"official" cold sahara post

In the end there were 5 of us that went with: a spanish girl, a german, a mexican, a korean guy and a south african (me). Having chosen Libyan airlines to fly us there, we were delayed by almost 5 hours - almost as long as it would have taken to drive to Sebha. Luckily our guide was waiting and after dinner took us to our tents and brrrrrrrrrrrr, it really was cold at night!

BUT, this is what we woke up to: (we couldn't believe it)

Then after a delicious breakfast, we hopped into the 4x4s and drove..... and drove and drove - over dunes and more dunes, while the scenery continuously changed around us. The trip was full of scenery stops and tea breaks and exploring. Of course we got stuck a few times, but our guides were prepared for anything. We manouvered over the most technical dune sections. They even had their own method to defrost our new years eve chicken braai.

manic and insane scenery, we couldn't stop snapping pics!

yes, we stopped to dig for water AND FOUND SOME!

And after the most chilled and mind blowing new years eve next to the fire chatting and eating (and then the following morning, exploring the highest dunes we had ever seen), we headed to the Ubari Lakes. The oasis' in the Sahara.

the trip was completely out of this world with awe-inspiring silences between us.

sabratha - ancient city

Sabratha is an ancient Roman city about an hours drive outside of tripoli, towards tunisia. It was originally built around the first century BC and much of it destroyed around the 4th century AD due to an earthquake. Some parts were rebuilt. The 2 things that struck me was how one can still imagine this ancient city thriving and active in its hey-days and on the other hand how little has been done to restore and protect it.

Pieces of the trip was spent 'kindof just parking off' watching the sea and enjoying the fine weather and imaging what it was like 2000 years ago. Appreciating the priveledge of being able to see these things. There are also some old latrines (yes, all alongside each other) and some beautiful mosaics that are still mostly intact.

The theatre (below) is the most amazing, probably because it was restored by the italians in the 1920s. One really gets a feel of how the once majestic space could feel like with the 5000 people that it could aparently seat.

...and then on the way back it looked like someone enjoyed a baby camel on the braai! (note the green 'flag' in the background)

life in tripoli

Finally, im writing a bit again, its just a quick post about life in Tripoli. I really havn't been acting very touristy and taking photos. I guess thats normal if you know you will be somewhere for a long time. But i have been enjoying some of my most favourite things:

super sticky croissant (smothered in nuts and honey) from this packed coffee bar quite close to my work. Me and a work colleague passed here on the way to work one Friday (weekend) morning to spoil ourselves.

What else has tripoli got to offer? they have an amazing fish market along the seaside where the fishermen sell their ware by weight and you can buy the catch of the day ranging from prawns to sandsharks to different fish brands - then you can get the fish cleaned for a small price and ask one of the local restaurants in the region to cook it. delicious!

In addition, another must see is the National Jamahiriya Museum housed inside the Red Castle (closed for renovations) explaining the rich history of Libya with amazing ruins, statues and even a well preserved child mummie.

Yup. we even have our own macdonalds (sort of):

health care in Libya

Im sure everyone had heard about the sour state of health care in Libya, well the rumours are confirmed. 

I recently woke up from sudden INSANE stomach pain that i almost couldn't breath let alone move. Not great since i just arrived 3 weeks earlier in a foreign country with a foreign lanuage. 

The next day i found a doctor though the work - and had an appointment for the strange time of 18:30. Obviously none of the taxi drivers can understand where you need to go and have to stop every 5 minutes for directions. This was a thursday evening.

The docci said that he can tell that there is some accute problem there, but without a scan he cannot be sure - prescribed me some antibiotics and said if i still feel bad by the morning i should get a CT scan. Ok. Then, remembering that it was thursday night and that everything is closed on fridays (yes, even the health facilities) he said i should rather get the scan tonight and sent me to another facility. Taxi mission. 

The other facility, not too far away said they cannot give me the scan cos i have not been fasting for 12 hours, and by the way the doctor is away for 10 days - so no results until then. Just go home drink your pills and you'll be fine. Ok. 

The only other facility with a CT scan (the third one is broken) is about 30min taxi trip out of tripoli. So, after surviving the whole of friday, i make sure im fasted and mission out there early in the morning. Pay before, get blood taken, pay again, drink a liter of something in a plastic water bottle and get injected and scanned. All that in about 3 hours. Your results will be available after 18:30. 

Apon returning for the scan results, i get slapped onto and ultra sound bed and get ultra sounded. 5 minutes. haha. im still not sure what they were checking but they told me im fine and i can go home. Up to now, i can only assume that my intestines were severely inflamed - the rest is a mystery and hopefully history.

tunisia for beer?

So this is a post about our trip to Tunisia - event tho i have only been here for a week, there was a 3 day holiday, so one has to take advantage of these things. So the one guy organised a driver - a guy who was convinced that we would enjoy 90s techno at top volume - think makarena and dr alban. He also introduced us to some arabic techno. My team consisted of two polish people (one convinced he was irish) and one French dude who could speak arabic)

In the small town in tunisia the where we stopped, the streetscape is equally as impressive as tripoli - they have more scooters and small white buildings. There is more english - but the toilets were attrocious. They were a former french colony, so french and arabic is spoken. (below: yummie pastry and local cola - sweet things were all over the show)



reminds me of india, and our driver (schreeching to a halt) "now we stop, you take photo!"


Below: Tunisian beach is a definate revisit - especially in warmer weather.

Below: still fully operational synogogue in Djerba (the island we were on was a jewish community) really well kept.

cover up ladies!

Below: Smoking Chicha in a local coffee shop.

Below: Yummie dinner - this was an amazing spot - unfortunately no wine (tunisian wine was surprisingly enjoyable)

Thats all folks! Great company good fun!

First post on my new blog

finally ive started some sort of journal, some way to show more pictures of my experience so far. This is the picture of the airport. It was really scary to land there because its not like any other airport. There is no english and no shops - its a pretty dreary place. Luckily there was a driver there to pick me up, even tho he didn't speak a word of english.

this is the view from my room. Although the window is small its got a nice outlook. The streets are really awesome even tho they are run down:

some scenery on my walk to work:

the cup of super sweet tea that was delivered to my desk:

a small street in the medina (old city) with a green window:

the arch of Marcus Aurelius - some famous Roman Emperor built in 163AD (impressive stuff) apparently it is built on some axis of the old roman city of Oea which is now Tripoli - this is the only existing roman monument in the city.

ok, till next time
Ella