Yesterday my husband and I went to Monastir (around 3 hours driving from Tunis) to meet my Bulgarian friend Iva. I met her while I was in Mannheim-Germany back in year 1999. Ever since then we met twice, where? In TUNISIA 🙂 yes, it was so un expected for us to meet again after Germany, but we did and it was really strange to meet here in Tunisia. This girl has been a true friend, although the time we spent together was only one month. She never stopped emailing me and sending me post cards from everywhere she goes. A real good friend. Only 30 days together, and she never stopped offering me help and support. She got a job in a tourism agency, and lucky me, she dropped by last year and stayed for few months in Monastir. We met once last year, and this year she’s back, again in Monastir and we met yesterday. She’ll be staying till September, hope we’ll meet more often 🙂
Monastir happened to be the city from which the former Tunisian President Habib Bourgiba comes. It’s quite a big city, with lovely blue sea, and tidy wide streets. It’s so calm, and compared to Tunis, Monastir has more hills. Just like Hammamet, Monastir has a wide range of lovely hotels, almost most of them are in a part of Monastir called : Skanes.
Tunisia just amazes me with the many weird and strange names they have, most of the names are strange because they are Phoenicians.
Monastir also has a lovely port for yachts 🙂 And what we have noticed is that the Germans are the majority of the yacht owners. In this port, like in “Yasmine Hammamet” and “Qantaoui Port” of Sousse, the yacht owners could stay at beautiful apartments and small villas with a range of restaurants, cafés and little shops surrounding them.
It was around 38 degrees in Monastir yesterday, and around 35 in Tunis. “Luckily” the A.C. in our car didn’t work, so my husband had to drive 3 hours in the heat, with windows open for some air. The noise was unbelievable, and my dear husband had his left arm (the one getting more sunlight) burned. So now he has a red-brown arm and another white one 😛 but still we enjoyed the trip and had fun.
The funniest part was when we were at a restaurant and Iva sang along with an Arabic song, she doesn’t speak Arabic, but she’s been listening to Arabic music in the Hotel all the time, that she finally was able to sing along with it, it was really funny.
In her first visit, she was still not used to the heat and the Arab culture, but now she’s happier, enjoys her time more, knows the Tunisian food, says: aslema (hi), shbeek (what’s wrong), tosbeh ala kheer (nighty) and stuff like that 🙂
As for the heat, she still suffers a bit, even Tunisians do 😛 but she’s managing I guess 😉
After spending 4 hours with her, we got back to Tunis. On our way, there was this beautiful Gas Station called: Sidi Khleefa. Our poor car was so damn thirsty, and we stepped out to rest from the long time drive. The station had EVERYTHING. Oh, no, not only for cars, but also humans 🙂 From drinks, to nutritious products, to newspapers, magazines, tapes, toys, skin care products, car tools, swimming stuff, they even had a food court for smokers and another one for non-smokers, and a small café & desert corner. It was BEAUTIFUL, the view was so nice and all people who are on long trips in their cars or busses stopped there. It reminded me of the stop at the free zone between Jordan and Syria 🙂 The place was so great and cooooooooooooooooooool, it was really refreshing. 🙂
The only terrible part about yesterday was that I felt like eating, I mean I really ate too much, that I got my stomach looking like I was 3 months pregnant 😛 It was hurting me like hell and I was scared I’d die. But thank God today it was somehow back to normal, but I’ve decided to eat very light stuff to make sure everything will be fine.
Anyway, if you haven’t been to Monastir then follow my advice and waste no more time. The place is really beautiful 🙂 If you don’t want to drive your car then you have other options like the train or the airplane 🙂 Oh, one more thing, don’t forget your sun-glasses so that you wont wake up next day with burning red eyes :PPPP

Or the “lake” in English, is the name of the fascinating area I work in. When I first came to Tunisia, I was amazed by this place. I felt it was different than other places in Tunisia. And although I am against using water surfaces for building purposes, but still, I couldn’t help it, I loved “Les Berges du Lac”. Yes that’s true, all the beautiful shopping centers, nice wide streets and those entertaining compounds were once waters of a huge lake. But since the lake caused only some bad smell and added more mosquitoes to its surroundings, they have decided to cover the water and use the surface to create this beautiful place which has become the attraction of most of the embassies and international companies’ headquarters, in short it has turned into a high-class investment area. Simply because , besides companies, only high-class people can afford buying land or apartments or villas over there, which are all big and really beautiful 🙂 But since most of the land was used in building shopping centers and office buildings, one can say it’s more like a commercial area than a place to actually live in.
Where we used to live earlier, “Les Berges du Lac” was around 25 minutes far (in a car that is), I loved it, and I used to go so often when I had no job (and nothing to do in my life :P) just to pass some good time looking at the stores, enjoying the noise of the crowded cafes and simply having fun in a place I love. Back then I wished that somehow it will become a part of my life which I’ll get to see or be in more often. My wish was coming true step by step. First we discovered this great DVD store, and well, with a husband who considers movies his oxygen, “Les Berges du Lac” did become a place we go to so often, lol. Later on, this “lake” place became only 5-10 minutes away from us as we moved into another apartment so close to my beloved lake 🙂 so when we get bored all we have to do is pay a visit to the lake for a change. Anyway, it never crossed my mind that I’ll ever become more attached to the lake, so you can imagine how happy I was when I got hired in one of the companies over there. And lucky me, when I started working, the place of the company moved, so from just being in “Les Berges du Lac”, it became BY the beautiful lake, specially my office that is 😉 I was truly thrilled. Every morning I get to enjoy the view of the blue peaceful lake, until the rest of the population decides to wake up and be more active disturbing the peacefulness with the noise of their cars and motorbikes 😛 And what I find really artistic is the reflection of the buildings and the clouds on the water specially in sunset, it’s great, and more beautiful is the view of the sun itself. But well, don’t ask about the wind, one of the reasons I got constantly sick is the strong wind, sometimes I feel I’ll be flying like one of these kids’ balloons, lol, imagine that!
What I love most about “Les Berges du Lac” is the fact that it’s so close to the Tunis-Carthage Airport. So planes have to pass over it in their takeoff and landing. It’s amazing, it’s noisy though. And when it’s too windy, or too cloudy, or when there is kind of a storm, I get all stressed out and worried and keep on praying for the planes to have a safe trip. I can’t get my eyes off of them till they are no longer visible 😛 But the best part is watching my one and only beauty, the Royal Jordanian plane, aaahhh, every time I watch it in the process of landing I can smell Amman and feel the beautiful weather of Jordan. I feel that my family is up there, sometimes I feel like screaming: “HEY, I’m over here!!” it’s really pathetic, isn’t it! But what can I do, I get all excited and I get a sudden flashback of all the beautiful memories I have of Jordan and the ones I miss like hell. But well, watching the RJ plane landing is –to me- so much better than watching it leaving to Jordan without me on it 🙁 The day I glimpse the plane taking off I get this feeling students get when missing their bus, and then I wonder: God, if I was on that plane I’ll be between my family members on dinner! And start hating myself 🙁 But well, looking at the bright side, I get to see the dear Royal Jordanian every now and then, and seeing it revives all the beautiful emotions I have locked inside me, which is better than nothing, right!
Other than the shops and restaurants, “Les Berges du Lac” has the “Dah Dah” entertainment compound, I love it. Not to forget the bowling centers there are in the “lake”, God I love bowling 🙂 And there is also this “Miami” complex, a place stuffed with cafes and restaurants with a direct view of the lake. It’s specially recommended in summer when they have some extra entertaining activities (DJ’s and dancing shows for the little ones).
I heard that they might cover another part of the “lake” and create a similar area parallel to it on the opposite side, I wish they don’t, the water should be kept, it will be a great loss.
Yippee, here comes another plane 🙂 I just remembered when I took my sister to Miami, we were sitting and the planes were too close as if they were landing right there where we were, we could see the tires and the very little details, lol, can’t forget the scared look on her face, because I had the very same look the first time I went there 🙂
Well, I guess I can go on forever talking about “Les Berges du Lac”, it’s one of my two favorites in the capital Tunis, the other one is the adorable classy “Carthage”. So if you’re thinking of visiting Tunisia soon, don’t forget to take a look at the “lake”, you’ll remember me and say: damn, she was right 🙂