Tunis to Sfax
Trip Start
Jan 08, 2005
1
125
135
Trip End
Ongoing
Sfax,
Tunisia
Sunday, January 7, 2007
I said once that I didn't want to come to Tunisia in January because it is colder than Morocco. So where am I in January?
We wanted to go to Libya though and the cheapest way was through Tunisia. The price of flights dictated our dates. At least there wouldn't be so many tourists around. How cold could it really be? Not as bloody PHreezing as the Annapurnas in December!
As soon as we arrived, we knew what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go. The friendly taxi driver was very impressed that we had been to Tunis twice and through our broken French we made it to a louage station. More than twice the price of 20 months ago but hey, inflation and all. We got stung for baggage this time too.
The tourist lady at the airport had said the train was much better than a louage and that it would take 4 hours. But we knew that we would't get a seat and that everyone would be chaining on the ciggers and that we'd possibly die of asphixiation so it would be the louage. It's luxury compared to the mini vans of Pakistan and the grande taxis of Morocco. One person in each seat and speeding as fast as the shitter would take us. We only slowed for the many police check points, but as he had us whities in the rear we got through, no hassle.
David amazingly remembered the way from Sfax louage station and through the medina. Faster than you could say salade tunisien, we were in our old room at Hotel Ennasr. The price had doubled but hey, inflation and all.
It was still early but as we'd only eaten breakfast we were starvin' marvins. We took a memorable trip round the walls though to use up some time and see how much had changed. Nothing had changed, it still smelt of urine, but it's a male dominated arabic country. I expect that kind of thing. Sfax is a great place and the people are friendly. Lots of people say bon jour, hello, ciao, guten morgen and any other language they know to greet you. They are mighty impressed when you pull out the big guns though - salaam alaikum!!
I thought when the guy said poulet cous cous he mean some chicken with a bit of cous cous but we got a small salad to start with fresh baguette followed by half a steaming bbq'd chook, more salad, some cold frites, a plate of spicy bean things and a whole plate of cous cous with vegies each!!!! We stuffed down as much as possible and all thoughts of a quick cake from the patisserie across the road vanished. We had to take a further walk to digest our massive dinner but it had been an acceptionally early start and I was totally buggered so it was to bed I went.
