some sights seen

Our diplomatic cards came in yesterday and we headed down to the embassy to pick them up.  While we were there we rented a car.  After a failed attempt by Terrena to drive the manual (and very nice Volkswagen), we were offered an automatic instead, it was up to Mr. to take us on our tour!

We managed a very quick trip to the area around Carthage.

Some of the traffic directions here are in English and Arabic (not sure why the stop signs say STOP instead of ARRET).
Terrena learned an important lesson on her failed drive around the embassy - when there are two lanes going the same direction on a road - there may be 2 different rules for that road which was not immediately obvious.  One lane could have a stop sign and one could continue. It seems people frustrated with my lack of understanding of that rule still had the option to drive around me to turn left (across 2 lanes of traffic!)

Our first stop was a former port near the Carthage ruins.  There is a museum Dar el Hout, with replicas detailing history of the Punic ports of Carthage  (these were the naval and commercial ports of ancient Carthage)-we will have to explore another day when we have more time.

Not sure my photos do it justice but there is one semi-circular area and one rectangular area (where we played spot the kitties!).  Fascinating to think of the historical significance of that spot.

Of note to us as we wandered around was that we went through an open metal barricade and found ourselves face to face with a guy who had a machine gun on the other side. Apparently we stumbled onto a police barracks by mistake!  Note to self - pay more attention to your surroundings!

This is where we found the kitties (near the rectangular part of the port).  There were several moored boats here and it seems to be a popular spot for local fisherman.  And kitties as they expect fresh fish too!

We got back in the lovely embassy car and headed off to find more sights to see!

We were not disappointed we soon saw Roman ruins by the side of the road.

And we drove around more to find a spot to stop near the ocean.

Kellan was the first to spot an X marking the spot! No treasure there except the natural beauty of the ocean....

And we were not the only ones there - kitties knew it was a popular spot....and waited by the local cars for treats!

The views were fantastic!

And because the ground was full of a variety of things our two treasure hunters managed to fill their pockets with their first Tunis collection.  

After collecting what they could we set off to collect things for older brother Keegan who was still under the weather and stayed at home during our outing.  We found some images that were of interest to him

These finds happened to be right next to the Monoprix and we went in to collect more provisions for the hollow legs that seem to plague young Mr. Bennett!

We soon found ourselves running out of time and did a quick tour past some sights in Sidi Bou Said.

We drove past a beautiful mosque (not sure of its name yet!)

 More Roman ruins

And this is a fuzzy image (sorry!) of the typical Sidi Bou Said blue and white - this is a cafe near the road side.

When we came home we found young mister quite a bit better - at least better enough to give us these lovely faces!

So that was yesterday - this evening we have a dinner at the Canadian Ambassador's house to attend - and we hope that we are all on our best behaviour!!

We do hope that we get out today to have look at the museum downtown and see other sights of interest while we have a vehicle!

Almost Christmas

When we found out in the summer that our move to Tunis was delayed we had no idea if we would be here for Christmas or not.  I think that at some points along the way we were not even sure we would make it at all!  But we are here and it is Christmas - except not like the ones we used to know!

Richard grew up having the expat Christmas experience but I think that his mother was much more organized than this Mrs. Bennett.  Last night, after our Christmas Eve dinner of a sushi feast delivered to our house, we realized that we forgot to pack the sacks that Santa usually uses to put our parcels under the tree.  So we improvised.  Duffel bags with notes to Santa did the job nicely.   

Stockings were hung from the staircase with care?

In addition, Santa had to follow the line of post it notes to get to his snack last night - which was a number (6) of mandarin oranges from the tree in the back yard -with a plea from Kaitlyn that he eat them to avoid scurvy.

This Mrs. Bennett also did not pack any wrapping paper/gift bags (as at home we usually reuse the ones from last year)assuming that we could purchase some here....not so. Clear tape was also not to be found.

Instead, the large boxes with our decorative lamps had lots of left over packing paper and we used this material, plus some handy dandy duct tape, to wrap presents into the early hours of the morning...yawn!

This morning we had a breakfast of pancakes (a macgyvered gluten-free recipe) and smoked salmon.  We had toppings that went beyond just boring old maple syrup: whipped cream, creme fraiche, raspberry jam, the local version of nutella, chocolate sauce, and our new neighbour's homemade grapefruit marmalade - too decadent!!

The turkey has been in the oven for several hours and the house is filling with the scent of roasting meat.  This year we stuffed the turkey with leftover rice couscous and a spice blend we found at the mega Carrefour. We picked lemons from our backyard tree and juiced them to enhance the flavour of the bird.  

But the bird may not need much enhancement.  It was gift wrapped at the store and like most of the produce and meat here appears to be organic.  

The food here has been a gift - so much fresh produce that we are often spoiled for choice.  To accompany this bird we will have fresh beets, broccoli (oh yes broccoli!), carrots, and mashed potatoes. Kaitlyn has made us a gluten free cheese cake for dessert.  Fabulous! The stores here have gluten free products!!!

Today has been spent playing Risk and building Lego.....and giving cats various treats (including sardines, which is their new favourite food).

 

It is a cliché but I do feel so blessed to share this experience with my family and know that we are happy with the traditions we have made no matter where in the world we are!

Happy holiday to those celebrating Christmas and love to everyone back home in Canada!

Rainy day and a visit to the Costco on Steroids redux

It is a rainy day here in Tunis - a perfect time for us to head to Carrefour to stock our new kitchen and prepare for Christmas.

Richard and I decided to go right when it opened because the last time we went we were overwhelmed by the crowds.  I am not sure it made a huge difference...by the time we were leaving the crowds were becoming oppressive again.

The Carrefour does remind me of Costco in some ways....but in others it is in a class of its own.  It sells absolutely everything and more. There are special spice grinding stations, coffee grinding stations, cheese and olive bars, a bakery with an attendant passing out fresh loaves of heavenly smelling baguettes and more delicate pastries than we could possibly imagine.  There are also areas to get your internet and cell phones set up. And there is the blessed 'cave' avec les vins Tunisiens which will go nicely with the beautiful turkey we have for our Christmas meal.

We found the aisle of 'christmas' and 'new years' decorations (including the "fete des chocolats" as it is also known) and bought our very first artificial Christmas tree.  We had hoped that our air shipment would be here before Christmas and that we could decorate from that but we are starting a new tradition this year! Kaitlyn is very busy crafting and decorating with all the things we brought home.  We did also buy some umbrellas but one of us somehow left 2 of the 3 in the taxi....luckily we soothed the pain of this loss with fresh hot coffee and beaucoup de pain au chocolat.

Since it is a rainy day we have decided to make a big pot of chicken soup to help with the colds Richard and Terrena are fighting and to bring some comfort to the homesickness that is starting for Kaitlyn and to a lesser extent Kellan and Keegan.  There is something about a rainy day and a pot of simmering soup to make you feel cosy no matter where you are in the world.

Our cats are feeling more and more comfortable in our house.  They have found some favourite sleeping areas and have convinced us that they need to be fed a least 4 times a day (plus sardine snacks) to deal with the time change.  It does not help that when we are up in the night dealing with our own jet lag - we feed the cats when we know that they don't need it.  They are not complaining....but there are the litter boxes to deal with... (as Kaitlyn has been joking incessantly, "le chat shat!") BD also left us a small gift on the table. We don't know if it was sardines or what! He had to go outside and finish his business.
We have not let them out again without leashes.  We hope the 'free' neighbourhood cats are not hiding in the bushes mocking the Canadian cats who can only venture outside with people holding onto them.

We still have not properly explored the city and the primary points of interest in Tunis.  We hope to rent an embassy vehicle next weekend to drive ourselves around (if we can book one in time).  In the meantime, taxis are cheap and plentiful and with Christmas coming up we have lots to do in the house to prepare for the holiday.

Last night we had a lovely but likely too expensive Indian meal at a local restaurant (which we could all walk to).  Kaitlyn and Keegan were having some stomach upset during the meal and returned home early.  For Kaitlyn, I suspect homesickness as she was very sad and missing the snow (yes she is!) and for Keegan he should avoid eating all the great gluten filled foods available here as a former French colony.

Once we are decorated we will post some photos of how we will be celebrating Christmas this year.  There is a plan to hang the stockings down the staircase with some care!!  This is also the first year that we will not have fireplace and chimney....but I suspect Santa will find us anyway as I asked Canada post to put a forward on to Santa.

Love from Tunis!!! Enjoy the snow and ice Canada - we do miss it more that you can imagine!