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Tunisia Part 3

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This section will be devoted to interesting/unusual/funny cultural things about Tunisia.

Signs and Warnings
Throughout the country we enjoyed the interesting road signs and warning signs. I think you'll like them as well.

Left: in Arabic and French: SPEED = DANGER
Right: Camel Crossing sign


Left: my favorite sign: a car with an explosion. I still don't know what it's about.
Right: a stop sign. Yes, the signs say "Stop," not "Arret"


Left: "Danger: Do not walk on the ruins" with a falling man
Right: "Stars War Scenery" and "Stars War" (mispelled in French). Everywhere we went, people had signs up stating that the view was supposedly used in Star Wars; usually false.


Left: Carthage Land, a theme park in Hammamet
Right: One of the ubiquitous posters of the current president. Apparently purple is his favorite color, so there are lots of purple signs everywhere.

Food!
Tunisian food isn't that different from Mediterranean food in general, except that they eat couscous and no pork, and more lamb.


Left: Orangina! In Arabic! Right: a fresh date from the date palm oasis


Left: Tea with pine nuts; Right: Tunisian pheasants, running wild in the streets. Apparently they are good to eat.

Other Interesting Things


Left: column capital, probably Byzantine, in the Great Mosque at Kairouan. It's been reused and has areas gouged out of it - probably those areas had figures, which aren't allowed in Islamic decoration, so they were removed before the capital was reused.
Right: Desert rose, it's a natural sand formation that the locals dig up and sell to tourists. They crumble in too much humidity so I didn't buy one.


Left: Tunisian mailbox. All the official signs are in French.
Right: the Tunisian flag, with a crescent and star for Islam, the color white for purity, and the red is arbitrary (so said our Tunisian guide).

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed!

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 11, 2009 at 3:28 PM

    Those pheasants are cute! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. RachelMarch 17, 2009 at 1:23 PM

    Looks like an awesome trip!
    Little did the makers of the false (and misspelled) "Star Wars" signs know they would be visited by a "Star Wars" expert!

    ReplyDelete

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