In an
earlier post, I mentioned that I had booked passage on a ferry from Palermo, Italy to Tunisia, but the ferry company cancelled the booking.
I rode to Palermo Friday, and found out that the ferry operator had changed the departure time from 1:00 PM to 10:00 AM the same day – so, their highly sophisticated computer system cancelled my booking entirely, rather than sending me an email or SMS saying the departure would be 3 hours earlier than planned.
I should have expected something like that – after all, in Europe, once you get south of the Alps or the Pyrenees, you’re in the third world.
So, I bought another ticket, and took note of the big warning on the ticket to “Show up 3 hours before boarding time”.
7 AM Saturday morning, I arrived at the port, to find all the gates locked and no-one there but the night watchman. He told me to get lost and come back at 9:00 AM when the port opened. I did that, and when I returned I found a poverty-stricken mob of vehicles waiting outside the port gate. With all their belongings piled up on the roof of their cars, they reminded me of refugees fleeing some war-torn or plague-ridden environment. One little car (far left of photo) even had a motorcycle lying sideways up on the roof under a pile of kitchen chairs.
I then remembered that Italy is, at this moment, a plague-ridden environment. The government shut down all the schools in the country this week, and imposed a quarantine on about 11 million people up in the north, and just in the last day, reported a jump in China-virus cases from 1,200 to a little over 5,000. News reports advise that the virus presents the greatest risk to people over 65. That is a relief, I don’t turn 65 for another 12 days, so I should be OK until then.
Waiting for the Port to Open
Around about 9:30, someone opened the gate to the port, and we all proceeded to the ferry. It was at this time that I figured out why no-one was in a hurry to load the boat – there were only 25 vehicles and a total of about 60 people sailing on that voyage. The ship has a capacity of 600 cars and 1,200 people. I guess it must be the off-season for travel.
There are two ferry companies operating in Italy – GNV and Grimaldi. I travelled on GNV a few years ago, and swore “never again”. Grimaldi was no better.
What the Ferry Company Website Promises
What the Ferry Was Actually Like
After a 12 hour passage, the ship arrived at Tunis. Clearing customs and immigration was complex and time-consuming, as it often is in former colonies, but all the officials were polite & helpful.
I arrived at the hotel around midnight. The hotel was deserted – only 3 guests. Again, this virus business is just killing tourism. After a bit of discussion, the manager gave me a suite that normally sells for $200 a night for only $60 a night. The hotel looks like something out of Arabian Nights – or perhaps an Egyptian cathouse, I’m not sure which description fits best.
The Hotel in Tunis
Tourism in Tunisia is suffering not only from the fear of coronavirus, but from concerns about terrorism. On Friday, a couple of people on a motorcycle (not a ST)
blew themselves up in front of the American embassy. There are also unconfirmed reports that someone farted in front of the Canadian embassy. This kind of nonsense is unfortunate – 99.999% of Tunisians are friendly, welcoming people who want no part of this kind of thing.
Today, I bought a prepaid Tunisian SIM card for my phone - $1.25 for the SIM card, and $6 for 5 gigabytes of data and 500 minutes of talk, both good for 30 days. Makes me wonder why cell phone bills are so high in Canada.
Tomorrow, I need to figure out where to go to buy insurance for the moto – the insurance booth at the port was closed when I arrived.
I'll keep y'all posted.
Michael
Have fun and safe trip Micheal.
There are no speed controls in this country, and it's easy to cruise at 110 MPH across the flats.
