The Desert on the Edge of the Sea: Tunisia with a Parisian Layover

December 19, 2018

Flying into Paris during a Yellow Vest demonstration wasn't as bad as I thought, however, I hate the Paris underground metro, the signs are very difficult to figure out and the crowds, even at midnight, are insane.

I stayed at Trendy Hostel (2ter Rue Edouard Vasseur, 94200 Ivry-sur-Seine, France) which is a southern suburb of Paris, which made getting a taxi to Orly Airport easier, but I didn't like the actual location. I was in a mixed 16 bed room with 2 toilets and 2 showers. It wasn't noisy, but it was awkward. I won't go again. 21E for the night.

The flight to Monastir was a nightmare. I flew Transavia both ways for 288E which was much more than I should have spent. From Paris we flew to Monastir, but something broke on the plane around Lyon so we had to go back to Paris, get it fixed and refuel before going on, which added 5 hours to the trip length. Flying from Monastir to Lyon was delayed an hour and I had to get a taxi when I came back because of the time of night. I used Taxi2Taxi which was great service, but it cost 70E.

Overall, I spent 100E in Tunisia, which is more than I would have liked. I could have done it for 75E or even 50E if I didn't shop for Christmas. :)

The thing about Monastir is that it's like a glossy photo, from a distance it looks awesome, but once you get up close you see how dirty it was. The city has a lot of construction underway, but it's a DIY style of construction, unorganized and messy. I didn't see a uniformed infrastructure from the government. The bus didn't work, the roads were a nightmare, and there was garbage everywhere.

One of the things that people told me was to be careful as a female travelling alone. To be honest, this was not an issue at all. I wore a scarf most of the time, but it is so windy there that that was more practical for keeping my hair in place regardless. I received a few looks, but not because I was female, just because I was alone. No one is alone there. Everyone was with friends or families. I saw only one other person walking alone the entire time I was there.

Math.

Tunisia uses the Dinar, which comes in 50, 20, 10, and sometimes 5 dinar bills, and a bunch of coins. Instead of $1 or $5, they have 1 and 5 dinar coins, but they also have 1/2, 200, 100, 50, 20, and 10 milims, which are out of 1000. That means there are 1000 milims for each 1 dinar. The 1/2 dinars are worth 500 milims, so you just add up. When you look at price tages, you'll see things like 26,950 which means 26 dinars and 950 milims, so you'd give a 20 dinar note, a 5 dinar coin, a 1 dinar coin, a 1/2 dinar coin, 2 200 milims, 1 100 milims, and a 50 milim coin. It's kinda crazy actually. It's also a closed currency, which means you can't take it out or bring it into the country. Minimize what you convert. I ended up spending 1/2 my dinars at the airport buying things I didn't really want because the currency office was closed. The benefit is that the vendor took less than what the price was because it was obvious I was the last shopper he'd have for the evening.

When taking a taxi into the city, pay in dinars, it was 6 dinars to go to the airport, but from the airport cost me 15E, which is 10x more. These small scams aren't that big of a deal, but if you are super tight on your budget they could add up.