Bab El Bhar

Today was our final day in Tunisia- our flight departs at 8pm, so we had an entire day to explore the capital city.

Our day began with yet another amazing breakfast in our gorgeous dar. Tunisia is known for its hospitality, and it definitely shows in their homemade breakfast feasts: Omelets, cheeses, smoothies, fresh fruit, pastries, spreads...Also, I realize that I seem like one of those douchbags who sits at the bar and eats the cherries and orange slices directly out of the bartender's garnish tray, but I admit to eating the halva directly from the condiment dish (halva is a chunky, sweetened sesame and tahini spread that I refer to as "Tunisian peanut butter"). I can't stop myself.

Anyway.

Our day's first stop was at Tunis's world-renowned Bardo Museum. First off, I will say that we never expected to visit this incredible museum, which is home to some of the world's most intact Roman and Carthaginian mosaics, housed in an 18th century Pacha's palace (a Pacha is second in command to the Bey, or king). Back in 2021, the Tunisian President staged despotic coup, and sealed the Parliament building and rewrote the constitution...and the Bardo is unlucky enough to be located inside the Parliament building. (Colorfully, local media describes the closure as "maintenance related." How very...Fox-Newsy of them.)

But weirdly, the day before we arrived in Tunis, the museum suddenly reopened. When our dar hosts told us, we were stunned at the timing, given that long-awaited reopenings tend to happen JUST AFTER we depart (the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, the L'Orangerie in Paris, virtually every basilica in Sicily...).

The Bardo Museum is two massive floors of ancient mosaics (ground floor) and a palace museum (top floor). There are SO MANY mosaics, and they are all so huge and in excellent condition, that "amazing fatigue" set in pretty quickly. It's an embarrassment of riches, to be sure.

The top floor's palace museum was much more my jam. The lushly painted ceilings and tile work were simply gorgeous, and unlike other Tunisian rooms we've viewed.

After our morning o' culture, we explored Tunis's New Town. Tunisia was colonized by the French in 1881, and the French designed the "New Town" with a très Parisian influence: Graceful, tree-lined boulevards, European architecture, and sidewalk cafés. The new town boulevard ends at the medina, and so we decided to wander the medina for a few hours. We quickly realized Tunis's medina was FAR huger than any other medina we've visited on this trip; it's so twisty and labyrinthine, that I began to wonder if I needed Theseus's ball of yarn to find my way out.

And yes, I realize I have made a Greek mythological reference when everything here is Roman, but in my defense, everything I know about myths was gleaned from Disney's Junior Woodchuck Guidebook comics. (sadly this is true)

By late afternoon it was over 100°F/38°C, so we had planned to escape the heat with a long, luxurious lunch at the medina's fancy-pants Dar Jeld, one of Tunis's most elegant cafés. However, for reasons that eluded us in this very Muslim country, EVERYTHING CLOSES ON SUNDAYS. So we found a cooler spot in the medina and enjoyed lunch, some mint tea, playing with the café kitties, and our final shisha (water pipe) before heading to the airport. And I'm happy to report that enduring the douchy vaping trend of the last few years has not diminished the simple pleasure of a medina café shisha.

So this concludes our Tunisian adventure; between the Roman ruins, the café culture, the beaches, and the people, I can't recommend this country highly enough! I will miss the insanely cheap prices, the legions of kitties, and mint tea (but probably not the hell-hot, dusty heat).Read more