Nikon D-40x

I HAVE MY NEW CAMERA :-))))))))))))))

So much for tidying my flat tonight...click-click, here I come!

Crazy travelling week part 2: Tunis

Tunis: Wednesday 10th to Friday 12th

with most photos shamelessly stolen from Hermann, who had a nice camera when I didn't.

Actually wrote this post while I was out there.

Here I am in Tunis, sitting on my hotel balcony looking out onto the pool through an arch of pink, orange and white bougainvillees which at this time of day is teeming with birds chattering away (reminiscent of the Golden Tulip in Nizwa in fact)…maybe it comes with the Golden Tulip package ;-) Anyway, waking up slowly this morning to the sound of several hundred birds was pretty amazing and a great start to the day.

Bougainvillees in Sidi Bou Said:

We arrived yesterday (Wednesday) around 3:30 and got to the hotel around 4:30 after a bit of a long wait for our luggage (Hermann went from muttering about priority luggage to crossed fingers and a few shades paler until his luggage finally came through on the last batch). The weather was lovely, 24 degrees and sunny (PLUS 24 this time!!!) and the hotel is in a pretty nice location-perched up on the hill on the way to Carthage, overlooking the bay and the mountains…a perfect holiday or conference hotel, not so perfect for doing business in town as it is a bit of a drive (but nothing compared to a British commute!)

>

Our driver, Lotfi, has been very helpful and agreed to take us to Sidi Bou Said after we had checked in, so we spent an hour admiring the houses and enjoying the atmosphere with surprisingly little hassle from the salesmen on the way up, and ended up at the café overlooking the bay where I had a Turkish coffee sitting on rugs.

We got back before seven to allow Lotfi to get home in time for food (it’s still Ramadan) and agreed to meet a bit later for dinner in the hotel restaurant…while I waited I sat out at the terrace, enjoying a burrha (Sp?) with orange, watching the sun go down :-).

Had a good chat with Hermann over dinner (we really need to have a team dinner…hardly know anything about anyone on this team! Or a teambuilding exercise in Tunisia…)

This morning we headed into town to meet ETAP, the Tunisian Petroleum Agency, to get to know the data people there and have a bit of a chat about our area. We ended up with the friendly Dr Amri going to look for a whole bunch more things and not giving up till he personally found them. A very productive and positive time there.

After ETAP we asked Lotfi to take us into town to the main hotel, where we had a nice lunch (most restaurants are closed at the moment for lunch) before heading off to meet our Country Chairman for Tunisia (downstream office). That was also pretty interesting and got even better as he revealed that he had set up an office for us to use when we are in town!! No need to mention that one twice…I think Hermann and I have already decided which desks we’ll take ;-)

After that we noticed that most people were heading home, even though it was quite early; the whole place feels a bit like Christmas Eve which is interesting and unexpected. It is still unclear whether Eid is going to be tomorrow or the day after but everyone seems to be assuming the former anyway.

Our country chair suggested that we head out to Medina and the old city where there is apparently a lot going on in this season…street shows etc, till late into the night and during Ramadan only. So we are thinking of heading out pretty soon in that direction.

Although very short, this trip has actually been really productive. It feels pretty surreal being here in the mild weather and so clearly in a completely different environment, yet only a short flight away from home. The swimming pool was a bit chilly when I went in about an hour ago but still perfectly swimmable, and the evening sun still warm enough to make a difference…

It has been fascinating for me to finally come to Tunisia; although I have only had a snapshot view of it so far, it seems to me that at least in Tunis, people here are A LOT more relaxed than in most of the Middle East and North Africa; women drive around, bare-headed, wearing trousers etc etc and look in fact just like our North African immigrants back home, just on a sunny backdrop. I noticed several different types of ethnicities although I haven’t managed to identify them all of course. And the big thing here is being able to speak French…it opens so many doors (see Dr Amri) and just generally allows you to communicate where English is just non-existent. And our driver just gave me a box of makroud as a present simply because I had asked for a recommendation of a good place to buy it (and pestering him with questions about Tunis). I am tempted to skip dinner…

I could definitely see myself living here…yet another reminder of why I took this job in the first place. NOT to sit in a big corporate office in a grey rainy country. Yeah.

Crazy travelling week part 1: Paris

On Sunday 7th I got approval from Hermann to book and organise our trip to Tunis...from 10th to 12th! Last-minute excitement turned into panic as I realised I had just buried my summer wardrobe somewhere...oh how terrible these luxury problems can be.

To go to Tunis from Ams we need to fly via Paris, so I decided to take Tuesday afternoon off and visit Marc, who happened to be in Paris for a couple of weeks.

A quick phone call and I had a dinner party in Paris, 2 days in sunny Tunisia and a weekend in Belgium (Capitalist Ball on Friday night in Brussels) :-)) the nightmare pack of the year, especially as I had decided to travel light (as of now, etc etc).

So Tuesday afternoon saw me happily following my well-trodden route to Schiphol for my first ever flight on Air France, in Classe d'Affaires no less (lovely snacks with the coffee but no much leg room). A quick hop later and I was in Roissy CDG, picking up my luggage and the train ticket for Paris-Brussels on Friday before hopping onto the RER.

A little while later I emerged into the 15th arrondissement, to be greeted by Marc and taken to his flat via a nice bakery (whine whine I miss that kind of choice at that kind of price). Alena was in full swing preparing for the dinner party they had kindly organised so I split my time between trying to keep out of the way and trying to help with preparations :-)

Marc's flat was in a very typical Parisian internal courtyard

It all came together nicely in time for the first guests and we could all relax and enjoy the champagne as the evening progressed. It was really lovely meeting some of Marc's friends from uni/flatmates, from school and from his previous job. It was the first time I have been to a French dinner party, and luckily was pretty relaxed-my French finally de-rusted itself halfway through so all was well there. It was fascinating getting an insight into a very different type of French person then those I have met before (well, Parisians, you know...;-)

I am really glad I stopped off in Paris (even though it meant kicking Marc&Alena out of their own home) as it was lovely to catch up with them, meet new and interesting people, see a new part of Paris (briefly), eat some nice food and get my French ready for business in Tunisia.

End-of-the-night munchies...of course, we didn't think of actually taking any pics DURING the evening...

So after a short night (4 hours :-( I gathered up my belongings, took out the next set of tickets and headed back to Roissy, where I arrived in good time-luckily considering the lack of signs at the train station resulting in my ending up in completely the wrong terminal :-(

Finally settled down in the AirFrance lounge with a drink and a madeleine and enjoyed reading the Figaro whilst waiting for Hermann.

Eventually we got on the flight to Tunis and settled in for the next 2 1/2 hours with a nice glass of champagne. Lunch was mostly nice, although the bread and starter left me wondering if they contracted out their catering to Sodexho...

Arriving in Tunisia we had a wonderful view out of the windows as the plane flew SouthWest along the coast for a good 10 minutes...the Tunisian Atlas looked pretty dramatic and all the details of the Tunis area were visible. What a fantastic start to that leg of the trip.