Day 37 – Tuesday January 11th 2011 (Sidi Bou Said & Carthage, Tunisia)

The deal was that I needed to be gone while Connie and her Roommate Lina were gone at work and so Today I woke up at 730am and got ready to leave for Sidi Bou Said (The City of Blue and White) Instead of leaving right away I went into a hotel lobby and crashed for a few hours and then I got some food at little market. The train station wasn’t far so I walked there and bought a ticket. The trains were pretty ghetto but it was anthropological to be able to watch all the people getting on and off. I spent most of the day at Sidi Bou Said because I flat out loved it so much. It was so incredibly beautiful and it reminded me of a children’s book my Dad use to read to me. I think it was Pinocchio but I’m not sure. I actually had a lot of fun haggling with everyone there and that was truly the anme of the game in Sidi Bou Siad. It was nuts, constantly people are telling you “I give you good price” and leading you into their store. They are very pushy and they will take you for all you have if you let them. I was once quoted 140 Dinari for a tiny wooden box one that I had bought earlier for 5 Dinari. Sometimes I would talk them down just for fun and sometimes I would actually buy things the whole day was fun though. There were also some amazing views of the Sea and of the city. I ate at this little restaurant that was playing music and I was dancing a bit while I ordered and so this girl in the restaurant was dancing with me and the guy cooking the food, he was probably about 25 was trying to talk to me but he didn’t speak English at all. It actually got kinda weird, he would look at me while I was eating and would smile and say, “pity, pity, pity.” I have no idea what he meant or what he thought he was saying. Then he told me to take off my hat and he really loved my hair… A little too much. After I was done eating I asked If they knew a place to get Ojja and he said that he could make it for me and then asked what time I would be back. I told him I didn’t know and then he motioned for me to follow him out the back exit, the back exit lead to the street same as the front did so I followed and he tried to say something about facebook and I just ignored him and then he felt up my but and snapped my underwear… So that was my first and only time getting hit on by a very gay Tunisian man. It was not an experience I’d like to repeat. So needless to say I didn’t return to that restaurant … ever. I did however hike down to the beach and I found a cool café that was kinda famous with writer’s way back. I also got rained on a bit and got some presents for friends. After a while I made my way back to the train and headed off to Carthage.
Carthage was really nice and I did get some cool things there. I also found a deer path that I hiked down into the woods and that was really beautiful. Tunisian wild life is just so so different I couldn’t get over it. The Mosque and ruins in Carthage were beautiful and I took enough pictures to wallpaper the great wall. As I was standing outside the massive ruin complex in Carthage I asked a random American to take my picture. Turns out he’s a famous photographer and he gave me all kindsa pointers on photography and then when I mentioned what kinda SD card I use he gave me his 8Gb ultra, I was pleased and I licked him right on the face in gratitude. Then I walked back to the station finding some cool broken pottery on the way and taking some pieces. When I got back to Tunis I had heard that there might be some “manifestations” (riots or protests) and so I went looking for them. I saw some people gathering but it wasn’t too extreme so I went to the medina instead and tried to haggle some more. Before long I went to the girl’s apartment and met Lina as she was going to buy some food. I went with her … it was the best ever. Then we were in the apartment, We tried to get some pictures of some possible rioters outside and of all the guards. We had a 8pm curfew so I helped Lina with an English resume and then some dudes came over and we watched a movie. The movies was called Triangle… It was… the best ever. After the movie the dudes left and Lina and Connie and I talked. Then Just Connie and I talked. After about 100 hours of talking we went to bed and I lied there just thinking about everything.

Day 36 – Monday January 10th 2011 (Tunis, Tunisia)

I was pretty excited today to eat more Tunisian food… Especially Ojja. I really love the food in Tunisia. I walked the streets and became more familiar with everything and I went to the tourism office and got a map finally. I also took some pictures and had my first experience with the secret police (crotchety police dressed in civilian clothes). I went into the medina again and found out the prices of the things I thought I might want to buy so I could ask Connie if they were reasonable. I also ate Ojja again. I was pretty excited to go longboarding with Connie and to get out of the terrible Hostel I was staying in. I met Connie at 730 pm and we dropped my bag off and then went out on the town with the longboard after the fish she was cooking leapt onto the kitchen floor. We actually had tons of fun and I found out that I had tons in common with this girl. We talked and walked around and raced up and down the main street and tried to break into the clock tower and then we dropped off the board and went out again to get some croissants for the next morning. It was nice to be out walking around in a brand new country and talking to someone whose warm intelligence made me tingly. We stayed up late talking after we went home and eventually I went into my downy sleeping bag and passed out.

Day 35 – Sunday January 9th 2011 (Tunis, Tunisia)

I woke up a couple times at dawn-ish by the call to prayer. I guess the Hostel is right by a Mosque. I was able to check my email and found one from Connie Lee and one from another couch surfer with phone numbers, so I wrote them down and headed out to explore Tunis. The Medina was amazing and I didn’t even mind getting lost immediately because it seemed kinda made that way. I even ask a local at one point to point out his shop on my map so I could come back and he had no idea where it was. Anyway, I eventually saw a sign that said teletaxi and went inside to use the only pay phones in Tunis. I called Connie Lee First and we set up a time and place to meet. I had no idea where it was I was s’pose to be so it became a race to get there in the next 30 minutes. I got terrible directions from four different people including one guy who led me to the complete opposite side of the medina and a police officer who pointed the wrong way when I was only one block away from the Hotel I was to meet at. I met Condor at the Hana Hotel and we took a walk around the main streets as she told me about Tunisian food and some history as well as bringing me to a restaurant with some of the best food I’ve ever eaten called Ojja and then paid for it all. I felt like the prettiest princess at the ball. We agreed to meet the next day and I would hopefully live with them for the rest of the week.
When I went home I unfortunately took the most terrible poo and shower of my life… Why was it so terrible? I’m not sure I want to go into the reasons why, just know that they were valid and they were many. After that debacle I was cold and wet and tired and ready to sleep forever. Instead I met John the Aussie, Ahblot the Indian and Ted the Brit. They were my new roommates, they were actually really cool and had all traveled extensively in the Middle East. I learned tons from them and about what kinds of difficulties and differences one can run into. I have to admit I loved all their accents too; it was like an accent buffet. After talking to my new roomies for hours and hours I took a break and used the internet for a while. I also took a moment to describe the interesting room I was in to a friend of mine : “This room is very Mediterranean and has a strong Muslim feel. It’s a dining room with big creamy marble columns and the walls are these crazy green and blue and white painted tiles and there are all these gold and red drapes and table clothes and there are big clay pots everywhere and a cabinet full of piles of old dusty clocks and a fan and a rotary phone and there is a silver etched tea set on one of the 12 little tables in the room and the ceiling is like 40 or 50 ft. up and its a big glass dome to the night sky which is beautiful but also it makes this room very very cold.” After my chats the Americans and some random lonely Tunisian who walked in, I went to bed and slept beautiful Tunisian dreams.

Day 34 – Saturday January 8th 2011 (Tunis, Tunisia)

The next morning I woke up and met Nick and Elijah (yeah another Elijah how weird is that?) they were very cool. Nick had just been to Tunisia and recommended it as well as giving me the name of a couch surfer he knew of named Connie Lee. Elijah had just gotten back from India and he proceeded to make me really wanna go there. I think if I end up doing the peace core it might be narrowed down to Africa or India. So I booked my tickets to Tunisia and then I hopped the ferry. The ferry was 10 hours long… The ferry sucked. I watched Home Alone 3… Home Alone 3 sucked. The only thing that didn’t suck was watching a bunch of old Tunisian men laugh their asses off at Home Alone 3. When I finally hit earth I escaped the ferry and spent about a billion hours walking through the endless maze that is Tunisian security. I was almost refused at the gate because they couldn’t read my smudged Palermo passport stamp and then again when I didn’t fill out some paperwork that I never received. Soon though I was through the gantlet and was back to being hassled by cab drivers. I changed my money into Dinari and then caught a cab, explaining that I have little to no money by telling him I was from Poland and I’ve been backpacking for ages and ages. I paid 7 Dinari to take me to the Medina which was apparently still too much. He wanted to charge me more but I just told him I didn’t have it. Let me tell you, the Medina in Tunis at night is pretty dang creepy. I’ve never seen so many cats and tiny streets ever! I was really really lucky that I had good directions and a hand drawn map that I made earlier. I found the Hostel pretty easily but the owner was hecka creepy looking and he walked me through his pitch black house to a extremely cold room with no lights and so I just had to fumble around and eventually just fall into bed.

Day 33 – Friday January 7th 2011 (Palermo, Sicily)

I was going on zero sleep and in a completely new culture. I also soon found out that I had a map for the wrong city and no idea where a Hostel was in Palermo. No one speaks English in Palermo, No one sells maps, No one can help. It was probably only so frustrating because I was just so tired. I eventually bought a map that was way way too expensive and hopped a bus without paying to the center of town. I found an tourism point after asking about 7 people and then I was set. I was able to get directions to a hostel and I even met a girl named floe who was singing on the street with her crazy dreads. She was so cool I just had to sit with her for a while, she invited me to hang out later but I was just so tired that I kinda blew her off. My hostel was down this deserted street that was full of garage doors and after I bought my room I went upstairs and just crashed. I woke up at about 11pm and chatted with my roommate a while. Then I got some food and talked to internet friends. At about 1am I was hearing this loud music and so I went to investigate. I found out that all those garage doors were clubs and the hostel was smack in the middle of the clubbing section of town. I was just kinda standing there thinking about getting my camera when someone miraculously spoke English to me! I was shocked. It was these two Italian girls and their friends, it was kinda hard to hear what they were saying because it was so loud but we basically got introductions out of the way and then we went out dancing. It was way fun and I was surprised at how well everyone was dressed and I loved the songs where everyone yelled in Italian together, it was great and afterward we all went up to the roof of one of the bars to drink and smoke and talk. I didn’t drink or smoke or do much talking to be honest and while I was sitting there relishing the feeling of acceptance and being one of the cool kids I realized that these people weren’t really that cool. They were really kind and they had short hair and dressed well but that was about it. They didn’t have good taste in anything else and they only talked about stuff I wasn’t interested in. Anyway I was tired again somehow so I took a nap until daytime (even though it was about 5 or 6 when I came home).

Day 32 – Thursday January 6th 2011 (Napoli - Sicily, Italy)

I knew I had to leave today so I showered and got my bag on and took off in the morning. I still wanted to see a few things in the old city and so I saw some more of the older buildings and the Duomo. When I went through the main street there was a concert going on with these crazy gypsy people so I listened to them a while. As I was listening these to girls came up to me and started chatting me up. I was immediately kinda suspicious of them but they seemed drunk and harmless. We chatted a while and they danced with me and then I noticed one of them touched my butt and then went over to the other and whispered to her and then told me that they had to go. I was pretty sure she had just checked for my wallet and couldn’t find one and so they had no reason to stay. I was kinda pissed so I called her out on it. I said to her “ Hey sorry I didn’t have any money for you, I felt you feel me up for my wallet.” She got all defensive and her friend (the Pretty one) tried to convince me that it was outrageous, just then her two friends came over and I met them too. We ended up all talking a while and in the end I was pretty sure that they weren’t trying to rob me and I was just being paranoid. We all kissed each other goodbye and although they invited me home with them I had to catch the ferry to Sicily. The ferry was actually pretty nice but I had a hard time figuring out how to get on the bloody thing. There were only semis driving onto it and there were no signs or any direction at all on how to get on. I just walked around until I found an opening and then a guy checked my ticket as I walked on. There are no assigned seats on these ferries they just have these big lounges and people find a little area and make it their home for the next 10 hours. They even lay out blankets for beds and have little picnics in the middle of the floor and everything. I was pretty worried about leaving my bag anywhere but after a while I got to know everyone around me and I locked it to a table so I could walk around. It was pretty surreal watching the water swoosh under the massive boat in the black of night. I felt like I was on Titanic. I went back in to finish editing photos and then I met Alessandro. He walked up to me out of the blue and asked if I was American. They he said he had a question. He said “ok… In the America, the tittie bar.. how much it costs?” I was like, “huh?” Then he’s talking to me about American college girls being sluts and all kindsa crude generalizations. I thought, wow, I got a live one here and basically we talked for the next FIVE hours… He just wouldn’t leave me alone. It was ok though we became friends and he even bought me water and we’re facebook friends now. I gave him advice with his girl troubles and he taught me all about the Italian shipping industry. Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep on the ferry and so I was glad to be in Sicily at about 8 am.

Day 31 – Wednesday January 5th 2011 (Napoli, Italy)

Seeing how I didn’t even get into the Hostel till 4am I definitely slept in a bit. Later I took a whole buncha pictures and then I explored Napoli. I found out that they had a subterranean tunnel and catacomb tour and so I did that. I also found out that Napoli is the best place to buy little miniature houses and things especially for nativity scenes, they’re famous for it. They also do have really great food, I saw all kindsa cathedrals and bought a few things in some stores too. I decided to turn in a bit early and then take the ferry to Sicily the next day. I bought some food and went to my room and called the fam. Then I slept.