Heading to Tunis

<p>I will be coming to Tunis in early August.</p>

<p>My time there will be very limited. Can you give me recommendations for sites to photograph?<br>

Any recommendations on a tour guide for photographers?</p>

<p>First of all, are you absolutely SURE? You know what happened in Tunisia not that long ago, right? The situation there is still rather unsettled, so wandering around an unknown city is NOT something I'd recommend.</p>

<p>Actually, in terms of recommendation, the only place I'd recommend in Tunis (I was there in 2005 for two weeks) is the old Medina and its souqs. That place alone is enough to have you shooting for two days in a row...;-) (at least, it was back then - I've read reports and spoken to colleagues there and apparently that amazing place suffered quite a bit during the riots since the demonstrators would seek asylum and protection among the narrow alleys).</p>

<p>After exploring Tunis, make sure to set aside a day to visit Carthage and the quaint costal town of Sidi Bou Said. You can take a commuter train from Tunis to Carthage. As best as I recall there are three train stations serving the greater Carthage area. Upon arriving at each station, you will need to take a fairly long walk to see the sites. I would strongly urge you to purchase a LP guidebook and one of the many other guidebooks that are available for Tunisia. They will explain how to see Carthage in one day. Carthage is truly an immense site.<br>

The train does not run all the way to SBS but a taxi ride from the third train station is not all that expensive to get there. I arrived there in the late afternoon, had a walk around the town and then dinner at a taverna. Then, take taxi back to the last train station and the train back to central Tunis.<br>

Below are fragments from a never completed journal from my day in Tunis.<br>

Here is a link to my Tunisia photos on PN. Unfortunately, only 3 of them are from Tunis,Carthage and SBS, the rest from towns in the countryside that I visited using a rental car.<br>

<a href="../photodb/folder?folder_id=560409">http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=560409</a><br>

I would not be particularly concerned about personal safety. Just exercise common sense<br>

Tunis Journal<br>

Tunis is not the most remarkable place to make landfall on<br />the African continent. However, two jewels adorn this capital city that demand<br />a day or two of the visitor’s time. The Bardo is a world class museum that<br />tastefully displays the best mosaics, statuary and relics uncovered on the<br />country’s 10 or so important Roman sites, most of which date from the 1^st<br />C BC through the 4^th C AD.<br>

The building that houses these artifacts is a<br />treasure itself though, from another era. Fringed with date palms and classic<br />Arabic style arched entryways, the building is a former palace of the beys,<br>

A wide, tree-lined boulevard slices the heart of the<br />French colonial Citie Nouvelle both literally<br />and figuratively. The only possible<br />reasons to linger for a few moments in colonial Tunis are to have a look at the<br />nicely maintained exterior of the<br />cathedral, one of the few bastions of Christianity<br />in this largely Muslim country, view the theatre done in French baroque and observe<br />the chilled, western-dressed locals<br />sipping coffee and tea in outdoor cafes with December temperatures hovering in<br />the 40’s as a cold front drops down from the Alps across the Mediterranean.<br>

If you linger too long, as I did, on the boulevard<br />median waiting for the sun to come out before taking a mandatory photo of the<br />cathedral, a clean shaven man in a smart leather jacket bulging with all sorts<br />of communications gear will approach you. Speaking in French, he will caution<br />you that, though you may photograph the cathedral to your heart’s delight, you<br />may not, under any circumstances, turn in the opposite direction and photograph<br />the attractive villa across the street that apparently houses government<br />offices. When you reply in English that you understand not a<br />single word of French, his facial expression becomes perplexed as he employs<br />various hand and arm gestures to make his point. And, in the unlikely event<br />that he has failed to make his point, as he turns around to walk away, he will<br />open the leather jacket just enough to reveal his holstered<br />pistol. Around 5:00<br />in the afternoon, Tunis’ December sky will darken with a dozen<br />or so huge flocks of starling-like birds circling high above the heart of the<br />city. Moving downward at a leisurely pace, they eventually alight in the<br />numerous thickly-leaved trees lining the median of the central boulevard. From<br />then until sunrise, it is a risky proposition to jaywalk across the street,<br />over the median and under the trees. I took two direct hits before I got the<br />picture. <br>

At the western end of the boulevard you<br />will arrive at the Place Independence with its gates to second remarkable site<br />in the city, the walled medina. One entry gate takes you along a narrow lane<br />with shops that cater to the needs<br />of the locals. The second takes you past dozens of souvenir stalls. In either<br />direction your eyes, ears and nose will be assuaged by a stream of sensual<br />delights.<br>

Most Tunis<br />tourists stay a train ride away at seashore resorts, a mistake in my opinion.<br />After the tourists depart in the<br />late afternoon, the atmosphere in<br />the medina, though perhaps less lively, transports you back through the<br />centuries like a time machine stuck in reverse gear.<br>

Not long after<br />you begin your stroll through the medina, a young man will approach you and,<br />with a sense of urgency, implore you to follow him to a section of the medina where an event of great local<br />importance is occurring. Whatever objections you raise<br />will be overcome by his persistence. You will, sooner or later, agree to follow him, probably at the point<br />where he lets it be known that he will be grievously offended if you deny him the<br />opportunity to extend genuine Tunisian hospitality. He will end up taking you to shop or two to look at carpets and souviniers. He will receive a fat commission if you buy something. After you demonstrate that you are not a buyer, he will take you to one more shop and lead you up a staircase to the rooftop of the shop. From the rooftop, the entire city will unfold below you with a lot of nice photo opps. Best to do this in the late afternoon. You will be expected to tip him for leading you to this spectacle, and it certainly warrants a tip of $5 or so.</p>