Silly Abbie forgot to post my last blog, so I’ve added the last of my trip to it, and here it is for your enjoyment:
It was a short drive from Tunis to Sousse. Only an hour and a half, as I have mentioned before. I managed to stay awake the whole time so I could check out the landscape. It’s beautiful, and I was amazed at how quickly the topography changed from dust and dirt to small shrubs, dry grass, and trees as I moved closer to the ocean. I saw the first cacti of my trip in the form of prickly-pear fences. It seems all the farmers and olive grove owners protect their land with long fences of prickly-pears. Not a bad idea if you ask me! Oh yeah; every other piece of land is an olive grove, and you are served olives with every meal (I loved that!).
Sousse is VERY touristy! There are shops on every corner, millions of hotels, restaurants, bars, and clubs, and all the people are half-naked white people. Ha ha ha! So incredibly different from Tunis! On the bright side; I no longer felt naked and awkward wearing a bikini poolside. Especially since most of the tourists are European. There is a university here as well. And it has a rather large campus from what I can tell. I often wish I had attended university overseas. Going to school closer to home seemed much more appropriate at the time.
I almost forgot to tell you; all bathrooms have a bidet here. Even the public washrooms. It’s pretty wild actually, but it makes sense considering their culture. I was staying at an all-inclusive optional hotel. I didn’t have the all-inclusive package, but a different package that only includes breakfast. The food there was amazing! There is a buffet in the hotel, as well as a sushi place, a Spanish restaurant, and a French restaurant. That’s just what is in the hotel, but I was in the middle of a busy city, so it was easy to wander down the street for everything from Tunisian cuisine to hamburgers or fancy Italian food. I definitely went off my diet for the week! Ha ha ha ha!
I took off at the beginning of my week in Sousse towards El Jem; the ruins of an ancient Roman collusium. The tours are all in the morning to avoid the midday heat, so I took the rental car and went in the afternoon to skip the crowds.
I downed two giant bottles of water while I was there, but it was well worth it to get the collusium basically to myself! I’m amazed at the enormity and the intricacy of the architecture in general! To think; not only did they manage to build something so big, but they made it so beautiful, and acoustically sound with such minimal tools.
While I was out, some guy selling stuffed camels, and scarves snagged me into buying a hajab (the head scarves) by grabbing my arm and saying “just look, just look!” when I finally agreed to look he quickly had it wound around my head, and was taking pictures of me with my own camera saying that now I “looked so beautiful like Shakira”…. He may in fact have been calling me a ButHerFace! Ha ha ha! I tried taking it off, but each time he would pull my hand away, compliment me, and snap more pictures. I quite literally couldn’t leave! Ha ha ha and this time there were no kind tourists to help a girl out. So I did indeed eventually leave with a silly head scarf.
I drove around a little, and stopped at one of the many “art” shops that there is along the road. They sell giant roman mosaics, and statues, as well as other antiques. I imagine if you had a good eye; you could find some real treasures in these things! Digging through them is an experience all it’s own, as everything is literally covered in dust and cobwebs. I felt a little like a treasure hunter, and I maybe would have taken a few things if I knew they weren’t going to cost me a fortune in shipping! They seem to have a lot of gates. Huge, elaborate, ornate, beautiful, iron gates! You could probably have a very lovely, relatively inexpensive home in Tunisia. By our standards anyways.
Just before I came home I went to the catacombs and checked out the medina on the south side of Sousse.
Actually I drove around the city for a while trying to find the catacombs to no avail so I settled for the medina. Ha ha ha. There is a big wall that surrounds the medina, which is just the old city. People still live there but mostly it’s a big market. Same old stuffed camels, and knock off bags being sold by pushy, grabby sales people, but the buildings themselves were quite amazing! There were mis-matched tiles along floors, walls, and ceilings. And of course, all the rooms, and every single step were all different heights. You really needed to watch where you were going if you didn’t want to trip or bump your head!
It seems that most of the shops had little day beds in the corner. It was obvious that people were selling straight out of their homes. Most were three levels, with loads of tiny rooms, and stairs down to cellars or up to roof tops.
Lots of places sold spices, which are heaped in large baskets. You could see little old ladies in there bartering with the shop owners for their spices everywhere. It was magnificent! Saffron was selling for less than 1DT, which is already less than $1, for the same amount that would run you over $15 in supermarkets back here. It’s the most expensive spice in the world, and it’s still dirt cheap there! For those of you who don’t know: saffron has to be individually hand picked with tweezers which is why it’s generally priced so high. Kind of like why cashews are so expensive.
Overall the medina was huge, and winding! I don’t really know how much of it I saw as I quickly got so incredibly lost! I didn’t find the way to the exit until well after an hour of searching for where I came in. And every time I would approach a wall I figured I would follow it until I came to an opening, but someone would always find me, and usher me back into the heart of the city, telling me places were “closed” I soon learned that “closed” actually meant I was headed the right way to get out, but they wanted me to stay so I would maybe buy something.
When people ask where you are from, they are always so surprised to find out I am Canadian and then they say “welcome to Tunisia” a billion times over! Ha ha ha! In the market the other day after I said I was Canadian, one of the guys said ” welcome Celine Dion! Come look at my store!” I was laughing so hard I just about peed myself! I could not look any less like Celine Dion, and really, I’m quite happy with that little fact!
During my trip to Africa I have been called, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, and now Celine Dion. Too funny that they just pick random names they know from Canadian or Latin culture 
When I finally escaped from the medina; I decided to drive around the city a little to see what I could see and then, stuffed between two government buildings, I saw a tiny building, with a little brown and white sign on it that said “catacombs”. I finally found it, and on accident no less! I quickly pulled onto the sidewalk to park (that just seems to be where people tend to park) and headed inside. There is a map that shows you just how expansive the tunnels are, and highlighted on the map is the small portion that tourists are allowed to walk through. Behind the little building is a garden, with a stairway down.
After paying my way inside; I descended the steps into the dark past of Sousse. Graves lined the walls. They are stoned in; restored after excavation. Most graves are unmarked. Stones along the wall show that there are people behind the walls, but there are no names. No symbols for the ancestors of Sousse. I was told however that occasionally, in other parts of the catacombs, a few graves were marked with mosaics that would cover the stone lining the graves. This would signify important people. Leaders and heros alike. I saw a human skeleton, behind glass in one of the opened graves. It’s amazing how much taller people are nowadays. Ha ha ha! None of the graves were any longer than five feet.
Artifacts, such as gold, pots, and other treasures have been found in some of the graves, but all that stuff can be found in the museum across the street. I was sad to learn that it is closed now for restoration purposes – until the year 2012! Two years is a long time, but perhaps by then I will go back and see some of the things excavated from the grave sites. Maybe I’ll even catch a mosaic or two from the graves of legends.
I had taken pictures of everything, and was headed back up the stairs, when a man grabbed my arm and whispered in my ear “want a tour? I can show you some things nobody else can see”. A little trepidous at first; I took him up on his offer anyway. He took me back through the catacombs to the locked gates, which signify that while the catacombs do go further; it’s not safe for tourists. After unlocking the gate, we crept into the dark. He lit a few candles, and handed me one. We crept through the darkness further until the ceilings were too low to stand under. I crouched through the winding tunnels as he showed me the graves of children, where homes in Sousse had breached the catacombs, where roots of trees had crept through the ceilings, and where un-excavated graves lay. I even held the remains of somebody’s bones; thousands of years old! The wax from the candle dripped down, and burned my fingers badly, but I didn’t care. I took as many pictures as I could, and listened eagerly to all this man had to say. At one point he pointed me down a corridor. I began walking, only to realize that he had not come with me. I panicked for a moment, thinking for sure I had been so stupid as to trust this man! And here I was going to rot; lost in the catacombs of Sousse where nobody knew I would be. I no sooner has this thought, panicking silently and alone in the dark, then he appeared at the other end of the tunnel, laughing and urging me to hurry along. I laughed a little uneasily as he led me back to the tourist area, and once we were out, I gave him a little cash for all he had done for me, and we parted ways.
I am still in awe at the whole situation! This was by far the highlight of my trip.
On the way home I had an overnight layover in Paris so I checked into the airport Sheraton, and hopped a train into the city to run around a little. In 4 hours I managed to see the cathedral of Notre Dam, wander lost through the streets of Paris, drink way too much wine, eat some classic French food, and snap some night time pics of the Eiffel Tower.
The only thing stopping me from picking up and moving to Paris is probably the cost. I always thought it was expensive to live where I do, but there is no way I could afford half the shit I manage here if i lived out in Paris!I like the way I live well enough, and I would need to be much more frugal there. Totally not willing to give up my lifestyle… Unless I get to trade up of course I guess I’ll just have to keep hoping I win the lottery.
I only had one other stop-over on my way home and it gave me less than an hour to make my connection. There I am, running full tilt through the airport and I managed to wipe out hard! I toppled off of my 6 inch heels and sent both my camera and my lappy flying. First I was shocked, then I was terrified that I had broken all of my most valuable possessions in one go, and then I went to gather them and the pain hit me. My right ankle shot a sharp pain up all the way into my thigh. Luckily at that point I was almost to the gate, so I took off my shoes and limped onto my plane; just barely making it. Once on the plane I talked to the flight attendant who was such a sweetie, and he immediately got me an ice pack and an extra blanket to wrap around my sore ankle. I kept it iced all the way home. That night I was up all night with the pain in my foot, and my ankle had swollen to twice it’s size. Luckily it’s just a sprain, but it sure had me scared for that first 24 hours or so. I’m still limping about like a gimp, but it’s feeling much better, and the swelling has started to go down already. I’m planning to be right as rain before next week! 
My trip was cut short, and I’m a little sad I didn’t get to see more on my trip, but I’m still really glad to be home. I’m sorry I haven’t made it online yet, but I will definitely be online tomorrow, even if I only manage to get an hour in! I have so much to do yet, and I am heading out to pick up my greatly missed poodle from family today so it’s pretty much a write off vie missed you all sooooo much and I can’t wait to see some of you on cam tomorrow 
xoxo
Lita
It’s been a really painful time for me and my entire family. He had a bad heart and it gave out while working out in the heat.
