Onto Africa


When in Europe, why not head to Africa? That was our view exactly. After almost two months in Europe - knowing we were to head to London to live and work very soon - we decided to head to where it was warmest and bask in the sun before it disappeared for many months. So we flew from Budapest to Tunisia where the land was dry, the camels were stubborn, and the lazy days kicked in.
Upon arriving at our hotel we were soon to discover that absolutely no other guests spoke English - a slight problem considering we were hoping to have some sociable times in Tunisia. After three days of eating, drinking and swimming alone, along came Eoin and Martyna - a poor unsuspecting Irish guy and Polish girl. Picture Bol and I sitting at the bar alongside the pool when we overhear someone actually order a drink in ENGLISH! I immediately went over to the guy and said "Excuse me - where are you from?"
Poor unsuspecting guy: "Ireland".
Me: "Oh my god - we have been trying to find someone to hang out with for days. I can't believe you speak English. This is soooo good. Pull up a chair. Have a drink."
Poor unsuspecting guy: "Ummmm - I was actually going to have a swim."
Too bad. We gotcha now! Fastforward another day and another poor unsuspecting Dutch man Roel joined our group.
So a happy Em and Bol had found our friends in Africa and we spent the rest of the trip eating, drinking, laughing, lazing, swimming and dancing to cheezy African music together. A very cool bunch who we will definitely visit in their respective countries as soon as we can.

Martyna, Eoin, Bol and Roel during one of our night sessions in the hotel pub

Nothing like waking up to this in the morning

Or this out the front of the hotel

And who can go past this kind of evening entertainment

Roel and I get into the hotel's "chava chava" dance

Our champion barman and mate Kader

Bol decides to show off his bar tending skills

So apart from lazing about our "everything is included" hotel, we went on a few trips to the neighbouring towns Sousse and Monastir (Where Life of Brian was filmed) and we also of course joined the "no tourist can go to Africa and not go on a camel ride" tour. Unfortunately, I actually became the "first tourist to go on a camel ride tour and not get on the camel" because I chose to steer the horse and cart instead. The saddle looked unsafe, okay!!! Plus, they wouldn't get the camels to sit down while you got on, so you had to be lifted up in a very uncomfortable manoevre, which I decided against. Such an idiot! But I did feed the camel a piece of cactus with my teeth, so I guess that counts as my African camel experience.

My view from the "camel cop-out" cart

And Bol on his "I'm not a cop-out" camel ride

He wants to kiss the camel but a piece of cactus stands in his way

Wandering the deserted streets of Sousse

And the not so deserted streets of Sousse

A Tunisian man taking a siesta

And who can go past the African sunset

All in all Tunisia was a much needed week of pure relaxation and sun. Now we are off to the big smoke of London - I guess you could call it returning to reality. But we will be sure that between the work and rain, we have some UK adventures to remember. It shouldn't be too hard ...