Peter Moore

That chastening moment when you realise you haven’t got the hairline to carry off *any* of the Local Barber Shop signature styles anymore.

Just easing into 2024 …

Happy Gravy Day everyone.

Always hits harder on the other side of the world.

Paul Kelly - How To Make Gravy (2021 Version) 'Paul Kelly's Christmas Train', is out now: https://paulkelly.lnk.to/ChristmasTrainIDProducer, Director, Editor - Siân DarlingProduction Assistant - Rosie Bl...

Just going through the photos from my trip that I took with my camera rather than my phone.

It's in Kairouan, in the Grand Mosque. A centre of great learning still, it seems.

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS FROM TUNISIA

I mentioned when I began my seven-day adventure to Tunisia that I was going to go ‘old school’ – just book the flights and then see what happens.

But I didn’t say why.

I had two reasons.

The first that I’d been following my nephew’s first trip abroad on Instagram, a couple of weeks in Japan with his mate. He’d asked my advice before going and I said ‘Just go with the flow.’

He did. And his favourite moment of the trip was when a couple of Japanese staying in the hostel suggested they go down to the local onsen. He agreed and tagged along. It was a real eye-opener, shall we say.

So, reason one: Time to follow my own damn advice.

The second reason was an article I’d read in Time magazine, extolling the ‘exciting’ potential of using AI to plan your travels. The writer used ChatGPT to create a seven-day itinerary for a trip, including activities.

The very thought of it horrified me.

But let’s be honest, the bare bones of this ‘online’ approach have been around for years. Even in Tunisia. If I’d wanted, I could have booked my accommodation in every single place I visited on Booking.com.

So, reason two: Is it still possible just to turn up and just wing it?

The answer to that question is a definite yes.

It helped that I was travelling off-season in a country currently off the tourist radar.

But the way I travelled – local minivans, buses and trains – meant that offline was often the ONLY way.

As my experience in Matmata showed, it was sharp elbows that got you on one of the few minivans to the morning market in Nouvelle Matamata, not an online booking and a QR code on your phone.

As for my mantra of just going with the flow, my week in Tunisia revealed that that advice is just as valid as ever.

I made my usual mistake of flicking through my guidebook – the excellent Tunisia Bradt Guide, only released a couple of months ago – and making overly-audacious plans. But because I hadn’t booked anything I was able to adjust, and even go in directions I hadn’t even considered.

My trip down to Zarziza to Le Jardin D’Afrique and The Museum for the Memory of Man and the Sea, was a last-minute whim, but a real highlight of the trip.

My brilliant time in Kairouan too was a compromise, after I realised that my plan to visit the Kerkennah Islands was way too audacious for the amount of time I had left.

It also left me open to those serendipitous moments that inevitably come when you travel like this.

Like stumbling on a hotel in Tunis on the day it is opening and getting treated to lunch, a discount rate and the sight of three imans chanting blessings in the foyer.

And the tiny moments of human connection that remind you that the world hasn’t totally gone to s**t.

Like the guy who explained to me what was going on when the train suddenly terminated at Khereddine and everyone got off. The rail bridge over the canal was being repaired, he said, and then showed me the way across the canal and through some backstreets to La Goulette Casino, the next station along, where a train was waiting to continue on to Tunis.

I did cheat a couple of times.

I discovered Google Maps was a great way of negotiating the tricky laneways in both the Kairouan and Tunis medinas. By searching a route from one site to the next it took me along some really interesting routes, not just along the main drags.

And when it came time to head out to Tunis airport at 6am on my final day, the BOLT ride sharing app got me out to the airport for a ridiculous 13 dinar (£3.30). And the driver turned up within minutes.

I’m not a luddite, guys. When technology helps, I’ll use it.

Anyway, I didn't mean for this to turn into an essay.

The long and short of it is that it is still possible to travel old school. And remains the quickest and easiest way to experience and encounter a country and its people.

But hey, that’s just my opinion.

My mantra has always been it doesn’t matter how you travel, just that you travel in the first place.

See ya, Tunisia. It’s been a blast!

I’ve done a lot of thinking about the Roman Empire today. And the Phoenician one. And the Carthaginian one …😂

My afternoon in Tunis.

Just arrived in Tunis and walked to the hotel I chose from the guidebook, the Grand Hotel de France.

It was full. The first time that had happened on this trip.

The manager suggested I try the Grand Hotel de Commodore.

It was full too.

The manager there suggested I try the Hotel Lausanne, about a block and a half away on Rue de Suisse.

Long story short, I’m staying at the brand spanking new Hotel de Suisse, also on Rue de Suisse. The manager beckoned me in as I walked past, gave me a double for the price of a single and speaks impeccable English.

Best of all, the local Imams were in the foyer performing a blessing of sorts, asking God to bless the new establishment and bring it prosperity.

If you want to know why I love travelling this way, this is why.

At the bus station at Kairouan. Waiting for my bus to Tunis. They just announced it has been delayed so I thought I’d kill the time by posting random pics from my time in Kairouan yesterday…

This is Mohammed. He cuts verses of the Quran out of brass in a tiny workshop in Kairouan medina.

He also likes his smokes. 😂

My morning in Sousse. A quick check on the cats in the medina and then down to the seafront.

Lots of abandoned hotels. Tourism has been hit hard here.

This morning the cats of Sousse medina are looking well fed and relaxed.

The King of the Cats has done well.

The ticket into the amphitheatre also got you into the archaeological museum on the edge of town.

If you like mosaics, you’ll like this place.

The reason I caught a train to El Djem was to check out the colosseum there. Third largest built by the Romans apparently and the second largest still standing.

It was built between 200-230 AD but was never finished because of political instability and lack of funds.

There were a few other people there but I pretty much had the run of the place.

Bedouin petrol station, Matmata

Third attempt and I got on a minivan out of Matmata. Crazy bunfight each time a van came into the bus station. These ladies still put up a hell of a fight…

The Camel cigarette packet.

IRL.

One of those serendipitous moments. I was taking a photo of this staircase and these guys pulled up.

I can only take credit for being in the right place at the right time 😂

Coffee, prayer beads and the open road.

Star Wars convention in Medenine. 😂

Tunisia through a headrest…

Last minivan back to Djerba Island.

Then I made my way to the other side of Zarziz to visit the Museum for the Memory of Man and the Sea.

It’s the life work of a local poet, Mohsen Lihidheb, and displays stuff he has collected from the beach over the last 40 years. Including hundreds of letters in bottles that he has responded to personally.

In the nineties he started noticing more stuff washing up that belonged to migrants who perished at sea.

The most horrifying find was a human skull. That’s a pic of him reading me his poem about the experience.

Nowadays he creates art installations using the items he finds. He employs migrants to help him, to give them some money and also in the hope that by seeing all these items it might help them think more deeply about the perils that lay ahead for them.

A truly amazing guy. I was so pleased I got to meet him.

Then I went ‘off island’ on my first minivan as of the trip to Zarziz.

Specifically I wanted to visit Le Jardine D’Afrique, a cemetery for unidentified migrants who died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

The headstones contain DNA information so families can help identify them in the future.

It was closed when I visited so the taxi driver gave me a boost over the wall.

His idea, not mine. Please don’t judge me 🥺

Adventures in Tunisian butchery.

The doors in Djerbahood were pretty cool too!

While I was in Erriadh I wanted to check out Djerbahood.

Basically Djerbahood is a a couple of blocks just north west of the main crossroad.

In 2014 a bunch of street art artists from around the world showed up and painted on the side of the houses turning it into a really cool little neighbourhood.

That guy in the hooh is Mohammad. It liked that he was wearing a hood in Djerbahood 😂

After visiting the synagogue I walked back to the nearest town, Erriadh.

It was market day so the town was pretty busy. I grabbed a bite to eat at a bustling little sandwich shop on the crossroads.

It was popular with the youth so I knew it would be cheap. About £1.50 for a huge sandwich and a drink, as it turns out.

The shop was run by Mustaffa who thought it was hilarious I didn’t eat eggs.

Oh, and those two lads who look like they are conspiring to nick my sandwich? They were just debating who would practice their English on me first! 😂

Day One on Djerba Island and my first order of business was a trip out to Synagogue La Ghriba, the oldest in Tunisia and possibly the whole of Africa.

It’s about 7km from Houmt Souk and you have to go through airport-style security to get in after a terrorist attack in 2002.

It was first built in 52 BC.

The current buildings date from the 1920s.

Entrance is free as long as you buy a postcard from the guy out front.