When In Rome: Ten Nights in Tunisia

For Spring Break this year, I went to Tunisia with 70 others from my school. The itinerary looked very extensive and at the end of the trip, I know that this trip would have been impossible to do on my own.

We started off in Tunis and visited with people of Tunis who had experienced the revolution last year. At the embassy, one man told us that the people of Tunisia prefer to call the revolution the Revolution of Dignity rather than the Jasmine Revolution. The pre revolution state of Tunisia was a police state and people could not speak freely about their government. People feared of the wrong people hearing them speak out against their government and being followed by officials for what they had said. Hearing about different individuals talk about their experience with the revolution, I found myself getting emotional. On top of these individuals sharing their stories, everyone in the country is so enthusiastic and proud of their success with the revolution and their country. In the Medina one day, some locals spotted that we were Americans and said, "Look Americans! Welcome to the revolution country!" Constantly vendors were asking us what we thought about their revolution and what the rest of America is saying about it.

After some shopping and socializing in Tunis, we started to head south towards Carthage. We went and saw the ancient ruins of Carthage and the ports as well. We went to many museums and saw lots of mosaics that have been put into museums. We also visited the North African American Cemetery, where most of soldiers buried there died in World War II. It was a very moving experience to go and see everything at the cemetery. After, we went more south towards El Jem, to see the Roman Amphitheater there. It is the seventh largest that existed in the Roman Empire. After this, we started heading into the desert. The bus rides turned from many fields of olive trees to strictly sand and some small shrubbery.

We got to Matmata which is mostly desert and is near the house of Luke Skywalker. They have now turned the house into a bar for tourists to visit. After visiting the Star Wars bar, we checked into our hotel which is styled like "troglodyte" structures which are underground homes that are built in the surrounding area, similar to Luke's house in Star Wars. The next morning after checking into our hotel, we found thirty out of the seventy of our group to have come down with food poisoning. Our plans had to be postponed and adjusted in order to have everyone feeling better. We visited a nearby clinic to get help for the people who were sick. After this we headed to Douz to continue with our plans of spending the night in the Sahara Desert.

Once we got to Douz, the people who were feeling up to it headed to go on our camel riding excursion. It was cloudy and raining when we got to the desert, but they wrapped us up in desert clothing with our heads completely wrapped. It was my turn to get on the camel, they have you hop on while the camel is sitting and then have the camel stand up. It was quite scary in comparison to my experience with horse back riding. We headed towards the desert and were approached by the horsemen. We were told not to go horseback riding in Tunisia because they have you get on the horse and let the horse go wild into the desert and we would never be seen again. Thankfully, the horsemen were not as persistent as other vendors had been in Tunisia. The camel moved more forward and backward rather than side to side like a horse does. My camel kept making weird noises as it threw up its stomach on the side of its mouth. It was not helping any of our already nauseous thoughts. After the camel ride we went back to the hotel to pack up our things for the night in the desert.

My friend and I bought cloaks that look like obi wan kenobi's cloak. The locals actually did wear these cloaks all the time. We headed into the desert in a small jeep that was more like a crazy roller coaster and took us to the campsite. The campsite was completely dark except for the single bonfire in the middle. We found a tent to put our stuff in and then went to listen to the traditional Tunisian music and dance by the fire. We had dinner in a giant tent that was lit by candles and we sat on the ground surrounded by low tables. We were served rice soup, cous cous, bread, and this amazing bread that they cook in the sand. At one point I saw a bug as big as my hand and it looked like it was going to crawl in my skin like those ones in the Mummy. After dinner, we all sat around the fire and told ghost stories. There was lightening and thunder in the distance to add to the story telling. We went to bed fairly early as the fire was dimming. I was awoken by the sound of pouring rain and the dripping of water on my forehead. I checked the time and it was only 1:30 in the morning. I couple hours later I was completely soaked and all of my blankets and my cloak were drenched. I went to the bathroom and tried to go back to bed, even though it was freezing cold and I was completely drenched. I have never wanted morning to come so fast before. At 7:00am I was awoken by our leader's voice with bread waiting for us for breakfast. After snapping a few pictures I hoped into one of the Jeeps to go back to the hotel. We only had time to change before leaving for our next destination.

We went across the country that day through the desert, seeing scenes from The English Patient and headed to see an oasis and the town of Tatooine. We got these via jeep and also did some dune diving while on our way to the town. Unfortunately, I fell asleep a lot of the time because I was only on two hours of sleep from the night before. After our visit to the Star Wars scenes, I woke up in the jeep to my ears popping and noticed we were in the mountains. It looks very similar to the Grand Canyon actually. We arrived at a hotel that was located in an oasis. The shower there was amazing after getting all of the sand off of me.

We started heading north again along the border of Algeria back to Tunis. We saw lots of canyons when we did the Red Lizard Train Ride and more scenic views while seeing a spring near the mountains. We headed to Sbeitla where there are many Roman ruins and also where the revolution started last year. We finally settled in Hammamet where we had time to relax before returning to Rome. We went to the Medina one day to go shopping. It was a lot smaller than the one in Tunis and many girls had told stories of male vendors forcing them to buy something. We were told to have a guy in our group at all times. That was a weird experience for me because I had never had to have a chaperone before.

Overall, this trip was once in a lifetime experience. Not only with everything we saw on the trip but the interactions with the people of Tunisia was amazing. I am extremely lucky to have the opportunity to go and see a piece of history with my own eyes and have a better understanding on what happened in Tunisia last year in 2011.