XVII. Visions of Tunisia

22 November 2009

I haven't posted anything for a while - I was on vacation for most of the first two weeks of November - my last week in Morocco and the first week in Tunisia. My Mother came to visit and we played tourist for two weeks. I've been so busy since then, I have been too tired at night to pull anything together.

Tunisia is probably not a familiar place to most of you…so, a little geography lesson to start. Tunisia is in North Africa, a tiny country between Algeria to the west and Libya to the east. The capital is Tunis, and in Arabic, that’s also the name of the country تونس. (map is from Lonely Planet).  It has a lot of coastline (like California and Maine, and resort areas along that coast. Inland, and to the south is desert - the Sahara.

Tunisia has been colonized by pretty much everyone from ancient times to the present, the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Arabs, Ottomans, etc. It is the home of Carthage (Roman baths at Carthage in the picture to the right), Utica, and other major historical sites. The last colonial power was the French, so people speak French as a second language, although a few speak some English. The people are a mixture of all those who invaded the area, and are very open and hospitable. Although they share a history, languages and culture, Tunisia is really quite different from Morocco.

In area, Tunisia is a little smaller than Florida, and it has a long agricultural history…about 4,000 years of it. I’m sure they haven’t been growing citrus quite that long, but they have been certainly been growing olives, pomegranates, and wheat for several millennia. It is a beautiful country with many similarities to California…mountains, desert, sea, a Mediterranean climate, etc. And a wonderful people. I’ll talk more about the people I’ve met in another post…this one is for tourists!

Tunis is now a city of about 1.5 million people and the traffic attests to that. Nevertheless, there are some very nice green spaces, and one of the main avenues, Habib Bourguiba, is tree lined It has a wide central median which is perfect for a stroll.

The street looks like a Parisian avenue, with its trees, sidewalk cafes, and architecture. Most of the buildings were built during the French Protectorate, and they are very lovely. It is clearly a major gathering place for Tunis citadines, who spend a lot of time in the cafes and strolling. Tunisians have adapted the avenue as their own, and stroll, they do. November 7th is a national holiday, so it is all decorated with lights for that...really beautiful.

What is more traditionally Tunisian, though, and the biggest tourist attraction, is the Tunis medina and its souqs (markets). This is the old part of the city, not walled as Taroudannt and Meknes were, but still with gates - the Sea Gate, the Green Gate, the New Gate, etc.

The medina is full of old palaces and covered markets…a different one for each traditional craft…copper, leather, the red felted wool hats known as chechia…skull caps similar to what we call a fez (from Fez in Morocco), but not as high and more closely fitting. Apparently the chechia was brought back to Tunisia when the Andalusian Arabs were expelled from Spain.

The interesting thing is that here some men, particularly older ones, still wear chechias. It’s hard to take pictures of people here as they don’t like it, so I don't have a great chechia picture. This one is from the Marche centrale...a farmers' market in the middle of Tunis, and quite an experience.  Anyway, it's the best picture of a man wearing a chechia that I have...except I haven't seen many with pompoms.  Click on the picture to enlarge it and see his hat.

After several lengthy taxi rides from gates to the medina on the other side from where I’m staying, I’ve decided that that might be a good way to get some people pictures. You’re moving slowly (the traffic is horrendous!), and people don’t pay much attention to taxis. So I'm trying that next.

When you imagine exotic bazaars in the East, the Tunis souqs are they. Most are covered, often dimly lit, mazes of little shops. They sell everything, gold, silver, copper, carpets, pottery, spices, clothing, tourist junk, etc. You just have to find the right souq. Easier said than done, though. Many streets lead nowhere or bend back on themselves, and they may intersect with another street multiple times, so it’s incredibly easy to get lost in the medina.

Streets are narrow with high walls on either side, so it's very difficult to see very far ahead and figure out where you are in relation to where you want to go.  It's an adventure, to say the least.  I learned that it's not good to go in with a strict plan of where I want to go...because I may not get there or it may take a very long time and a roundabout way to get there.  The lesson is to enjoy the getting there and not just focus on the destination.  We saw some beautiful places that way.

The first time we ventured into the medina, we took a street that, on the map, looked (comparatively) large and somewhat straightforward…hah! The shops spill out into the streets and often there is barely room for two people to pass in the “street”.

It’s kind of like swimming in a mob, you can just be carried along with the crowd. That bazaar must have been the party bazaar---there were decorations, ribbons, glittery stuff, artificial flowers, and all the silver and gold gilt stuff so essential to weddings in this part of the world. We found the tenturiers souq another day…the dyers bazaar, except that in these modern times, it’s the jeans souq…more kinds, shapes, and sizes of jeans (and other clothing) than you can imagine.

Once you can find your way through the maze in the medina, there are some really interesting things to see…some lovely mosques (all but one closed to non-Muslims), old palaces, some of which are now museums, and a multiplicity of beautifully decorated doors…mostly blue, but occasionally yellow or another color.

 

As the pictures show you, I really like the doors! They are brightly painted and decorated with nail heads, and often have stone archways. The rest of the walls are pretty much plain white, so the doors really stand out.

 At one of the former palaces, Dar El Othman, (the yellow door in the courtyard above) the watchman gave us a lesson in what all the symbols mean...very interesting, and representing the crossroads that Tunisia has been for millenia.

Among the major sites around Tunis is Carthage, which has more ruins than our (my Mom’s & my) somewhat jaded Greek and Roman ruin palate could handle. It's a beautiful town thirty minutes away by small suburban train.

Carthage is a great place to walk…the ruins are not all in one place, so unless you’re on a tour, you have to walk! We enjoyed it, but having seen Roman ruins in numerous other countries, we did not do a very thorough job of seeing it all. But the seacoast was lovely, and we had a great lunch in a little café. A very memorable pumpkin soup and the Tunisian version of a Caesar salad…with Roquefort and walnuts…yummy!

The train stations in the suburbs are very pretty with bright blue wooden awnings, and many residents use them for regular commuting. On our return trip to Tunis, there were numerous architecture students who had been on a field trip sketching the ruins. I really liked the idea that we stopped at "Hannibal" Station...yes, the Hannibal of elephant fame was a Carthaginian!

In Tunis proper (called “Le Grand Tunis”) an amazing museum, the Bardo, is full of incredibly well preserved Roman mosaics from sites around the country. Having taken several mosaic classes last year, I really appreciated the work and the artistry that went into them…tiny pieces of colored stone no more then a ¼ inch square, and often smaller, used to draw incredibly detailed pictures that would have been like carpets on Roman floors. Some of them were so well done, that you didn’t realize until you were very close up that it wasn’t a painting, but a mosaic. There were some mosaic animals, oxen in particular, in which the musculature was so clearly defined by the mosaic pieces that they seemed three dimensional. The Bardo is housed in a former palace, and between the number and intricacy of the mosaics and the architecture, it is more than a feast for the eyes…an artistic over-eater’s paradise!

Sidi Bou Saïd is another nearby attraction…It is a blue and white seaside village built on several hills overlooking the Mediterranean. It is very peaceful and pleasant. As in most towns in Tunisia, the buildings are all whitewashed a blinding bright white, but in Sidi Bou Saïd , they are only allowed to have blue trim. Most of it is a bright blue, with a hint of turquoise, but some residents have taken a little liberty and their doors, windows, and decorative metal work are slightly different shades of blue. It is lovely to see…lots of picturesque scenes and nice restaurants. Also, a lot of shops catering to tourists, but the shop denizens seemed less aggressive than in Tunis.

There was an apartment for rent in one of the houses overlooking the Mediterranean, and I was very tempted to see what it would cost to live there. I’d like to live where the bougainvillea blooms all year, in a blue and white house with lacy ironwork balconies! The Tunisians tell me that they dream of living in California! We all need dreams!