All right, what did we do today? I have no idea, but I am sure it was fantastic. How could it be anything else? Unless it was amazing or perhaps super fantastic. Time to scroll through my photos and refresh my memory. Please hold.

Ok, I’m back.  It was super fantastic! We took 4x4s again up into the Atlas Mountains. (Honestly, I think the bus could have made it through 98% of the roads, but variety is good. Also our bus has very dark tinted windows which are great for blocking the sun, but not so great for enjoying the view.)  Our goal was to see the mountain oasis. What is the plural of oasis? My phone doesn’t like anything I tried. Oasises, oasi? Actually, I don’t like any of those options either. I digress.

First stop: Chebika, a charming mountain village nestled in the lush green mountain oasis. Well, the village was charming until it was destroyed by floods in 1969. Now it is abandoned, but not like a Western Ghost Town. There are too many tourists and rock sellers for that. It is just unoccupied. We had an excellent and exquisite and exhilarating little hike through the rocky mountains to get a view of the palm trees and waterfall. Now, I am not going to mention how many times I fell behind the group because I was busy taking selfies and took the completely wrong (i,e. non-existent) path and then had to double back and ask the rock sellers how do I get over there. Nope, not going to mention that at all. What I will tell you is that I kept buying rocks, a geode, some fossils. I stuck with the under 5 Dinar rocks, but my suitcase is going to be heavy with rocks and ceramics. I don’t know why they have so many heavy souvenirs in this country!

I have no words to describe the feeling of walking through a mountain pass and seeing palm trees and waterfall (it left me speechless), so I guess I should move on. Move on to the popsicles! Do you know how refreshing a lemon popsicle is after a sweaty hike through the mountains? Very!

Still three days behind on writing this, so gotta move on.

Next stop is where I was supposed to be able to see Algeria 2km in the distance. Alas, once again, I was too busy taking selfies to listen to my guide, so I didn’t realize I missed Algeria until later. I don’t even know which direction it was! Oops.  What might you ask was I enthralled with taking pictures of? A canyon! Like a mini Tunisian Grand Canyon. And, you know what? Not a guard rail to be seen! One wrong step, and you’d be a goner. So not safe! I love it! Guard rails ruin pictures of nature. We were a bit rushed here, so I didn’t get as many photos as I would have liked, but they were quality photos nevertheless. There were some palm trees nearby, so this also qualifies as a mountain oasis.

The 3rd mountain oasis was a cute little waterfall inside a wider canyon, but this one we were able to go down some stairs and walk in the bottom of the canyon. There were giant sandbags in the stream so that we could cross it without getting wet. Do you know what the biggest miracle here was? I left without buying a single rock! Did you hear that noise? That was my suitcase breathing a sigh of relief. 

All too soon it was time to go back to town for lunch and a walk around town.  This town, Tozeur, is famous for its yellow bricks. There are only three families that still make them, and everyone who lives here is required to have at least 30% of the facade of their house as yellow brick. Personally, I hate the red bricks on the front of my house. I think I would like the bricks a lot more if they were yellow bricks from Tozeur instead, especially if they were sticking out in a fancy pattern like they do over here. They aren’t in a boring brick wall pattern. I don’t know if there are different sized bricks or if they just have a special way to make them stick out to make the wall 3D instead of just flat. Also, some are horizontal, and some are vertical. It’s quite pretty. I didn’t see any brick stores, so I don’t know what the going rate for a brick is around here. Can you imagine how heavy my suitcase would be if I brought home bricks along with all of my rocks?

That just about wraps up day 6 in Tunisia. Bye for now.

Love,

thetwinsontour

PS. It’s been a few days since we reminded you to like our pages on Facebook (thetwinsontour), Instagram (the_twins_on_tour), and TikTok (thetwinsontour). I forgot to post any videos there yet, but you should be prepared for when I do! If you liked it previously, you will have to like it again. They kick you off if you don’t open TikTok for over a year, so I just got my name back.

Today we headed to the wilds of the Sahara. They loaded us up into 4×4 Toyota SUVs, and off we went, caravan style, 6 little ducks in a row. The Sahara begins here in Tunisia and then spreads to Algeria and Morocco. Douz, the town we were in, is known as the Gateway to the Sahara for that reason.  Judging by the modifications to the Toyotas–interior roll bars and curtains all around–I thought we might get wild and crazy. But, nope. We didn’t even race the other cars–just drove at a nice, sedate pace to a scenic view with tiny dunes. Scenic view = lots of selfies! Also, lots of sand in my shoes from trying to climb some of the dunes.  I got more sand in my shoes than there is sand in the entire Sahara Desert.  After about 15 minutes or so, it was back to the vehicles for more sedate driving through the sand to our lunch location. Then it was back to the vehicles to take a shorter route on paved roads back to the hotel.

Actually, while at lunch, they showed us how they make bread by burying it in the ground. It’s a round bread the size of a large pizza. They have a  smoldering pile of ashes in a fire pit. After digging a little hole, they just toss that puppy directly into the ashes and cover it up.  I didn’t mention a pan or a jar or any other cooking vessel because there isn’t one. Just the bread dough and the smoldering ashes.  It takes about 20 minutes to cook.  Watching buried bread cook is a bit like watching paint dry, so they sent us in to eat lunch. Unfortunately, this means that I missed the unearthing of the bread. I don’t know if they just wipe it off with their hands, if they give it a good shake, if they have a can of air to squirt on it, if they blow on it, or if they just leave the clinging ashes to it for extra flavor. It’s a very dense bread, but soft and fresh because it’s fresh out of the ground/oven. I did notice some random grit to it, but I don’t know if that was ash on the bread, sand in the dough, or remnants of sand I got in my mouth from climbing on sand dunes and letting sand blow all over me. 

Another interesting part here is this– along the highway were sand dunes. On top of those dunes were reed fences. The dunes were all so nicely placed that they seemed man made. Guess what? They are! The Sahara is growing– at a rate of 1 km per year? Not sure about that number. But, wind blows, sand flies. Sand even makes it across the Mediterranean to cover cars in Italy. So, the dunes are meant to block the blowing sand. And the reed fences are made of palm fronds, so totally biodegradable! Not sure how much it really helps considering that the dunes themselves are made of sand that can blow…. And, the roads are covered in sand, too. But you gotta do what you gotta do to slow the desertification.

And then we were on the road again. We did drive through the salt flats that used to be an ocean. The highway crosses right through it. It’s not like the salt flats in Bolivia at all. It rained a few days earlier, so there were some wet spots where you could see the salt. However, I think without rain, it would look just like the desert.  The only difference if you are paying attention is that there is not a single plant growing there, and the rest of that area has a lot of brush growing. They do extract the salt. It is used as table salt and as road salt in Europe.

And that sums up day 5! Now we are only 3 days behind! Can we get caught up? Probably not. You know us!

Love,

thetwinsontour

Today is the day we have been waiting for for over a year! Star Wars Day! We decided to buy Star Wars shirts (a tragedy that we did not already own Star Wars shirts, but now this sad situation has been rectified forevermore) so that we could be properly attired and give the occasion the respect and consideration it deserves. If anything is meritious of a new shirt, it is definitely visiting Star Wars sights of Tunisia. This is way cooler than sitting on top of a pyramid in Guatemala that was in Star Wars for about 3 seconds while some x-wing fighters flew over the top of it.

First stop: Tataouine! They just changed the spelling to Tatooine in the movies, but it is the inspiration for the birthplace of Anakin Skywalker! Future Darth Vader!  I think the name is the only Star Wars draw because that’s all we did there–stop at the city limit sign for pictures.  The guide said that we were making a quick stop for anyone interested. I was the first one off the bus, having raced down the aisle shouting ME! He’s talking about ME! As far as road signs go, this one is pretty epic! We did go into town and walk around a bit. I bought a cute leather purse for only 35 Dinars ($11.06). I probably should have bought the made in China pencil pouch that said Tataouine, but I did not.

Next stop was some non Star Wars sights. Who cares, right? I guess I’ll tell you anyways. Chenini is an old (mostly abandoned) Berber village built into the side of a mountain. It is quite impressive and picturesque.  But enough about that.

For lunch, we went to Ksar Hedada, where scenes from Phantom Menace were filmed in 1997. It is the town of Mos Espa on the planet of Tatooine in the movie.   So that one with Anakin Skywalker as a kid and Jar Jar Binks. We ate lunch in a little restaurant, and then only had a few minutes afterward to get some pictures. They have actually converted some of the rooms to hotel rooms. Too bad we didn’t stay there! The rooms are literally just a bed. There’s a public toilet and shower for your bathroom needs. 

They do charge 2 Dinars entrance if you just want to go and walk around. Honestly, they are not living up to their full potential. They had a broken R2D2 cement statue, and my sister found 2 Darth Vader masks for us to pose with, but that’s all the Star Wars they had! No souvenirs. No cardboard cutouts of Chewbaca. No storm troopers patrolling the grounds. It was anticlimactic. That did not stop us from getting all the pictures, but it could have been so much more. Just imagine hiding from Storm Troopers while trying to get the perfect photos. That would be exhilarating. Clearly, I need to take over their marketing and entertainment. The ideas in my head are brilliant and astonishing.

The next stop was actually just a potty stop, but it  is the Holy Grail of all the Star Wars sights! No, not the Millennium Falcon–the home of Luke Skywalker’s Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru! Yes! That house where Luke told Uncle Owen the new R2 unit was broken and talking about Obi Wan Kenobi. AND WE WERE THERE! RIGHT IN THE COURTYARD OF UNCLE OWEN AND AUNT BERU! It is in the Tunisian village of Matmâta in a traditional adobe home that is actually a hotel. We could have slept in Luke Skywalker’s home! I think our tour company really messed up on this!

Like I said, it is a hotel. I didn’t see any rooms, but  I am sure that they are just as basic (meaning bed only) as the rooms at The Phantom Menace place. For those of you planning your epic Star Wars vacation, it is called Hotel Sidi Driss. It still has elements from the movie set, and they do play the Star Wars music as you walk into the courtyard. They also have a Storm Trooper costume laying in one of the rooms and paintings of the characters all around.  And a pet cat named Chewbaca! However, it’s now set up as a bar and the hotel restaurant.  But again, it could be so much more. I recommend that you take your own light sabers with you because the ones that they dug up for me and my sister to have an epic light saber battle with did not light up anymore.

We did find magnets outside with a picture of the courtyard for only 5 Dinars. Unfortunately, he only had 4 of them, and we did not have time for the shop owner to go rummaging through the entire store to find more.

Our last stop of the day was another non Star Wars stop. Disappointing, I know.  However, I think it would make a great movie location for a future Star Wars movie. It was a troglodyte home–really cool looking. Really, troglodyte is a cool sounding word. It is a Berber home, with multiple rooms built into soft rock and cliffs. Fascinating, really.

Well, I think I have seen too much to remember anything, so that is all. Time for a new day and a new adventure!

May The Force Be With You

or in Español, Que la fuerza te acompañe

thetwinsontour

It was a beautiful day in Tunisia today with a high around 80 degrees and the sun shining bright. Today we drove all over the island of Djerba. We didn’t leave the hotel until 9 am, so we got up early to go check out the beach. Nothing can keep thetwinsontour away from the beach. Like a moth to a flame, we are there. The sand here is a bit whiter than in Tunis, but also has lots of dried sea leaves all over the place. It’s still pretty soft and amazing to sink your feet into. 

The “D” in Djerba is actually silent. I have no idea why this is.  Something about going from Arabic to French and maybe something else in between. While you are reading this, I need you to say Jerba in your head when you see Djerba.  Thank you. 

It is olive season right now, so there’s lots of people out harvesting them. In Tunisia, they do this all by hand! Can you imagine? No machines.  We stopped and “helped” a family for a while.  The first step is to put a plastic mesh tarp around the bottom of the tree. Most of harvesting is done standing on the ground, but they do have ladders for the taller trees.  Then you and your family stand around the tree and run your hands over the branches, knocking all the olives to the ground. You can also use a little plastic rake similar to one you used in the sandbox as a kid.  You just run that rake over the branches as fast as you can. All the olives fall to the ground, and I guess I don’t know what you do with all of the olives once they land on the plastic tarp. Eventually, the olives wind up as olive oil, very fine olive oil. It is such good quality that Italian companies will buy it and then mix it with Italian olive oil and claim it as their own. I guess the moral of that story is to just buy Tunisian olive oil at the grocery store because authentic Italian olive oil isn’t any good?  This area of Tunisia only grows olives for olive oil, not to eat.  The olives are much smaller than olives we eat.  Most of the harvesting is done by the family, but if they need to hire someone, the going rate is 50 Dinars per day ($16)  and 60-70 ($19-22) for an experienced, master olive picker. I am not going to make my fortune picking olives.

We also went to a pottery factory. I bought a few things, but I did not learn any new life skills while there. They did have some adorable camels there, too, which amazingly enough liked to drink water out of plastic bottles. I always thought camels didn’t need water? (Actually, they are dromendaries, and not camels.)

After that, it was the Jewish synagogue of Djerba. I don’t think I have ever been inside a synagogue before. This one was decorated with very pretty tiles on the walls. Tunisia is 98% Muslim, so it is less than 2% Jewish. Most of the Jewish population lives on Djerba, and they always have since the beginning of time.

We went to walk around the old Jewish quarter too. The main draw here is the artwork on the buildings. I am hesitant to call it grafitti because its not really. It is more like murals.  They had some artists come in about 10 years ago and paint some of the houses. Then the rest of the town got jealous, so they came back a few years later for round 2. It was quite pretty to walk around.  

And finally! We got to shop! We opted to have a quick fast food lunch.  I guess that word choice is redundant, but I don’t care. We went to this little place and pointed at a piece of bread, and then the guy just started loading stuff up on it. There was some mayo, lettuce, onions, probably chicken, and a slice of processed cheese just like Kraft singles to top it off. Then he popped it in the oven to heat it up and melt the cheese. It was quite delicious!  And economical!  Which is a good thing considering the shopping purchases I made later.  We paid less than 9 Dinar each for our sandwiches and a can of Coke.  That is $2.85.  And the sandwich was too big for me to finish!  What a deal!

Shopping is stressful in Tunisia because you have to bargain. Some of the prices are just ridiculous. Case in point–my sister picked out a magnet and asked the price. When my sister’s eyes bulged out of her head at the 25 Dinars (over $8), he immediately dropped to 10 Dinars ($3). My sister still declined and started to walk away. The man said, how much do you want to pay. Shrewd negotiator that I am, I immediately said 5 Dinars! And the man said ok. 5 Dinars was the price they were marked outside the shop…. Why on earth do I have to negotiate fixed prices to get the fixed price? Arghhhhhhh….. Anyways, we wandered around for a while and gave up on buying souvenirs, and just headed for the jewelry shop. Where we proceeded to buy silver filigree jewelry that looks an awful lot like the stuff we bought in Macedonia (due to both being part of the Turkish Ottoman empire), but we didn’t let that bother us and said here’s my credit card!

We had just enough time at the end of the day to put our flip-flops on and head to the beach again. Because really, can anyone ever really get enough beach time?

And, that’s enough for now because we are way, way, way behind.  There’s just so much to do every day that it’s impossible to find the time.  Well, maybe I would have enough time if I didn’t have an addiction to scrolling through Instagram when I should be writing.

Love,

thetwinsontour

We just found out at breakfast that our hotel was right on the beach.  Oops! However, in our defense, we were way too tired to do anything except nap the afternoon that we arrived and yesterday we were gone all day chasing Roman Ruins, so there was really no chance to go to the beach yet.  But we sure did rectify that situation right after breakfast. Nothing except naps and Roman Ruins can keep thetwinsontour away from the beach!

This may have been the softest sand I have ever sank my toes in. Just like velvet. It felt amazing! The water was a little chilly, yet refreshing on my feet. Of course, I only submerged my feet because it was 58 degrees outside, and my suitcase was already sent on to our next destination last night.  But what a great way to spend the morning! thetwinsontour never, ever pass up an opportunity to visit the beach. Tunisia is on the Mediterranean for those of you that haven’t Googled it yet, and you know who you are!

Next stop, Sidi Bou Said (which I probably spelled wrong, but I am currently on airplane mode), the blue city of Tunisia. It is all blue and white buildings similar to Santorini, Greece. It is really an Instagram paradise with all the blue doors and white buildings. Needless to say, we took millions of photos. At least we tried to, but there were a gazillion people in our way.  And the sun was intense! I tried to use the erase shadows function on my phone (Samsung users know what I mean), but there were so many shadows that my phone didn’t know what to do. 

Do you want to know the most tragic thing that happened to us today? We saw people walking around with giant (i.e. delicious) donuts, and we walked past the beignet shop that was frying them up fresh. I wanted one so bad, but we had just finished lunch, which included a giant serving of ice cream for dessert. I was so stuffed that there was no way I could eat a giant beignet. Amateurs, I know. I am sorry to disappoint you like that. 

We tried to do some quick shopping on the way to the bus. We had passed a place with thousands of beautiful magnets, but when he starts the price for the super fancy one at 45 Dinars (17 dollars) you know it is not going to go well at all.  We went down to smaller magnets which he agreed gave us “a very good price” of 45 Dinars for 3.  Obviously, we walked away with no magnets from that crazy man. And he did not even chase us down the sidewalk shouting lower prices like they usually do.  Luckily we found a spot with 2 Dinars, 3 Dinars, and 5 Dinars magnets, so we did not leave the blue city empty handed! There are 3.1 Dinars to the dollar. 

Next stop the airport.  Our flight was originally supposed to leave at 3pm, but it got pushed back to 6pm. Luckily we found out the day before rather than after we arrived at the airport.  This is why we had time to dip our toes in the Mediterranean this morning.  Of course, we are headed to a beach resort hotel on the Mediterranean, so we were supposed to do that this afternoon.  But it’s all good.  It’s just an hour flight on a fairly small regional airplane with 2×2 seats.  (side note, I smell cigarette smoke right now. Someone is smoking on this plane!)

The regional flights check in at a different desk in the back of the airport. Then you sit down and you wait. And you wait some more. The cigarette smoke smell oozes out of the smoking lounge so the whole waiting area smells like eau de cigarette. And it was also a million degrees.  They didn’t allow us to the gate until after 5:40 where we had to go through passport control. The good news is that they let you have water bottles! I think that is because it was a regional flight.   Then we stood around waiting some more. I kept seeing a bus drive by, but they never opened the gate. Finally they asked for rows 1-10 to come board (Row 2 baby!). We were at the back of the pack, which is actually a good thing when you are loading a bus. Last on, first off! And do you know what? The bus ride lasted less than a minute. The plane was only about 100 steps from the gate.  Yes, they totally made us get on a bus instead of walking to the plane. Our 6pm flight took off about 6:35, so we are now en route to Djerba, where our bus driver and luggage will meet us. Since it’s such a small plane, they bussed our luggage to Djerba instead of us all trying to check luggage. This was all a bit confusing at first, but then after experiencing this side of the airport, it all makes sense. 

We should be landing in about 20 minutes, so that’s all I’ve got for today.

Love,

thetwinsontour

What a busy day we had! We are in country number 79 for those of you keeping track. Tunisia! Interestingly, the capital is Tunis, and in Arabic they call both the capital and the country by the same name of Tunis. I don’t know why we shake things up in English. 

First stop–The Bardo Museum, which is actually pretty fantastic.  We were rushed! The museum is housed in an old palace, so some rooms rival the star attraction. Anyways, it is a museum of ancient Roman mosaics from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Just breathtaking! And they are 2,000 years old! We just don’t make stuff that lasts that long anymore, except plastic water bottles. I am sure our guide told us some very important stuff about the mosaics, but I was too busy taking pictures to pay attention.  But you probably knew that already.  

We arrived yesterday at about 2pm.  We didn’t get any money out of the ATM. Then, we decided to take a nap instead of walking to the mall behind the hotel to go to the ATM.  So what this means is that we had NO local currency for our morning activities. None! This is important because our next stop was the medina of Tunis. Of course, we were speed walking through the souk, so even if I had money to shop, we would not have had time to stop. There was barely time to snap a few photos. Most distressing! On all counts!

Don’t worry! We got some Dinars finally! There was an ATM right by the restaurant we ate lunch at. We opted for spaghetti. Last week I saw a video on Instagram that Tunisians are second only to Italians for the most plates of pasta consumed annually. So, that means spaghetti is practically Tunisian food! At least this stuff was– it had a bit of kick to it! It tasted nothing like Ragu out of a jar. It was definitely spiced up with some red pepper, not so spicy that it made your eyes water, so low on the spice scale, but definitely not plain tomato.

After lunch we went to Carthage.  The real Carthage, not the one in Missouri.  Did you know Carthage is in Tunisia? Hannibal (the General, not the town in Missouri) and his elephants were from Carthage!  Carthage was originally built by the Phoenicians a long, long time ago. Then the Romans came along and destroyed it in 146 BC. The only Phoenician structures to survive the Romans were underground– tombs and things. The Romans were here for a few hundred years. I think they were overthrown by the Vandals? Or I may have made that up. But, Islam did not take over the country until the year 698, so that might be right. I should really pay more attention to our tour guide instead of taking selfies. Who am I trying to kid? We all know that ain’t happening!

After that, it was time for more  Roman Ruins! Specifcally, Roman baths!  Les Thermes D’Antonin (that sounds so much more exotic than the Antonin Baths) were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Sight in 1979.  They were started in the second century AD under the emperor Hadrian (of Hadrian’s Wall fame)  and completed under the emperor Antoninus Pius. I don’t remember learning anything about that guy in school, so these baths may be the only thing he did. Only the lower level still exists, so you will have to take my word for it that they are baths.  Do you want to know a secret? Ok, it is not a secret at all to our faithful followers, but THETWINSONTOUR LOVE ROMAN RUINS! They are just so Roman! We love Roman Ruins almost as much as PBJ! Well, maybe not that much.  We love Roman Ruins almost as much as we love Black Friday shopping at Kohl’s. Well, maybe not that much.  Roman Ruins are definitely in our top 10 loves for sure, though.  

Do you know what the Romans used to feed the water to the baths? If you guessed aqueducts, give yourself a special treat, like an ice cream cone, for being so clever.  If you didn’t guess aqueducts, get yourself a book about the Romans and study up.  There will be a quiz later.  The aqueducts were our last stop of the day. Aqueducts are probably our favorite genre of Roman Ruins.  Who doesn’t love a good aqueduct? The section that we saw was at the very end, so they were quite short. They end at a bunch of reservoirs which are not nearly as photogenic.

And that pretty much sums up day 1 in Tunisia.

Love,

thetwinsontour

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