Tunisia.

The town we headed to, and the tail end off the rain.
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Welcome to Tunisia, the newest destination for Emirates and my next adventure. Tunisia supports a population of

10,276,158 of which 98% are Muslim , 1% Christian , 1% Other. Rivalry between French and Italian interests in Tunisia culminated in a French invasion in 1881 and the creation of a protectorate. Agitation for independence in the decades following World War I was finally successful in getting the French to recognize Tunisia as an independent state in 1956. The country's first president, Habib Bourguiba, established a strict one-party state. He dominated the country for 31 years, repressing Islamic fundamentalism and establishing rights for women unmatched by any other Arab nation. Tunisia has long taken a moderate, non-aligned stance in its foreign relations. Domestically, it has sought to defuse rising pressure for a more open political society.

Welcome to Tunisia, the newest destination for Emirates and my next adventure.

Anyone home?!
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The flight was on my least favourite plane, the Airbus 330-300. This is the smallest plane in the fleet and you notice, I hit my head far more on this plane then any other. Not to mention that the galley in this plane is far warmer then most of the other planes. This is environment is most uncomfortable for me seeing that my uniform consists of a T-shirt under a long sleeve shirt, covered with a jacket, add to this the amount I am required to move around the cabin and it is no wonder that I am parched by the end of the flight. The girls have it a little better, they wear a blouse, covered by a Tabard (apron thing). The crew was great and I had a familiar face on board. Semangeline whom you might remember from my trip to Sydney and Christchurch was crew on this trip. The rest of the crew was unfamiliar but a great bunch all the same. The pilot Dave, of course, was Canadian. The purser was Tunisian and a complete slack ass, this is not a social commentary about Tunisian work ethic, but the guy was late for the crew briefing, if anyone else was as late, I have no doubt that, they would be off loaded. Not to mention that he spent a good portion of the flight attending to the needs of his cousin whom was flying with us. That didn’t bother me much except he spent a great deal of the time in the aisles inhibiting us from doing our job!

View from my room.
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The flight was 6 hours and the trip typical. There was one particularly demanding family situated, no surprise, in the front of the cabin and as far away from us as possible and they loved the call button. We landed mid afternoon in Tunis, the capital city. And had a little trouble leaving the airport when we were told the majority of us were required to leave our passports with custom (Canadians not among them ;op) In fact one of the Australian pilots flat out refused! He got back in the plane and went back to Dubai. Fear not, we had an extra Pilot on the journey doing a safety review.

My room, and the kick ass king size bed!
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Tunis reminded me somewhat of Malta (not surprising seeing that they are separated by only half of the Mediterranean), the same arid climate, and old but quite beautiful. We drove thought the hills and small towns for about ½ an hour before reaching “The Golden Tulip” a five star hotel and our home for the next 26 hours. We were told that we would have our Per-Diem delivered in an hour. So some of us agreed on a meeting after the delivery to go explore, and retired to our rooms. An hour and a half later Semangeline and I met in the other in the lobby. There was a light rain by this time and half of us were afraid to venture far from the hotel.

The bathroom gets a 7 out of 9!
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Those of us that were not afraid of getting wet headed out and caught a cab into the town to explore, and I am glad we did. About 5 minutes after we arrived in the quant town it stopped raining and the sun came out and lit the beautiful town in an amazing light. We took photos and shopped, and took more photos. The place was amazing, we walked no more then 4 blocks and between us must have taken over a hundred photos! Thank god for digital.

We started getting hungry so against my better judgement we asked a pack of boys, 16 to 18 years old, now following us (me and the three ladies), where a good place to eat might be. They lead us, surprisingly to a beautiful restaurant with an amazing view… which was both booked all evening and closed for another 2 hours. We found another equally nice place, on our own accord, and were entertained to an amazing first rate dinner. My Aunt Sheena would be most impressed, they were cooking in Moroccan style pots which are conical in shape, kind of like a clay Tepee. We ate, drank and took in the amazing view (see photos). The waiter, like most people here spoke Arabic, French, and a little English. Fortunately one of the crew was Egyptian, but I think would could have made do without her. After the feast we headed back though the market were I purchased and Fez (hat) and tradition full length shirt (sorry no photo… till the next party). The girls bought some of the crafts, Tunisia is know for their hand painted plates, and tile mosaics. Neither of which found their way into my suitcase.

More view.
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Once back at the hotel I purposed we go bowling (like all good 5 star hotels this one had a bowling alley), but Semangeline was the only one whom excepted my offer. So we headed down to the lanes (why in plural they are lanes but in singular they are alleys?) And bowled a couple games. I will have to admit my 200 lbs. frame gave me a slight advantage over her 98 lbs. frame and I won both games handily.

The next morning a group of us met for breakfast at an agreed upon time, far to late to do anything else with the day, so after using the free internet I took a nap until it was time to return to the plane and head home.

Semangeline, so cute you wanna just sqeezer her!
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The flight back was much better, only one meal service and at night so people slept most of the way. We got along splendidly as a group on the way back, after spending the last day together. So after an our delay we made it back to Dubai by 2 at night, the coolest time of the day… a freezing 31 degrees… Celsius!