Kit went to work so I was off to the Bardo Museum which houses an extensive collection of Roman mosaics. I started the day with a TGM train ride to the city and then took the Tram to the Bardo...
View from a window at the Bardo. The Bardo is located in a 13th century Hafsid palace:
Another view from the Bardo; not as pretty as the one above. The Bardo is quite popular with tour groups...
Mosaics, mosaics, mosaics!!! They are everywhere at the Bardo and were taken from both private and public Roman buildings. Zoom in the little guy on the left's crotch and you'll see he's very excited to see tourists. As for the faceless lion fighting the gladiator, they should poke a hole there so tourists can take a picture as the aggressive feline:
The one on the right offers a snapshot of the life of a rich landowner. On the left is the zodiac:
Boxers (no, they're not maracas), fighting and bleeding...
At the Bardo I perfected my single traveler photo technique...
Interior of the museum:
My nemesis!...
The tricky part of taking photos at touristy destinations is to exclude fellow tourists. For example, we all have a travel photo or two that would be perfect were it not for some beefy tourist with purple pants, orange crocs, and a tank top hovering around our intended subject like a drunken killer bee. For about twenty minutes the Asian gent above anticipated every mosaic and statue I intended to photograph, and parked himself in front of them for a good ten minutes. I was perplexed at his total inability to read social cues, such as holding my camera at chest height and staring at him, clearly indicating I wanted to take a photo. It didn't faze him in the least, and he proceeded to photograph EVERYTHING!
In the pic above he's actually focused on a two sentence (one in Arabic one in French) plaque which is the size of a small shoe box.
After the Bardo I met up with Kit in Tunis and we caught the TGM to Sidi Bou Said...
...where Kit purchased a painting from Franky Avalon's long lost brother:
Afterwards we had coffee and smoked shisha at a cafe in Sidi Bou that's terrace overlooked the sea:
The day ended with dinner in La Marsa at "Wald El Bey" which specializes in kebabs and sandwiches. "Wald El Bey" means son of the Bey (Turkish ruler or administrator), and one of our cab drivers said the last Turkish Bey in Tunisia's son owned the place. Surprisingly there were no royal connotations on the menu, like "royal kebab platter" or "imperial fries." I don't know which royal house is associated with Burger King, but "Wald El Bey" is much better.
Kit stole this presenting pose from virtually every Asian tourist we encountered.
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