TUNISIAN HOLYDAYS - THE DAY BEFORE THE END

The day started again with beautiful sunshine.



Before breakfast I quickly checked my Blog and emails. A friendly lady took this picture of me in my special blogging place ! I think I will miss this cozy room.

Somebody told me today that the staff has given me a nickname. I am called "The Princess". I had already wondered when somebody of the animation group called me so and then the waiter in the restaurant too. I asked one of the girls why, I thought maybe they think I wear my nose high  up and look snobbish but not at all ! She told me they had named me like this because I am always friendly and so nice to them all, that I talk and listen to them. I purred of course like an old cat. I thought I was only normal. But what I have heard about some tourists, was really not nice. They have all a nick name. One is called "piss vinaigre" which means "piss vinegar" !




This is one of the girls performing alone the daily dance which opens the entertainment. Normally they are 5, but we were only 3 at the swimming pool, a French couple and I.



On my way to the restaurant I met a female cook ! Rather seldom, usually they are all men. We chatted a bit about the food and she allowed me to take a picture of her.

After lunch and laying in the sun, I did a little walk to the beach..  It still looked awful, so dirty with plastic bottles and all kind of rubbish plus the seaweed and algas, from the last week's storm..




It was impossible to walk along the sea. Sometimes I could see how white the sand was. I wonder how the hotel beaches look which are located at the sea !



To go to the beach of my hotel, I had to cross a street. But at least they had cleaned their part of the beach. Nobody was there except me, it was rather depressing.



On my way back to the hotel and the cheerful atmosphere I saw this boat which had stranded besides a mountain of  garbage of all kinds !

I had a nice chat with an old lady from Hamburg while drinking our peach tea, she is here for 6 weeks and leaves tomorrow. She does it every year because she suffers from depressions and light and sunshine helps.

She told me that there are several people who stay here for 3 to 5 months during winter time. For them it is cheaper then staying home, because of the heating and other costs, I didn't know that the legal pensions in Germany are so low ! And we complain in Belgium ! Tunisia is very cheap, and they have everything here in the hotel.



When I returned to my room I found this cute decoration on my bed.

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE - RANDOM FIVE FRIDAY

This week's edition will be different from my normal once, as I am on holidays in Tunisia and have described my days every day so far in the posts below. But for those who haven't followed I make a resume !

From day 1 to day 5, I got up around 8 am, went with my little computer to the morisco decorated room where I have internet connection and checked if my post was published. When finished I had my breakfast.



The dining room is always very nicely decorated.. Then I go back to my room, leave the computer there, take my Kindle, suncream etc and settle down on my beachbed at the swimming pool. There I start my daily work by taking sunbath, reading and chatting. Around noon I go swimming in the indoor pool, where I am always alone and have the huge swimming pool all for myself. At least the water is very warm and birds are chirping inside, they have built nests on the warm tubes or spots. Very cute.

Back to my room, I quickly change for lunch. Just throw a kaftan over my bathing suit.



The  animation program is just hanging besides the bar, where the shows take place. There is also a beautiful little inside garden with flower pots, rocks and pebbles. At 10.30 the bar opens and all beer, cocktail or other strong stuff drinkers are hurrying there to get their first glass followed by many others. The hotel does  "all inclusive" prices so they all drink a lot because it's free (or at least they payed already) One morning a guy made a mess because he asked for a Wodka at 8 am !!

During lunch and supper the girls from the animation team always ask me if they could sit at my table. Of course I am happy to have their company, these are such nice Tunisian girls who all speak perfectly French and I learn a lot about Tunisian modern women who are very much the same as we in our western world. I  also learn a lot about Tourist behavior ! Some are really a disaster !



Then I go back to "work". It's funny to see the Tunisians in thick winter jackets besides the sun hungry half naked tourists. 24°C for them is cold ! The cleaning women are cleaning the whole day the rubbish away which uneducated tourists leave behind !

After supper I go back to my little internet place and watch a little movie on my Kindle. So far I didn't like the shows, it's so noisy and I need rest.



I tried to take a picture of my place myself, as there was nobody and managed to take pictures of my nose, my shoes, half a face and my Kindle and the waterpipe.

Around 10 pm I am so tired from the sun and the fresh air and just doing nothing, that I fall into my bed and sleep like a baby.



The roommates spoil me, I found my bed like this yesterday evening. I think when I come back I have to ask Mr. G. to do the same for me ! I wonder how the swan will look like !

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

and

More participants here at A rural Journal.

RESUME OF HOLIDAYS DAY 3

Letter : R

Usually I never have breakfast because I am not hungry in the mornings. But on holidays I am hungry !



I had seen delicious pancakes and asked the cook to make me one, which he did. I put some brown sugar on it and it was delicious !




Then I started my working day, by laying at the swimming pool. I have a little friend, which kept me company, it's a cute cat, unfortunately his tail is bitten off and he has an almost healed wound on his back. But he is so affectionate and can't get enough strokes.


I watched a bit the dart game, but didn't participate. I have done it once, I just closed my eyes and throw the arrow without knowing any rules and .... I won ! Perhaps I should give it a try.



As the outside pool is rather cold I went to the inside pool again and swam around for an hour and did my aqua gym. Two French ladies joined in and I played the teacher !

I also settled a fight between a French and a German man, the German had jumped into the water like an elephant and had splashed  the French who was furious and treated him as peasant while the other laughed and made fun of the French. Wrong translations are sometimes good, I didn't translate the insults but pretended that the German was sorry and he wouldn't do it again. The French was satisfied. But I told the German not to jump into the water and splash around. I said that I have a very expensive ebook reader and that it is not waterproofed and if it's damaged he has to pay me a new one. That calmed him down and peace was again around the swimming pool.




I learned something new ! I didn't know that you can wash oriental carpets and just let them dry in the sunshine ! They were beautiful.



Not everybody is enjoying holidays, the cleaning women are carrying the dirty laundry to be washed.



They were loaded like mules ! In Egypt only men take care of the room cleaning here are women working.



I took some pictures of my room, the tiles in the bathroom are gorgeous and around the mirrors and picture frames too. I haven't used my little balcony yet, it's funnier to watch people at the pool !

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - Holiday day 2

more participants here



This is supposed to be a cat

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Today is the second day of my holidays in Tunisia. The weather was even warmer today, and I had a lot of work !! The whole day laying at the swimming pool is very tiring ! At least there are the interruptions when I have to join the herd to be fed. The food is western food unfortunately not Tunisian or North African. It's good but nothing special. Probably people want always to eat what they know and not like me, I like to try out food I don't know, except maybe grilled worms or bugs. But there is a big choice of vegetables and so far it was always good for me. Some people always have to complain, otherwise they are not happy.




Mornings, afternoons and evenings we have an animation team who try very hard to entertain the few people. Most of us are vintage people or even old vintage, very few middle aged and then some young people. It's out of season and the hotel is probably not even half full.



This is my blogging space ! Very special, it looks like a room where water pipes are smoked, but it's just a room to sit down and chat and people are sitting here with computers or tablets. Yesterday evening I was all alone because the others were or in their rooms or watched the show, I had a look, the music was so loud that I would have needed earplugs, so I decided to watch a "Frost" movie with my headset on my Kindle and then went to bed.



The room mates are doing real artwork with the covers !

I was alone again in this beautiful inside swimming pool and swam around for nearly an hour. Just wonderful.




After my swim, I took 3 appointments for anti stress massages. It cost the same price then only one in Waterloo !



It is also very beautifully decorated. The massage was very good it was a black girl with very strong hands ! But she didn't break me any bones.

People now start to talk to me and are surprised that I speak with the French as well as with the Germans in their language. I had to translate several times and it was a lot of fun. The Germans try to dig out their French they learned at school ages ago, and the French appreciate the effort. There is only one elderly couple from Belgium who doesn't speak anything else but  Flemish /Dutch. They are supposed to speak French at least they have certainly learned it at school as Belgium is bilingual. I could help, but I don't, I think if you travel you should at least speak one language which people can understand elsewhere then in the Netherlands !
So far I haven't heard one English word.

HOLIDAYT's IN TUNISIA

My world is for the moment in Tunisia precisely on the island of Djerba where I will stay for a week.
There is nothing to see around here and as I have done a roundtrip through Tunisia  ( Travel Blog ) two years ago, I have no intention to visit anything and just rest !



After a good breakfast, in the nicely decorated dining room, I took a picture of the ceiling which is like a dome. On the tables were these beautiful flowers I think it's a hibiscus flower.



As it was just after 9 am and still quite chilly I walked around to discover the Hotel. Nobody but the employes were around.



I  also discovered this very nice indoor pool close to my room and decided to go there later, which I did. I was all alone in this huge swimming pool and the water and inside it was deliciously warm. Actually some birds thought the same and one had built a nest on the heating tube. Looked rather funny.

Just before lunch I went over to the beach.



There had been a storm last week and the beach was full of algas and other strange looking water plants.



It really didn't look very inviting to swim in there, and I decided to not go back here but rather stay at the swimming pool and swim in the heated pool.



There was one woman sitting there who was very angry and complained to me, as if I could change anything I suggested she should sit elsewhere in her hotel and forget about the dirty beach, but she stayed. Probably to complain to every person showing up.

The rest of the day I spent in the sun at the swimming pool and read a book with my Kindle. Suddenly I heard the Skype sound, it was Mr. G. to say hello ! I was so surprised ! So far it had never happened that the book I was reading started to ring !

 In the mornings and evenings it's really chilly and in the rooms the heating is on. But during the day the weather is warm enough for a bathing suit.

MY WEEKEND OF MARCH 15

Apparently I really badly needed my holidays. On Friday morning just when I wanted to pack my suitcase I realized that my flight to Djerba (Tunisia) was not on Saturday but on Sunday !! In a way it was good, because I felt stressed to pack, which normly never happens. It was also nice because I had my monthly theater play on Saturday. Once my  suitcase done, I was relaxed and in the evening the usual 4 of us went first for supper in the restaurant which is part of the theater in this farm.



Arriving I noticed this beautiful Japanese cherry tree in full bloom. Thewh view was not that nice, because they renovate the whole thing and the shed with the green roof was the stage ! Our supper however, was delicious and the play too funny ! It was called "Le Banc" (the bench) and concerned two pianists who suddenly realized that they got on the nerves of each other. They had discussions and fights like an old married couple. It was hilarious !

On Sunday morning Mr. G. drove me to the airport. My flight was on time at 11.15 am and we arrived without problems 3 h later !


The airport in Djerba

And then started the catastrophe ! 3 airplanes had arrived at the same time in this small airport and there were only 3 employees who checked the passports and put a stamp in it. 2 h later, I finally went through and then we had to wait for the luggage and for all passengers who were in the same bus as me. At 5.30 pm I finally arrived in the hotel !



First pictures of the way to the hotel


The hotel, 

I have a very nice room all for myself with no supplement to pay, I have 3 beds and could make sleeping turns, each night in another bed. I also have a little balcony. Today I will explore more !