Tunisia

Ok, so after Greece the plan was to cruise through Italy for a few weeks then sneak up into Europe... that was the plan. As with any good plan it was bound to change. While Rox and I were looking at some maps and some ferry times it came to our attention that aside from the culture, social and economic golf that separates Europe and Africa, its actually not that far at all, so we thought for the Europe half time show we could mix it up and down to Africa... best decision ever.

We spent a couple of nights in Tunis, exploring the markets, smoking shisha (oh how I missed that smooth sweet taste), eating street treats and generally enjoying the north African vibe. It was rather European actually, well, they tried to. Fortunately for us it was still very Arabic. Super liberal though! I was expecting Cairo styles, but in Tunis you can see girls and drink beer! What the!


Sport and Africa.... the perfect combination.

From Tunis we headed down to Kairouan for a day to see some impressive mosques. The town is one of the top four most important places for Muslims, up there with Mecca, Jerusalem and some other one. There are 300 mosques in a medium sized town!


From there we went down to Tozeur to get real hot. Walking around it was 48 degrees Celsius... that is pretty hot! We did some exploring, found a brick making village which was actually interesting, sifted about town, got invited to some old ladies house to get out of the heat in (she feed us too, good old Tunisian hospitality).



We then went by 4WD to the SAHARA DESERT!!!! whoop. It was frickin awesome. When you looked into the wind it felt like you had just opened up the oven door, but there is no tasty pie smell.

Ok, you all know that I am super cool right? One of those people that are up with the latest trends, likes arty movies and has style... well, I am sorry, but I may have misled you... I am not cool at all, in fact, I am very very geeky. Which made the next thing we did the most exciting moment of my life....

..

...we went to the exact spot where George Lucas filmed STAR WARS IV: A New Hope!!!!! Woah... We walked around and explored the exact set they uses... oh my goodness.. Mark Hamil was here! It was very cool.

Tunisia has confirmed what I think I already knew... I love the Middle East and North Africa. It was not just a 5 week stand I had a few months ago. That's the thing with travel, so many places you fall in love and say you will return but in reality the odds of you coming back are really quite slim as the world is so big. There is so much I want to do but so little time and money! But I have a sneaking suspicion I am serious about North Africa...

Carpe Diem.

Italy: Sicily

So from Naples we went down to Palermo in Sicily and hired a car and spent a few days doing a lap of the island. It is a very cool place, quite densely populated actually.

We checked out the Valley of the Temples, which as you can see from the photo did indeed have temples, but was in fact a ridge, not a valley. For the record, I stole that joke from Rox.

From there we cruised along the coast to Catania to climb Mt. Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe. It was big and active (smoke coming out). We piked and drove most of the way up and just climbed a little hill. Good views though.

While we sifted around the island we just slept on the beach and cooked pasta over the fire. It was fantastic, although a little dirty (who needs showers...). Waking up each morning, going for run along the beach and taking a swim. Living the dream really.

The white sheet was out bed for the night.

Italy: Naples

You know how everyone says they love Italy and how fantastic Italy is and how you have to go to Italy. Well, I figured there was probably some truth in it but was sceptical about any country that everyone said was awesome, how could it be? Would I love it? And if I did, would I love it like I love ice cream or like I love bread? Would I get the instant gratification ice cream offers yet come away either hungry for something else or super sick or it? Or will it be a consistent love like that of bread where you always come away with you hunger abated yet it is sometimes a lot of work to get it done and often requires a spread?

Well, you will be pleased to learn that Italy in fact combines both ice cream and bread! Literally and figuratively. I love Italy! It is super cool. And you can get Gelato (ice cream) in a sweet bread roll! So the cliche is right, everyone loves Italy (I am sure there are exceptions...)

Naples is south of Rome and is a very cool City. As we got off the train you get the impression it may be a little dirty and smelly, but that is what makes it so great. It is real. There are heaps of different people lurking about and the pizza is fantastic (very different from Winnie Bagoes pizza so you can't compare, Winnies is still the greatest. Naples pizza is simply dough, cheese and tomato paste.... yet is ever so tasty).

From Naples we also explored Pompeii, the Roman city de-stroyed by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79AD. It was very cool in that it was an entire city of houses and shops etc, rather than just a temple. We also stayed a night in Salerno, just south of Naples. From here we went for a walk along the Amalfi Coast which is super super beautiful. Steep cliffs coming down into the ocean. Some bush, lots of cool houses built up along the coast.
Naples was very cool, and if the cities up north are as good as they claim to be then I feel every second word of my future posts will be "awesome", or I will simply not be able to describe them.