Tuesday, April 8, 2008 – KAIROUAN

Mein Gott, that was a long day. It’s 9:30ish and we’ve been “on the go” since 8:00am.

Our first stop of the day was Ain Draham. We were only supposed to stop there for a toilet break but one of the women on the tour, Donna, convinced Mohamed to stay a while longer so we could all visit a women’s arts cooperative. After much back and forth he relented and he led us up a dirt road to a simple white house and up the steps.

Women working at the loom:



Inside were three women working looms, one of whom had her daughter with her. They were stunned at our arrival – they usually work in isolation – and were both embarrassed and proud that we were there to meet them and see what they had made. Quite a few people in the group bought rugs and other things created by the women, and those of us who did not buy a product gave the women a few dinars for the opportunity to meet them and take their picture.

From there were drove to Bulla Regia, an ancient Roman town. We spent 1.5 hours wandering the site, which rivals anything I’ve seen in Italy or Greece. I took a huge number of photos because everything was so amazing.

Views from Bulla Regia:







We lunched at a restaurant in Le Fez that specializes in wild boar. We were told by Mohamed that we would be served wild boar, but the majority of us agree that we were fed regular old roast beef. It really did not have a pork taste, or even a gamey taste. Plus, it would be very difficult to hunt enough wild boar to feed us all.

From there we drove to Dougga, another Roman site. I thought it was even more impressive than Bulla Regia. You see, Bulla Regia has a lot of mosaics but not a lot of walls. Dougga is a full-on Roman city with an amphitheater, capitol building, temples, baths, suburbs, and even whore houses. It was amazing. You could really visualize life in the city based on the roads and buildings.

Views from Dougga:







The group toilet at Dougga:



From Dougga we drove to our hotel in Kairouan. We were more than an hour late arriving because of our detour in Ain Draham. Unfortunately that meant no chance to swim in the heated pool or visit the hammam. Instead, we went to dinner, showered, and slept.