Tunisia - 2 year anniversary

In mid-April, Arno and I celebrated our 2-year anniversary! Wow! ;) To commemorate it, we booked a rather cheap trip to Tunisia in North Africa. Tunisia is known - in short- for its old Roman and Byzantine cities and ruins, such as found in Carthage and elsewhere; beaches, and the desert (some of the Sahara desert is found in Tunisia).

The flight to Monastir is only 3 hours from Amsterdam, and we stayed near a coastal town called Sousse (about 2.5 hours south of Tunis, the capital). It was my first time on the continent of Africa and my first time in an Arab country. The primary language is Arabic of course, but French is also widely spoken. While we were indeed in Africa, I will not consider myself as having really been to Africa until I travel more into the heart of the continent...
Regardless, the trip was fun and a nice taste of north African culture (this brief experience also warrants a trip to Morocco at some point in the near future). We enjoyed wandering around in the souks of the medina in Sousse. It was really what I had envisioned...lots of little vendors, objects hanging from above crowding out the light, the smell of fresh spices everywhere, etc. etc. There is also a very beautiful and ancient mosque in the center (entrance to mosque is pictured below) which is a couple thousand years old...the old stones certainly give you the feeling you've stepped back into biblical times - I can only imagine what Jerusalem and other ancient cities are like.

Since we were in Tunisia for only a few days, we just spent our time exploring the old part of Sousse and hanging out at the beach (not complaining!). On our next trip, however, I would like to travel into the desert and go for a cheesy camel ride or two! :)

Click here to see more of my photos and what I'm talking about...