Having had my trip away in January, in Portugal, thoughts turned to February. Initially I had thought of fat biking in Estonia, but decided somewhere warmer was preferable!
I came across an amazing deal to Tunisia – 5 nights all inclusive flying from Bristol for £500, including car park at the airport. It seemed too good to be true, and in some ways it was. When I arrived it was lunchtime and too early for check in so I was told to go and have some lunch. The dining room was huge, full of what appeared to be elderly French, all talking and gesticulating as the French seem to. I felt like I was staying in a retirement home, and I wasn’t ready for that!
Later in the week I met an English retiree who was spending a month at the hotel. She had got an even better deal than me, and I could see it made sense to see some sun in Jan/Feb rather than stay in grey and wet England, especially when it was all inclusive too.
My flight had been on Valentines Day, a day I do not particularly like, not just because I am single. However, I couldn’t escape the madness as the hotel went to town with music, decorations, food and cocktails to mark the occasion. I managed to enjoy one of the free pink cocktails anyway!
I spent the days by the pool, although it wasn’t as warm as I would have liked for sunbathing. I had ventured out the first day. Before I got out of the hotel grounds I was approached about the trips I could do – these included camels in the desert, trips on quad bikes or drinking lots on a pirate ship. I politely said no and the seller didn’t bother me again.
I walked up the deserted beach from the hotel – I assume in the summer it would be buzzing, but in February there was only a couple of people around. I decided to cut through an alleyway to do a circular walk back to the hotel. I didn’t feel particularly safe although I’m not sure why. The hotels were inside gated communities with security guards, who used tools to check under cars, presumably for incendiary devices? And inside the gates were signs warning of guard dogs. Having seen this on arrival I suppose it was no surprise that I felt uneasy away from this security, although perhaps I should have been braver
I wanted to see at least something of Tunisian culture and/or history, and so signed up to an organised tour to Kairouan and the El Jem Colusseum.
The mosque in Kairouan is very sacred – it is considered to hold the tomb of the barber of the Prophet, Muhammad. It wasn’t until I later looked up the spellings and read that barbers were involved in circumcisions that this made more sense to me – I couldn’t understand why someone’s hairdresser would be so important
We then visited the remains of a Roman palace. There were so many restored mosaic floors, which had been preserved and displayed on the walls, that others were left in the current walkways around the museum. Outside the remains of the original building were open to the elements, accessible to all. I was quite stunned by the quantity, size and condition of the mosaics on display
The last part of our tour was to a Colusseum at El Jem, which appeared to be in as good condition as its more famous cousin in Rome, but a lot less busy. I had re-visited the Colusseum in Rome the previous Autumn with Annie and George on our Mediterranean Cruise, a 60th birthday present from them. Unfortunately we hadn’t had the foresight to book tickets in advance and ended up queuing for ages, before shuffling around in the midst of the crowds at lunchtime. At El Jem I was able to wander freely, to the top and down in the cellars, and felt some of the atmosphere of the place, as I had when I visited Rome many years ago.
I am sure Tunisia has more to offer than I experienced, but perhaps a cheap package to an all inclusive hotel isn’t the best way to experience it. Maybe I will return another day….but there are so many other places to visit, I am not sure when that will be.