Tunisia - The Good, The Bad and the Very Ugly

Firstly, the Good

1. Tunisia has some amazing sites which deserve to be seen by as many people as possible. Here I'm thinking the Bardo Museum, the rock dwellings of Chenini and Douriet (built into the cliffs to enable grain to be stored and the properties to be easily defended) and Matmata (underground dwellings used in the Star Wars movies).

The Bad

2. Tunisia is as polluted a country as I have ever seen. It makes no sense at all but everywhere you look in the country side their is rubbish. I am not describing cigarette butts or general litter. There is wholesale dumping of rubbish everywhere. Its scandalous.

The Very Ugly

3. Tunisians apparently believe that visitors to their country want to be grabbed, pushed and prodded into purchasing carpet or simply handing over their money. It made strolling the streets difficult and our stay unpleasant. Too many times we had to walk away from some hustler who had put a white sheet on Cathy's head to get a photo and then demanded money. On that occasion, we had to physically remove the hustler and scurry off to safety.

All in all Tunisia was not as good as the guide books made out and we were disappointed. We however look forward to Rome with renewed interest.

And now.

The Top 5 Highs and Low of February.

Highs

5. The Roman empire, which seems to be everywhere and is following us around. Whether you are in Turkey, Tunisia, Greece or anywhere else, the Romans were there first.

4. Being on the road. I'm definitely enjoying not having to worry about times, dates and files. Cathy and I constantly have to remind ourselves of what day it is which is the real test of whether you have become a "traveller".

3. Good priced food. Sometimes you find a real bargain that makes you come back again and again. Doy Doy in Istanbul for its lovely kebab plates, Gyros in Patras for the souvlaki and chips in wrapped up paper and 600 millim freshly squeezed OJ in Tunis.

2. Istanbul in the snow. Unforgettable.

1. Our day trips to Heidelberg and Chenini. Two very different places where we saw some very interesting things. One had buildings carved into the mountains, the other had an amazing vibe which we will never forget.

Lows

5. I guess I should say the "gun incident" however I found it rather exciting and wanted to stay around for more. Perhaps this should be a sixth highlight.

4. The continued snow throughout Europe during the month of February. Global warming manifesting itself in very strange ways indeed.

3. Anzac House at Gallapoli. Their failure to turn on the heating in rooms when it was zero degrees was astonishing.

2. In an incident not yet reported on these pages, while in Athens a windy day saw a steel and glass advertising sign crash down on top of our bus causing panic, tears and an exclaim from Cathy - Is that a Bomb!! No it wasn't a bomb, just some dodgy Athenian engineering. The bus however had smashed windows, glass was strewn for 50 metres and traffic was stopped in the vicinity. Extraordinary really.

1. Tunisian men. Made our lives miserable at times and took away from their quite astonishing country.