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“It was surprising that something this old (1800 years) was not only still standing, but you can wander through it” |
We hired a car this morning to drive to El Jem, to see a Roman amphitheatre. This is apparently the largest amphitheatre in Northern Africa. Of course, this also meant having to drive on Tunisian roads.
We had an early breakfast, and were on the road by 8:30am. The car was an older style Renault (manual), and thankfully the aircon worked well. We didn’t take the main autobahn (mainly because we wasn’t aware it actually existed or how to get over to it) on the way to El Jem. However, it gave us a great opportunity to see real Tunisian life rather than flying past everything at 120+ kms an hour. The drive was actually very good, the roads are sealed and well looked after, and I wouldn’t hesitate in getting a car if I visit Tunisia again.
Police stand at every roundabout directing traffic and ensuring that everyone does the right thing (well as right as Tunisian driving is, e.g. ignore seatbelts, blinkers or lines on the road). You do get stuck regularly behind hay trucks, these ute sized vehicles stack about 100 bales of hay and generally they have a lean to the left or right. Of course even seeing past these monstrosities is difficult, but it’s okay, you just swerve onto the oncoming lane to see if anything is coming…if you survive it’s safe to pass. Keeping a safe distance is important, however, most often intimidation and bullying is the norm, meaning a two feet buffer between you and the car in front (and usually behind).
Inside the car there was a cassette (no CD player) with Tunisian music on it, so to set the mood we played that as we traveled (turning it down in the particularly painful musical screeching parts).
On the way, we saw numerous children and young men with donkeys and carts with fruits in them. They would setup on the roadside with their fruit and sell them. This was very common in the fruit growing areas we past, where you would see them literally every 200 meters. We did try to take some photos as we weren’t past, but felt kind of bad about snapping photos without permission of everyday people. Even in the cities (such as Sousse) you would see plenty of cars, trucks, motorcycles, scooters and donkeys, all using the same roads.
We passed numerous butchers who had hanging outside their shop sheep carcass, these sheep were unshorn but missing their head and legs. Everywhere there were men sitting outside in small groups, but very few women to be seen.
Billy traveled well, playing his PSP and eating potato chips. Our destination was somewhat lost on him, but he was happy enough to be left alone to play games.
We finally reached El Jem and Kim and Billy finally got to ride a camel. I got some great photos with the El Jem Amphitheatre in the background and them riding a camel in front of it, so that was definitely a highlight. We then walked the shopping gauntlet to get to the entrance to the Amphitheatre. It was surprising that something this old (1800 years) was not only still standing, but you can wander through it with practically no restrictions and there was no security to speak of. The main walls still have four flights of stairs to reach the top section, and you could see how majestic it would have been in it’s hey day (maybe they’ll say the same about the MCG in 1800 years – probably not Telstra Dome though…haha).
They still hold theatres and concerts at the Amphitheatre and they have lots of lights in place for the evening sessions, which would look amazing, unfortunately we were not staying in El Jem all day, as there really wasn’t anything else appealing in the town to speak of.
We drove back along the Autobahn and reach Yasmine Hammamet in time for a quick lunch. The Autobahn had none of the character or interest that was sparked by taking the regular route, so we were pleased we didn’t take it on the way there as well.
As we are leaving tomorrow, we decided it would be best to have some major pool time as we may not get another opportunity for a while. I played Water Polo and then mucked around with another English speaking young man from the Netherlands (terrorizing the kids and sunbakers as we skimmed a small kids ball from one side of the pool to the other aiming at the goals, we had to pause for about 20 minutes after we clocked one kid on the side of the head, and one sunbathing girl who promptly moved elsewhere). Billy had a swim as did Kimmy, so by the time dinner came around we were very hungry.
The dinner today was Tunisian fare, with honey cakes, and baked fish, spicy bread and egg & tomato casserole. It was actually quite nice, although some of it was very spicy. Unfortunately we couldn’t get any chips for the little guy, however, the day had been an exhausting one, with non-stop fun, and he had fallen asleep anyway.
We’re currently attempting to sleep, however, they are running a Tunisian night, with good Tunisian songs such as the chicken dance, hokey pokey, aka doo and a conga line through the resort.
Tool of the Day
No one spring to mind that particularly earned the tool of the day, it did take us about 45 minutes to find someone that could understand what a freezer or ice box is (mind you, as we are the ones that don’t speak French this probably makes us the tool of the day), the kid who stuck his head in the way of the ball to interrupt our game (he spent a good few minutes crying…doh). What comes to mind most of all, is the Tunisian shopkeepers that make walking from A to B difficult with constant bombardment every 3 meters as you reach yet another shop front selling identical wares to the other 15 you just walked past. Also the ones who decide the soft target is Billy, and put things onto the five year old (as he tries to run away from them) and then ask us for money.
previous travel blog entry
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