El Jem in Tunisia

On this trip I did manage to travel north on a 50 minute train journey to a place called El Jem which just a short stroll from the railway station I found what is advertised as the best preserved Roman Amphitheatre in the world and they cannot be far wrong. It is a very worthwhile visit and I would recommend it to anybody that gets anywhere near this part of the world. At times as I was looking around I was almost on my own sharing the Amphitheatre with possibly, apart from the coach party of kids that stayed for 20 minutes, less than ten other people.

Some more photos can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/BritSToc/ElJem

Sfax Tunisia May 2008

Well as you can see I have not updated for a whole five weeks and there is a simple explanation for this.

I have been away working in Tunisia for the whole time and in fact I am still here.

The plan was to come out here for 19 days although nobody really believed it would even be that long and here we are on day 36 with just a small light showing at the end of the tunnel.

Below are some photos that I took last year when I was here for a week of the Medina in Sfax which as parts of it date back to the ninth century an extra will not make a difference.

Unlike the Medina in Tunis the Medina in Sfax is not aimed at the tourist at all because most visitors to Sfax are here on business or a few tourists en-route to somewhere else. This gives you a chance to see the real Tunisian Market without all the buy me buy me traders that seem to plague us tourists where ever you go. This one sells fruit vegetables meat fish and every other day to day necessities of a large city (pop 400,000)

More photos can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/BritSToc/TunisiaMarch2007