Day one of our second excursion begins today bright and early, 5:30 early. Thank heavens it wasn't for PT (the run yesterday still hurts... haha!!). I woke up, finished my packing, trying my dawggone hardest not to wake up my host family in the process. Breakfast?? Meh, I'll grab something along the way... Brushing my teeth and contacts??? I'll do that at the school.... hahaha!! So after a few nerve racking minutes of trying to learn / unlock the gate on the outside of my host family's door without waking anyone up, I'm off!!! The morning was slightly overcast, much like that of the previous excursion. On the way to the school I make my traditional stop at Achmad's (I finally learned the shopkeeper's name) "500 millime watershop"as I like to call it... This place is awesome. He sells 1.5 liter bottles of water for less than 50 cents... Funny that, even the stuff that is supposed to be expensive here is cheaper than it is in the States.
(I'll put the picture up when I get to it back at my house...)
My favorite store in Tunisia....
Anyways, we boarded the bus when it got here and took off for our first stop. An Roman archeological site named Dougga. The bus ride this time was characterized not by the mountains like before, but by characteristics very similar to our Midwest. Rolling hills covered in that golden color that is broken up every so often by an old colonial farmhouse that is now inhabited by modern Tunisians. The buildings are kind of a neat pictures into what life was like here "back in the day"... After a little while we arrived in a little village and the words of our trip leader Dr. Ayari came to mind. He mentioned how this part (the North) of Tunisia never was industrialized all that much. It was obvious. Wheat fields were everywhere and we passed tractor after tractor trudging along the side of the road (yes you John Deere fans out there... There were a few...) In some of the villages, some of the buildings were similar to those you'd find in old westerns (the ones found in the Mexican towns). It's like you're rolling across the Wild West in parts!! Haha!!
How they transport their hay in the south... That's a smaller pickup truck hauling all that. 
An example of the wheat fields...
Shortly after writing that... I fell asleep... haha!! The 5 o'clock wake up got to me I guess!! Anyways, when I woke up we were pulling into the Dougga Archeological Park. Now I've been to my share of Roman archeological sites, and while this one showed the usual sites... The temple, bathhouses, etc., this one was neat because the basic structure from pretty much the entire town was still intact to some degree!!! There were tunnels to walk in, columns to climb, ruins to explore, all that sort of good stuff! We started at the amphitheater and moved throughout the site, initially I was kind of bummed because they had us moving as a "tour group", but a few of us kinda managed to sneak off and do some exploring of our own. It really was pretty neat!!. It was just fun wandering around picturing the Roman town alive and wondering what it would look like should all the buildings still be standing as they did two millennium ago. Just like Takrouna had (except maybe not as awe-inspiring)a good view, Dougga had a pretty neat view as well... There was a mausoleum that jutted out over a few trees that seemed to remind me of Ankor Wat a little bit... Not to be forgotten either was the ever constant cool breeze that is present here in Tunisia... Honestly, if there was one thing I could take back to the States from here it would be the breeze... haha!!
Roman roads
Old Roman writing
An old mausoleum
An example of how extensive the ruins were...
Tunisia really has some pretty neat ruins, whether they be Roman or Arab, and for history buffs like myself, it's been a real great pleasure checking them out!! After grabbing a Nestle Crunch bar (and dawggone did it taste good after all that time in the sun) we boarded the bus for our next stop... Lunch somewhere in a city named "Le Kef". This place is situated on top of a pretty neat hill that offers it a nice view of the valley. We stopped to eat at a little place called Bon Maklouf a nice little restaurant that offered food that was pretty good!! (Along with some pretty thug rap music coming from behind the kitchen.)
Bon Maklouf... A delightful little place with...
Thuggish ruggish music yo!!
On the subject of food... Prince Cookies... The food that keeps me sane on long bus rides...
I decided to get this fish dish that was EXTREMELY good, (even though Le Kef is nowhere even close to the ocean... funny that...) but I WILL say that their French Fries need a little bit of work. Mostly in the crispiness department... But in their defense, it IS hard to beat American french fries. Après eating lunch, we rolled into Tabarka and checked into the hotel Mimosas...
The view from the pool area...
It was a nice little place overlooking the city, with rooms that were pretty good! From my family's standpoint, we could have stayed there no problem!! :D After dropping off all of our luggage and gear, we decided to make a quick stop at the city's fort, also on a hill and overlooking both the city and the small harbor. We were told the fort was going to be closed, so a few of us (in what seems to happen anytime there are somewhat perilous rocks laying about) climbed around on the rocks situated around the fort itself. Luis and I climbed down to an outcropping that was not shaded by the castle and got a few pictures taken of us before almost everyone started yelling at us... The guy who watched over the castle wanted to let us in!!! Luis and I immediately started sprinting up the hill. Supposedly, the building was slated to be a military base sometime in the near future, and tourists were not allowed to be in there, but he decided we needed to see it anyways... We were the first visitors to the fort in a VERY long time!!! The caretaker unlocked the huge doors and while we were a bit rushed to go through it, it was such a privilege to be able to see the inside of the fort, and some of the rooms looked straight out of a pirate movie (I could definitely see Captain Jack Sparrow in the room we took pictures out of... haha!!).
The rock we climbed to...
The fort overlooking the bay...
The sunset from the "Pirate Room"
After allowing the caretaker to close and lock the doors to the fort once more, we headed back downhill to the harbor area where we enjoyed the sunset hitting the side of the hill and rock outcroppings. As the sun went down, we all glanced back at the fort and were surprised to find it doubled as a lighthouse... Ingenious!! We headed back to the hotel and spent the rest of the night drinking a few beers and talking politics, all the while enjoying the good view and the perfect Tunisian weather... What an awesome trip it has been!!!
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