And just a tad bit windy...
We rode a coach bus for the entire trip. And we were on it a lot because we literally covered the map of Tunisia. We first picked up our fantastic Tunisian tour guide, Mounir at his house before setting off to Medina of Tunis.
This is the city center for Tunis and it was quite hot when we were there. Mounir spoke to our professor and the lady to make this all possible, Maria, is Italian and she translated it back to us in English. I later found out Mounir can speak 7 languages fluently, including English, but he prefers Italian since in all honestly English is one of the uglier sounding languages. But I actually loved that he spoke it first in Italian so that I could practice picking up words and I'd know whether or not I heard it right when Maria translated it back to us.
Anyway, Mounir also said the buildings are all white because of the hot sun. It will absorb less heat and keep the houses and buildings cooler.
We walked through Tunis a bit to get to a perfume store where we had an interesting character tell us about the different perfumes he had and we got to smell a bunch of them. Apparently a lot of the flowers in many of the perfumes we buy in America are grown in Tunisia, like Chanel 5 and Boss. From what I understood he sells to a lot to big companies.
After that we took a walk through more small, windy streets to the Mini Souk...
That's Mounir! He knows pretty much everyone in Tunisia. haha
A souk is basically a flea market where you haggle with the seller on items you're looking to buy. They always want to know where you are from, and for a reason. When they know you're from America they think "rich and deceivable". I always ignored the question or just answer "everywhere". Americans rarely come to Tunisia, so they usually think you're Canadian or from England when you speak in english. You have to know right off the bat what you want to pay and never give in to a higher deal. I always made my first suggested price very low so it would go up to the price I knew it was probably worth. I looked up prices before I left and had a good idea of what was ridiculous and what was fair. And MAN do they pester the crap out of you to look at stuff! But I found out when you ignore them, they first try speaking in Spanish, then French, then they open the flood gates of languages in their final attempt to catch your attention. It was impressive that they knew so many languages. haha
Anyway, I digress. So after the souk we walked to find a place for a tea break. We found a little hookah bar and ordered tea and a hookah for each group of people. A hookah is tobacco pipe with a long, flexible tube that draws the smoke through water that's contained in a bowl at the bottom. The taste is sweet and it isn't strong like a cigar that it would make you cough. It's meant to be enjoyable in a social setting.
After that we got back on the bus and drove to Sousse to our hotel
Sunset while driving to Sousse
Our hotel room in Sousse: El Hana Palace
Ashley holding the doors to the shower/ jacuzzi area. haha. They separate their showers from the toilet in Tunisia. The toilet is on the other side of the room. Odd, but you get two sinks that way.
See? Very odd.
We had dinner in the hotel around 8 or so and then we headed back to the hotel room and crashed for the night. Tomorrow will be another long day...
The weather does look gorgeous when you landed at Tunis. I like the pictures of the shops in the marketplace - and how you haggle prices with the shopkeepers. I don't know if I would be good at that. Your hotel is beautiful with all the amentities you need! Can't wait for the rest of your adventure.
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