borogove

sabrina here. so after that second sandstorm, i decided i'd had enough of the arid south and we headed to the coast. (you may or may not recall that serge mentioned we'd be going to tataouine to see the berber settlements that served as models in some of the star wars movies. well, we didn't.) on the way to the port city of mahdia, we stopped at el jem, which boasts a colosseum that's smaller but better preserved than the one in rome. mahdia didn't have the beach we'd been hoping for (still-cold water and greyish sand littered with both garbage and lots of furry brown balls from the ocean), but the sea breeze was quite a relief. the medina is small and beautiful, surrounded by rocky shores and blue-green mediterranean water. and filled with weavers of shawls, blankets, and headbands. the city was about to host a silk festival, although we didn't stay for it. we did poke around one weaver's workshop, and he showed us the silk bridal robe he was crafting, which will sell for about 320 USD. patterns in the fabric are made by stepping on various combinations of the 8 or so pedals on the loom, which then lift or lower different strands of thread. the appropriate spool of thread is then pushed along a runner (sort of like the ridge on a blackboard that holds the erasers) between the upper and lower strands to get to the other side. ok, that probably wasn't a very illustrative explanation -- just know that it was way cool. the weaver was also a very nice man who didn't once ask us to purchase anything. so we went back later and got a silk shawl for my mom.

after 2 nights in mahdia, we took the commuter train up to sousse, arguably the country's premiere tourist destination. prior to coming to this region, we hadn't seen a ton of tourists -- mostly tunisian and/or other arabic-speaking tourists in tozeur, plus french and german tour groups in matmata and ksar ghilane. in mahdia and sousse, though, we've seen tons of sun-starved brits and russians, in addition to the ubiquitous french and germans. people never, ever ask us if we're american -- they usually ask serge if he's german, italian, or spanish (or, once, lithuanian!). and of course they think i'm japanese -- though i can't say we've seen many japanese folks.

despite all the tourists, though, sousse was a fun place, as it's a bustling, cosmopolitan city where tunisians are just as likely to be sitting on the beach and in the cafes as are europeans. it also has a beautiful medina, in which we saw our first mosque courtyard (which is as far as non-muslims are allowed to go into a mosque, if that) as well as a restored funduq (the inns at which caravans would stop for the night).

in sousse we also decided to upgrade our living arrangements, indulging in a 28 USD room (we'd been staying in 15- to 20- USD places), which we were very excited about until serge discovered the many mosquitoes lying in wait for us. he spent all night doing battle with them, killing at least 20 and leaving one particularly bloody corpse smeared across our dresser mirror for the management to see.


what we were most excited about coming to sousse for, however, was the Hong Kong restaurant mentioned in the Rough Guide as one of just a handful of chinese restaurants in the entire country. we've loved tunisian food so far, but it's been 3 weeks. and i'm always curious about chinese food in other countries, which, up to this point, has never been difficult to find. so after a roundabout tour of the beach hotels near the restaurant address, we finally found it on a small side street. and it was closed. out of business. it took me a while to recover from that disappointment; 45 minutes later we ended up at La Fiesta, whose claim to being a spanish restaurant was the presence of paella on the menu. alas. we'll just have to seek out those other 4 chinese places and hope for the best.

the next afternoon, we set off for kairouan, one of the holiest cities in the muslim world. while here, we're also planning to take a day trip to the village of ain jelloula, where serge's friend katherine spent her peace corps years. we've brought pictures of katherine and serge together to help us track down her old friends, even though we don't have their addresses (katherine did give serge instructions on how to find their houses, but he can't remember them).


we've also finally made our plans for getting ourselves to tuscany to meet serge's friends for a week in a villa. our original plan had been to take the ferry to sardinia, cross sardinia, take a ferry to corsica and cross corsica, and then take a ferry to the mainland, but alas, that grand adventure will not come to pass. we weren't able to find a ferry that goes from tunisia to sardinia, so instead we'll be taking one directly to the mainland, near rome.

we've also got some volunteer opportunities lined up for when we return from italy -- at a school for the handicapped and at the red crescent. so things are shaping up nicely.