The Amazing Journey

I've decided that I'm going to make posts from my trip and post them under the date that it actually happened. So for the next few days, new posts will be showing up under the dates 7/14 to 7/25.

Our trip to the south went well. We had out wedding party on the 14th and left for Djerba (an island) on the 15th. From Djerba, we went to Tozeur and then to Douz and then to Matmata and then back to Tunis. During this trip, we also visited Tamerza, Chebika, Mides, Metlaoui, Nefta, and Gabes. Most of the trip was in the desert, but the first portion (Djerba) was a desert island on the Mediterranean Sea.

Today, we left Matmata, where parts of Star Wars was filmed, and drove back to Tunis. It took us about 6 hours, which was nothing compared to the 10 it took to go from Tunis to our hotel in Djerba. For the record, Libyan drivers are reckless and crazy. They are literally the worst drivers I have seen in my life. This is a quote from expatarrivals.com: Libya has one of the highest road death mortality rates in the world. Driving is extremely dangerous and should be done with the utmost caution. Libyan traffic officers poorly enforce laws and Libyan drivers are erratic and unpredictable. Always exercise extreme caution and defensive driving techniques. Furthermore, it’s best to avoid driving at night when police are known to set up road blocks to trap drunk drivers. There were multiple times when I was sure an accident was about to happen. They drive fast and pass so that the car coming in the other direction has to break and the car they are passing has to move to the shoulder just so there won't be a collision. However, the Tunisian drivers were generally fine.

Speaking of driving, the roads in Tunisia are excellent. Seriously, there are roads in the middle of the desert that are better than all roads in the US excluding the brand new roads. There was only one spot in the entire country where I thought that the road was similar to the ones found in the US (more specifically, Ann Arbor). Bravo, Tunisia.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. I'm too tired now to write more, but there will be more details coming soon.