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“They do very good Gelati in many different gourmet flavors” |
For the first time in a while, we didn’t really get moving until about 9am this morning. We had a quick breakfast, and headed out to Carthage Land (a theme park in Yasmine Hammamet). Unfortunately, as it turned out the theme park was closed for renovations. However, this was also our first visit to the Yasmine Hammamet Medina, and we ended up spending quite a few hours shopping.
This was enjoyable after our experience yesterday, as we knew exactly what to expect. It was a good day and we don’t think we got ripped off too bad today! To be honest, we don’t mind paying maybe a little more than what the traders would accept, as they need to make some profit and there are a lot of traders.
Some of them do tend to hassle you, and you have to be firm and say no. While others are far less pushy and do give you an opportunity to browse their goods without commenting on everything you glance at and showing you everything within arms reach, throwing on you every watch, ring, bracelet, necklace they can. At one stage Kim was wearing six watches at a time. Kim also got chastised by a shopkeeper who told her, ‘You go into his shop, why you not come into my shop’, he was being very pushy and would not allow her past, so she told him it was a free country and pushed her way through. Every time you purchase something you must expect to take it slow as each purchase takes quite some time in negotiation.
They do very good Gelati in many different gourmet flavors (still not quite as good as ice-cream). Even Kimmy had a Gelati as it was quite warm in the sun walking around the Medina.
Billy has been excellent and very patient, he has had to walk a long way for a little guy and rarely complains. We do have funny games happening as much as possible, such as Kim would pretend to be blind and Billy would lead her along the footpath (running her into as many things as possible). It was a shame that today we were intending to go to the theme park as it was something Billy would have enjoyed, but it didn’t work out. Hopefully we are able to find some more Billy oriented things along our travels, it is a little difficult as there are limited things setup for kids of his age (made more difficult by the language barrier he faces when interacting with other children).
After the Medina, I spent some time in the pool, Billy decided he was not up for it, and Kimmy was happy to sunbathe. We had a good game going however, where I would throw a ball at Billy who would try to dodge it then toss it back into the pool.
A thunderstorm came over, and even though it was quite some distance away, Europeans must be scared of lightening and swimming pools, as every one of them vacated the pool within about 2 minutes of the first thunder crack. I stayed in until it actually started raining (about 45 minutes later).
After this, a good hour or two was spent trying to get internet working with the hotel internet administrator. However, he did not speak any English, and I of course don’t speak any French, so it was very difficult. We had the hotel manager doing translation for us, but still really didn’t get anywhere. I did manage to get on to the internet in the lobby, so had it briefly to post our blogs and send a couple of emails, but that was about it. I’m sure they will work it out eventually however, and they have gone out of their way to get the internet working specifically for us (as we are the only clients here with a laptop).
While I was doing this, Kimmy and Billy were playing a game of ‘knock the bottle’ by lining up all the bottles in our hotel room and bouncing the ball at them…the rules kept changing however, and appeared continuously to work in Billy’s favor!
Another nice buffet dinner, and only a couple more days in Tunisia left to go. Tomorrow we have a much more exciting day planned, so hopefully we will be able to give more insight into things to see and do in Tunisia.
Tool of the Day
The morning reception guy at the hotel, who anytime you mentioned anything he tries to sell you something else. We are renting a car tomorrow for a day, and he has continually tried to sell us tours, then Kim asks how far it is to Carthage Land and he tries to sell us ‘reservations’ …thankfully we waved him away and walked anyway as it was closed due to renovations (surely he knew that…duh).
previous travel blog entry
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