A Flower of North Africa

Hi readers. I know, I've been remiss and left you without a post in awhile. But I have been very busy of late. Not so busy that I haven't gotten to see some wonders of Tunisia though.

A lot of colors on one wall

The title of my post is metaphoric. But also, at least in April, it's literal. There are so many flowers of so many colors in Tunisia. It's gorgeous. I mean, sometimes you are just walking along streets and there are not flowers everywhere. But when you find flowers, they impress. Go flowers!

I have a lot to tell you about.

MARP

Never heard of MARP. Of course not. I invented it. I have been working very hard on Math Action Role Playing. This past weekend, a group of kids got to try it out. In some ways, it is like tabletop role playing games. But there is a key difference! When the characters attempt something, their success is not determined by rolling dice. Instead, the players solve competitive mathematics questions. It's been a lot of work in the last month to get all of it together. And then the first group only used a tiny fraction of what I had prepared. But I didn't have any problems with running out of problems!

Tunis

Alrica and I are living in Tunis, though we are not in the main downtown portion of it. We are staying in a neighborhood called either El Aouina (if it is coming from the Arabic) or L'Aouina (if it is coming from the French.) It is a nice place to live, plenty of nearby grocery stores and restaurants, and all very affordable. The people are nice, and most everyone speaks French and the Tunisian dialect of Arabic. A few people speak English and we are getting by pretty well.

Here in L'Aouina they have inflatable men not just to sell cars or mattresses, but medical services.

We have gone into downtown Tunis. There is the Medina. Much like we experienced in Morocco, this is the old city, originally built by the Arabs. The streets are narrow and filled with shops and people selling fruits, clothing, spices, foods, wooden crafts, and much, much more. We stopped at a place to get chapati for lunch near this lovely mural.

Scenic place to eat

But right near the place we were eating a man was selling something in fabric, maybe dresses. I'm not sure, as there was a crowd of women around the goods, holding up different fabrics, inspecting them. I bring this up because of the man who was selling them. Like many places in the medina, he was calling out something in Arabic, over and over, to attract buyers. I didn't understand his particular words, but in cadence, stress, number of syllables, basically in meter, it was exactly like he was saying "Swiper no swiping. Swiper no swiping." I couldn't help by say "Oh man!" (I know that anyone reading this who either wasn't a child or didn't have children in the right time frame will not recognize a Dora the Explorer reference. But I suspect many of you will.)

This is the Bab Al-Bhar, one of the gates to the old city, the Medina

If you don't know what chapati is, maybe you know roti, the unleavened bread from the Indian subcontinent. That's what chapati is, it's a local version of roti. In many places, you can see the men in the restaurant rolling it out and cooking it. And then they make sandwiches with it. It is all quite delicious. But there is one issue for Alrica.

When you order chapati or french tacos or almost anything that is vaguely sandwich like, you get a lot of options of what you want put on your chapati or naan or tortilla. One of the spreads they generally include is harissa. This is the basis of many foods in North Africa and it is made from chili peppers and paprika and olive oil. So yeah, it's spicy. Another common spread is Algerian Sauce. Much like how Italian dressing isn't from Italy and French fries are really from France, Algerian Sauce isn't really from Algeria. It comes from France or Belgium. But it does include harissa as a major ingredient. So, it is also spicy.

View from the Central Market of Tunis, where are rows of fruits, veggies, nuts, meats, cheeses, and more.

You can ask to have your sandwiches without those sauces, and if you are, like Alrica, spice-averse, of course you do ask to go without. But once they put all the other spreads on your round chapati or tortilla, they grab a spoon to smear it all around. It's the same spoon they used to make the last sandwich before yours and who knows how many before that. It isn't washed in between. And aside from Alrica, harissa and Algerian sauces are hot commodities with sandwich purchasers. (See what I did there?) So that spoon always has harissa on it. So your sandwich, french taco, or makloub is going to be at least a little bit spicy. (Or as Alrica would say, "too spicy.")

This is mild in comparison to other things out of my historical scope

It is always fascinating to see what is normal in one place that isn't normal where you are from. Seeing some of the butcher shops, I was thinking how kids who grow up here are not going to be squeamish about seeing dead animals. You see hanging cow, decapitated heads of sheep, meat with skin still on it, cooked fish heads, raw fish heads, but no roly poly fish heads.

That blue ice cream flavor is chewing gum. Why is that so much less appealing than bubble gum?

But you also see beautiful fabrics, intricate works of art, and stunning flowers. I don't only mean flowers for sale, but just the ones that grow in the city.

It's like a waterfall of beauty.

In the medina is one of the oldest mosques in Tunisia, the Ez-Zitouna Mosque. You are not allowed inside if you are non-Muslim. But you can walk along the outside. The thing is, unless you pay attention to the doors, you don't realize you are walking the perimeter of a huge mosque. There are shops everywhere around it, so it looks the same as everywhere else in the Medina. Sometimes you get a lucky view though.

The minaret of the Ez-Zitouna Mosque

There is also a beautiful cathedral in the center of Tunis, though it is outside the Medina in the more recent additions to the city. It's called the Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul and St. Olivia of Palermo. There are times you can go into it. Unfortunately, when we were there, it was not one of those times.

Two, two, two saints for the price of one!

Carthage

Just east of Tunis is the city of Carthage. In modern times, this is a beachside community with many nice homes and some hotel/spas. But it is also a historic city. When I was in college, I took a course in Roman history, cause, you know, gen ed requirements. One big topic we covered was the Punic Wars. These were wars between Rome, based in modern day Italy, and the kingdom of Carthage, which was centered here in Tunisia. For a good stretch of years, Carthage was the primary enemy of Rome, both vying for supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea. Maybe you've heard of Hannibal crossing the Alps with elephants. (That actually happened.) Hannibal was a Punic General. Punic means he was from Carthage. The Romans didn't call the Carthaginian Carthaginians. They called them the Poeni, because the Carthaginians were originally from Phoenicia.

This is the Magon Complex, right beside the Gulf

Anyway, after a few embarrassing defeats, including being caught completely by surprise by Hannibal coming down from the Alps with elephants, Rome did defeat Carthage. Then they sacked the city, leveling it. Ha, we'll make the world forget these people ever existed!. Then, about a hundred years later the Romans realized that the site of Carthage was a major strategic place to build a city. So they had to rebuild what they had destroyed, or really, build on top of it.

I wonder what it said when all the pieces were there

That's why, when you visit Carthage today, you see a mix of Roman ruins and Punic ruins. Often they are right beside each other, or the Punic ruin is literally under the Roman one.

Remnants of a 2500 year old naval base

We visited several sites in Carthage. We went to the Punic Ports. The Carthagianians were clever. They had a port you entered from the south. It looked just like a commercial port. But at the north end of it, they had build a circular channel with an island in the middle. Here, on the island, they had a large naval base. They kept their warships in the circular channel and so pirates, Romans, and other baddies, didn't realize there was a military presence there. If they raided the port, suddenly, as if from nowhere, here came the Punic Navy. Take that you Mediterranean miscreants!

Original Punic Neighborhood on Byrsa Hill

We also visited Byrsa Hill. (Sometimes also spelled Birsa Hill or Bursa Hill. We all agree on the spelling of Hill.) This is where Carthage was founded, and the story goes like this: The year is 814 BCE. The king of Tyre (which is part of the Phoenician Empire) kills his brother. But the brother's wife, Princess Elyssa, flees with several other faithful followers. The Phoenicians are all about sailing, so she flees by boat. And she comes to modern day Tunisia. Here, she buys some land from the locals, up on this hill. But she can only afford as much land as might be covered by the skin of an ox. The word Bursa in Greek means "skin of a cow" and that's where the hill gets its name. Princess Elyssa does super well, growing her land from the size of an ox's skin to the whole hill, the whole area, and eventually an empire (though that part was probably after Elyssa was no more.) There is also a myth about King Hiarbas insisting he was going to marry Elyssa and she couldn't stop it from happening, so she killed herself. Though the history King Hiarbas ruled Carthage about 750 years after its founding. So maybe this legend has some confused names.

Standing in what was once a library, Punic neighborhood in foreground, Gulf of Tunis in background

If you are into literature, perhaps you've read the Aeneid by Virgil. Aeneus lands in Carthage early in the story, and the queen, who is supposed to be Princess Elyssa, though Virgil renames her Dido, falls in love with him and wants him to stay and rule Carthage with her. But no, alas, he has a destiny to fulfill and he goes away and lands in modern day Italy. And his descendants will be the Romans.

All the detached capitals from various columns

That was a big digression into myth and legend, but it is the myth and legend that surrounds Carthage. And we visited Byrsa Hill. In addition to Punic ruins, and Roman ruins, there is also the tomb of Saint Louis from the much more recent 13th century CE. This is a bit misleading, because Louis isn't buried there. He did die in Tunisia.

The tomb/not tomb of St. Louis

He was the king of Franch. King Louis IX to be precise. And he was big on the crusades. He thought if he invaded in modern day Tunisia, he would break the Arab lines that extended across North Africa. He came and conquered and worked hard to convert the Muslims to being Catholics. That didn't go so well. A big bout of dysentery swept through his ranks, killing many of his warriors and maybe killing him too. Though modern forensics conducted on his preserved jawbone (because you know, you preserve these things when people are saints) indicates he actually died of scurvy. Apparently, Louis told his troops that the fruits of these heathen people were cursed by God and should not be eaten. What happens when you don't eat anything with vitamin C for long enough? You die of scurvy. Sometimes declaring that you know what God approves of and curses doesn't lead to the best ends for you or your followers.

That pillar once held up a roof in the bathhouse.

We also visited the Baths of Antoninus. These are from the Roman era in the region. The archaeological site includes the baths but also much more. There are old Punic tombs. And there are some Roman homes in which you can still see some of the mosaics on the floors.

Consider its age, this mosaic's in good shape.

The baths themselves must have been gigantic. What remains today is the basement, but you can see the occasional pillar from the first floor. It extends so high, the baths must have had quite a lofty ceiling. And there were warm pools, hot pools, cool pools, gymnasium rooms, and rooms for watching entertainments.

Don't look! Alrica's in the bath!... house... basement

Hammam Sousse

Tunis is on the conveniently enough named Gulf of Tunis which connects to the Mediterranean Sea. But just around one more peninsula one finds the Gulf of Hammamet. There is a stretch of the shore along this gulf, from the city of Hammamet to the the city of Sousse, that is known for its white sand, beautiful seas, and for lots and lots of resorts. There are beach homes to rent, but there are also the all-inclusive resorts.

I love the red flowers against the white wall.

April isn't really the busy season, but it isn't a non-season either. Alrica and I stayed for two nights at one of these resorts in Hammam Sousse, which is, as you might have guessed, between Hammamet and Sousse. (Much closer to Sousse.)

Mosaic on raised platform along the sidewalk in Sousse

It was okay. I will say, the Gulf was gorgeous. The view from our balcony was inspiring. The beach was nice, though it was a bit too cold for me to want to go into the gulf itself. We did enjoy swimming pools. We played ping-pong, conveniently not keeping score so each of us can believe we won. The food was good, not amazing.

The view from our balcony

It would be a very convenient family destination, particularly in the warm parts of the year when swimming in the Gulf would be very comfortable. It is quite flat going well out into the water, so a nice place to play without fear of being swept out to sea. And there were vendors who would take you on speedboat rides or you could be in a parasail. You could rent quad bikes too. Plus there were other vendors to take you out to the desert where you could ride camels. (We had just recently done so in Morocco, so we were good.)

At the harbor in Sousse you could do a party boat ride. Masts, no sails.

We also spent some time in the city of Sousse where we had to catch our train back home. (I have an amazing coincidence story to tell you about that.) Sousse was vibrant and fun, much smaller than the medina of Tunis, but still packed with shopping and food. I loved the chapati I got there.

Old City wall of Sousse with what appears to be Neptune on it

The train home was over two hours late arriving in the station. So late, in fact, that the people who were waiting for the next train, which was also delayed, all crammed on to our train when it got there. As such, I wasn't able to sit with Alrica. I wasn't even able to sit in the same train car with her.

Alrica ended up sitting next to a man from the United States. He was in his early thirties. But the amazing coincidence was how much his path matched our daughters. He majored in Middle Eastern Studies. He learned to speak Arabic. He did a semester abroad in Amman, Jordan, and one in Rabat, Morocco. He was selected for the Critical Language Scholarship where he spent ten weeks in Dushanbe, Tajikistan learning Persian.

Our daughter is studying international relations with a focus on Middle Eastern studies. She received a Critical Language Scholarship for this summer. And she is going to Dushanbe, Tajikistan to learn Persian. She is applying to spend a semester abroad next year in Rabat, Morocco. It was a fascinating couple of hours for Alrica to talk to this man who was basically on our daughter's path, but about fifteen years further along.

My seat mate was an older man who spoke French, and he slept for most of the ride. But I listened to an audio book. So good on me too!

People talk about undiscovered treasures. I am not sure if Tunisia is everyone's sort of place to be, but we sure like it. In many ways, it is similar to Morocco. But you don't have the people trying to get everything they can from tourists. The cost of food and lodging is low. And the weather and landscapes are beautiful, at least in April.

Multi-Continental meals

I am eating oranges. Not this very second, but just as a general, hey, this is a thing I can do.

I realize that for most people, that will be a shoulder shrug at best. Allow me to elucidate. I am trying to be more open to foods and activities and experiences. For a long time, honestly as long as I can remember, I have avoided oranges. I've always liked orange juice, but never oranges. I suspect it is about the texture. There is a chewy gummy aspect to an orange that I don't find, what's the word I want, pleasant. As a young boy, I must have found it actively unpleasant. At least that's my hypothesis, because I like the flavor of the orange. So I think that long ago I formed this bias against oranges because I didn't like the texture when I ate them. But why should adult Erich be manacled to the whims of six-year-old Erich? He shouldn't! Stand up to the inner child!

You might want to sit down for this next one: I'm even eating cucumbers. Wait, wait, caveat: I will not just eat a slice of cucumber, and if they are in my salad in a easily pick outtable way, I will pick them out and give them to Alrica. But when diced cucumber is in my doner or souvlaki, I'm eating it. This is growth!

I've also drank tea when required, even mint tea (going from bad to worse) in Morocco. I drank coffee in Bosnia when Syarra's host mother served it to us. The point is, I am trying to keep my mind open to new possibilities. Thus far, I haven't found I like coffee (though I can stand it.) I definitely still don't like tea, but I can drink it when the situation demands. And as for cucumber, well, cucumber and I will never be friends. I've come to terms with that. I like to think cucumber has as well.

This is all a somewhat rambling lead-in to say that at this point, Alrica and I are comfortably settled into Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. We are staying in the The El Aouina neighborhood in a really nice apartment that has a rather well-appointed kitchen, and a TV that can get channels from about 40 different countries.

We haven't done a lot of the site-seeing of Tunisia yet. Later this week we plan to see the ruins of Carthage, and at some point we'd like to get to the Medina of Tunis. But we were behind on some of our work after the short stay in Geneva, so we have had several days of catching up on that and on rest.

But we have had some interesting meals. The influences on the cuisine are fascinating, in how varied they are and how widespread. For example, we went to a place called Crispy Naan. What we were served was similar to the souvlaki we might get in Albania. It was meat with vegetables and sauces and some fries wrapped in a large circular bread, but wrapped like a cone rather than a burrito. What was very different was the bread. It wasn't a sort of pita bread, but instead it was naan, the traditional bread made in India and Pakistan. The restaurant had a tandoor oven where they were making the bread. Naan is always delicious, and using naan to make the cones for the other ingredients is a win-win! Alrica got hers without spice meaning it was spicy. I got mine with spice meaning it was spicy! Tunisians tend to like spicy foods.

For lunch one day we went to a Mexican restaurant. At least in name it was a Mexican restaurant and we wanted to try that. We've missed Mexican food. Well, spoiler alert, we still do. The restaurant had tacos and burritos, but they were like the French tacos from Morocco that I described in an earlier post. I'm not complaining about the quality of the food. It was tasty. But nothing about the flavors gave it any sort of Mexican mystique. I'm not sure there was a microgram of cumin involved in the preparation.

My nasi goreng (Indonesian dish) with fried egg with runny yolk, which I ate. (More growth!)

Today we decided to try East Asian food. And it truly was similar to food from that region. This is fascinating to me. I'm in Africa, eating recipes from Asia, and reading the menu in French which is a European language. I enjoyed the food a lot and realized how much I have been missing rice.

We are also trying to take advantage of the fresh food choices. Today we bought a round loaf of bread at a bakery. The other day we got some tomatoes from the local fruit and vegetable stand. But don't worry, we are getting our recommended daily allowance of junk food too. Like check out this chocolate bar from a Tunisian company. It's better than the description might imply, in much the same way that oranges are better than their texture might imply.

Mmm, milky compound. That sounds appetizing.

If you're waiting around for some similar praise directed at cucumbers, well, you've got a long wait ahead of you.

Waters of Geneva

Alrica and I spent two days (one full day and much of a second one) in Geneva, Switzerland. I know, you figured I meant the one in Switzerland. But I wanted to be very clear I wasn't referring to the city in New York or the lake in Wisconsin. It's funny that in my time in the U.S. those would have seemed more likely. But now, that is so far away.

Geneva is an interesting city. One thing to note: It is very expensive. What we spent on food over the time we were here could be about what I spent on food during my entire time in Tirana. (Okay, probably not quiet that high, but not far off.)

You can see why this is called the Broken Chair.

But it is also very beautiful. It is right where Lake Geneva (or Lac Leman and I don't know why it has two completely different names) drains into the Rhône River. (It isn't the source of the Rhône, just a lake along the way.) The lakefront is lovely with plenty of views of architecture, old ships, and the Jet D'Eau.

Jet D'Eau (I know with the scale you can't tell how tall it is.)

Jet D'Eau, for those who don't know French, means the Jet of Water. Literally, that is what I am talking about. The Jet D'Eau is a fountain in Lake Geneva that sprays up to 140 meters high. That's 460 feet or about one and a half football fields. Really it is one football field including its endzones and then a third of another football field ignoring its endzones. I think I am working too hard to describe this in football fields. Apparently, it is a symbol of the city, encapsulating it's Geneva spirit. This surprised me, because before knowing i was coming here and looking into the city, I had never heard of the Jet D'Eau. Maybe all of my readers are already familiar with it. I will say this for the Jet D'Eau, it is an impressively high spout of water.

It appears Alrica is half the height of the jet. 70 meters tall? Well, she looms large in my life.

Geneva does have wonderful water, not just the lake and the Jet D'Eau, but also its drinking water. And throughout the older parts of the city there are fountains. They are on the sides of churches, in the middle of parks, in the center of traffic circles. And they all have a sign telling you that this is Eau Potable. (If you didn't figure it out from the translation of Jet D'Eau, eau means water. And potable means potable.)

Thirsty? Geneva's got you covered.

Among our excursions, we visited the Ariana Museum. It is a museum of ceramic and glass. Now, this seems a bit out of place. Switzerland is not famous for its ancient ceramics or glasses. Sure, they made such things in more modern times, but some of the exhibits here stretch back to the 9th century. Back then, ceramic was a jealously guarded secret of China. And the Europeans paid good money for it. You've heard of the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company and the French East India Company? These were all royally chartered companies in the import/export business with the East Indies (which included China and Japan.) Ceramic was one of the major goods brought by the Dutch East India Company.

But wait, Dutch means from the Netherlands. There was no Swiss East India Company. Switzerland lacks any easy access to the sea. So why is this museum about the history of the "fire" arts located here? Because of a collector who loved ceramics (and glass, but really ceramics.) He then gave all his collection to Geneva to become a museum so that the people could experience his vast collection.

In French, they got 175 new pieces in 2024. In English they only got 16. Huh?

We also saw the United Nations Building, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Building, the Cathedral of St. Pierre, and the Broken Chair. This last one was originally built to commemorate civilian casualties of war, but now it stands as a monument condemning the use of cluster bombs and landmines in war.

Promenade of Flags with UN Building behind it

Another famous site in Geneva is the Flower Clock. It is a clock built into a hill, with the mechanism underneath. And it is so beautiful because it is surrounded in flowers. Sometimes. When we went, there were no flowers, only grass. Apparently, they are preparing a new artistic flower creation that shows a woman stretching for a soccer ball to commemorate the Women's European Cup which is coming to Geneva in June. Alrica called it the Flower Not Clock. But I disagree. It's still a clock. The hands were moving, it was telling the time. I think it is The Not Flower Clock or the Not Flower Flower Clock, which I guess is just The Clock.

What would you call it?

I'm sure you are all asking, "But Erich, did you eat cheese? Did you eat chocolate? Did your eat churros?" (Not that last one, I got carried away with "ch" foods.)

Yes, yes, and no, but again, you weren't asking about churros. We had a very savory fondue and enjoyed chocolate from brands with which we were previously unfamiliar. I'm not saying that one entire dinner consisted of chocolate, but I'm also not saying that it didn't happen that way either.

I like to leave a bit of mystery for my readers.

Only Partially Agreeing with Dorothy

As I write this I sit in the Tirana Airport. Alrica and I are leaving Albania for the foreseeable future. And yet, even as I say that, I feel pretty confident we will come back to Tirana. It will likely be a few years hence, but also likely that it will happen.

Why am I so sure? Because of all the cities we have visited and lived in since leaving Reno, this one feels the most like home. I don't mean it feels the most like Reno, but that it feels like a city in which I could really enjoy living longer term. I don't want to speak for Alrica (which is a lie, I would love to speak for Alrica, but I know the consequences if I do, so I won't,) but I think she feels it too. Tirana has enough variety in foods and entertainment, it isn't overwhelming, it is very friendly, and the cost of living is quite affordable. Add to this list that Albania allows U.S. passport holders to stay for one year without a visa and it is a super attractive place to make a home base the next time Alrica and I want to travel around Europe.

There is a saying "you can't go home again." And I agree. Tirana is growing right now, growing a lot. Albania is opening up and trying to be more tourist friendly. There are so many buildings going up (amazing quirky buildings). And I wonder what this will do to the city. Will it lose its inherent Albanianity? Will it become expensive? Will it feel like some smaller version of a Western European destination? I hope not. I want Tirana to hang on to itself and for Albania to hang on to itself.

That's a picture, not an actual building, but how cool would that be! (Not to live in though.)

There is an irony that some cultures which can't be crushed by war and persecution can suddenly be overturned by prosperity. Declare that we are others, that we are inferior, try to crush us, and we resist, we thrive. But let us become successful and comfortable and we let the assimilation begin.

I see it in my own heritage. I am Jewish by heritage, but personally I no longer believe in the tenets of the religion nor in the supreme being associated with it. (I haven't replaced that supreme being with any other who is more or less or equally supreme. I'm reasonably content with no higher power at all.) But why can I make that call and previous generations didn't? I think when Jewish people were othered and tormented by the majority, they had to cling together and the religion became all the more important to their identities. But welcome us into your society and let us become mathematicians and goofy bloggers, and then we don't feel the need to only associate with other Jews or to take refuge in the sanctuary of our sanctuaries.

That's just one example, but the one I can most personally relate to. I'm sure there are many others and that some readers will have a similar experience or family history with a similar experience.

Coming back off my tangent, I wonder if a new prosperity, a flourishing of a tourism economy, will have that same affect on Albania. I hope not, because the next time I return to Tirana, I would like to find it much as I left it.

Dorothy said (repeatedly, while clicking her heels,) "There's no place like home." But I don't entirely agree. I think there are other places like home. Not identical, but other places that could easily become home, a different home, but equal in its homeness. So I would reply to Dorothy, "Well, not everyplace is like home. But I wouldn't go so far as to say, 'There can be only one!'" (I know that I just mixed movie references that are decades apart. Eh, there are worse things I could do. Third movie reference!)