As I was making new plans after my original plan was foiled, it became clear that I would really only have one opportunity to hang out with Gulliver one-on-one. I called her and it turned out she was free right then. She'd been wanting to go to the annual Art Exhibit but didn't want to go by herself because of the expense of the taxi ride out to the town where it was being held. I was happy to split the taxi fare with her and so off we went.
It was much like the International Fair here in Marseille, but with only Tunisian things. Right off the bat this sweet girl had us try some Bsissa, which apparently Tunisians love to eat for breakfast.
I ate a spoonful and that was enough for me. It was much thicker than peanut butter and stuck in my mouth. I figured out I would have to swallow it in a whole lump because it was impossible to just suck and savor like peanut butter. There were several different flavors, and I honestly can't remember which one I tried. It didn't taste bad, but let's just say... it was not Nutella. And if I'm gonna eat a gooey substance for breakfast, I'd rather it be Nutella.
There was a furniture section that had gorgeous pieces. Just the sort of stuff I would love to have in my home. (Not sure why I didn't take any photos in that part? Maybe because Gulliver and I were caught up in catching up...) There were wedding trinket booths...
There were Berber pottery booths. (Berbers are the original inhabitants of North Africa before the Arabs came.)
There were rug booths. Soooo many beautiful rugs. If I lived in Tunisia, I don't know how I would choose which rug I wanted to buy!
There were stunning paintings. I loved them all. Gulliver said that the painting style that I liked the most would not fit in the decorative direction I'd taken with my living room. I took that as a personal challenge to find just the right painting that would go with my living room. I found several, but didn't buy any, since I'm about to put my whole house into storage for two years. Not the most ideal time to buy a painting.
I'd sworn before I left for the exhibit that I wouldn't buy anything for the reason that I didn't buy the painting: I'm about to put everything in storage. And I have a lot of stuff. I don't need more. But... (can you guess what's coming?)... I did end up buying something. There was a booth with art supplies, and they were selling gorgeous stencils. I'm no good at hand sewing in a straight line, or drawing designs of my own on the fabric to quilt, but with stencils...I can quilt the prettiest designs! This booth had stencils for 1 dinar a piece (about 50 cents), I couldn't resist. I bought 10!
After much discussion, we decided to eat at a particular restaurant in the nearby town of Sidi Bou Said. We caught a taxi, but upon arrival, discovered that it was closed. Bummer. We flagged another taxi and headed to yet another nearby town called La Marsa. (All these are just outside the capital of Tunis.) In La Marsa, we walked a bit...
...and enjoyed a lovely view of the Med...
I spied a door. (Which is sooooo easy to do in Tunisia. Seriously, if I took a picture of every door I liked, I would have taken a picture of every door I saw!)
I liked the window above this door just as much as the door. The two together were lovely. Seriously, when I think of the Arab world, I picture every home front looking just like this.
Gulliver asked if I'd ever been to the Saf Saf. I said no and asked what was special about it. She said it has a live camel inside, in the middle of the restaurant, that walks in a circle around a well to draw up water from the well. I stared at her for a moment, and then said, "After all that discussion we'd had about where to eat, now you tell me I could have eaten at a place with a live camel?! I gave you Lobster Risotto! You owe me a camel!!!" She laughed and agreed that she owes me a camel. You can't see him, but there is a camel in there. I saw him.
By this door, an old man stopped and talked to us about the history of La Marsa, and it's colonization by the French. What's funny about when I hang out with my American friends who live in Tunis is that one of us is always having to translate: either me from French or them from Arabic. The Arabs aren't used to white people who don't speak French, and so they just assume my friends speak French. And while I can catch some words in Arabic, I can't understand it all by any means. So while I don't remember all that this man said, I do remember that it was in French and thus I had to translate.
This building made me think about what he'd said. I wondered what the town looked like 100 or 150 years ago when the French were making their summer homes there. What did it look like in pre-colonial days? What did this beautiful architecture look like before it was just left to ruin? What a beautiful town in must have been in its heyday!
On the taxi-ride home, we realized we hadn't gotten a picture together. Oops. This one came out blurry, but it got the job done! I actually got to see Gulliver a few more times in group settings over the two weeks, but I was so glad to get that time alone with her.
1 comment:
more wonderfulness!! I looove the rugs and paintings....and the stencils are gorgeous! also the doors and architecture. :-)
Post a Comment