DAY ONE(2/23): TUNIS - KAIRAWAN - SBEITLA - GAFSA
Kairawan- Water basins from Roman times and the beautiful Great Mosque which is the oldest in North Africa.
Sbeitla- Really ancient town with ancient Roman temples. It's definitely in better shape than the forum in Rome. It was really pretty. It was cool.. but it's kind of hard to describe beyond the fact that it was an ancient Roman town.
Gafsa- Where we stayed for the night in a very nice hotel... warm water and all :)
DAY TWO(2/24): GAFSA - METLAOUI - TOZEUR
Metlaoui- Red Lizard Train Ride! This train took us through a gorge which was basically this beautiful canyon/mountain. My favorite part of the whole trip was on this train ride. About 2/3's of the way through we were allowed to walk around the middle of a canyon for a little while which for some reason really impressed me. It was my favorite moment and I don't really know why.. I think it had something to do with just feeling SO unbelievably small amongst everything and how beautiful the scenery was the entire ride. But yeah, that basically sums it up.. a pretty train ride. (and the train was old)
Tozeur- We had a mini excursion/"drop-off" exercise here. Half of the group went to Dar Charait Museum and the other half went to the Chak Wak Park. The two attractions were pretty different. I went to the Dar Charait Museum which is basically displaying the lifestyle of bourgeoisie Tunisians mostly from the past. It was interesting for me especially because I pretty much have no background of the history of Tunisia so it was neat to see it displayed in front of me. ..my favorite part was the battle etc. equipment haha. Other displays were of weddings, baths, kitchen blah blah blah. (if you're really interested google it)
The second place, Chak Wak Park, was quite interesting from what I have heard. It's basically this random conglomeration of religions etc. that shows that Tunisia is welcome to all. It's kind of a paper-mache park from what everyone said. If you google that one I'm sure it will be more entertaining.
DAY THREE(2/25): TOZEUR - CHEBIKA - TAMERGHZAT - MIDES - ONG EL JEMEL -TOZEUR
(our hotel was in Tozeur)
Chebika- Oasis #1
Tamerghzat- Oasis #2
Mides- Oasis #3
Ong El Jemel- We took 4WD vehicles (aka SUVs) to all the oases and then through the desert to the Star Wars set (Ong El Jemel) and the drive to Ong El Jemel was especially exciting because our driver drove up some really steep sand dunes.. it was like a roller coaster ride but really not worth explaining except that it had a degree of thrill and certainly added to the excitement of driving through a desert.
After the Star Wars set we watched the sunset in the desert which was really pretty.
DAY FOUR(2/26): DOUZ - FARWAR
We had a long drive from Tozeur (where our hotel was) to Douz.
Douz- Market Day! we wandered around the market of Douz for awhile and some of us purchased various items. It was interesting to compare this market to the souks we have seen in Tunis and other markets that we have just stumbled upon around Tunisia.
Farwar- Camel ride! Arrival at a camp site in the desert! Okay, so I'm going to be honest here. The two goals of this excursion for me were 1) visit Star Wars set and 2) ride a camel. In short, both of these goals were completed; however, they were certainly NOT the highlights of the trip as I anticipated. The Star Wars set was cool but I kind of forgot it was 30 years old which becomes quite clear when you visit it. The camel ride was fun but short and anti-climatic. However, now I can say that I did that! Hah.. So about the camels, they're quite practical transportation around the desert I guess but fairly slow moving and really awkward with their tongue movements and foaming at the mouth. But despite this awkwardness they're rather friendly, or at least the domesticated and trained ones were that we rode.
The camp site was not the typical camp site I am used to.. the tents were heated, there was freshly cooked dinner, running water, bathrooms with flushable toilets (and toilet paper!), mattresses, beds.. it was posh camping if you ask me. Oh, and there was a bar. It was entertaining and definitely not what I had expected out of a "camp site". The highlight though was the stars at night.. we saw a few shooting stars and I thoroughly enjoyed that part of the stay.
Perhaps the most ironic part of being at the camp site is that just over a sand dune is a town of 18,000 people which also houses a hotel. So basically this camp site that you have to ride camels to in the middle of the desert is about a football field away from the main road (which we discovered the next morning when riding donkey carts to our bus) and a sand dune from a significant town. Honestly, that kind of killed the charm of "camping" in the Sahara.
DAY FIVE(2/27): MATMATA - DJERBA
Matmata- We visited a Berber ksour which sorts grain. We also went to troglodyte houses which basically resemble Luke's home with his aunt and uncle from the 4th Star Wars film (Star Wars). This was an interesting experience, but like most other things, very touristy.
Djerba- This is an island off of the East coast of Tunisia. It's nice and the southern part is much more "traditional". The contrast of cultures that has developed due to tourism is quite interesting.
DAY SIX(2/28): DJERBA
Djerba- This was a day for us to completely explore the island on our own. Luckily, I pretty much saw the entire island. I'll spare you from the complications of transportation etc. but we saw a fort, this nice beach (Flamingo Point) which was not developed by hotels yet, a long strip of beach which was developed by hotels, an American-style grocery store which really spoke to the power of tourism in this area, a cave that a man (and the generations before him) has made to extract clay to make pottery, a museum, an old fort which a pirate hid out, and an AMAZING fish restaurant which was very local and an experience in itself which made my day. Now that I look back on it, the day was great but navigation with a language barrier and little knowledge or guiding of the island made the day a little challenging. But all in all, it was an awesome experience.
DAY SEVEN(3/1): DJERBA - TUNIS
El-Ghriba Synagogue- This is the oldest synagogue in North Africa, one of the oldest in the world, and the second most holy synagogue due to the falling of a holy stone from heaven which is embedded in its walls. It also contains one of the oldest Torahs. To me, the most interesting aspect of this site was that three members of our group had attended synagogue the day before and it was fascinating to see the setting of their experience. (The service they attended was much different than that they are used to in the United States)
El Jem- This is home to an ancient colosseum which is said to be built in 230AD. It's huge, supposedly the 3rd largest Roman colosseum, and n much better (and I believe more impressive) shape than the colosseum in Rome.
HOME!
So all in all, the excursion was awesome. It was a lot of group bonding, we had interesting discussions with our advisor about what we saw/observed every night, we applied readings to what we witnessed and I learned a lot about Tunisia especially in relation to tourism which added a different, interesting, and necessary perspetive. Also, a bonus- I saw some extremely impressive/breathtaking sights. Oh, and I got to ride a camel and see where Star Wars was filmed.
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