Tunisia

Monday, 12 Dec 2011 – For the second day in a row, Sally woke up at 4:30 A.M.  By evening, she’s “wiped out,” and after writing up a draft for the blog, she hits the sack.  One night, when Jesse was going to bed very late, Sally thought it was time to get up; at least she managed to go back to sleep again for a few hours.  There’s a lot to be said about crossing the ocean the old-fashioned way so that there is no jet lag!

At 6:00 A.M. today we had a wake-up call again and after breakfast, met with our small group of 12 going ashore to Tunisia.  For this cruise we are doing excursions for the European ports of Corfu and Tunisia, plus all South American ports, with a woman (Dee) who organizes tours instead of automatically signing up for Princess tours as we always have in the past.  We found out about Dee’s tours on CruiseCritic.com, and they are less expensive than the Princess cruises.  Although we don’t get the learned lectures at the various sites, we travel in a mini-bus (as on Corfu) or 9-passenger van (as today in Tunisia) instead of being in a large busload of people. 

           So… we went first to ancient Carthage, where we saw the ruins that look similar to those in Rome.  (Carthage was founded in 814 B.C.)  That’s where Gen. Patton said [in the movie] that he had fought in the ancient battle at Carthage in a previous life.  Second, we went to Sidi Bou Said (see’-dee boo sah-eed’), which is an Arab-Moorish village with narrow, cobblestone lanes lined with whitewashed buildings with blue shutters and trim.  The narrow lanes were also heavily lined with merchants selling tourist items, but we resisted buying anything.  Third, we went to a large American cemetery for servicemen who died in northern Africa in World War II.  After that, 8 of us elected to return to the ship, while the other 4 stayed to shop in Medina before going back.  People have told us that portions of the Star Wars movies were filmed in Tunisia, but much further south.  Now THAT would be a place to see!

We were glad to arrive back at the ship by mid-afternoon today where we could relax – and of course, eat a late lunch at the buffet.  It’s very hard to eat only nutritious salad, etc., when your husband sits down with tiramisu and apple dumpling, followed by a big ice cream cone! 

Quite a few other passengers besides us are looking forward to a day at sea tomorrow instead of having to get up early for sightseeing.  We enjoyed Michelle Murlin’s performance last evening but were surprised to see that the big auditorium was half-empty.  It appears that this ship is full of a lot of tired people!