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Kairouan, Tunisia
Thursday, Jan 18, 2007

A Holy City

David Murray
2007-03-04 10:38:38

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we only had so much room. We decided on two, we were given a price, we wacked a load off, they accepted, and we kicked ourselves for not going lower. Doh !!! We walked a bit more, and then night came, and this being Kairouan, it closed up fairly quickly. We had a walk around the walls, it was so nice having the city to ourselves. This is the best time to be in Izzyville.

After breakfast, we did the tourist thing. The main reason for being here is the Mosque here is the oldest in the country. As Kairouan was where Islam first took hold in Tunisia, this makes it special. Some people say that if you visit Kaitouan seven times, it is the equivalent of going to Mecca for the Haj, and as I will never have the chance to do this, I have to come back another five times. Inside is a massive courtyard, smaller than the Badhashi in Lahore, and no ablution pits. The minaret is way tall, but the worst part in Izzyville is they don't let you into where the prays take place. It pisses me off because in Iran, Pakistan and India, you can go anywhere so I wasn't able to get a goid look at the mirab. After we finished, we hit the streets to see some mausoleums. We have seen it before, but the tilework is good to look at. Also, down butcher street, just like last time, there were all these heads of cows just hanging up. For some reason, some have their tongues poking out, whilst others are eating grass !!! Also, I saw more cow heads than live cows in this country. I don't get this. Eventually our little tour ended, actually it ended up back at the carpet store where we decided to buy another piece. Fuck knows where we will put it, but we just can't help ourselves !!!

The next morning, I packed the pieces into my pack, and we walked the correct way to the louage gare, passing all the bodiless cows, until we were at the gare, and as we are now going to Tunis, the louage filled up before I was even able to have one Capusin.