Monday, 2 May 2011
We Built This City
I checked out at 7.30 am and headed for the train station where I bought a first-class ticket to El Jem, about 70 km south of Sousse. El Jem has a beautiful Roman Amphitheatre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is better preserved than the Coliseum (it was used as the location for filming in the movie Gladiator).
Formerly the Roman town of Thysdrus, one of the most important towns in North Africa after Carthage (now in the suburbs of Tunis), present day El Jem is like a little cowboy town and I saw a lot of camels there though not in parking lots (a camel’s ‘Camelot’?).
We reached El Jem after an hour. I was hoping to store my bag and the station but the station was too tiny and had minimum facilities. So I had no choice but to drag my bag along. You could see the Amphitheatre shortly after exiting the station and what a sight! I asked at a shop if I could leave my bag at his shop and he told me to leave it at the adjacent restaurant. Alhamdulillah.
El Jem was formerly a Roman town by the name of Thysdrus, one of the most important towns in North Africa after Carthage in the suburbs of Tunis. The Amphitheatre was built around the middle of the third century and was thought to house up to 35,000 spectators. I love, love, love ruins and the Amphitheatre at El Jem really made my day. The ticket cost TND7, add another dinar for your camera.
After an hour there, I left and headed for the Musée Archéologique (Archaeological Museum) - the ticket to the Amphitheatre included the entrance to the museum - about some 500 metres away. The museum houses a large selection of mosaics unearthed from the area. There was also a garden that houses ruins probably unearthed from the area too.
I headed back to the restaurant and had some mint tea before making my way back to the train station. A sand storm (or just strong wind?) was building up and I was glad I had already covered the Amphitheatre and museum.
I bought first-class ticket to Tunis but when I boarded the train, it seemed first-class was full - well, there was one empty seat but the woman sitting next to it had placed all her bags there. I was not happy - did they oversell the first-class ticket? - and even the train conductor didn’t look comfortable looking at me perched on my suitcase so after a while, I asked the woman if I could sit. It was a three-hour ride at least to Tunis and I wasn’t going to be perched in the outside corridor on my suitcase, inhaling all the cigarette smoke (yes, this is where the men go to smoke) when I had paid for my seat. She finally relented but it was an uncomfortable ride all the way to Tunis as I had my suitcase wedged in between my legs.
We finally reached Tunis at 3.30 pm (about 25 minutes behind schedule) and I struggled to find the metro train to my hotel. Turned out I had to make a change - oh joy - at Place Republique but it wasn’t as bad as I had feared. Because the map I had was inadequate, it took me a further ten minutes and unnecessary burning of calories before I located my hotel. It took me an hour from exiting the train station to finding the train to Nelson Mandela stop to boarding the train and then changing trains to navigating the Tunis roads to get to my room - all in the strong gale that had by then hit Tunis. I stayed in the room waiting for the gale to die down.
I had planned to attempt Carthage this evening so I headed out again before 5 pm. I had to walk to Place Republique because the train from Place Republique to Nelson Mandela was one way. Wow, how do those people at the stations beyond travel back? As for me, Nelson Mandela stop was only one stop or a 10-minute walk away from Place Republique so it wasn’t too bad.
It took me some time to locate the ticket office. The flat rate for a metro ride is 0.320 dinar. Then it was another wait for the train to Tunis Marin station which connects to the TGM train that would take me to Carthage (TGM train ride cost only 0.680 dinar so from Tunis, it costs only a dinar to get there).
It should take less than 30 minutes to reach Carthage Hannibal station but some rowdy and wild youths at the earlier stations were disrupting the service. They were climbing the window, obstructing the doors, fooling around and fiddling with the windows... This continued for a few stations until some train officials came on. Thanks to those idiots, I arrived at my destination even later. I walked uphill and located the Cathedral and Museum (all closed by then). After walking around and not successful in locating any other ruins, I decided to take the train back to Tunis. Carthage is a lovely suburb with palm-lined boulevards and big mansions lining up on either side of the boulevard but I was keen to return back to the city as it was getting dark.
I stopped at the nearby Lafayette shopping centre near the hotel and bought some food. The evening was spent checking my Twitter, emails and the Arsenal-ManUre match reports.
To be continued
We Built This City
I checked out at 7.30 am and headed for the train station where I bought a first-class ticket to El Jem, about 70 km south of Sousse. El Jem has a beautiful Roman Amphitheatre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is better preserved than the Coliseum (it was used as the location for filming in the movie Gladiator).
Formerly the Roman town of Thysdrus, one of the most important towns in North Africa after Carthage (now in the suburbs of Tunis), present day El Jem is like a little cowboy town and I saw a lot of camels there though not in parking lots (a camel’s ‘Camelot’?).We reached El Jem after an hour. I was hoping to store my bag and the station but the station was too tiny and had minimum facilities. So I had no choice but to drag my bag along. You could see the Amphitheatre shortly after exiting the station and what a sight! I asked at a shop if I could leave my bag at his shop and he told me to leave it at the adjacent restaurant. Alhamdulillah.
El Jem was formerly a Roman town by the name of Thysdrus, one of the most important towns in North Africa after Carthage in the suburbs of Tunis. The Amphitheatre was built around the middle of the third century and was thought to house up to 35,000 spectators. I love, love, love ruins and the Amphitheatre at El Jem really made my day. The ticket cost TND7, add another dinar for your camera.
After an hour there, I left and headed for the Musée Archéologique (Archaeological Museum) - the ticket to the Amphitheatre included the entrance to the museum - about some 500 metres away. The museum houses a large selection of mosaics unearthed from the area. There was also a garden that houses ruins probably unearthed from the area too.
I headed back to the restaurant and had some mint tea before making my way back to the train station. A sand storm (or just strong wind?) was building up and I was glad I had already covered the Amphitheatre and museum.
I bought first-class ticket to Tunis but when I boarded the train, it seemed first-class was full - well, there was one empty seat but the woman sitting next to it had placed all her bags there. I was not happy - did they oversell the first-class ticket? - and even the train conductor didn’t look comfortable looking at me perched on my suitcase so after a while, I asked the woman if I could sit. It was a three-hour ride at least to Tunis and I wasn’t going to be perched in the outside corridor on my suitcase, inhaling all the cigarette smoke (yes, this is where the men go to smoke) when I had paid for my seat. She finally relented but it was an uncomfortable ride all the way to Tunis as I had my suitcase wedged in between my legs.
We finally reached Tunis at 3.30 pm (about 25 minutes behind schedule) and I struggled to find the metro train to my hotel. Turned out I had to make a change - oh joy - at Place Republique but it wasn’t as bad as I had feared. Because the map I had was inadequate, it took me a further ten minutes and unnecessary burning of calories before I located my hotel. It took me an hour from exiting the train station to finding the train to Nelson Mandela stop to boarding the train and then changing trains to navigating the Tunis roads to get to my room - all in the strong gale that had by then hit Tunis. I stayed in the room waiting for the gale to die down.
I had planned to attempt Carthage this evening so I headed out again before 5 pm. I had to walk to Place Republique because the train from Place Republique to Nelson Mandela was one way. Wow, how do those people at the stations beyond travel back? As for me, Nelson Mandela stop was only one stop or a 10-minute walk away from Place Republique so it wasn’t too bad.
It took me some time to locate the ticket office. The flat rate for a metro ride is 0.320 dinar. Then it was another wait for the train to Tunis Marin station which connects to the TGM train that would take me to Carthage (TGM train ride cost only 0.680 dinar so from Tunis, it costs only a dinar to get there).
It should take less than 30 minutes to reach Carthage Hannibal station but some rowdy and wild youths at the earlier stations were disrupting the service. They were climbing the window, obstructing the doors, fooling around and fiddling with the windows... This continued for a few stations until some train officials came on. Thanks to those idiots, I arrived at my destination even later. I walked uphill and located the Cathedral and Museum (all closed by then). After walking around and not successful in locating any other ruins, I decided to take the train back to Tunis. Carthage is a lovely suburb with palm-lined boulevards and big mansions lining up on either side of the boulevard but I was keen to return back to the city as it was getting dark.
I stopped at the nearby Lafayette shopping centre near the hotel and bought some food. The evening was spent checking my Twitter, emails and the Arsenal-ManUre match reports.
To be continued
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