Our next destination on our Tunisia tour was Sousse. This time, we decided to travel by louage. Louage is a very practical means of transport – basically it’s a minibus service. You just show up at the louage station, and somebody helpful takes you to the right mini bus – which leaves when it’s full (which typically doesn’t take more than 15 minutes or so, at least for big towns/cities). The price is fixed – and more than reasonable (you pay about 2-3 euros for a 1-hour journey). No need to haggle!
So anyway, after a one-hour louage ride later, we arrived in Sousse. Sousse is, like Hammamet, quite a touristy place, being located by the sea and blessed by a very nice beach. But unlike Hammamet, it’s also a big city (the 3rd biggest in the country, with about 170,000 inhabitants), which makes it a much more “real” place – the weight of mass tourism feels less obvious here. We walked past the walled medina, with its imposing Kasbah, to do our check-in at our chosen hotel. This time we were very happy with our choice – the place was central, clean, and the staff was very friendly indeed. We didn’t linger for long though, preferring to start exploring the medina, for which Sousse is famous. We started by visiting the great mosque – one of the oldest ones in Tunisia (construction began 851 AD). In contrast to the mosques we saw in Cairo – which were very elaborate and beautifully decorated, the Tunisian mosques, are generally much more austere, almost fortress-like. Perhaps it is because they tend to be quite old (those were violent times...). Anyway, they are majestic places nonetheless.
We then visited the ribat (ribat means hostel or hospice in Arabic, refers to a small fortress/religious retreat), just next to the great mosque – apparently it is one of the most well-preserved ones in northern Africa. Although there wasn’t much to see, we were treated to some nice views from the ramparts. After this we went for a very good lunch indeed at a restaurant (which I really recommend from the bottom of my heart) called “Le restaurant du people”. The portions were generous, the food tasty (especially the couscous – I think it may have been the best one I ever tasted) and the service very friendly. And the prices were very reasonable indeed – I think we paid something in the region of 5 euros each… Our appetites sated, we decided to head off to check out the action on the beach – although the truth to be told the weather wasn’t quite right for it, with no sun in sight. So after a relaxing sit on the beach, we returned to explore the medina. The Sousse medina reminded me a bit of the one in Tunis – it’s less picturesque than the one in Hammamet, but feels like a more “real” and lively place. Definitely more authentic (although for sure, there are streets where tourists are free prey as well, not to worry!).
Unfortunately the weather went from bad to worse with the rain starting to pour, so we decided to escape into a museum – the Dar Essid. This interesting town house gives a glimpse at what life during the 19th century in Sousse might’ve been like (for a rich aristocrat family, that is) – very interesting indeed wwith some very pretty and impressive furniture and “decorative stuff” (which is normally not really my kind of thing). But what’s most amazing – they even had the self guide handouts translated into Finnish (definite proof that Sousse is a touristy place!). After a tasty mint tea in a nice tea house in the medina, we headed back to the hotel room to freshen up for dinner – which we had in a very nice restaurant just a block away from the hotel.
After a rather basic breakfast at the hotel, we took a taxi back to the louage station, from where we carried on towards our next destination; Kairouan. The journey was incident-less again, apart from a rather rigorous ID check upon entering the town (yet another subtle reminder about the fact that Tunisia is a bit of a police state). Kairouan is the oldest city of Tunisia – founded around the year 670. In fact, the great mosque of Kairouan is the oldest one in all of northern Africa – which earns Kairouan the honour of being one of the 7 holy cities of Islam (and of course the most important one in Tunisia). Kairouan is also the Tunisian capital of leather- and carpet work. We started off with the main attraction – the great mosque (which is so holy that 7 pilgrimages to it is equivalent to a pilgrimage to Mecca). It is quite similar to the one we saw in Sousse – again we were struck by its almost fortress-like appearance. Unfortunately the city was preparing for some kind of cultural festival, which meant that a large part of the courtyard was covered by a tent. So there wasn’t all that much to see, at the end of the day.
We then spent had a good walk around the medina – which I reckon was the most interesting one we saw in Tunisia. Its houses, painted in blue and white, give the place a sense of harmony, and in general the place felt calmer and less hectic than the medinas of Sousse and Tunis. It was a bit like the Hammamet medina, but more spread out and certainly less touristy (although naturally, there are a couple of streets well set up to cater for the tourist hordes…). Having explored the medina, we headed off for lunch. LP recommended a pizzeria which was conveniently on the way to our next “Kairouan tour stop” – which we decided to go for. Big mistake – we had what were probably the worst pizzas we’ve ever had in our lives (with the possible exception of the 0.02 euro pizzas they sold in Cuba) – I didn’t realise pizza could be this bad….
Our next stops were the Aghlabid Basins – big water reservoirs dating over 1000 years back in time. Not that much to see really, but you have to admire the engineering skills required to build the reservoirs (which span over 120 meters in diameter each) – I don’t think Europe could match this engineering feat for quite a few centuries… From there we carried on to Zaouia de Sidi Sahab – which has the rather odd nick-name the Barber’s mosque (Sidi Sahib was a companion of Mohammed, and always carried a few hairs from his beard – that’s devotion for ya…). It was a pretty enough place – the feel of the place was a bit similar to that of a monastery (a Zaouias are religious complexes built around a mausoleum). It would’ve felt quite peaceful if it hadn’t been for a bunch of annoying young brats whose French was limited to “je veux un dinar s’il vous plait” (for some reason Kairouan was the only place during our trip where we ran into that sort of behaviour). We finished off our visit of Kairouan with the Zaouia of Sidi Amor Abbada –dedicated to a saint who was also a local blacksmith (some of his odd handicraft – like a pipe – were on display). Then back to Tunis by louage!
More photos here.
So anyway, after a one-hour louage ride later, we arrived in Sousse. Sousse is, like Hammamet, quite a touristy place, being located by the sea and blessed by a very nice beach. But unlike Hammamet, it’s also a big city (the 3rd biggest in the country, with about 170,000 inhabitants), which makes it a much more “real” place – the weight of mass tourism feels less obvious here. We walked past the walled medina, with its imposing Kasbah, to do our check-in at our chosen hotel. This time we were very happy with our choice – the place was central, clean, and the staff was very friendly indeed. We didn’t linger for long though, preferring to start exploring the medina, for which Sousse is famous. We started by visiting the great mosque – one of the oldest ones in Tunisia (construction began 851 AD). In contrast to the mosques we saw in Cairo – which were very elaborate and beautifully decorated, the Tunisian mosques, are generally much more austere, almost fortress-like. Perhaps it is because they tend to be quite old (those were violent times...). Anyway, they are majestic places nonetheless. 
We then visited the ribat (ribat means hostel or hospice in Arabic, refers to a small fortress/religious retreat), just next to the great mosque – apparently it is one of the most well-preserved ones in northern Africa. Although there wasn’t much to see, we were treated to some nice views from the ramparts. After this we went for a very good lunch indeed at a restaurant (which I really recommend from the bottom of my heart) called “Le restaurant du people”. The portions were generous, the food tasty (especially the couscous – I think it may have been the best one I ever tasted) and the service very friendly. And the prices were very reasonable indeed – I think we paid something in the region of 5 euros each… Our appetites sated, we decided to head off to check out the action on the beach – although the truth to be told the weather wasn’t quite right for it, with no sun in sight. So after a relaxing sit on the beach, we returned to explore the medina. The Sousse medina reminded me a bit of the one in Tunis – it’s less picturesque than the one in Hammamet, but feels like a more “real” and lively place. Definitely more authentic (although for sure, there are streets where tourists are free prey as well, not to worry!). 
Unfortunately the weather went from bad to worse with the rain starting to pour, so we decided to escape into a museum – the Dar Essid. This interesting town house gives a glimpse at what life during the 19th century in Sousse might’ve been like (for a rich aristocrat family, that is) – very interesting indeed wwith some very pretty and impressive furniture and “decorative stuff” (which is normally not really my kind of thing). But what’s most amazing – they even had the self guide handouts translated into Finnish (definite proof that Sousse is a touristy place!). After a tasty mint tea in a nice tea house in the medina, we headed back to the hotel room to freshen up for dinner – which we had in a very nice restaurant just a block away from the hotel.
After a rather basic breakfast at the hotel, we took a taxi back to the louage station, from where we carried on towards our next destination; Kairouan. The journey was incident-less again, apart from a rather rigorous ID check upon entering the town (yet another subtle reminder about the fact that Tunisia is a bit of a police state). Kairouan is the oldest city of Tunisia – founded around the year 670. In fact, the great mosque of Kairouan is the oldest one in all of northern Africa – which earns Kairouan the honour of being one of the 7 holy cities of Islam (and of course the most important one in Tunisia). Kairouan is also the Tunisian capital of leather- and carpet work. We started off with the main attraction – the great mosque (which is so holy that 7 pilgrimages to it is equivalent to a pilgrimage to Mecca). It is quite similar to the one we saw in Sousse – again we were struck by its almost fortress-like appearance. Unfortunately the city was preparing for some kind of cultural festival, which meant that a large part of the courtyard was covered by a tent. So there wasn’t all that much to see, at the end of the day.
We then spent had a good walk around the medina – which I reckon was the most interesting one we saw in Tunisia. Its houses, painted in blue and white, give the place a sense of harmony, and in general the place felt calmer and less hectic than the medinas of Sousse and Tunis. It was a bit like the Hammamet medina, but more spread out and certainly less touristy (although naturally, there are a couple of streets well set up to cater for the tourist hordes…). Having explored the medina, we headed off for lunch. LP recommended a pizzeria which was conveniently on the way to our next “Kairouan tour stop” – which we decided to go for. Big mistake – we had what were probably the worst pizzas we’ve ever had in our lives (with the possible exception of the 0.02 euro pizzas they sold in Cuba) – I didn’t realise pizza could be this bad…. 
Our next stops were the Aghlabid Basins – big water reservoirs dating over 1000 years back in time. Not that much to see really, but you have to admire the engineering skills required to build the reservoirs (which span over 120 meters in diameter each) – I don’t think Europe could match this engineering feat for quite a few centuries… From there we carried on to Zaouia de Sidi Sahab – which has the rather odd nick-name the Barber’s mosque (Sidi Sahib was a companion of Mohammed, and always carried a few hairs from his beard – that’s devotion for ya…). It was a pretty enough place – the feel of the place was a bit similar to that of a monastery (a Zaouias are religious complexes built around a mausoleum). It would’ve felt quite peaceful if it hadn’t been for a bunch of annoying young brats whose French was limited to “je veux un dinar s’il vous plait” (for some reason Kairouan was the only place during our trip where we ran into that sort of behaviour). We finished off our visit of Kairouan with the Zaouia of Sidi Amor Abbada –dedicated to a saint who was also a local blacksmith (some of his odd handicraft – like a pipe – were on display). Then back to Tunis by louage!More photos here.
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