2000 October 29 : Sunday

ALL GOOD THINGS

The rediscovery of the remains of the Tanis Dig capped off my cinematic adventure. The next day I made the day-long drive back to Tunis. The day after that I flew to Rome. And the day after that, I embarked on the 24 hour series of flights back to Portland. I arrived at PDX at 10:20pm on October 31st. An hour and a half later, after six weeks of being out of the country, I walked through my front door.

Despite the thrills and successes of the adventure, I was emotionally and physically drained. While I was tanner and blonder than I had been in years, I had also lost 11 of my former 145 pounds and contracted a mild case of dysentery while in Tunisia ("Bad dates."). I now understand what people mean when they say they need a vacation from their vacation. Next time I shall target a more relaxing destination. Perhaps Bora Bora...

"You wanna go where?!"

I left Tozeur at 7am after filling up my leaky tire yet again. The drive north was slow-going due to the fact that the road goes through many little villages and one must obey the slow speed limits. My drive was also affected by many road construction delays. Often the road was reduced to gravel for miles. To make a long story short (too late!) I arrived at the Roman ruins of Dougga at 2pm.

01) DOUGGA | The Roman town of Dougga actually spreads accross several hilltops. This is the main portion of the town. I got out of my car and discovered that my legs barely functioned after many hours of continuous driving on very bumpy roads. I began the slow, painful experience of walking to the top of the hill you see. Upon arriving at the ticket office at the top, I saw a parking lot and immediately realized I could have driven.

02) DOUGGA | The theatre is at the crest of the hill and was the first major stucture I happened upon. You'll notice in these photos that Tunisia is not all sand, palm trees...

03) DOUGGA | ...and camels. These horses were grazing in back of the theatre wall.

04) DOUGGA | The view below.

05) DOUGGA | A bath house.

06) DOUGGA | Just beyond the edges of this photo, archaeologists are digging and restoring more of the site.

07) DOUGGA | Walking towards the forum.

08) DOUGGA | Tourists.

09) DOUGGA | A German tourist is directly in back of this statue. Moments later, she popped her head up and her husband took her picture.

10) DOUGGA | At the steps of the capitol.

11) DOUGGA | Inside.

12) DOUGGA | Walking back to my car.

I arrived back in Tunis around 4:30 and began what would be a long ordeal in finding a hotel. I had wanted to stay in the picturesque suburb of Sidi bou Said. I found it about an hour later and roughly an hour after that discovered that the few hotels were either very expensive or full. I spent the next three hours driving around aimlessly - including back into the heart of Tunis (twice!) - before giving in to luxury at a three-star hotel in La Marsa (a coastal neighbor of Sidi bou Said). Exhausted and sick with a mild case of dysentary, I sank into a warm bath and soaked for a good half hour.