Riding the Train in Tunisia (And The Perils of Hiring a Tour Guide)

One of the scariest things about traveling alone is the possibility that something bad could happen to you and no one would be there to help. You can also be taken advantage of more easily. With no one there to talk things through or bounce ideas off of, you're left with only one perspective and it's sometimes hard to know if it's right. But there are definitely good things about traveling alone, too. You can do what you want, when you want and you don't have to compromise on anything. Some of my best stories have happened while I was traveling alone, which you can read about here and here.

After spending a few weeks in Morocco with a friend, she flew home and I went on to Tunisia by myself. I was pretty nervous because it's a 3rd world, Muslim, North African country that didn't really have a lot of solo, women travelers of any nationality, including it's own. Upon arrival, I made the rookie mistake of not knowing what my taxi driver was charging me for the trip to my hotel and definitely overpaid. I was tired from traveling all day (and a near meltdown at the Marrakesh airport when they couldn't find our reservation) and a bit nervous about being on my own, so I was just thankful to be safely at my hotel and didn't really care too much. The next day, I decided to take a train to the ancient Punic city of Carthage and eventually on to the charming town of Sidi Bou Said. It was a local train and very rickety. As I got on and found a seat, a group of about 8 young men, around 18-20 years old, sat down and took a keen interest in me. All I could think about was, if they wanted to do something to me, there was literally nothing I could do about it. I was terrified.

But it turns out, all they wanted to do was ask me questions. None of them had ever met an American before; they were just some alien creatures they saw on TV. I was such a novelty to them. They wanted to know what America was like, if I'd ever heard of Britney Spears or Akon, how I liked Tunisia, and where I was going that day. I tried to explain to them that I was going Carthage, but they couldn't understand what I was saying. After saying it several times (seriously, I don't know how else to say it!) they finally understood, "Ah! Cart-age!" Well, that explains it. As we approached my stop, they tried to get me to stay on longer, that there was nothing worth seeing, just a bunch of old ruins. They didn't get that that was exactly what I came to see. Weird Americans. I bid them farewell and headed to the first site.

As I was walking up the road to the museum, a taxi driver stopped and offered to drive me to all the important sites of Carthage, tell me about them, and eventually take me on to Sidi Bou Said. I was pretty skeptical at first, knowing that I could do it on my own and not have to worry if this guy was serious or trying to kidnap me. But it was also a billion degrees out, I knew that traveling by train was slow and not always easy, and it would be nice to see some places not on the train route. We agreed on a price (not making that mistake again!) and off we went.

Antonine Baths

The sites varied between the mundane (the Military and Commercial Harbors) and the awesome (the Antonine Baths). There was an amphitheater which seemed small, but used to hold up to 30,000 people, and more mosaics than I've ever seen in my life. While much of the ancient city is now upper class coastal suburb, there is still a lot to see, and worth every dime and second. You can easily imagine Hannibal and his elephants marching off to war, or Aeneas seeking shelter from the fall of Troy in Queen Dido's arms before breaking her heart to found Rome. It's a magical place full of history and legend.

The amphitheater

The main square of Sidi Bou Said

A colorful back alleyway.

After visiting nearly every site in Carthage, it was time to head to Sidi Bou Said. This small, wealthy suburb of Tunis is known for it's white buildings with blue trim, and Islamic art and architecture. There isn't a lot to do or see here, but it's nice to walk around and have dinner. As I got out of the cab, the driver said he was leaving. What?! How was I supposed to get back to Tunis?! I sat and argued with him but he was insistent. He said he only agreed to take me to Sidi Bou Said, he had to get home to his wife and kids. I could hire another taxi to take me back or take the train. I was annoyed, but what was I going to do?

Beautiful door with Islamic detail

It was now evening and things were starting to close. I walked around town, taking pictures and looking for somewhere to eat. I honestly can't remember if I found any food or not, I was too worried about getting back to Tunis! After wandering around this charming town for a bit, I finally found a cab to take me back to my hotel. He didn't speak any English which gave me a chance to use my French, which was clearly not as good as I thought it was, as he couldn't understand even the name of my hotel, La Masion Blanc. After driving around lost, he eventually pulled over and asked someone to help translate. From there, it was a quick trip and I was finally home! It was a long and sometimes stressful day, and I was still annoyed with my tour guide taxi driver, but one thing I found out that day, and the rest of my days in Tunisia was that everyone there was incredibly friendly, delighted to help a foreigner, and thrilled to meet a real American. It was completely opposite of what I expected and I felt so thankful that I had the opportunity to hopefully make a positive impact on them. They had definitely done that for me.

Making the Most of a Layover

I think it's clear by now that I like to pack a lot into my trips. I've sacrificed sleep, safety and with great difficulty, food, to make sure I get to see everything I possibly can with the limited time I have available to me. One way I've found to add some sightseeing to an already packed schedule is to do a short tour during a layover. Usually you'll need a good 6-7 hours minimum to make this worthwhile, but rather than sitting in an airport playing with my phone or generally being bored, I like to go out and see a bit of the city I'm stopped in.

The first time I did this, we were flying KLM to Casablanca, Morocco. Our layover was in Amsterdam and we had 7 hours between flights. Since we had so much time, we researched ahead of the trip and found that the Amsterdam airport led tours originating and concluding at the airport of varying lengths, depending on your layover time. You find the tour companies desk, tell them how long your layover is, and they tell you how long of a tour you have time for. Once you've paid, they quickly take you through customs and out to a waiting van.

Our tour took us first to a wooden shoe making shop. We got to see a demonstration of how they were made and learn a bit about the history of why they ever became a thing in the first place (they were cheap, practical, and it didn't hurt if the cows stepped on your feet!). After the shoes, we stopped at a windmill for a photo op before driving through the city past the Van Gogh museum and the Red Light District to a dock. We were hustled to the front of the line to get on a boat for a trip around the canals. We saw both old and new Amsterdam, the Ann Frank house, and learned how people moved into their tall, narrow buildings using the hook at the top of each house. Finally we headed back to the airport to catch our next flight. But we definitely felt the need to go back and make a full trip in the future.

Another time I had a 6 hour layover in London on my way to Madrid, Spain. I had been to London before, but there was plenty I hadn't seen. Before leaving, I talked to a friend who grew up there and asked what was something I could reasonably see in that time frame, knowing I had to take the tube into the city, which requires about an hour on either side. We decided that I could probably see all of the Tower of London in that time, and if I had more, I could swing by Westminster Abby and one of his favorite local pubs on my way back.

After sleepily trying to use my Seattle train card to get on the London tube, I finally made it into the city and to the Tower. I was just in time to catch a free Beef-eater guided tour. I highly recommend this as you learn a lot and many of the tour guides have a great sense of humor. However, not included in the tour is the crown jewels. I looked at the line and decided that there was no way I would be able to see them and still make my connecting flight. I walked around the Tower for awhile longer, exploring everything else there was to see, then headed back to the airport and on to Madrid. 

We Will Follow You Wherever You May Go (Following the Sounders to Trinidad & Tobago)

As I think I've mentioned a time or two, I have a deep and ardent love for sports. I grew up with baseball and football, but more recently, I've fallen in love with the Sounders, Seattle's soccer team. It makes sense; I love the rest of the world, the rest of the world loves soccer (football, futbol, il calcio, etc), therefore I should love soccer (okay, maybe that's not exactly how it works, but I'm going with it). And when I can combine my love of sports with my passion for travel, so much the better for me!

In 2012, the Sounders were part of a competition known as CONCACAF Champions League, where they play clubs from MLS, Central America and the Caribbean. There's always one home and one away game. That season, one of the teams they played was Caladonia AIA FC from Trinidad & Tobago. I had already taken a lot of time off that year to visit friends and family in Denver, Monterey and Boston, plus I was planning a trip to India so I wasn't sure I could find another week off to go to the Caribbean. But, of course, I did.

We flew into Port of Spain, Trinidad, the day before the match and checked into one of the sketchiest hostels I've ever stayed in. I'm not sure it was very clean, but it was cheap and we weren't staying for long. We wandered around the city, but not too far as Port of Spain has a reputation for being pretty unsafe. There were 10 of us total flying in for the match and we all met up at our hostel the day of the match to pre-funk. We had a cab come pick us up and with the rules of the road being what they are in T&T, we crammed all of us and our beers into the van and off we went to the stadium!

Our tifo. "The entire world will tremble at your might"

At the players hotel, having a drink

An hour later, we arrived and were shuttled through the back hallways to get our tickets and on to our seats. There was almost no one else there! We met up with a few other Sounders fans and combined I think we outnumbered the hometown crowd! We went about setting up our tifo display and taking pictures of our team warming up. The match was a lot of fun, we won, and apparently all you could hear on the TV was us singing for our boys. After the match, the players and coaches came over to shake our hands, thank us for coming and invited us back to their hotel for a round of drinks on them. How cool!

The next day was the 50th anniversary of Independence for Trinidad & Tobago; there had been fireworks every night leading up to this day. Red and black flags flew everywhere and it was quite the festive atmosphere. But we had a boat to catch to Tobago where the beach part of our vacation began! The ferry took about an hour and we were picked up at the dock by someone from our hotel (which was SO much nicer than the hostel on Trinidad!). It was right on the beach nestled in it's own little cove. I'm an early riser so every morning I'd get up and sit on the balcony, watching the waves and reading a book. We spent most of the time in the water, floating and lying on the beach. There was also a little waterfall not too far away that we walked to one day and two of our friends got engaged (with a lot of nudging from me and the other girl we were traveling with). We went on a fishing trip, saw dolphins and cooked up what we caught on a beach at the south end of the island. It truly was paradise.

This was my first international away trip to support the Sounders, and for the last few years they haven't been in CCL so we haven't been able to make these kinds of trips very often, but if they continue playing the way they have been this year, I see more away trips like this in my future. I'm hoping El Salvador. Or maybe Panama! Either way it will be a riot!

How To Deal With An Emergency Abroad (Losing Your Passport in Costa Rica)

Back in 2007, a friend and I spent 10 days in Costa Rica. It was a wonderful trip filled with wild animals, SCUBA diving, sun bathing and getting a passport stolen. I'm sorry, what? Yep, my friend had her passport (and all her documentation, camera, etc) stolen at the very beginning of our vacation.

The city of San Jose

We flew in to San Jose, spent a day walking around the city, seeing what there was to see, before catching the bus the next day to La Fortuna. I had all my important stuff at my feet, while my friend had put her bag above her head with the strap hanging down so she could keep an eye on it. It was a 4 hour ride through the mountains with beautiful views. After a little more than 2 hours, we stopped for a bathroom break and my friend went to grab her bag, except it wasn't there. She searched everywhere looking for it but sure enough, it was gone.

When we got to La Fortuna, we immediately started calling the embassy in San Jose to see how we should handle this. We were told we would have to come in and apply for a temporary passport so she could leave the country, but it was Friday, we wouldn't be able to get back there until Tuesday. After calling home to have copies of her documents that she had left behind faxed down to our hotel, we decided that I would pay for the rest of the trip on my credit card and we would leave early Tuesday morning to get back to the embassy when it opens at 8 so we could hopefully still make our flight to the Corcovado Rain Forest later that day.

Arenal Volcano

With that sorted, there wasn't much more to do about it until Tuesday, so we enjoyed La Fortuna, hiking the Arenal volcano (where we saw Spider and Howler Monkeys!), relaxing in the hot springs and riding horses to a waterfall to swim. Then we took a boat to Monteverde where we went zip lining and toured the cloud forest canopy looking for birds (we saw a Quetzal) and other wild life. Even with the passport situation hanging over our heads, we had a wonderful time!

Zip lining in Monteverde!

Tuesday morning we got a taxi at 4am to make the drive back to San Jose. We got there right at opening and with the copies of her original documents and some teasing from the guy at the desk, we were able to get a new passport in about an hour. It was expensive ($100 or so) and definitely caused a lot of stress and lost sleep, but it was surprisingly easier than expected. We were even able to make our flight with time to spare. With a way for us to both leave the country, the rest of the trip was far more relaxing.

The plane landed on a dirt strip in the middle of the rain forest, with four sticks and some corrugated tin thrown together into a makeshift airport. A car picked us up and drove us down to the beach where we climbed into a boat that took us to the tent camp. It was heaven on earth. We relaxed on the beach, went for a trek through the woods, spent a day SCUBA diving, and even got to see a sloth and the Scarlet Macaws! If you ever get a chance to go to Costa Rica, I highly recommend the Corcovado Adventures Tent Camp. It made the stress from the earlier part of the trip seem like it never even happened.

Me! SCUBA diving!

A Scarlet Macaw

Overall, it was a fabulous trip, something we both said many times on the flight home, despite having the passport stolen. It's one of those things that, aside from having your self stolen (kidnapped), is kind of the worst case scenario while traveling abroad. It was incredibly stressful at the time, but looking back on it, it's really not the vacation ending disaster it seems to be, if you have taken a few easy, precautionary steps. We always make sure to leave copies of all our important documents at home, but now we also exchange copies of them with each other to make it even easier. And always, ALWAYS keep your most important stuff in your sight at all times. You just never know what could happen.