Tales of Tunisia

Have you heard of a shower? I have but apparently the smellies 2 rows in front of me from Detroit to Paris had not. How can they not tell they stink? Pepe Le Peu smells better. What about the rude guy in front of me who slammed back in his seat and spilled my soda sitting on my tray all over my pants. Yes, there was a bit of yelling. Luckily, I carry clothes in my carry-on - I had to change my pants hour 3 in to the flight. Next up movies - I decided to watch GI Joe: The Last Cobra and I fell asleep - need I say more? Next up, Termination Salvation - how could it be worse than GI Joe? It was! Next up, The Hangover, which the French renamed "A Very Bad Weekend." Why change it? It was awesome as is. Something really got lost in the translation there.

In Paris, I had to take a shuttle from terminal 2E to 2F so I boarded the smelly bus and off we go. All was fine until our Formula One Bus Driver whipped around a corner. I was standing and I went flying across the width of the bus falling directly into a man's mid section in a big bear hug formation. Not my most graceful move! Besides being utterly embarrassed, I wrenched my shoulder and neck again and am now heavy on the pain killers. What fun!

Then I decided to go to the hotel spa for a Hamman which is a Turkish type bath/scrub and that is when it got interesting. The spa was very nice and I wore my 2 piece tankini bathing suit to the service. First the woman put me in the steam room for what she said was going to be 5 minutes, I swear it was more like 15 minutes and I felt like steamed broccoli and finally had to go stand in the hall until she cam back because I was way too hot. Then she said she would do the body scrub in a room within the steam room so I was in for another 25-30 minutes of this oppressive heat. We entered this private room and she wanted me to get completely undressed which really isn't my bag, so I agreed to the top only. Given that she did not speak English at all, French very little and we were not connecting in Arabic she was not happy that I had my bottoms on. She then tried to wrestle them off, but I prevailed and my service continued. She buffed me within an inch of my life, but my skin is so smooth.

On the last day, I decided to go tandem parasailing with my friend John. First of all, we started with the price negotiation. The worker said 260 dinars for 2 people, I said no f'in way. As we walked away, he said 60 dinars for 2 people. $22 each was more like it! So we gave the man the money and then we had to walk down the beach. As the man took off, John and I ran after him on the beach so he didn't run off with our money. Baywatch we were not! By the time we got to the boat, we were exhausted. Our ride took off from the beach and the view was spectacular. All was well until the landing. John had to steer us into the beach. As we started to descend, we looked down, and we were over the street full of traffic. A little course correction and we came in on the beach. After a missed signal - the instructor said "run" and I picked my legs up by mistake and we sort of slid into a not so graceful landing. :)

From that rush, it was off to ride a camel, which was fun until the dismount. Instead of sitting down back legs first, the camel sits down front legs first so it was like a bucking bronco ride. A little bit of screaming and I was safely on the ground again.

All in all, a fun trip to Tunisia, can't wait for my next JCI adventure!