The Wedding and Journey to Djerba

On July 14th, we had our Tunisian wedding party. We had the choice between modern wedding clothes (white dress and a suite) or traditional Tunisian clothes. Since we already had a modern wedding, we went for the traditional clothes. Nidhal rented the traditional men's clothing and his mom and aunt found a traditional dress from Hammamet for me. I was prepared at Nidhal's aunt's house and Nidhal got ready at his house. When the time came, Nidhal picked me up and we were driven in his uncle's car to the party. All the way, his uncle was honking, beep beep beep-beep-beep, and at one point, a train honked back. Both Nidhal and his dad were excited about that because they are both really into trains. The party consisted of loud, live music, dancing, and appetizers. Nidhal and I were seated on a couch in the front of the room and everyone else was seated so they could see us. And then it was just music and dancing and food until the end. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was very different from what I'm used to.

On the 15th, we began our long-awaited honeymoon trip. We had to drive from Tunis to Djerba, an island in the south. It took us almost 10 hours because of traffic, having to wait for a ferry, and not being able to find out hotel. The drive itself was not uneventful, as numerous Libyan and Algerian drivers put our lives at risk. The stretch of road from Sfax to somewhere south of Gabes was the worst. But when we turned onto a less-used road, the drive was nice and relaxing, with desert and olive trees in all directions. When we got to the port, though, we were faced with more annoyance because there was a large line of cars waiting for the ferry to Djerba. (As we would find out a few days later, though, we got lucky... when we left Djerba on the 18th, the line of cars waiting for the ferry to Djerba was so long that we couldn't even see the end of it). As it turned out, though, we didn't have to wait for an eternity, and soon we were on the ferry and headed to Djerba.

Once on Djerba, however, we were faced with the problem of finding the hotel. Who needs directions, right? It's an island after all. Well, after very much driving, very many u-turns, and quite a few stops to ask people for directions, we finally found the hotel. The hotel was a 3-star hotel with two pools and with access to the Mediterranean Sea. It was really a typical hotel, nothing overly special. The walk to the beach was only a few minutes long and the beach and the sea were excellent. The hotel was overrun by Germans and so basically everything was catered to them. There was polka music in the evenings, bland food for dinner, and everything was written in German. Since very few English speakers come through Tunisia, much of the hotel staff thought I was German. I can accept that. At least I can speak German. After such a long journey, Nidhal and I took a quick look at the sea and collapsed into a deep sleep.