Day 7: Tunis, Tunisia

Today we arrived in our 2nd continent of the cruise, Africa. Since booking the cruise, I had been really excited about going to North Africa, since it is such a different and unique culture. Boy was it different. The night before our arrival, we received an 8.5x11 sheet of paper with instructions and warnings for our arrival in Tunisia, never seen anything like that before. Also, every time Tunisia was brought up around any of the crew members, they would start giving us advice and warnings, and they had only been there once. It seemed like Tunisia made the crew very nervous, and we were very glad that we would not be going ashore on our own.

We woke up around 8 and Mom and I went out on the verandah to check out the port. Our side of the ship was alongside the pier, and we noticed that there was a lot going on down below. Camel rides (even though there are no camels anywhere near Tunis), a Roman gladiator band, and the scariest clown I have ever seen. He waved at us, Mom waved at him, and I pretended that scary clown didn't exist. After my close run in with scary clown, we headed upstairs to Topsiders for breakfast. It was a beautiful day so we sat outside and enjoyed the great views of the area. Our excursion, Sidi Bou Said and Carthage, met at 9:45 in the Walt Disney Theatre, so we got ready and headed down to deck 4. There was a huge line to get into the theatre, since there were 7 buses worth of people going on our excursion. We were assigned to bus 38, and were quickly whisked down to the gangway. Since they have so many excursions going ashore on the Med cruises, they give you numbered stickers and use numbered signs, instead of the character stickers they use in the Caribbean.

Once we were ashore, something else interesting happened. Brent, the cruise director, and Peter, the assistant cruise director, we stopping all of the excursions going ashore to give us even more advice and warnings, this place sure makes them nervous. We avoided the clutches of the clown and were quickly herded past the camels. It turns out that it costs 10euro to ride the camel, 5euro to take a picture, and 5euro to get your camera back if you handed it to someone. These people sure know how to get there money. We passed through immigration, Tunis is the only port on the Med cruise where you need your passport and need to go through immigration, and then onto our bus.

Our first stop on the excursion was the former military harbor of Carthage, now located inside an upscale residential neighborhood. During the time of the Roman Empire, Carthage was second only to Rome, and covered an area even larger then the modern day city of Tunis. From the military harbor, we left for the Antonin Baths. The baths were absolutely incredible. The entire basement system was still intact, as was much of the original marble. The basement itself was about 20 feet tall, and above that would have been almost 90 foot tall arched ceilings. It is so cool to see all of this, and realize that the stories you hear in history class aren't just fiction, but fact. It is amazing to think that buildings that tall, and that large could have been built thousands of years ago. It is also interesting to note that the baths bordered the Mediterranean, and there were soldiers with machine guns guarding them, more signs of what an interesting place Tunisia is. Also, we were commenting on how amazing it was that they didn't charge us to use our cameras inside the ruins, like they do in Mexico, right before our guide told us that Disney included the charge to use cameras in the excursion. Man these people are good.

After about half an hour of free time, we got back on the bus and made a quick stop at the theatra. The original Carthage theatra is still in use today as a concert venue for Tunis. After that stop, we headed for the blue and white berber village of Sidi Bou Said. Our guide was kind and had the bus driver bring us closer to the village then the buses would usually go. At about this point in the excursion, we started to see what the crew had been warning us about. Sidi Bou Said was a tiny, cramped village where the driver's didn't know what a brake was. We had heard that the merchants were extremely pushy, but we didn't find this to be the case. What we did find, was that the roaming vendors were extremely pushy with their flowers, string bracelets, and postcards.

We were taken way up the hill into the village to a museum inside a former palace. The highlight of this museum was that you could climb up to the roof overlook and get an incredible view of Tunis and the Mediterranean. We were not interested in buying any of the items of questionable quality and origin in the village, so we headed back to the bus, barely escaping cars the whole way. While we were waiting for the bus to come back, I watched some interesting goings on in the cafe right by us, and noticed another way that the locals had discovered to make money off of tourists. While we were there, the Tunisian Dinar was trading about 2:1 with the Euro meaning that 1 dinar was worth .50cents in Euro. Also note that it is illegal to bring the Dinar out of the country, making exchange difficult. The cafe, and many other stores, advertised that they accepted Euro. I listened to one of the servers who had just brought two cans of coke to a table say "six" to the couple that was sitting there. So they handed him six Euro instead of six Dinar, and the server said thanks and walked away. Turns out the Tunisians take the Euro and the Dollar at a one to one exchange ratio. Once again, they know how to get there money.

Before long, our guide and the bus arrived, and we headed back to the ship. When we got off the bus at the port, Jason, the shore excursion manager, and his minions were waiting there to ask everybody how their excursions went, and to make sure nobody had any problems. I bet the crew is really hoping that they never have to go to Tunis again after this season, even though its scheduled for next year as well. We headed back through passport control, and the clown was still on the pier, so I darted by scary clown as fast as possible. Back onboard, we headed up to Topsiders for lunch, where we discovered that they were having a locally themed buffet with lamb and couscous and other assorted local dishes. During lunch we had a great conversation with Father Lazarus and his wife Monica. Father Lazarus is a priest in the Coptic orthodox church, which has roots in the Egyptian language, so we had a very cool conversation.

After lunch, I grabbed some ice cream, and then headed to the Cove Cafe to enjoy the beautiful day we were having and catch up on blog posts. We set sail at 4:00, fortunately everyone made it back to the ship, despite the clown's best efforts. I went down to the promenade to watch us sail away, and then sat in one of my favorite places on the ship, the porthole seats by Sessions. The show (Once Upon a Song) was getting ready to start in the WD Theatre, so Neville was downstairs running the wheelchair entrance. I had decided to skip the show after hearing very negative reviews in both March and the Med season. We talked for a while, before I headed back to the room to get ready for dinner at Palo.

Tomas was our server, we had him for brunch on our cruise in March. The meal was as incredible as always, and we had a great view of the sunset. I had decided to do Palo on Tunis night both because we left port in the afternoon, and so we could eat in an Italian restaurant on our way to Italy. It worked out great. The beef tenderloin was cooked perfectly, and the chocolate souffles were better then ever. Our table-mates were also eating in Palo, so we stopped by to say hi on the way out. I headed down to the room to change, and then went to Rockin' Bar D for Match Your Mate. I was really early so I talked with David and DJ Matt for a while, and then joined my friends for the show. They got a good group of people for the show, and David did an awesome job hosting. DJ Matt took over after the show, and I chatted with Jenny for a while before heading off to bed since we had an early excursion planned for Naples.

Up next: Naples, the Amalfi Coast, and Pompeii