First evening in Sousse
Pictire: The coliseum at Jim
Click here to see our Ofoto album from Jim
Last posting had us reaching Sousse after dark after another long day of travelling by road in louage, plus a brief ferry ride from Jerba. We had left Jerba at around 1 pm, arrived in Sfax a few hour later, and had to wait while a louage we requested for Jim filled up. We reached Jim around 6 and visited the ancient Roman coliseum there, similar to the one in Rome. After the visit we waited again for an 8th passenger for Sousse and reached there after dark. We got a cab to the main north gate of the medina, Place des Martyrs, and went to a hotel just inside the walls recommended by LPG. The guide had said it was clean which it was, but the room was bare but for beds. No a/c or fan, communal baths. The charge was 30 dinars for the three of us, and we slept there with the windows open, remarkably quiet and cool for a hotel in a medina (thanks to views overlooking rooftops and rubble of dalipidated adjacent bldgs). There was a loud prayer call at 4 am that awoke us all, but I slept fine there.
That evening we had walked around the souk. Bobbi and Dusty had been there on a previous outing from Mahdia and they took me on part of the LPG walking tour, at least as far as trying to find the red light district. But that part of the souq was quiet and residential, so we returned to the main north gate where the walls had been blasted away by allied bombers during WWII and where people gathered near the old fort and mosque there to shop at the sweets and sandwich vendors or drink fresh juices. It was late and crowds were thinning so we went across the road looking for licenced restarants in back alleys of the new ville where LPG said they would be. The LPG was written in 2000 and was out of date, but an old man asked us what we were looking for and when we said a meal with wine he led us to one of the sidewalk cafes facing the place de Martyres and we had a pleasant and excellent meal there. I think the wine and beer was why I slept so well in our spartan room.
We were up early with the sun and ambient but distant street noises and we left our luggage at the train station (hotel didnùt want to keep i) and headed through the souq on our way to the louage station.
We went to Kairouan, a great experience, and returned to Mahdia for our things, hauled it all back to Sousse, and went to Tunis next day.
Click here to see our Ofoto album from Sousse
Click here to see our Ofoto album from Jim
Last posting had us reaching Sousse after dark after another long day of travelling by road in louage, plus a brief ferry ride from Jerba. We had left Jerba at around 1 pm, arrived in Sfax a few hour later, and had to wait while a louage we requested for Jim filled up. We reached Jim around 6 and visited the ancient Roman coliseum there, similar to the one in Rome. After the visit we waited again for an 8th passenger for Sousse and reached there after dark. We got a cab to the main north gate of the medina, Place des Martyrs, and went to a hotel just inside the walls recommended by LPG. The guide had said it was clean which it was, but the room was bare but for beds. No a/c or fan, communal baths. The charge was 30 dinars for the three of us, and we slept there with the windows open, remarkably quiet and cool for a hotel in a medina (thanks to views overlooking rooftops and rubble of dalipidated adjacent bldgs). There was a loud prayer call at 4 am that awoke us all, but I slept fine there.
That evening we had walked around the souk. Bobbi and Dusty had been there on a previous outing from Mahdia and they took me on part of the LPG walking tour, at least as far as trying to find the red light district. But that part of the souq was quiet and residential, so we returned to the main north gate where the walls had been blasted away by allied bombers during WWII and where people gathered near the old fort and mosque there to shop at the sweets and sandwich vendors or drink fresh juices. It was late and crowds were thinning so we went across the road looking for licenced restarants in back alleys of the new ville where LPG said they would be. The LPG was written in 2000 and was out of date, but an old man asked us what we were looking for and when we said a meal with wine he led us to one of the sidewalk cafes facing the place de Martyres and we had a pleasant and excellent meal there. I think the wine and beer was why I slept so well in our spartan room.
We were up early with the sun and ambient but distant street noises and we left our luggage at the train station (hotel didnùt want to keep i) and headed through the souq on our way to the louage station.
We went to Kairouan, a great experience, and returned to Mahdia for our things, hauled it all back to Sousse, and went to Tunis next day.
Click here to see our Ofoto album from Sousse
