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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