Surprise! My first time in Africa. Even it was just in the most Northern part of the continent I had the opportunity to go to Tunis for a week. Shoutout to my company MaibornWolff. My week there was fully packed with a week of seminar and work but I enjoyed every day being able to travel and work at the same time. Due to the fact that I wanted to join dance classes on Sunday I took the flight quite late on the same date and arrived at about 1 am at the airport and went to work at 7 am. My hotel and work were located in LAC2 which is a quite new area and my first impression there was different than I thought but actually the streets are similar built to the ones in Asia - most of them dirty, destroyed and chaotic.
But unlike other areas, LAC2 is not so busy and is rather a quieter area. Fun Fact: You can not buy alcohol here and also consuming is not allowed. Did not concern me too much 🤷🏽. Since through my work Tunisian colleagues are also on site it was easy to get in touch with the locals. I have to say that the Tunisians are very nice and friendly people. In my time there, I really had no case where someone was unfriendly to me, not even cab drivers. Tunis itself is really spacious and you can't get anywhere without cars and cabs. Thanks to the Bolt cabs, which are very cheap, it was quite easy. The traffic is of course a disaster especially at rush hour after work.
The food there is delicious, although very meat-heavy. But I would say it takes some getting used to. Many dishes are cooked soft in a pot and you eat them with bread. What I found very cool was that there is always a soup as an appetizer. Of the dishes, I especially liked Brik, but I can also recommend Ojja or Kamounia, which have a very aromatic smell. Nevertheless, of course, nothing beats the Asian cuisine, which remains on top 😌. Tunisians are also known for their sweet pastries. Bambalouni as a kind of donut tastes very tasty, you should just not eat too many of them, but also such small things like Makroudh can be found in the old town in every street.
As mentioned, I was rather busy with work during the day. Fortunately, I was not the only one who wanted to see a little of the city and the country after work, so we left every day after work to somewhere to eat, to see the neighborhoods or even to go partying (I hate partying, lol). And yes, that's actually it 😅. Writing this I know that a week was way too short. On the first day I went to eat with work colleagues in Le Duc, where it then turned out that the prices were already very high for Tunisian standards, lol. Nevertheless, I must say that my first brik with shrimp tasted very good there haha. The next day, a Tunisian colleague (greetings go out to Aymen!) also took us to a local restaurant called Machawi Zin Al Cham. We ordered different meat platters and there I must say: can recommend. Afterwards it was already very dark but we made a short trip to the coast of Carthage. In that moment I knew it was off season, because really zero tourists were on the beach. But well, it was cold too ^^. Wednesday was reserved for a dinner with the managers of my work. Nevertheless, after work I was able to briefly look at the lake in LAC2 including sunset and the mosque just around the corner from my work. In fact, I left with colleagues after dinner in the direction of Carthage again but without anyone local we just went for a walk without a plan before it went back to the hotel xD. On the fourth day, the colleagues who came from Germany organized a small after work party in the office. That was also quite cool to connect a little more with the Tunisian colleagues. For that night I can only remember that I was struggling to find something to eat in the evening, because the snacks in the office were not satisfying and the restaurants in LAC2 were all closed after 6 p.m., so I had to search for ages. In the end I got a pizza from the restaurant next to the office. The fifth day was Friday and I went with some colleagues to Sidi Bou Said to watch the sunset.
Unfortunately, we typed the wrong destination on the map in the Bolt app, which is why we arrived there after the sun had almost set... Nevertheless, Sidi Bou Said is super beautiful, even if smaller than expected. Somehow it came to that we then drove to Gamat to go celebrate. There is an area with many different clubs and bars, which is quite nice. And lo and behold: Covid was non-existent. And so it came that I spent Saturday, of course, my day off, on which I had a lot of plans, super tired. Nevertheless 10 o'clock up and directly into the old town Medina and wow. Such bazaars I have actually seen before only in movies. From each side shops try to sell you stuff, the whole market covered with cloths and garb and the damn narrow streets. You get lost there really easy and after a few hours I had also the nose full. You should definitely give it a visit if you are in Tunis, especially the views over the city are impressive. They are accessible through stores where you would not believe that they have an access to the top, such as porcelain or carpet stores. In the evening I went again to Sidi Bou Said to see the sunset. It was worth it, I tell you!
The evening I spent with colleagues who were still in Tunis in La Goulette, where we ordered at La Sirene so much fish that a colleague had to take so much fish back home. The colleague has it then stupidly forgotten in the cafe where we were afterwards 🤣. So it was then already time, so I've taken around midnight a Bolt towards the airport, where at 2 o'clock my plane went back to Germany, where my beautiful girlfriend has waited for me, because she started at Frankfurt airport at this hour with work (poor her). Overall, I really enjoyed the week in Tunisia. The people, the food, the city, I have experienced many new beautiful things. The fact that it was my first time in Africa, the whole thing has of course hit me a bit more. Would I fly there again? I don't think I would go to Tunis again, but yes, I would like to visit the rest of the country. But I also think that I will go back to Asia for the time being. But if I have the opportunity to travel there again because of work, I won't say no :).