a bottle of wine. It seems that the area where we live is dry and that is due to the very conservative developer who invested his millions or billions with that stipulation. Again, another happy surprise.

Saturday morning we went to check out the medina and souk. I was a bit worried about the hassle of haggling with what my book and a lot of reviews have called fairly aggressive vendors. I’m guessing the person who wrote my travel book as well as the reviewers on Tripadvisor have never been to India or to Egypt or maybe nowhere outside of Europe. These were the least aggressive vendors I’ve ever seen. I get more harassed and annoyed at the Ann Taylor at Atlantic Station.

That said, the shopping gods weren’t smiling upon me and I ended up buying nothing. Nothing! Unbelievable. I guess I'm still trying to work out how to get it home.

We wandered, almost aimlessly, through the medina’s winding narrow streets, had a coffee, saw the courtyard (as far as we could go) of a mosque, visited an interesting mausoleum and wandered around for a couple more hours.









We eventually found our way out of the medina and in front of some government building where we caught a cab to Carthage. We scrounged up some lunch and even went to the gates of the ruins before admitting we were all too tired to give it the proper attention so saved it for another day. We headed back to Sidi Bou Said instead. It had been pretty late in the day when we had arrived there on Friday and we wanted to see it in the sun...







Obviously we’re thrilled to have this area so close to us and are already planning on at least a weekly dinner there.

Our driver picked us up on Sunday morning for our trip out to Dougga and Bulla Regia. Dougga was probably the best ruins I’ve ever seen. Still high with walls it was so easy to how the city was laid out and operated. The beauty was actually pretty surreal...







Bulla Regia was not as well preserved or I suppose as well excavated, at least for the above ground levels. This is however, the only Roman town ever found where the Romans built underground rooms. Used for the summer to escape the heat these levels were incredibly preserved under hundreds of years of earth. The mosaics that were found on each and every floor were just fantastic...



The drive to and from Tunis was a charming one and made it very clear that this is a Mediterranean country…



Next weekend we’re headed south to take our first steps in the Sahara. Cannot wait!