Ben and Ellen's Tunisia

Tunisia, it seems like a random destination, oui? About a year ago, we started planning and saving for one last big vacation before we move back to the U.S. We make a lot of long weekend trip here and there, and to Paris and Paris and Paris, but about once a year we try to go somewhere for about a week on a real vacation, with plane tickets and everything. The first year we were here, we did Istanbul. Awesome. Last fall we spent a week in France with my parents (not quite as big of an adventure because, hey, we had a 6 week old baby). And for our last hurrah, we wanted somewhere fun and exciting, but somewhere where we could find a big resorty hotel where we could be comfy and lazy with the baby. I turned down Malta because it looked pretty but not very exciting. Ben vetoed Morocco because he claimed it was dangerous. So we settled on Tunisia - fun, vacationy, and somewhere we wouldn't go if we were living in the states. And they have camels! What's not to like?

We flew from Brussels to Tunis, and then rented a car at the airport. It's apparently pretty easy and cheap to take trains, buses and taxis in Tunisia, but with the high maintenance shorty we wanted to make it easier on ourselves and not ever be stuck at a bus stop with a cranky baby. Or on a train with a cranky baby. Or in a car with a crazy driver, gripping Wes so he doesn't climb over the seats and out the window.

Luckily, Ben is a savvy international driver, and while the Tunisian driving was a little crazy...

He did great. With an expert navigator in the passenger seat (that's me!!), we drove all over the place and saw all sorts of cool stuff.

First stop, our hotel.

We stayed in Hammamet, which is a major tourist area. Can you tell why? This picture was on the balcony of our hotel room. G-o-r-g-e-o-u-s.

And then when we ventured to the old part of town, we saw lovely things like the medina, built in the 15th century.


We also went to Sidi Bou Said, a picturesque (touristy) town on the coast.


And Carthage, where we checked out some ancient ruins. It was pretty awesome to look at this stuff in an otherwise underwhelming town and realize that these little bits of crumbling walls here and there have been around for thousands of years.


When we weren't driving to various tourist and history hot spots, we spent a lot of time just relaxing. Or, well, trying to relax while feeding Wes Cheerios or waving a stuffed camel at him or taking long walks or trying to talk him into takinganapnowforpetessakekid! He had a fantastic time. You'll hear about his vacation in my next blog. Ben and I, we did have a good time too. It would have been more fun if it was an adult vacation, but given the choice of going on adventures with baby in tow and not going anywhere, we choose the hard way. Better stories to tell.

Even with all the Cheerio-bribing and toy-waving, we did manage some relaxation. Exhibit A:

We were strolling by the marina, looking at boats, watching people, checking out cafés, when suddenly I gasped. "Ben! Look at this menu! I can get just a big plate of strawberries! A plate of just strawberries! It's like heaven! AND look, you can get a banana milkshake!" This place was seriously like a dream come true. I don't think we could dream up something better than a little café on the Mediterranean where we could sit with a giant bowl of strawberries and banana milkshakes.

Also on the delicious food front, we indulged our love of street food while exploring Sousse and got chawarma (a type of sandwich similar to a gyro or doner kebab). Yum.

I also got a corne de gazelle, a traditional tunisian pastry filled with almonds, for dessert. No pictures of that, though, because I needed it in my belly pronto because it was really good. Ben said we should tak a picture, but we were walking and I paused my eating for moment to consider saving the rest of it for a few minutes until we got to the car. Yeah... no. Chomp. Done.

I think that was the only meal we ate on the go. Most of our other meals were at the hotel, which was surprisingly okay with us. The restaurant was great for breakfast, room service was decent for dinners, and for lunches we did this:

Looks lovely, oui? I have to explain this though. I took pictures for a reason. There I was on our balcony with my bag of food. I had rolls left over from last night's dinner, a half a baguette from a bakery, butter and jam from the breakfast buffet, a collection of fruit from the hotel and grocery store, a bottle of wine, and some of the millions of bottles of water that were floating around. As I carefully arranged my treasures onto a napkin, it hit me. "Ben!" I yelled inside. And then I started to explain my revelation and as I was describing the situation Ben just started laughing and walked away. "Do you know where I was going with this?" I yelled after him.

"You're turning into your mom!" was his response from somewhere in the room.

It's true. It's not bad, but arranging my treasures for a cheap/free lunch is definitely a learned and/or genetic behavior. The best proof I can find in photo form:

This was from our trip to France in October. Note my mom, me, various food items pulled from our backpacks and our sandwiches carefully constructed in a random field. Oh, and ignore how awful I look and that my mom appears to be chewing. Sorry, mom. But I'm not sorry about my scavenged lunch skills. It's thrifty and delicious!

The last thing I want to share with you about Tunisia was maybe my favorite part. Are you ready? Are you?

Camel ride!

Yeah, it was totally a tourist trap camel. But who cares? It was a camel ride! Much like riding a pony at the circus, but much cooler, and in Africa!

Most of the tourists got up on the camel and the guy walked them in a 20 foot radius, posed for some pictures and got down. After I got on the camel and the guy had the camel stand up, he said something to Ben and then started walking me in my circle.

And then...

All of the sudden we were strolling down the street. What?!? I looked back at Ben, who looked concerned and started hurrying after us. He was a little worried that he may have inadvertently sold me to the camel man. I wasn't worried, though. I was thoroughly enjoying my extended camel adventure. Turns out, Ben had agreed to pay extra to have the guy walk me to the end of the block and back. Camel man asked, and Ben was only half listening and said, "Yeah, sure, okay" without really paying attention to what he was agreeing to.

But since we paid for the extended ride, the guy was extra friendly and had Ben get up on the camel for a photo or two.


Awesome.
We really loved Tunisia. Beautiful, great food, interesting history, and camels. Wes loved it even more than we did. Next time, Wesley's Tunisia adventure.