Catchup Postage: Carthage

I'm in need of a few new words.

I am... wonderated!

Soaked in awe at the breadth of history beneath my feet.

I... olfactinate!

Did these flowers bloom upon this hillside those three thousand years ago? When Elyssa girt this mount with cowhide, did this scent of yellow/violet fill her senses also? Did her hands need part this riotous garden to lay the cunning strips that found her empire?

Wow! I didn't expect this. I'm unprepared for such an emotional response to this place. Yeah, sure, as a kid I'd been fascinated by the Phoenicians, my imagination had been fired by the tale of Hannibal's epic feats and who doesn't have at least some interest in the accomplishments of the Empire of Rome? I'd never had an intense desire to visit the ruins of Carthage, though - not like I'd longed to see the Potala Palace in Lhasa. Yet as I stand here amid the ruins of Roman villas on the flanks of the hill called Byrsa I'm overwhelmed by the same incredible depth of feeling I experienced in the Tibetan capital...

Trying to keep up

Sorry about the lack of posts recently, but the pace of this journey and the dearth of laptop-friendly net cafés in this part of the world prevents us keeping you regularly updated.

Secrets of the Medina: Better and Better!

The last couple of days have set our expectations pretty high but further Tunis explorations lived up to them with room to spare. We decided to head back to the medina, which deserves far more than the cursory look we gave it on our first morning.

There are a lot of would-be-guides in the medina and they know they only have a few quick moments to impress tourists with their knowledge before they move on. As you pass through the winding alleys, outside almost all of the 700 world heritage listed monuments they wait to approach likely targets and throw at you the most tantalising snippets of history to lure you in. Usually we are not interested – we have compiled our own guide from the internet and had it printed and bound in Bangkok, so most of the broad details we already have in our hands. This morning we ran into Fateh though, and he quickly changed our minds with his expert knowledge, gentle overtures and genuine manner. If you ever end up in the medina, you can find him near the Koranic school, around the corner from the Great Mosque.

He proved to be a truly excellent choice of guide. He skipped past all the usual souvenir shops and tourist traps, taking us only to workshops where nothing was offered for sale. We viewed the processes of hand-making silk shawls and jebbahs, iron and gold working. He took us to the tombs of Ottoman kings, Koranic schools, traditional houses and private rooms. All of them were empty of tourists except Doug and I, so we were free to wander and be amazed by Fateh's encyclopedic knowledge of their histories. Fateh was the perfect guide for Doug, almost instantly divining the kind of architectural details that capture Doug's attention and leading us to examples we never would have found ourselves. The architecture was.. well, it was just WOW. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

He took us to the best tea-houses at our request, and showed us where to find vegetarian sandwiches. Later we picked up his daughter up from the school near to the medina and she smiled shyly at first and skipped along beside her father, but quickly warmed and gripped my hands and arms the whole way. She was very well known in the souks, young men stopped often to kiss her cheeks and occasionally she would let go of my hand to race into the arms of one uncle or another. By the time we were ready to leave she burst into tears, begging Fateh to let us come home to dinner with them.

Altogether it was another beautiful day in Tunis. My words can't do it justice, so I'll just leave you with more of Doug's 1000 word essays ;)

She didn't half-ass

her city-site choosin' -

nice work, Elyssa

Not quite a haiku, but it does sum up my feelings about Carthage in spring. We spent 8 hours wandering the ruins of that ancient city yesterday, but it wasn't just the ruins that captured the eye and the imagination – the glimmering Bay of Tunis, the hills overrun with wildflowers, plum trees blooming, a deep blue sky – who could ignore those, no matter what else is before them?

The ruins were incredible. I'd read many people's observations that the Carthage archaeological park is disappointing but in my opinion that couldn't be further from the truth. Despite the fact that explanations were signposted in 7 languages but not in English, I thought the area was fascinatingly atmospheric.