Tunisia- The Kingdom of

We were all so happy when we landed here, mostly because we were all tried and needed a break. None of us knew what to expect. Up until a few months ago when we looked at a chart, no one really knew of Tunisia. Funny how things turn out.

As we sailed in , the Mediterranean turned from it intense cobalt, rich blue, to a light turquoise. The sky parted and after a short rain, followed by a beautiful rainbow, the sun began to shone in what felt like days. From a good distance we could see the castle like fort upon the hill, knowing the marina was right behind it. Then we saw the long, crescent shaped beach, and I just knew I was going to like Tunisia.

Docking, we were greeted by two English people whom also sailed in. They were on the way to the store and asked if we needed anything. They said they'd get us a baguette, already knowing how long customs takes. Yeah, right. We weren't in an EU country anymore. We were then told by the harbor people to stay on the ship until instructed. Okay, dokay.


The forms showed up in French, hmmm, or we could have them in Arabic. Ya, French will work. Good thing for that baguette, as we were all hungry, and it took a while to walk around the marina, being escorted to Immigration, then customs, then the port captain. After a quick 15 minute search of the boat, that looked more like someone ran-sacked the place, we were free to go ashore!

As I put the boat together, straighten up all the wet gear from the trip, Brian ran off to the nearest ATM. Oh yeah, we were not on the Euro anymore either. Right.

It seemed like only 20 minutes, and he was back, but in that time he got Dinar (money), found the bakery, the market, the Internet, & got the bathroom key (if you could call it a bathroom). (Just call Brian "Scout".) It was definitely a zero on our three point scale (1 point for each - light, seat, paper). It was actually a negative number but we won't go there. At least it had hot water for the scary shower. Good thing I don't leave home without my shower shoes!

Anyhow, the Tunisian people are very friendly and helpful. The big thing here is the Red Coral. Jewelry vendors are everywhere trying to sell their wares. We, of course, were descended upon immediately. French? German? English- ooooooooh! English is not spoken a lot here by the locals in the tourism industry, but as in any case, they managed as they wanted to sell us stuff. We obliged.

Other great stuff about Tunisia - the olives! So good, so inexpensive. Well, food for that matter is very inexpensive unless of course, you go to a restaurant. Brian and Carl ended up eating at the burrito cart (for lack of a better term) everyday. They even came up with the "burrito rules" and the "burrito scale" to measure everything against. I guess I should describe them. Well, you take a large crepe, fill it with mayonnaise, olive spread, hot sauce, grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, red onion, squash, mint, french fries (the secret ingredient), and for the meat eaters - grilled lamb. All this for 2 dinar - or like $1.55 (1US = 1.30dnr). Yeah, it was the deal of the century. Quickly followed by the donut. As Homer Simpson would say....MMMMMMmmm, donuts!

I'm not sure if it was the 30 or so salty, but oh so delicious, black olives I ate, or the yummy, greasy, sugary gut bomb, jumbo sized donut I had, or a combo of both, but that night and the next two days the kitty was down. I had the worst stomach cramps ever - like menstrual pain coupled with gas, and complete digestive shut down. I didn't get out of bed, bad. Anyhoo, I didn't eat the donuts anymore.


As it would be, we ended up here over the Christmas holidays awaiting our weather window. Their was not a whole lot to do, as most people hung out at coffee shops, while others (all men), played soccer on the hard top tennis courts by the sea. We did manage though to visit that castle fort up on the hill, that we first saw when we came into port. It was something but I'll let the pictures tell the story.


For the holidays, I decorated the boat with tissue I folded into balls and shinny ribbon. I even made a tree out of green tissue paper. We feasted on the famous butternut squash soup and my cayenne, beet & parsley pasta (it's red and green!), accompanied by fresh baked rosemary cream scones, and followed by some cookies I managed to bake on the boat. All in all, it turned out pretty nice. I still missed my family and all my friends though. It is just not the same.


The only bummer was someone stolen our shoes (Brian & mine) off the dock. Good thing I got a pair for Christmas but they aren't really boat proof, like my Keen sandals. Oh well, what are you going to do? I guess we just need to get to warmer weather, pronto, where no shoes are needed.


Pictures to be uploaded on Flickr soon, we promise!