Post holiday blues
I came back from my Tunisia trip last week; it feels like so much longer!
Had a great time. Warm, sunny and lots to see and do. Went with a company called Explore, and it was 12 days of touring around. Visited places such as Carthage, Sfax, and the stunning roman coliseum at El Jem. The latter was so much more fun than the one at Rome - far less people (only about 20 max!) and you can go underneath where the gladiators and animals were kept, you can walk in the middle and climb up to the top level. I love running around ancient ruins, I blame my grandparents who took me to Wales when I was little and let me run around all the castles.
The highlight was of course getting to visit some of the Star Wars filming locations. I spent the night in a troglodyte cave hotel in Matmata, just around the corner from the Hotel Sidi Driss aka the Lars homestead interior. The place still has a lot of its set dressing in place which is awesome. I grabbed a photo of me sat in the ‘kitchen area’ which still has the painted ceiling. Geek glee!
A couple of days later I was in Tozeur and after a ridiculously fun 4WD dune bashing ride we got to the ‘Mos Espa’ set. The set built for The Phantom Menace it pretty much intact. I got to walk amongst the buildings and pop inside a few. Wooden frames with robust plaster/fibre glass covering. Only single floored, watching the film back there’s a lot of CGI to build the town upwards and out. Lots of photos taken and lots of photos of me beside various bits, buildings and moisture evaporators!
Throw in a stay in Kairouan which was used as Cairo in ‘Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and it was a pretty geeky holiday! (We also visited the area that was used for ‘The English Patient’ but its been so long since I’ve seen I can be sure what it was.)
Being back in grim northern town and back at work is just no fun! But it pays for holidays so I have no choice!