Sheer relaxation and phantasmate

This entry is the condensed version of this entry, offering a quicker and for some a more pleasant read than the extended. The shortened version is not a separate piece of writing, but in essence the extended version, but with several paragraphs, sections and contemplations cut away, with minor changes to the text linking the different paragraphs to create a natural flow. If you want to see the extended version, go visit this link.

Okay, so I found out that last blog entry was waaaay too long! And it did take quite some time to write as well. I hope that it was not all too discouraging...
The thing is that once I sat down and began to write about my experiences from day #1, I had some kind of urge to go on and on, writing elaborately about every little experience that I had. And trying to write in a good manner is also somewhat challenging; writing in an entertaining manner and not simply just writing a factual account serves both purposes that this blog exists for. One, so that my audience actually enjoys reading about my travel, and two, so that I can look back at this at a later stage and enjoy it :) I already have a good time when I skim through the files from the 7th grade... actually six years ago!

Squabbling turkeys

It's been a few very relaxing and calm days that I have spent here in Tabarka. The only annoying aspect, albeit slightly entertaining in addition, is that the owner and cleaner in the cheapest hotel I could find here (about a 100 kr a night) seem to constantly be yelling to one another, with a strong undertone of Turkey-sounds (yes, the animal). They are constantly engaged in some kind of squabble in the fascinating language that Arabic is. The cleaning lady especially is quite funny to listen to sometimes. I really have no idea, but it seems she really has some wit. And most certainly a sharp, direct and crude voice. Will have to see if I can get a recording to decipher later.

Food

Apart from eating cheap-cheap to have a good enough budget for a whole-day diving & barbecue excursion to some islands I'm doing on Sunday with Mariem and Ghazi (really looking forward to it!!), I allowed myself some indulgence going to a one seriously good restaurant that served seafood. Normally a whole dinner costs somewhere between eight to ten dinars (~40 kr), but I went eat some delicious fish (that's when I sent you that SMS, dad) with a good appetiser and a free dessert composed of deliciously fresh fruit. For someone accustomed to having it imported, trying it out in one of the countries where the imported fruit actually is produced can be a shocking experience; the sensation of the vigourous taste is very different from that of fruit that has been transported over long distances and isn't taken straight of the tree or soil that so carefully grew it.

The pleasures of learning Arabic

I am learning to communicate with Tunisians in their mother tongue and I have found gratification in doing so. Every native I meet here (shop keepers included only after I have bought something from them, otherwise as always insisting I buy their better-than-everybody-else's craft) is particularly responsive and glad when I show them my notebook full of my scribble. They are always keen to teach me new words and patiently repeat two, three or four times when there's a sound I don't get, and smile when I finally get it. Mariem and Ghazi are also always helpful, emphasising the different syllables of a new word.

Some of the elegant letters I have learnt so far: ث ت ب آ. The second letter to the right is t as in "think", and as you can see, is also a smiley! And the last letter on the right a troll's head! It kind of is a problem, because I need to start thinking "t" and not "Oh, there's a nice smiley! Joy!" when practising... :P

Company of intoxicated scuba divers

Last Sunday I was invited to join Ghazi, Mariem, and some friends of theirs for a superb day of recreation on a boat. I set out early in the morning from Tabarka, and went to another coastal town called Bizerte, which hosts a few diving clubs with good opportunities. The trip was organised by one of these diving clubs, and after having joined up with roughly twenty people, all French and Tunisian, our boat puffed away onto the open Mediterranean under the cloudy sky. While en route, myself and a fellow, both of us not having dove (scuba diving with oxygen bottles, hoses, masks and everything ;)) for a long time, were given a briefing on the fundamentals of diving serving as a necessary repetition by a PADI Master Diver (I'm a PADI Open Water Diver). 

After one hour or so, we anchored up at Les Iles Cani, and the captain was quick to start a very extended and hilarious party with a lot of cheerfulness and mood. For the first time of my life (and read this closely dad!), I ate OCTOPUS (blekksprut)! As a small oblivious child I had a traumatising encounter with an octopus, and my father insists that he has never seen me run that fast before. Consequently, eating octopus has never been my first priority. Nonetheless, I was slightly surprised but also pleased at having successfully eating octopus. However, I wasn't really impressed with the taste, and the octopus meat was rubbery, making it difficult to break up. The six divers then suited up and we jumped out.

The dive that followed lasted for about forty minutes (time spent under water) and we went to ten meters depth. First off, we sat in a circle, in a forest of some underwater plants with long, yellow-brown strips emerging from their centre, at about four meters depth. The visibility was limited to about seven-eight meters, with lots of greenish plankton floating around and obscuring our view. We performed some mandatory scuba diving techniques; first off removing your mask completely and then putting it on again, all underwater. I also did this when someone took a picture of me without my mask on ^^ (I don't have the picture yet but I'll certainly put it up when I do get it). Secondly, we needed to remove our air supply from our mouths and put it back on. It is vital to be able to do all of this without panicking, which can be very dangerous at these depths. But by respecting the open water and learning how to behave, all scuba diving is a rewarding thing to do and experience by far most of the time. With procedures in mind, we finned along the floor, saw some rocks lying around, watched some dark fishes (although only very few and very small), and took some happy group pictures (again, to publish later). It was all very exciting and I was tremendously pleased to experience scuba diving again - a very fun and rewarding hobby by all means. Ultimately, one of our group member's pressure gauge was indicating a small level of air in his tank, and we resurfaced. Oh, and one funny anecdote! While we were in the initial phase of swimming slowly towards the ocean floor in the first stage of the dive, the boat owner all of a sudden appeared right over our heads with guess what?? A bottle of wine in his hand! He was excited and smiling, and pointed to the bottle. The people on the boat, continuing the barbecue party, had obviously wanted to extend the mood and happy times to us the divers scuffling around under his boat. My peers and I laughed, as far as that's possible under water, and looked forward to sharing a glass of wine when back on the boat. Though I tried to contemplate how we could have tried to actually drink the wine under water :)

Back on the boat we ate, drank wine, talked, and went for a swim in the water whenever we felt like it. I talked to some people, and really enjoyed myself. After a while music came streaming from the loudspeaker's mounted above the navigation cabin, a wonderful rhythmic blend of old classics, newer pop, some French stuff, and just generally dance music. Increasingly, people became happier and began dancing more and more fervently, assisted by a free, Bacchic (IBA people will know what I mean) flow of beer and wine and ultimately liquor. The party reached its peak when the boat sat course home towards the port when the end of the day began approaching, and we still went on dancing. With some others, I stood atop the navigation cabin, holding the mast, and boogied to the beat!

After a day of incredible fun and amusement, I returned towards Tunis with Mariem and Ghazi. And that, my friends, is where my story end this time.

See you next time
- Joyous salutations from Eric

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From the pulsating souq of Tunis to the indulgence of quiet reading

Hello again!

Seems I published this a bit later than first anticipated, but I am taking my time and doing this at my own pace. After all, hooray, I am on holiday!
This entry is the condensed version of this entry, offering a quicker and for some a more pleasant read than the extended. The shortened version is not a separate piece of writing, but in essence the extended version, but with several paragraphs, sections and contemplations cut away, with minor changes to the text linking the different paragraphs to create a natural flow. If you want to see the extended version, go visit this link.

Since my last blog entry, where I in great anticipation outlined my plans for these last few days, I have arrived in Tunisia to a warm welcome, both in terms of hospitality and climate. I have now come to my fifth day in Tunisia, and I have visited the cities of Tunis and Tabarka. The general way that events have been transpiring the last few days have been characterised by being quite ad-hoc and somewhat surprising, to my delight. With the exception of planning ahead where to spend the day and in which place to sleep, I am in essence trying to immerse myself into the present and embrace every moment for what it is, and seize chances that may pop out to have a good time, talk to people and enjoy life. My archenemy is the organised tourist trips where you are reduced to the life of the Japan Paparazzi Tourist and every minute of your holiday is laid out for you, which in essence involves complete (take this: voluntarily) loss of freedom and having to integrate into the herd, and like naïve sheep following the tour guide and utter 'ahh, so interesting' at every futile attempt at rendering an old relic or architectural discovery somewhat interesting. To complete this endless pit of complete waste of time, you may barely be granted the privilege of getting away for three minutes (26 seconds for the recipient of great advice from the Venerated French Male Advisor) to fulfil a sometimes pressing need after a day of finely regulated intakes of water.

Anyhow, back from my admonitions of the immense pleasures of organized travel to my hitherto delightful time in Tunisia as a backpacker (or at least as a disciple of the great art of backpacking).

After arriving in Tunis, I barely avoided complete confusion and despair when I was picked up by Mariem at the airport, the daughter of Radhia, the hostess and friend of my family with whom I was going to stay my first few days in Tunis, just before going to get a taxi to Radhia. Radhia, being away for the day at the family farm further south at Dresden, had asked Mariem to come get me and take me to Mariem instead! And thus I avoided being dumbfounded before Radhia's empty house, but instead had the pleasure of being called over the loudspeaker system… ‘Eric Bolikokki’. One of the many mistakes people have made in the past trying to pronounce my surname of Polish origin. You can see the lovely Mariem on the left. (Mariem, cette photo est absolument charmante! Desolement je n'ai pas pu trouver grande autre chose, desole!)

Mariem took me to the house of herself and Ghazi, who she married just last May in what seems to have been a splendid wedding, followed by a trip to Costa Rica. Congratulations anew to you!

After spending a few hours at the house, taking a very pleasant shower, chit-chatting and giving Mariem and Ghazi a book from the stunning “In the Wild” nature photo exposition currently touring the world and presently located in Stavanger and finally grabbing a bite to eat in town (La Marsa), we went out to an Electro-Jazz concert with the fascinating Celia Mara from Brazil (there’s music on her myspace page for those of you interested: http://www.myspace.com/celiamara1/). The concert, being quickly improvised and taking place at a hotel, unfortunately hosted but a small audience. To my disappointment, the Jazz festival that was to take place in the Northern city of Tabarka, which I was planning to attend, had been cancelled due to lacking funding. Having happened in the last minute, this lovely Brazilian woman found herself in Tunisia with her band but no gig! With alternative rhythms, punchy trumpet, creative DJ, enthusiastic band and great voice of Celia Mara, we enjoyed sitting there with our cold beers (more to come on the alcohol issue of Tunisia) and tuning in on the music. After a while, Mariem shoved me out onto the dancing floor, and after a while a small group of us found ourselves dancing to the beat. Most people continued to sit around, as the Celia Mara group really wasn’t in a suitable place at all (for one, the electricity went out a couple of times and the DJ didn’t have a turntable) and with a large enough audience, and their full potential was not reached at all. However, we had a wonderful talk with Celia Mara after the concert, and she extended an invitation to come see her if I ever was in Brazil!

During this first day I also learned about the extent to which Facebook is a popular phenomena here in Tunisia, with people using the channels of Facebook extensively for communication, discovering new people, attending events, et cetera.

The next day, Sunday, I joined Mariem and Ghazi for their Sunday excursion to the beach. After one hour or so of driving, we found ourselves in the midst of a complete car jam! Ghazi was shocked to find that the beach we were going to, which normally was quite a secluded and calm place with few people, made inaccessible to many by the distance from the capital which made going by car a requirement and generally being simply quite little well known, was now crowded by people. The beach parking (and I presume the beach itself) was completely saturated, and there was no way we were going to be able to park before at least an hour of waiting. After advancing at a snail’s pace for a while, we turned the car around. However, with the ingenuity of my hosts, a solution was quickly found! After driving a bit we spotted some local fisher sons, and after some discussion and practicalities being put into order we soon were on the boat puffing towards a elongated, arch-like isle on the temptingly beautiful and warm water. But the last surprise of the day had clearly not yet arrived; while preparing to leave with the boat, a car came driving up the road and there, some friends of Mariem and Ghazi appeared! Apparently, the friends had themselves planned to use this very boat for the same purpose we sought it out, and had even contacted Mariem and Ghazi earlier that day to invite them to come along for the ride! But Ghazi had not seen the message, and completely oblivious of his friends’ invitation, we had gone ahead with our own plans. What a coincidence then, can you imagine, that these very friends came driving at just the right moment? We then proceeded to board the boat altogether, and I exchanged salutations with the newcomers.

The day that came to be then consisted of some lovely time spent on the aforesaid isle. We ate some delicious sandwiches, a small delicacy in themselves, with the spicy Merguez (forgive me for any misspelling) sausages topping the savoury experience. The water was amazing and certainly of a very agreeable temperature for a man of the North to bathe and splash around in. I took some time to wander along the beach (does not fracking everybody thoroughly enjoy ‘long walks on the beach’?) with a long stick and wrote meaningless patterns into the sand, but something that I found very relaxing. I drew some houses and stick persons, as well as (please kill me) the harmonic series, and an analysis of the sin and cos functions in graph form. Allegedly, Aristotle was known for discovering and contemplating the great mysteries of geometry in the sands of Ancient Greece. Perhaps I am the advent of a similar genius?

The same evening I accessed my IB results! In total I received a 38 of 45 possible points. The results were also somewhat surprising, with a 7 in Norwegian and a C in Extended Essay. In Norwegian, I had really prepared myself for an exam retake at a later stage due to not being very well prepared, but it would seem that I did manage to perform proper analysis and essay writing at my exams. So there I am happy. My extended essay could have gone better, and I was also hoping for a 7 in Chemistry, my favourite subject where I had quite literally worked my ass off. I also had some excellent exam preparations in Chemistry and Physics with my good friend Jørgen, who I met three times a week for highly constructive revision work. This ensured that we both were very well prepared before the exams (Jørgen, you must tell me of your results if you read this!). A very pleasing result was from my TOK Essay, which received an A! My essay, about how orthodoxy and heresy exchange as time passes in the fields of History and the Natural Sciences, can be seen by clicking here (Huaytacha, did I make you read it yet?).

The next day, Monday, I was kindly picked up by Radhia who brought me into central Tunis, not far from the souq, the central and traditional which may be found in many greater cities in Northern Africa and the Middle-East. The souq is located in the medina, which is the designation used for the older part of a city or town in this region.

Upon my entry into the Medina, I immediately found myself in one of the popular tourist streets, Rue Jemaa Zaytouna. As I said in my first blog entry, the local merchants learned a long time ago how to exploit tourists coming in with loads of cash and often sell merchandise for appalling prices.

My journey into the medina began by a man starting to walk beside be, insisting that he worked at my hotel, and that he wanted to show me the mosque in the centre of the medina. And, that there was some kind of festival. There seems to be an endless row of festivals that may materialize in a few seconds out of the minds of people; the festival of the mosque, the festival of the carpets, the festival of the wool ad nauseam. Clearly, ‘festival’ has another definition for many people here, and I will have to seek to weed out its exact definition. But I believe it would be something close to ‘nonexistent event with the sole purpose of extracting money in collaboration’. Clearly, this man was trying to rip me off. Something which was quite clear when he said that he worked at my hotel, when I very well knew that I was staying at a private home in La Marsa. He angrily looked over his shoulder at me when I quietly dismissed him, making some excuse that I wanted to go at my own pace and look at all the stands along the medina street.

I then spent perhaps half an hour in a bazaar, a large room in a house adjoining the main tourist street, into which I was almost literally dragged by some overly friendly men. One feels overwhelmed by the men who beg only one minute of your time, and insist that you come into their shop and check out what they have to offer. With large hand gestures, and collectively exerting pressure (the owners of larger shops always seem to have brothers, friends or co-workers ready to help out), you feel sorry for simply walking away. And after all, after having come to the market to see the market, one has to enter somewhere.
Now, seeing that they have bait on the hook, they will pursue what they hope will lead to a sale by starting to talk about their high-quality merchandise, point to different hand-made products just waiting to be sold, and tell how their quality, of course, is better than everyone else’s. And they will almost most certainly try to toy and charm you by talking about your home country, which in my case everybody thinks is France. It is a delightful routine correcting them, stating my origin as a Norwegian, and (this seems to be a really universal topic) answering to questions about the weather, telling them about how cold it is. I think that I even in one case told someone that polar bears do not wander the streets of Norwegian cities, perhaps ironically or dispelling a preconception.
In the bazaar, peering around the shelves loaded with hand-made crafts in a large variety of colours; chests, traditional clothing, beautiful glass and crystal, ornamented and opulently decorated bowls that come in all shapes and sizes, black figurines, postcards, mugs, and ash trays, I tried to select some souvenirs that would look good in my future apartment in Oslo. After all, there was so many nice things to bring home and I must say I have come to grown fond of Arabic and Tunisian craft, culture and language. In the bazaar I was offered some very good mint tea, the distinct and reputed drink of the Arab world, which I enjoyed, and some fresh water in a good old (I think) clay cup that soothes the water. Then, after looking around and receiving numerous descriptions from the shop owner, I bought the object you can see in the image on the left; a very nice, deep-blue, star-shaped plate with several small removable bowls that fit exactly on the plate. Perfect for serving different kinds of nuts and snacks at the same time, or simply a piece of elegant decoration. I also bought a similar, elegantly painted salad bowl which can either be used or strung up on the wall. I had a fun time haggling for the specified price, managing to lower it by about 50 dinars: about 200 kroner. Nonetheless, I felt I maybe did pay to high a price. Will have to see about that in the near future.

After the buy, the men insisted I come along to a carpet shop, and I toddled along. There, knowing silently that I would not be able to afford a large carpet and not in the mood to haggle anymore, being somewhat exhausted after the effort to withstand the onlooking people in the previous bazaar, I only discussed the different carpets, their patterns and manufacturing process with the merchant in the indeed very large carpet shop I was taken to, rather than intent on buying anything. Again, I was served mint tea. Subordinate employees ran around, rolled out a number of beautiful and richly decorated carpets that I was allowed to touch, look at and feel in detail. One that I liked in particular can be seen in the picture on the right. Towards the end of the session, they packed together different carpets tightly and handed them to me, so as to allow me to feel their weight. But when the manager and the employees found out that I was not actually going to buy anything, with me promising to perhaps drop by at the end of my stay in Tunisia and buy a carpet if I had enough money (which I genuinely meant), they turned angry and insisted that we reach some kind of arrangement. Ultimately, I had to explicitly state I was not going to buy anything there and then, neither give them half the sum for a carpet as a sort of guarantee for that I would buy one, and all hospitality faded. I found my way out by myself, relieved to be on my own and free of the mental pressure of having to actually buy something.

Continuing to wander around in the medina, I eventually became hungry and turned to a local restaurant. I sat down and had some rice, escalope de dinde (dunno how to exactly say that in English), and the delicious very spicy harissa, all of which you can see in the picture on the right. All of it was very good, and I was happy to spice my food with harissa; I am definitely going to bring some of it back home. I also talked to one of the waiters, who sat down with me, and we talked about different places in the medina and in Tunis. He looked at pictures in my Lonely Planet guide, and began describing several of the local sights. This was very delightful, speaking to a local and learning things from another perspective. He, as all the others I have also shared this with, was very glad to hear that I was trying to learn Arabic, and I showed him my exercise book. Everybody in such cases try to teach me a few words, which I readily absorb (but often quite easily forget – I am going to buy a notebook in which to note down all new words to consolidate my vocabulary as soon as this entry is finished). This man, whose smile and interest in what I was doing in Tunisia provided warmth and I felt glad. This really exemplifies the general generosity and hospitality of Tunisians. Even among the merchants who try to win everything from visiting tourists, one can find a lot of kindness; what they do in the markets are merely a custom and what they do. In their personal lives, one may experience something a whole lot different.

After having spent my day in Tunis, I returned to Mariem’s and Ghazi’s house by train, and had one of the best showers I have had for a long time, rinsing myself of all the sweat of the journey. Really, carrying around bags in the heat in Tunis can be really quite demanding!

During the evening, we had a nice barbecue party, where several friends of Mariem and Ghazi came and visited us. The discussion that endured the whole evening touched many subjects, perhaps most interestingly the education system of Tunisia. Contrasting and comparative views of the French and Tunisian system were presented, which I quietly listened in on, not having much to contribute to the discussion. I also learnt the fascinating story of a Swiss woman who had eventually settled in Tunisia, after a turbulent past.

The next morning I went into central Tunis and caught a louage to Tabarka. The taxi trip to get to the louage station was fun, talking to a taxi driver. When I broached the subject of football, quite a discussion followed about Tunisian football and how corrupt the system of football clubs can be, with players being bought & sold for ridiculous prices.
A louage really is a kind of shared taxi as large as a minibus, which goes from one city to another. Before going, they congregate at once central spot, and a queue of louages form. They fill up the first one, and when full, it departs to its destination. The next one is filled up and then departs, etc etc. This can really be quite the experience, sitting together for some hours while travelling, and on many occasions one gets to speak to locals, which is almost without exception a rewarding experience here in Tunisia. Again, the population is in general very open and readily talk to you without hesitation, and this openness is what pleases me most about this country. It makes it so much more pleasant to travel, as one so easily meets people and can talk to them. On the louage, I sat besides a woman and her daughter. The woman gratuitously shared a sandwich with me, which I accepted. It was a nice sandwich!
On my way, I slept a bit and spent some time reading in The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho in French. After arriving, I went straight to the hotel that I had selected from my guide, and rented a cheap room for about a 100 kroner a night. Tabarka really is quite expensive a town relative to others, with a lot of tourists coming through. Going to other places, I might get a decent room for as little as 40 kroner. It does give certain benefits to be from Norway, where the living standard is quite high and a Norwegian salary is worth quite a lot in developing countries. This issue I also have discussed with people.

In Tabarka, I have stayed quite a bit in my room, as it is a calm place, and I have had the opportunity to simply read. I received an impulse to do so, as during my time at the IB I did not have many opportunities to read freely what I wanted. I have finished reading The Alchemist, and I am now halfway through The Lemon Tree, a combined history book and biography of two families and a work of non-fiction telling the story of the conflict between Israel and Palestine in great detail, but with a reconciliatory view and objective and purely factual narrative. The book also tells the story of two families, Jewish and Palestinian, and how they both suffered greatly. It is truly captivating and stimulating, and I always look forward to its next pages.
The Alchemist was very interesting, a deeply evocative and spiritual story of the discoveries of a young man whom adventures and finds the virtues of life. I will have to think more about this book, as it is quite deep. By Paulo Coelho I also bought The Zahir while travelling through London on my way to Tunisia, and I think that will make an equally interesting read.

In Tabarka, I’ve also wandered around a bit, and yesterday I ended up buying a small lovely carpet. The price I managed to nearly halve, so I think I ended up with a good deal J Only 40 kroner, actually. The men in the carpet shop told me I was a “tough negotiator”, but ended up having big smiles when I walked out. A good deal closed for me, and for them.

“Three things, the older they are, the better they are: the well, the hammam, and the friend” - Arab Proverb

The hammam is what I intend to visit tomorrow. I will let you find out what it is on your own if you’re interested, as I am completely mentally exhausted after writing for quite some time now! Nonetheless, it is actually quite fun to write these blog entries, and the memory that they will carry for the future will be great to look back at. That's also why they so some extent are so bloody long!

At last, thanks to Lonely Planet for an excellent Tunisia guide book! Lonely planet really is the authority and exhaustive source of knowledge for the traveller going virtually anywhere (even for Norway there exists a guide book), and provides history, maps, sleeping places, information on locals and customs, eateries, and all one might need while exploring somewhere. A lot of what I am writing here is what I have learned through background reading in my guide, which was well worth the buy!

I'm off to sit by the beach and practise my Arabic with my newly bought notebook :) Then, I'll go get something good to eat! Yummy :)

See you next time
- Joyous salutations from Eric

PS! Please write comments! You can do so by clicking the "COMMENTS" link right below this text. Click the "Name/URL" checkbox; there you can write your name without having to log in or anything of the sort. You'll be able to see other's comments and write your own :)

From the pulsating souq of Tunis to the indulgence of quiet reading

... will be the title of my next blog entry! I've been sitting here for nearly three hours and realizing that in effect, what I wrote would be far too long to publish on a blog for everybody to read. So I will rather take back the text to my modest budget room by a USB pin I bought just this moment (2 GB for 80 kroner, and a good brand as well!), finish it up with the more agreeable facilities provided by my dear laptop, make a condensed version for the blog, and publish it tomorrow morning :) And as well, I will create another blog where all the more lengthy versions will be published, for those really interested in my well-being :)

For now, suffice to say that I am on my fifth day here in Tunisia, and I am thoroughly enjoying myself, truly detached from daily life in Norway and cooling off (well, not in terms of sweating constantly when outside at any time between twelve and four in the afternoon...). I have visited the wonderful souq of Tunis, initiated a book + CD course in reading, writing and speaking Arabic, rencountered old friends, attended a barbeque party, spent an entire day on the beach, travelled by louage with the local population, and spent some wonderful time simply reading.

The picture you see above is from the day I spend with friends at a wonderful beach, secluded from others by us hiring a boat to take us to a little-known location inaccessible by car.

More to come tomorrow! Promise!

My vivid phantasmate of Tunisia

... T-shirts, sun lotion, reindeer, passport, camera... hmm, didn't I forget something? That tiney winey thing that means everything?

Ahh, the endless WORK before travel! But good planning + good packing = very good journey!

You've just come to my Tunisia '08 travel blog! My name is Eric Bolikowski (my friends and family know the more lengthy version of my name...), and through the 5th to 30th of July 2008, I'm going to try and preserve my one-man backpacker travel experience for posterity, as well as sharing my experiences with those who might take interest in them :) I will try to update the blog every four or five days, when I pop by an internet café.

The first stage of my journey will take me by train to Oslo, where I'll drop off a ton of baggage... I'm moving up there in August for the Norwegian civil service.

Then, I will travel by plane to Tunis (capital of Tunisia), through London. Last time, two years ago (that's where the pictures you see come from) when I last traveled to this lovely country, we had to stay one night in London as our flight from Haugesund was late (RyanAir, of course), and the bus we had to take to switch airports went in the wrong direction.

This time, I'm going with the SAME airline all the way from Oslo to Tunis, namely British Airways, which I hope will be reliable enough to get me there. Though I once again, have to switch airports, which can be a stressy nightmare sometimes.

Once in Tunis, however, things will be as ravishing and pleasant as they'll ever get this summer! I will revisit some old friends of the family in Sidi-Bou-Said (very close to Tunis), a fantastic, small and touristic, yet stunningly beautiful village, through a spectre of colourful flowers, and a coherent white paint that resides throughout the village, along with light-blue doors and windows. The uniform look helps create a simply fresh feeling - one feels vividly refreshed when strolling through the streets of Sidi-Bou-Said, and even more so while enjoying a delicious shisha (water bong) with a cup of mint tea. Oh, if only all of my dear friends could savour that wonderful feeling :) Check the picture on the left.

On the second day in Tunisia the results of my high school education, taken through an international pre-university course called International Baccalaureate (IB), will be published on the web! Likewise my fellow IB peers, I will be shaking when I log in to check the results! But I will not let them spoil the wonderful journey that I have ahead of me in any way! And I have a good feeling with respect to my results.

It would also seem that I am (not entirely confirmed yet) invited to an Arabic wedding! No need to say that it is quite an experience, with Tunisian culture, music and food dominating the event. And gosh, DO I LOVE the Tunisian food?? Especially the pastries.. yummy. Check the picture on the right for some remote sampling. If you ask me kindly I might just make some when at home once.. yes, I'm thinking of bringing home a DIY Tunisian Pastry book home!

One of the last things I'm thinking of doing while in the proximity of Tunis, is visiting the Medina - i.e. the market! In the jungle of tight and cramped streets that compose this separate and very old part of Tunis, you find all that a Tunisian heart may desire; carpets, shishas, clothing, Arab music, furniture, glass, jewelry, shoes, chess boards, food & pastry ad infinitum. The unique and buzzing atmosphere and the tradition of having to haggle for anything from shisha fruit tobacoo to large carpets distinguishes this from anything you can see anywhere in Europe, perhaps with the exception of larger Arab communities in great European cities, especially London or Paris. It's also an interesting experience to haggle, especially when challenging one's own predispositions to compassion, while it is in fact can even be rude not to haggle. Yet with a flow of naïve tourists, many merchants make for easy pickings. While visiting, I'll find a shisha for Bartosz, who readily enjoys puffing away with the one I brought back home for myself two years ago, and whom I promised to get one!

Time to round up this blog entry! The last thing that I have on my agenda so far, is the Northern coastal town of Tabarka. I'll head there after staying a few days in Sidi-bou-Said. Once there, I will enjoy the last few days of a Jazz festival, the sun, and try to do some scuba diving as well.

Well, then I'll start packing again. My train to Oslo leaves tomorrow morning, and tonight I'm meeting my dearest friend Solveig.

Until next time! I'll probably be in Sidi-bou-Said or Tabarka upon my next blog entry.

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