Tunisia

March 2023
A 10-day adventure by Selin Read more
  • 9footprints
  • 1countries
  • 10days
  • 52photos
  • 2videos
  • 782kilometers
  • Day 1

    Monastir

    March 3, 2023 in Tunisia ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    After the evening flight, we took a taxi to the accommodation which was directly at the Monastir Harbour. We went for drinks in a bar next door and met a lonely local guy whose birthday it was who kept us there. We had a great conversation with him about his past. Unfortunately he was not doing well as his ex girlfriend left him. He was always saying that he still loves and respects her but didn't tell us why they seperated

    Next day we walked around in Monastir and visited also the Ribat of Monastir and took the train to Sousse in the late afternoon. Something which was really surprising to me was that the train only costed us 1 dinar per persom which is equivalent to 30 cents.
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  • Day 2

    Sousse

    March 4, 2023 in Tunisia ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    We walked around in Sousse and also visited nearby beaches.

    Sousse didn't impress me as a city itself but people were nice. My boyfriend went to a barber shop and got a new haircut and let his beard cut. The guy spoke perfectly German, he learned all from his clients. There was also a guy from Poland with who I had a conversation about Tunesia as he visited the country already several times.

    We drunk some tea and left, walked around in the Souk and went to a shisha Cafe afterwards. We also ate the best couscous we had in Tunesia.
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  • Day 3

    Kairouan

    March 5, 2023 in Tunisia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    We only did a daytrip to Kairouan from Sousse and took louages (Tunesian shared taxis). It was very easy to get one to go and return from Kairouan.

    Kairouan definitely has the nicest Medina I have seen in Tunesia but the locals were really annoying. They're trying to sell you all the time carpets. I don't remember how many times they recommended us the carpet shop in the town hall.

    We also visited the grand mosque.
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  • Day 4

    El Jem and the chaotic public transport

    March 6, 2023 in Tunisia ⋅ 🌬 21 °C

    The original plan was to take the earliest train from Sousse to El Jem, to see the amphitheater there and take the afternoon train to Tozeur but everything went differently.

    We took the train at 8.50am from Sousse to El Jem and arrived there around 10 am. In El Jem there is literally nothing to do and see than the amphitheater. We took a ticket and visited the amphitheater very slowly. Our train was supposed to come at 1.30pm so after we still had plenty of time.

    While having a coffee I talked to a local and he told me that he doesn't know from any train which goes directly to Tozeur therefore we went around noon to doublecheck about the train.

    At the train we found out that our train is for 4 hours minimum delayed. We decided then to go to Sfax which got recommended by locals and try to take a louage from there to Tozeur.
    Easy said but not done.

    We went to the louage Station and the drivers told us that there are only louages to Sousse. We definitely didn't want to go back there as it is not even on the way to Tozeur. We waited with the hope that a driver might come from Sfax which didn't happen. They called the louage station in Sfax to find out if any driver left for El Jem but it seemed like nobody is on the way.

    We got recommended to check if there is a bus from the train station. So we went back and luckily the guy on the counter was really nice and he even walked us to the bus station, which we wouldn't have find without him as it doesn't look like a bus stop at all. It's just a small kiosque.

    Normally a bus was supposed to come around 1 pm but came 50 minutes late. That seemed to be normal as all the locals appeared after 1.30 at the stop.

    We arrived in Sfax around 3 pm and all the louage drivers were trying to get us into their cars. They didn't care about our plans. One of them convinced us to go with him to Gafsa and to take a bus from there to Tozeur, seemed to be logic as Gafsa was on our way. Around 7 pm we arrived in Gafsa, it took waaay longer than expected. We found out there that we have to wait till 9.30 pm for the bus. We just wanted to arrive but seemed to be impossible.

    While waiting there we met a young guy from France who went through the same chaotic ride as us. He was trying to take the same train from Tunis. He waited there for 2 hours and the train never showed up and no information was available so he decided to take a louage and they recommended him as us to get first to Gafsa and take from there the bus.
    Around 9.50 pm the bus came and we arrived in our accommodation in Tozeur around midnight. What a ride.
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  • Day 5

    Tozeur Oasis

    March 7, 2023 in Tunisia ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    After our horror trip the day before, we didn't want to sit in any type of vehicle and decided to walk around in Tozeur and the Oasis.

    We went to the Medina, there is nothing to see there honestly speaking. Went afterwards to the Oasis where the date trees are, visited Eden Palm, where we learned more about the date palms and their importance for Tunesia.

    In the evening we met 2 locals and a Bulgarian girl. One of the locals is living in Bulgaria and the girl is his wife. The other guy is just the funniest Tunesian I've ever met. I added a video of him.
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  • Day 6

    Tozeur and surroundings

    March 8, 2023 in Tunisia ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    This day was a very long day. In the morning we went with our friend Tarik who we met randomly at the louage station while trying to find out if we can go to Chebika and Tamaqzah by louage, to Chebika and Tamaqzah.

    Tarik married his cousin and moved to Germany and lived there for 5 years. He speaks perfectly German. Unfortunately the marriage didn't work out and he had to return home 3 months ago to Tunesia as he couldn't get a visa for Germany.
    Tarik is really a very good guy, very difficult to describe him just with words.

    After our small trip with Tarik, we organized also a trip with the French guy and the other 3 guys who we met the day before in our accommodation.
    We did a desert tour with the 4x4 and also passed by at the starwars film set.
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  • Day 7

    Tozeur to Djerba

    March 9, 2023 in Tunisia ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    This day is the funniest and also the worst.

    Our friend Tarik told us that normally it is easy to get a Louage from Tozeur to Gabes in the morning. We went with a good mood to the station and were expecting to find a louage straight away.

    We found one but couldn't fill the seats. We waited for 3 hours and I told the driver that we will buy 4 seats and we only have to wait for one more person. 8 people can usually go with a louage but we only had 5 so far with us included. Half an hour later the driver offered us that we can buy the last seat for 10 dinar which is equivalent to 3 Euros and we decided to buy that seat. So we bought 5 seats in total and paid 25 euros which already was a very annoying start.

    One of the guys in the louage was also going to Djerba, he didn't speak neither good French nor good English but seemed to be a difficult guy. The type of person who always causes trouble at school. At the course of the story we will call him the difficult guy.

    We followed him in Gabes and got our tickets for Djerba and were waiting in the car. Only one seat we had to fill we would leave for Djerba. There was a guy from Lyon in France he tried to convince us to share the costs of the last empty seat. We told him that we already had to pay for 5 seats before and that I really don't want to buy any further seats. The difficult guy supported us and they splitted the costs and we took off.

    The driver was driving, we got stopped twice and they interrogated the difficult guy for half an hour, which we found weird but later on he told me that it was due to that he didn't go to militery and paid money not to go at all.

    The French guy talked to the driver and told us that the driver doesn't want to take the ferry. The ferry from Gabes is waaaay shorter than taking the bridge therefore the price is already included in the ticket price.

    Once the difficult guy found out what he was planning, he started discussing with the driver and could convince him to take the ferry. The driver stopped somewhere and got some shoes. I checked with the GPS everything seemed alright.

    When I checked the next time the GPS I realised that we went more than 20km the wrong way, the driver stopped to give a woman the shoes and was thinking if he takes the next left we would have done a detour of 20 km which is alright. But the driver turned right because he wanted to take the bridge again.
    I realised that he is lying to us and told it to the difficult guy, he started arguing with him again, he kept driving the wrong way and shouting. If he follows his plans we would have done 120 km wrong ways for his business + the way over the bridge is additionally 100 km longer. I was very tired and I exploded. I started shouting at him that he should stop the car and give us our money back and we will share a taxi. He kept driving, the French guy and the difficult guy were shouting too. We passed at a police station and of course they stopped us.

    We were all soo angry the driver was shouting and we were all shouting in front of the police. In the beginning the police said that he can drive the way he wants if he tells us and we told him that there is only one price which is the one with the ferry and we did a too big detour for his shoe business and that we are sure that he has more business plans on the way.

    After all the discussions they gave us right and he had to take the ferry. I took a Foto of the driver and his car, you will find it attached and the sunset from the ferry. Later on we took a taxi with the difficult guy to our resort and he left before the car. On the ferry he made fun of me that I am very aggressive, I am pretty sure he never heard a woman shouting. Normally I don't but in that moment, it just made me too angry and I couldn't hold it anymore. Sometimes it's surprising how good you get in a language when you're angry. I was shouting in French.
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  • Day 8

    Djerba

    March 10, 2023 in Tunisia ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    We rented a very nice resort in Djerba for 30 euros each breakfast and dinner included. We didn't do much than relaxing, taking long walks, going for swims. We also did a quad tour on the second day.

    The resort was cheap due to low season but it was really warm in Djerba, around 25 degrees all the time. The sea was a little cold but not too cold to get in.
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