Imagine having a history so long?

Day 8/16 Viking Vesta. Tunis, Tunisia.

Malta, Morocco and the Mediterranean 16 day cruise

March 20, 2026 a very special big birthday for me!

#vikingvesta

#maltamorocooandthemediterranean

#myvikingjourney

#myvikingstory

#checkthisoffourbucketlist

I have always wanted to visit Tunisia. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know why. I visited Morocco in 1997 and since then I have always wanted to visit Tunisia. Maybe because it seemed so exotic in North Africa, away from the beaten path or because it was an usual tourist destination? Who know? Anyway, the reason we are on this big trip is that today is my 65th birthday!

Two years ago when I was looking for something special to do on my 65th I started looking at Viking Cruises online and I found this amazing 16 day itinerary in the Mediterrean that included Tunisia, Morocco and Malta. The other destinations were a bonus but the 3 important stops for me were these ones. I wanted a cruise which had us actually visiting somewhere on my birthday, and not just on a sea day. I found this 16 day cruise and said to Richard I wanted to do it because it touched on a lot of places we had never been before, or that Richard had never been before (Morocco).

What I did not look at though was when did Ramadan end? Travelling with Viking before in 2023 on the World Cruise we landed in Istanbul, Turkey on the day after Ramadan - EID. Eid is the 3 day celebration after the month long fasting during daylight hours. Eid also means that there would be little open today in Tunis, much the same as when we were in Istanbul and the Grand Bazaar was also closed. We have since been back to Istanbul twice and both times the Grand Bazaar was closed either because it was a Sunday or it was nightfall. One day we will get to that Grand Bazaar…but I digress.

We had planned to take the included tour in Tunis this morning and we were not scheduled to be on the bus until 10:50am. We had to go through a face to face customs and immigration inspection this morning and we had been provided with a tourist card for Tunisia which we had to insert into our passport at the picture page. Most countries we have visited we only need our Ship’s Card to return to the ship, but in Tunisia we needed our passport.

Given the need for the face to face inspection we left our cabin and the ship early thinking we would wander through the shops in the port terminal.

When I was discussing visiting Tunisia with my girlfriend Amy in Florida she looked up what Tunisia was known for and the first thing she found was a “Tunisian Fox”. Amy had said that I needed to find a Tunisian Fox and get a picture with the animal while I was in Tunisia. I was wondering how on earth I was going to find a Tunisian Fox given we were not visiting a zoo today and just then I saw exactly what I had been looking for!

Tunisian or ‘Fennec’ Fox! Oh my goodness! This vendor was on the docks with his Tunisian Fox! I paid him $1 US to hold the fox for the photo. These fennec foxes are protected in Tunisia, live in underground burrows and are known to be able to manage the extreme heat by having specialized kidneys that conserve water.

Perfect! My birthday started well and I could check that off my bucket list to find a Tunisian Fennec Fox!

Do you see the resemblance? Same ears? The Star Wars movies were filmed predominantly in Tunisia in the Tatooine desert. I think the character Yoda (above) has a very strong resemblance to the Tunisian Fennec Fox and perhaps his character was a nod to the chosen location in Tunisia.

After standing around for awhile on the docks we finally boarded our Bus #22 for our tour of Tunis, Tunisia.

Our guide Wassim Daghrir told us to call him ‘Dr Wassim’ because he had a PhD and taught at the University. He also told us that he had recently lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and taught at St. FX and taught at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. He told us that his name ‘Wassim’ meant ‘Handsome’ in English!

We could tell right from the start of our bus ride that Wassim was going to be an excellent guide. If you are ever visiting Tunisia Wassim is someone to hire for your guiding experience. He also does tours throughout Tunisia and not just in Tunis. Richard told Wassim it was my birthday today and he sang Happy Birthday to me in Tunisian!

As we left the port area of La Goulette, Tunisia, Wassim explained in 15 minutes the entire history of Tunisia. Tunisia was ruled or colonized by 9 different rulers until today’s modern democratically elected leaders.

With over 3,000 years of recorded history Tunisia has been ruled by the Berbers, Phoenicians (Carthage), Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Ottomans, French and finally independent Tunisian rule since March 20, 1956. Today was Independence Day in Tunisia!

When Tunisia was ruled by the Phoenicians, Carthage located on the North African coast of the Mediterranean was one of the most powerful cities in the world from c 814-146 BCE. Carthage was a maritime empire and controlled much of the western Mediterrean’s trade. Found by settlers from Tyre (Lebanon) it was a wealthy and powerful republic renowned for its navy, agriculture and prosperity. While Carthage had a more powerful navy than Rome, eventually Carthage fell to the Romans because their soldiers were mostly mercenaries and when they were not paid, Rome had the upper hand and won the Punic War. As our guide Wassim mentioned “History is written by the winners” and so Rome destroyed Carthage and not much exists of the ancient city of Carthage today.

The Vandals from Germany also demolished many of ancient Tunisia when they invaded Tunisia as well. Most of the architecture of Tunisia reflects the more modern period of when the French ruled Tunisia in the Colonial period from 1881-1956 except for the Medina where we were heading for our tour today.

The Medina of Tunis has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. Founded in 698 around the original core of the Zitouna Mosque, the Medina of Tunis developed through the Middle Ages. With an area of 670 acres and nearly 110,000 inhabitants, the Medina has one-tenth of the population of Tunis living in it.

The Zitouna Mosque which was built in 732 in the heart of the Medina is an important place of culture and knowledge. The mosque itself covers 1.2 acres and has nine entrances. Of course not being Muslim we were not allowed inside the mosque today but we did hear the call to prayer at noon as we were leaving the Medina.

Our guide Wassim said he has never had the experience of leading a tour through the Medina when it was so empty. At Eid people gather with their families and friends to celebrate the end of Ramadan, and therefore all of the shops were closed today except for one special carpet store that Viking had secured for us to visit.

Of course we knew what the drill was. We were offered some date pastries and mint tea to get us to sit through the presentation of the carpets by the owner of the carpet store. This went on for about 15 minutes while we watched carpet after increasingly more expensive carpet being unfurled in front of us. I briefly started to negotiate for a front door mat for our home in Canada but when the salesman wouldn’t budge off $800 USD and I was only willing to pay $200 CAD, our discussions were over! HAH! It was fun to at least see the front door double rugs, but it was not meant to be today!

I did bargain for a camel leather pouf in the shop downstairs from the carpet vendor. I had previously purchased 2 poufs when I was in Morocco and I quite liked them until they wore out. So now we have a new one for our place in Florida. I will stuff it when we return after this trip.

It would have been wonderful to be able to spend some free time in Tunis in the souk, but since everything was closed up tight, we got back on the bus for a brief drive down the Avenue Habib Bourguiba named after Tunisia’s first and most progressive President. The street is often compared to the Champs-Elysees in Paris due to its wide promenade, tree-lined sidewalks and central location. The buildings on the street feature French colonial style architecture, theatres and cafes and the historic landmark of the Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul.

Tunisia was shaped from the start of its independence from France by Habib Bourguiba the first President of Tunisia. He had many reforms which he implemented which have made Tunisia one of the most diplomatic Arab countrIes in the world. Some of his reforms were: 1) Code of Personal status: granting women subtantial rights, abolishing polygamy, establishing legal minimal ages of marriage (women 17), and allowing women to initiate divorce through the court system 2) Education reform: he established a unified modern education system that reduced the role of traditional religious education, promoted literacy and emphasized bilingualism (Arabic and French). One third of the state budget was spent on education. 3). He abolished the dual justice system (religious and secular) and replaced it with a unified secular civil court system. He replaced French officials with Tunisians. 4) Women’s Heath and Equality: he introduced family planning in 1961, and legal abortion in 1973. He also discouraged women from wearing the Hijab calling it an ‘odious rag’.

After a quick bus ride we were back to the port of La Goulette where there was a very nice shopping bazaar set up in the cruise port terminal for us to shop at. It was lunch time though so we decided to go back to the Vesta and have lunch with our friends David and Julie before heading back to the terminal for some shopping.

At lunch Julie mentioned that she also wanted to go shopping so we met on deck ‘A’ after lunch and headed out to visit the shops in the cruise terminal. Both Julie and I had seen this amazing boutique at the entrance from the port that we wanted to spend more time visiting.

Since there were not many people in the cruise terminal we were like open ‘marks’. Everyone was trying to get us to buy their jewellery, dates and wares along the way until we finally got to the last vendor - the lady we both wanted to visit.

There is something to be said for shopping around and looking for something unique in every place we visit. Most places in the world sell “the hand of fatima’ jewellery or the “evil eye”, and therefore it is not really that special or unique to a place when you see it everywhere in the world.

Hand woven coats designed by Chirac Ben Hamadi.

My coat became my birthday present from David and Julie, our friends from Sydney, Australia who are travelling with us on this vacation. I am so lucky to have such generous friends. What a beautiful gift that I will treasure forever and which is so practical too in the fall in Canada and winters in Florida!

After returning to the Vesta, I headed to the gym for a quick workout. I knew that Richard had organized a special birthday dinner for me and I wanted to make sure I had lots of energy and had burned off some calories since our walk in the Medina today really was not that taxing.

Dinner was scheduled for 7:30pm in Manfredis with David and Julie and me and Richard. Richard had also worked with the General Manager of the Vesta to have Captain Ben join us for dinner. When we arrived on Deck 1 to enter Manfredis we were quickly escorted into the private dining room in Manfredis which was set for 5 people. Wow! What a special treat!

We enjoyed our converations with Captain Ben and the staff surprised me with a very special custom made carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for my birthday.. I also appreciated that there was no singing of Happy Birthday by the entire wait staff of Manfredis.

The cake was delicious and we had the rest of the cake sent to our cabin to put in our refrigerator to eat another day. It was so good we didn’t want it to go to waste. I guess I will need to go to the gym again after eating this cake!

What a special birthday I had today in Tunisia! Learning about the long colonial history of Tunisia from our excellent well educated guide Wassim certainly made me appreciate and understand more about the country I have always wanted to visit. Learning that my birthday also coincided with Tunisia’s Independence Day seemed very serendipitous too! My beautiful coat from David and Julie is something I will always treasure; not only the coat, but the experience of buying it in Tunisia from the designer, with Julie. Dinner with David, Julie, Richard and Captain Ben in Manfredis was wonderful and I know that Richard worked with the GM from the time he got on the Vesta until the dinner actually happened to make sure everything went according to plan. Thank you Richard! You did a fantastic job making me feel special today!

I would say the only disappointment we had today was that it was Eid and nothing in the Medina was open. We still have Morocco though and we are hoping that Eid will be over by the time we reach the souks in Casablanca. Exploring the souks of Casablanca is something Richard is really looking forward to.

And tomorrow is a sea day! Yeah! Another day to rest and recharge as we sail to Algeria!