Month: October 2024

In between boat projects, we managed to sneak in a few day trips to explore Tunisia. Sousse is only an hour away by train and includes an incredible viewing of the flamingoes in the salt marsh.

The Medina in Sousse is bigger and more impressive than Monastir. The first vender we came across had snails for sale. With unemployment so high in the country, young Tunisian men are taking to harvesting and selling snails. They’re plentiful and much cheaper per kilogram than other proteins, even chicken.

Though I swore I wouldn’t do it, we found a small store on the outskirts of the Medina with a no-pressure sales pitch, and we wound up with a small rug for the house.

Little did I know I would eventually come back for this rug (formerly a Berber bridal shawl called a bakhnoug) for a price so good I’m not allowed to say : )…

Sousse is known for their museums, but we only had time for one, so we picked the Archeological Museum.

Like the Roman villa museum in El Djem, we were blown away by the mosaics.

One of our particular favorites was a highly decorative baptismal font. We were impressed to see that it had been discovered near the ruins of a church and removed and restored.

Every Sunday the cruisers in the Monastir Marina gather for a BBQ. You bring what you’d like to grill and a side dish to share. This means I hit up the Monastir market Sunday morning to see what’s available.

Everything is local – you have your choice of seafood (I particularly like the shrimp and tuna), chicken, beef or lamb (the merguez sausage is quite nice). No pork products are available here, it’s a Muslim country.

I get back to the boat and prep the protein, and then figure out a side dish – some days it’s a salad and other times it’s dessert. Again, you shop at the local market, so everything is local and seasonal – it’s been a good test of how to use product that I’m not familiar with, or are out of practice with. So far my favorites have been an herbed farro with preserved lemon, and ‘Tunisian snickers bars’ (I stuff dates with peanut butter and chocolate).

A few of the cruisers arrive early to get the bbq going and set up tables and chairs.

We pass the hat and collect 1 dinar (30 cents) per person to pay for charcoal.

And then we feast. And drink. And talk.

And then the cats turn up. They know where there are bound to be good leftovers….

To go along with my “Cats of…..” collection. More on this later, as the Tunisian cats have a special place in my heart.

All of us bundle up old clothes and shoes and take them off to bins for recycling, right? Ever wondered what happens to those things? Every year, thousands of containers of discarded clothing and shoes arrive in Tunisia. Some of it are discarded things from individual homes, while some are last season’s cast off having never been sold or worn.

You’ll see table tops filled with items as you walk down the street in town, but for the truly adventurous we head down to Port de Peche on Friday or Saturday, where the tables go on and on and it’s easy to get lost. Some of it can be total junk, but some of it can be an absolute treasure. Trip has new jeans and a cashmere sweater courtesy of one visit, and I’ve scored more than one Italian leather handbag. I don’t do fur for ethical reasons, but if I did this would be the place to shop for vintage pieces! And it’s not just limited to clothing and shoes. There’s plenty of household goods, fruits, vegetables, and even yarn available.

And if the idea of thrifting isn’t your style, there are lots of new options too….

I love the tiles that we see everywhere in the Mediterranean, and I really wanted to either bring some home for the house in NJ, or add them to the boat somehow. Most are much too large to use on the boat, but then I came across some smaller ones in one of the tourist shops in Monastir.

They’d make the perfect backsplash in the galley. I brought home one to test it out, and then went back to the shop to buy the rest of the tiles that he had in stock.

Of course if it had been up to me, I would have slapped the tiles on with whatever glue available and been done with the project. Not so with Mr. Perfectionist, Trip. The surface was carefully measured and cleaned first.

The tiles were then carefully laid out and readjusted till we were both happy with the placement. Then I numbered each tile on the back while Trip prepared the silicone. One by one, the tiles went on. I was extremely happy with the results and the pop of color that we had in the galley now. Of course Trip wasn’t done, and fabricated a small teak cap when we were home, so now it is complete. A souvenir from our time in Tunisia!

We had been scheduled to do a two day tour out into the Sahara, but the tour bus never showed up for a 5 AM departure, ugh. We had no other plans (and I wasn’t in the mood for more boat work), so we rented a car to do a day’s worth of sight seeing.

El Djem is less than two hours away from Monastir. The main attraction of the town is the famous Roman amphitheater built in 238 AD. With a capacity of 35,000 spectators, it’s one of the largest and best preserved buildings of its kind in the world.

Unlike the Colosseum in Rome, but similar to the one in Pula that we visited last season, in this amphitheater there really aren’t crowds in this place, and you have it mostly to yourself. Despite erosion and some destruction, things are well preserved and you can envision the spectator events that were held here.

As with any major structure that has survived thousands of years, it’s had more than one use. Along with hosting events, the amphitheater was believed to have served as a fortress and housed the population during attacks of the Vandals and Arabs in 430 and 647. It was even used for saltpeter manufacturing and grain storage in later years.

In more recent history the amphitheater has been used for movie sets. We had just re-watched Life of Brian, filmed mostly in the Monastir Ribat. A few of the scenes were shot here as well.

Though I watched it at the time, I didn’t remember that an episode of the Amazing Race ended in this very amphitheater.

We had extra time after visiting the ampitheatre, so we headed over to the El Djem Museum. The museum is on the site of one of many Roman villas that existed in the area. As artifacts have been discovered, they have been moved to this central location for preservation and display.

The mosaics of the time were simply exquisite, and were on display everywhere we looked. One particular display showed how the mosaics were preserved and lifted to be displayed in other places (ie. On the wall of a museum rather than the original villa floor).

As the museum is on the site of a former villa, you can move from room to room, getting an idea of life during Roman times.

The museum even includes an archeological park of sorts – the ruins of three additional villas whose footprints you can explore.

We walk past the Monastir Ribat every time we walk into town to run errands or have a meal, each time saying that we really need to visit. Our time was running short before we were due to fly out, so we picked a sunny day and off we went.

A ribat is an Islamic defensive structure, or fortress, and this one is one of the oldest, largest and best preserved in the country. First built in 796AD during the Maghreb dynasty, it was expanded and modified over the centuries to incorporate military innovations, as well as for use as a monastery.

Inside the ribat is a museum with religious artifacts from all over the country.

We trekked up a narrow, claustrophobic set of stairs of the central tower, to be rewarded with a spectacular view of the waterfront.

We had known that the ribat was the set for the Monty Python movie Life of Brian, so we watched the movie the night before we went, and then again after our visit. It was fun to see how the entire fortress had been transformed for different scenes from the movie.

Following are some pictures of what we encounter on a daily basis in Monastir, Tunisia.

Welcome to Cap Marina in lovely Monastir, Tunisia. This is our berth for the winter season. It’s a huge change from the fancy mega-yacht marina of Porto Montenegro, but at 1/4 the price, it’s more our style. We were helped into our berth by one of the marineros, Mohannet, and went off to manage the clearing in process. Similar to Morocco, it’s a tedious process between the Garde Nationale (Coast Guard), Immigration, and Duane (Customs), that takes a few hours. It doesn’t help being sleep deprived, but you get it done.

We took a long nap to recover until the early afternoon. Then, when we were feeling refreshed, our friend, Janine, collected us and took us on a logistics tour of town. A new experience for us, we had met several cruisers in Malta and they were all wintering in Monastir. Normally we would have to figure everything out ourselves, but there’s nothing like having a friend to show you where the local cell phone store is for a SIM card, grocery store, ATMs, and most importantly where the best milk shakes are in town!

The walk to and from town takes you along some beautiful beaches, and right through local history, passing the ribat (fortress) and mausoleum of revered former leader Bourguiba.

The mausoleum of Habib Bourguiba