Tunis!

I arrived in Tunis this afternoon after one last day in Casablanca on Eid, where I saw many a sheep head being roasted on open fires in the street.  Along with a lot of sheep blood.  The evening smelled putrid, as it was a little wet and the heavy air caught the smells and brought them back down.  I spent most of the day enjoying free wifi and toilets with paper at the Hotel Ibis.  C and I chatted for quite a long time, which, while luxurious and not entirely in the traveling mode, was extremely helpful for my brain - to sit and connect.  She, by the way, will soon be the proud mommy to a new Macbook Air!  Delivery shortly c/o Paul Wichser.  Exciting!

So before the evening smells of Eid and my questionable dinner came a giant Mosque - Hassan II.  It was massive.  Here are some photos:

It is one of the only holy sites open to non-Muslims

Lots of the decorations were patterns and stone carvings - no images for Islam - ocean on the right

Like, really massive.  It holds 25,000 people!  

I am in this one for scale

These were all over the medina

That evening I walked around, smelling the sheep heads, hungry and kind of sick, but I forced myself to find something to eat.  I landed at a restaurant where I was the only one upstairs watching some nuclear apocalypse film with Morgan Freeman and Keanu Reeves - I asked for a sandwich of some kind, and I was brought this.

Quite a spread!

With the face I imagined it talking to me like those shrunken heads in cartoons

I enjoyed some (it was quite tasty) before realizing that it was not cooked all the way through.  Oops.  I decided on some Cipro which I had been thinking about anyway for my belly and went to sleep, prepared for a night of cold tile floors.

I woke up healthy and happy!  Chatted with an army ranger dude, was dramatically undercharged for my stay at the hostel and food at the train station (which was a nice change) and comfortably made my way to Tunis.  Not much to report on the city yet, I'll get out into it a bit tomorrow.  I have decided to slow down and will be here 8 days (which still isn't all that slow) before flying to Cairo.  I've been quite up and down emotionally, and while I feel much better, I am quite tired and am eager to sleep in a bit tomorrow, and have an easy day of wandering and eating and looking at things.  No real plans, no destinations other than back at the hostel at the end of the day.  The hostel is huge with lousy facilities - in a bank of three sinks, only one faucet works and it turns on all three of them.  I'm roomed with a Swiss guy and an Egyptian American, a self-described vagabond, who has been bumming around for 30 or 40 years.  Dreadlocked, accented, quite chatty, he has been a fun guy to share a room with so far.  I might try to walk around with him, at least get his photo at some point.  There's always more more more but that's all for now.  All my best!