Friday was Kit's last day at work, and the following day we'd be off to explore other parts of the country. I chose the Roman ruins at Dougga as my last solo day trip destination. I was a little beat by the previous days jaunt to El Djem, but perked up in the taxi on the way to the bus station when I saw this building which supposedly was the inspiration for the Jawas' sandcrawler in Star Wars:
To reach Dougga I had to catch this bus headed southwest to the small town of Teboursouk and from there take a louage to the ruins 8 kms away:
The bus ride lasted around three hours and the scenery was gorgeous - rolling green hills linked by wheat fields and olive groves. It looked like central Italy and has some of the richest farmland in Tunisia...
Upon arriving in Teboursouk I learned that if I wanted to be back in Tunis around 7:00 p.m. (to enjoy a nice dinner with Kit to mark the end of her work days and the beginning of our trip together to points south), my only option would be to catch a bus scheduled to stop in a little less than two hours. I realized that to make it back in time my time in Dougga would be very stressful, which absolutely defeats the purpose of a vacation. I consulted with the owner of a sandwich shop located next to the bus stop's office (bus station would be a great exaggeration) and, upon hearing that I had decided to stroll around Tebrousouk rather than run around Dougga, he stated, "there is nothing to see here." I suppose he's used to living in a beautiful lush valley with perfect weather, but I am not, so off I went for a hike in the glorious countryside. Ruins will always be ruins, but to me the valley was perfection in the here and now...
A solo trip is not complete without a self portrait:
I made it back in time to catch my bus to Tunis, and started off the night with some coffee and pastries at a cafe hear the the hotel. The woman below is a cafe employee who looks exactly like my father's cousin - everyone on that side of the family looks like they're from the Middle East.
Afterwards we went for a stroll near the hotel and ended up on the boardwalk of a place full of restaurants and cafes that Tunisians refer to as Miami Beach. More often than not when young Tunisians found out we were from the U.S., they would excitedly blurt out, "California, Miami!!!" This enthusiam can only be caused by that most influential of U.S. exports - television programming.
We ended the night with a meal at a restaurant overlooking the water where this little fellow was not shy at all about walking up to our table and taking a swig from my can of Orangina...
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