Tunisia - White and Blue

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Trip start
September 28, 2018
Tunisia - White and Blue Traveler
Arriving on the African Continent
September 28, 2018 in Tunisia ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
We all gathered in Düsseldorf, where our plane would depart on to a 2h long flight towards Monastir. Our tour operator or rather partner who invited us to this trip was Alltours, with whom I already flew to Mallorca for a day. We were about 20 people from all different kinds of travel agencies around Germany and I befriended two of the younger girls, as one of them would be my roommate for the days ahead. We went through the check-in, security, and boarding and flew towards Tunisia.
Monastir is a quite small airport where you walk through within 10 min. We got picked up by our local driver and drove to our first hotel that we would stay in - Steigenberger Kantaoui Bay (nowadays Iberostar Selection Kantaoui Bay). We were greeted with tiny wet towels to cool off, and for the first time I actually realized that it was quite warm in Tunisia. It just needed a very cold piece of cloth for me to realize it... And a chilly sugary-pink welcome drink. After downing that, the hotel staff showed us to our rooms for the next two days. As I said, I had a roommate, Jenny, but there was definitely no need to worry. Our “room” was a huge suite with a living room in between two bed- and bathrooms. The cherry on top was the big balcony we both had access to, overlooking the fine garden of the hotel up until the ocean. I was convinced, we'd be able to feel comfortable here.
After leaving our luggage in our suite, our group met yet again, to get a tour of the hotel. The wellness section looked amazingly good, and I was super happy, when they told us, we'd have “Thalasso” time tomorrow. The beach was pretty empty, although it was rather warm. Maybe the tourists were already eating at the buffet, where we ended our tour and settled for dinner. The food was plenty and tasty af, no wonder therefore, that I laid down that night completely stuffed.Read more
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Tunisia - White and Blue Traveler
Blue Doors, White Towels
September 29, 2018 in Tunisia ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
Starting the day with an immense breakfast, my group and I made our way to some hotels to look at. I think, we've covered 3 hotels that day. In between, we visited the Souk, an Arab kind of market in Sousse. Tunisian marketeers really want to sell you their things. They try to persuade you into their little shops, not only so that you would buy something. Even if you make it really clear, that you don't want to buy anything, they want you in their shop - because where other people are, more would come. Easy psychological trick. And it really was the case. I went into an empty gold shop with lots of necklaces, bracelets, rings, etc. Not two minutes after I started strolling around, three other women have entered the shop. I played my part as a trap for flies well, so the shop owner let me leave without disturbing me with false promises. The next stands were full of exotic spices. Our local tour guide explained us various spices and let us try them. I decided I need a very hot spice, called Harissa. It's like red chilli peppers, but with more taste. It's still my favourite kind of spice 5 years later.
After buying this, my wallet was hungry for more, and so it was no wonder that I became a victim of the psychological trap short after. I entered a clothing shop with lots of beautiful Arabic dresses and after falling in love with a midnight blue one, I had to at least try it on. Damn it, it fitted rather nice. So, I spent a bit of money for it (it was actually only €20, but in Tunisian Dinar it felt way more) and decided "No more spending today". It worked, as I could walk behind the other group members without spending any more money. I was rather pleased with my resistance when we ended our Souk tour with eating lunch at a restaurant that had quite a cool view over Sousse. After lunch, we looked at more hotels and beaches and also the marina of Port El Kantaoui, where there were yet again, lots of temptations - that I resisted successfully.Read more
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Tunisia - White and Blue Traveler
Old Romans and the African Santorini
September 30, 2018 in Tunisia ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
This morning, we filled our tummies with breakfast one last time in the Selection Kantaoui Bay and checked out. Today, we would travel to Hammamet, where our next hotel would be. On our schedule today was culture, though, no real hotel sightings. Our bus drove us for about 2hrs to Carthago, an old Roman city that has only left ruins. On the way there, we made a quick stop at the Port Punique de Carthage. Then we were immersed in history and old ruins. For me, it's quite difficult to imagine what has once been a huge city. The only thing I see are stones... well, I still learned some things. But my highlight came after Carthago. About another ten-minute drive, we arrived in a little village called Sidi Bou Said. That village has such a cool vibe. It's so artsy, at every corner you can get handmade art crafts. And the blue and white scheme was following the whole way through the town. It's just so beautiful. My brain immediately compared it with Santorini in Greece (although I've never been there, the pictures I've seen suggested something similar to Sidi Bou Said). When I've walked through the whole little place, I've arrived at the edge of Tunisia. There, a huge, old tree was guarding the village and a local told me that it was the tree of dreams. Make a wish under that tree and it would eventually come true. As it was a beautiful sunny day, we could look very far, and I thought, I could see Sicily, but my bubble burst when I looked at the map - it could only be another edge of Tunisia. But anyway, I could look far. After we had a lovely lunch in one of the many restaurants, we made our way to the next hotel we'd be staying in. It's called lti Les Orangers Garden Villas & Bungalows and was completely new. We made our mandatory tour around the hotel and settled down in yet another huge suite with two bedrooms with their own balconies, two bathrooms and a living room in the middle. They just have too much space there...Read more
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Tunisia - White and Blue Traveler
Beach and Medina
October 1, 2018 in Tunisia ⋅ 🌙 21 °C
Raising early, I wanted to enjoy the empty beach at least for one hour, before the next hotel sightings would flood my brain. The hotel seemed to house only my group that time, as the whole beach was empty, but maybe the tourists just wanted to have a sleep-in. After I dried in the sun, I made my way to get some breakfast and make myself ready for another day full of hotels. We visited another 3 hotels in the Medina (old town centre) of Hammamet. It was quite lovely to see all the old, mighty stone walls around us. We also went to see the little harbour of Hammamet. At night, we had a special surprise coming. We would be going to a Scheherazade Show with belly dancing, sword fighting and traditional Tunisian dinner. I thought, that would be the perfect situation to introduce my new dress. Wearing this, I felt as if I wasn't that much of a tourist watching this amazing show on our last night in Tunisia.Read more
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Tunisia - White and Blue Traveler
Leaving with a Bang!
October 2, 2018 in Tunisia ⋅ 🌧 17 °C
The next morning we were about to fly home in the morning. So, I woke up early and made my way to the breakfast room. It was raining the first time since we landed in Tunisia. It was light rain, and I wasn't bothered much. That is, until I happily jumped on top of the first step of the marble staircase, wet from the rain. Well... As you can imagine, rain makes marble pretty slippery. And so, my right foot slipped down the stairs and my left knee stopped my journey down. The shock left me with an immense portion of pain, and tears started falling in streams. It took about 5 mins until a hotel boy found me crying my heart out. I couldn't move. My right leg was open and bloody, my left knee hurt as fuck. My coccyx was my least concern. After another 10 mins I was finally able to stand up - only with a lot of help though - and limp to the breakfast room. News are travelling fast in a hotel, so the other group members have already heard of my accident and offered to bring me food to my table. I didn't want their help that much, so I dragged myself to the buffet, still crying. In hindsight, I should have just accepted their help and stay fucking put. As our flight would depart in abut three hours, and we had to drive to the airport, there was no time for me to get to a doctor in Tunisia. So, one of the friendly hotel boys collected the luggage from my room and brought me to the bus. I was silently crying the whole hour driving to the airport, holding my knee. At the airport, Jennifer wanted to take my luggage, but actually, it helped me to walk as I could put a lot of my weight on that instead of on my knee. So, I stood at the Check-in and at the queue for Security as everyone else. My knee burning and growing thicker every second. I never felt more helpless to that day. The flight was quite short, but as I had to take trains from Düsseldorf to Göttingen, there was a very long journey for me ahead. I had to get through three train rides, two changes of the tracks. Each time, going stairs up and down. Once, a man seemed to have noticed my silent tears and helped me to carry my huge luggage up the stairs. At that moment, I found my belief in the good human nature - and lost it with every other person, leaving me alone in my despair. When I finally arrived in Göttingen, my dad picked me up. He didn't know about my accident yet, so he was rather surprised when I fell into his arms, sobbing my lungs out. That was the most horrible journey I've ever had to get through - until that day - and I was just so happy, to finally be able to rest. Arriving at home, I pulled my trousers off and my mom gasped. My knee was about three times the usual size and just looked awfully red and swollen. My right leg wasn't as bad, it could be helped with a bit of Bepanthen. We put ice on my knee and hoped for the best. That night, I couldn't sleep at all because of the hurting.Read more
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Tunisia - White and Blue Traveler
Journey of Healing
October 3, 2018 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
The next day, completely overtired, my knee wasn't looking any better. As it was a holiday in Germany, I couldn't go to a normal doctor. I was thinking that I could just stay put and go to the doctor tomorrow. But after some more painful hours, I decided I had to go immediately. So my dad drove me to the hospital and I waited for about 4 hours until a doctor came to see me. We made an x-ray, he scanned my knee, asked me loads of questions and I answered all of them. After another 2 hours, he stated, that I had a microfracture - meaning my knee was shattered into thousands of little bone pieces. They gave me a bandage, told me I should be careful but still use the left leg as much as possible, and prescribed me physical therapy. Luckily, it counted as a business accident, so I didn't need to pay it myself.

In the end, I wasn't able to sleep properly for months, as I couldn't put my left knee on the other, so I had to sleep on my back. I had physical therapy for about a year, 2 hours per week. I wore the bandage about two days, but I couldn't walk with it at all, so I threw it out and limped around without it. As I needed to drive to work, I was crying whenever changing the gears for about 4 months. I couldn't do Zumba nor Pilates for about 8 months. As I couldn't walk properly for several months, my right knee had to take a lot of the weight from the left, so I basically fucked both of my knees in the end. I still can't do all the positions in Yoga or Pilates and whenever I put too much pressure on either of my knees, they hurt. I can't twist my knee during dancing, as it hurts immediately.

This accident showed me, how much we want from our body, day in, day out. And I'm very happy that I can still do most of the things with it.Read more
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Trip end
October 2, 2018

Tunisia - White and Blue

Arriving on the African Continent

Blue Doors, White Towels

Old Romans and the African Santorini

Beach and Medina

Leaving with a Bang!

Journey of Healing