after a day of wandering through Tunis, never quite sure of where we were but never getting seriously lost, and realizing that the city was pretty small, we decided to take a day trip to Carthage to get in touch with our Roman roots. There is a train that runs from Tunis up along the coast, stopping a about a dozen small beach towns, so we bought tickets, hoped that we were on the right train (there were no signs, but it turns out that Tunis is the terminus so you can just follow the crowds and know you're getting on the right train), and set out. By this point we realized that the guide book Amy had bought was as good as useless - it had numerous maps, but few labeled streets - so once we got off the train we just picked a direction and started walking. Luck was on our side and we shortly came upon signs for some of the sites that were listed in the book.
Our first stop was the Tophet de Salaambo, where we bought a photo permit (turns out most places charge 1-3Dt extra for the right to take pix) and a ticket that was good for entry to all the sites. As we would find to be the case at most of the sites, the ruins are just chilling outside, covered in moss and soot, and not well preserved at all. Maybe this stuff just isn't really important? I don't know... And as far as explanations for what we were looking at, well that was usually lacking as well. The Tophet site looked like a graveyard, and the book said something about child sacrifices, so we decided that it was a site where they buried the kids that had been offered to the gods or whatever. Mostly I was excited about the palm trees...
In Tunisia, by which of course I mean from my not-so-scientific observations in Tunis and its environs, there are often about 10 men 'working' jobs that could be done by one guy. Mostly they drink coffee. Which is cool, kinda frenchy, and if it means that one of the 10 is as friendly as the guard that set us on the right path to seeing the other ruin sites, then it's fine with me. We turned out of the Tophet site and were heading back the way we had come, figuring we would see signs to the next site, but the guard came running after us, laughed at us for being out on our own, and pointed us in the right direction...After that point, we noticed another touristy couple wearing huge "MICHIGAN!!" and "COLORADO!!" sweatshirts (although I think they were german, not american) who looked like they knew where they were going, so we followed them the rest of the afternoon.
The star of the ruin sites are the Thermes d'Antonin, which are located in a beautiful garden and surrounded by armed guards. We spent a fair amount of time at this site since I decided to be obsessed with columns and we thought that we might know enough latin to read some of the inscriptions. not so much. Carthage was the nicest day in terms of weather and chilled-out-ness - since it's not in the city, we mostly saw other small groups of tourists. normally i hate that, but when the other option is uber-busy streets and feeling tres conspicuous, I'll take tourists. especially since we were by the Mediterranean!! We found a Monoprix (looove it), bought some picnic food, and lazily soaked up the sun on a nice piece of wall. Another pretty chouette thing about Tunis - there arent pigeons (just in the zoo), but there are street cats. generally they looked in decent health, so it wasnt too depressing. Amy said that it was like that in Madrid too, but I dont really remember...
Our first stop was the Tophet de Salaambo, where we bought a photo permit (turns out most places charge 1-3Dt extra for the right to take pix) and a ticket that was good for entry to all the sites. As we would find to be the case at most of the sites, the ruins are just chilling outside, covered in moss and soot, and not well preserved at all. Maybe this stuff just isn't really important? I don't know... And as far as explanations for what we were looking at, well that was usually lacking as well. The Tophet site looked like a graveyard, and the book said something about child sacrifices, so we decided that it was a site where they buried the kids that had been offered to the gods or whatever. Mostly I was excited about the palm trees...
In Tunisia, by which of course I mean from my not-so-scientific observations in Tunis and its environs, there are often about 10 men 'working' jobs that could be done by one guy. Mostly they drink coffee. Which is cool, kinda frenchy, and if it means that one of the 10 is as friendly as the guard that set us on the right path to seeing the other ruin sites, then it's fine with me. We turned out of the Tophet site and were heading back the way we had come, figuring we would see signs to the next site, but the guard came running after us, laughed at us for being out on our own, and pointed us in the right direction...After that point, we noticed another touristy couple wearing huge "MICHIGAN!!" and "COLORADO!!" sweatshirts (although I think they were german, not american) who looked like they knew where they were going, so we followed them the rest of the afternoon.
The star of the ruin sites are the Thermes d'Antonin, which are located in a beautiful garden and surrounded by armed guards. We spent a fair amount of time at this site since I decided to be obsessed with columns and we thought that we might know enough latin to read some of the inscriptions. not so much. Carthage was the nicest day in terms of weather and chilled-out-ness - since it's not in the city, we mostly saw other small groups of tourists. normally i hate that, but when the other option is uber-busy streets and feeling tres conspicuous, I'll take tourists. especially since we were by the Mediterranean!! We found a Monoprix (looove it), bought some picnic food, and lazily soaked up the sun on a nice piece of wall. Another pretty chouette thing about Tunis - there arent pigeons (just in the zoo), but there are street cats. generally they looked in decent health, so it wasnt too depressing. Amy said that it was like that in Madrid too, but I dont really remember...
i love the columns at the lush Thermes d'Antonin
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