A quick taste of Tunis

I've had to privilege of travelling to more than 30 countries in Africa since 1989, and thought I'd share a small slice of Tunisia with you today. I was lucky to travel often to the capital city, Tunis, many times, especially while the African Development Bank (AfDB) had its Temporary Relocation Headquarters there. I can't remember how often I went there, but perhaps it was a dozen or so trips between 2005 and 2010. Fortunately or unfortunately, I haven't been back since the Arab Spring was sprung in December 2011 in Sidi Bouzid - but the few visits I made in the months leading up to the Arab Spring certainly gave me a sense of the smouldering tensions there.

But today's post is not a reflection on Tunisia's political journey. It's to give you the slightest of flavours of the country's capital city.

First, a rainbow

Since you love rainbows and I'm lucky enough to be in the same place as them surprisingly often, I thought I'd start out with a morning scene from one of my hotel rooms. I'm guessing this is looking kind of west, mostly because it's morning and there's a rainbow in front of us - otherwise we'd be looking into the sun. The architecture in Tunis is quite Mediterranean, as you can see; most buildings are white.

A taste of downtown

Downtown Tunis is a mix of modern and more traditional buildings. Electric trams provide what appeared to be reliable public transport for the many bustling commuters we saw on our trips. The traffic on the main roads was nothing short of terrifying (although not as frightening as traffic in Tripoli, but that was just plain lunacy) - organised chaos orchestrated by the hundreds of uniformed young policemen directing the traffic at major intersections.

Well, that doesn't give you the slightest idea of how nuts the traffic was during the day. Again, if we go by the sun, we must be looking in a westerly direction here. We were staying in one of the major hotels about ten minutes walk away from the AfDB headquarters, so we got to have a pedestrian's feel for the place. Traffic lights often had mystery rules that we simply couldn't penetrate; those big roads tended to have an outside lane which had its own rules regardless of what the main traffic lights were saying. Suffice it to say we learned to "jayrun".

Photo credit: Stephan van den Berg
One of those traffic cops

The souk at night

The old market (souk) was alive with locals and tourists day and night. This is the entrance.

Photo credit: Stephan van den Berg

Here are a few scenes from inside the souk and old town.

Photo credit: Stephan van den Berg

Photo credit: Stephan van den Berg

Photo credit: Stephan van den Berg

European influence on the architecture

As we walked down the main boulevard, we couldn't help but sometimes feel we were in Paris, with streetside cafes abounding on the broad sidewalks, and many examples of European architecture to admire.

We admired this beautiful facade, which I hope the architecturally literate Steemians would be able to say more about. Perhaps Italian influence?

Photo credit: Stephan van den Berg

The city is also home to a stunning cathedral. Unfortunately, as we were visiting at night, it was closed so we didn't have a chance to see inside. The interior is reputedly well worth seeing.

Photo credit: Stephan van den Berg

Photo credit: Stephan van den Berg

Food in Tunis

Delicious. Their typical pastries are often made with honey, chopped almonds and pistachios. Oh, did I start with pastries? I should have started with melons in season. Oh, my goodness. But pastries.

And I'm a fish lover, so Chez Slah was one of my favourite restaurants. You'd get an amazing plate of fresh tuna, harissa paste and fresh fennel leaves garnished with the most out-of-this-world black olives known to mankind.

Chez Slah entrance

The menu outside - ees a feesh restaurant, as you can see

Restaurants often serve Slata Méchouia as a first course, and cook with chermoula a paste made of combination of lemon, herbs and spices which is simply delicious.

How is Tunis now?

I haven't heard much about developments in Tunis in recent years, although have stayed in touch with a number of colleagues in a partner firm there and they seem to be coping with life. It's a city I would love to visit as a tourist and not just as a business visitor.

I'd appreciate any Steemians with more up to date experience there sharing their views on life in Tunis these days.