borogove

well, it's been a while since we've written -- our lives are not as eventful now that we've settled down. but we've been taking a couple of weekend trips, and we're now in tabarka, on the northern coast a little over 3 hours west of tunis (by louage, that is-- we just found out that it's a mere 16 USD and 30 minutes by plane, which we may take to get home), not far from the algerian border. it's the best beach we've been to so far -- a curve of sand backed by green mountains, with a view of a genoese castle on a peninsula jutting out from the harbor. and not much in the way of hotel development, yet. rough guide says that tabarka is still mostly a tourist destination for tunisians rather than europeans but that it's being promoted more and more to foreigners. we haven't seen many tourists here at all, though, tunisian or otherwise. now that we've been getting closer to the supposed high season months of july and august, we've been expecting to see a lot more tourists everywhere, including in our town of sidi bou said, but there still haven't been very many at all.

although the beach here in tabarka hasn't been too crowded, the ones near sidi bou said have been full of people, most of whom are tunis area residents. tunisians young and old, male and female, seem to love the beach, though the dominant demographic is young men who come in big groups and kick around soccer balls or throw each other in the water. we've seen a fair number of young women, some of whom go swimming fully clothed, jeans and head scarves included. but enough of them wear bathing suits that i feel comfortable wearing mine.


tabarka's also meant to have some of the best diving and snorkelling in the mediterranean, so tomorrow we're going on a boat trip so that serge can do some of the former while i do some of the latter. and just so that we would be sure not to get too tired of the sea, today we took a quick trip up into the mountains just behind us, to a hill station built as a hunting retreat by the french, called ain draham. our rides through this part of the country have made us feel like we were back in italy -- lots of green hills, cypresses, and olive trees -- as well as vast fields of sunflowers, which we'd hoped to see in italy but hadn't. and up at the top of the hills in ain draham we walked through forests of cork trees.

we've also gotten in some viewings of roman and punic ruins, at dougga, utica, and carthage.


the sightseeing's been lots of fun and all, but i must admit that my favorite activity is hanging out at the cafe sidi chabaane just up the hill from our apartment in sidi bou said. the cafe consists of a series of whitewashed terraces built into the side of a cliff overlooking the harbor and seems to draw men and women of all ages for tea, coffee, coke, and hookahs. i think it's what i'll miss most about life here.