Valentine's Day with Chinese memories.

"enjoy capitalism" so-called democratic tunisia still has a lot to fix.

 Well, well, well...

"we make revolution" tunisia still unstable.

First, I'm leaving Polish section of the blog as I guess most of the people who are interested in my posts in here can more or less understand English and it was quite an issue to translate every post into 2 languages. Second, great apology for abandoning the blog for more than half a year! My laziness and unforeseen circumstances made me do this. Mostly, because I spend almost 6 months in China behind iron curtain of Internet censorship which blocked my blog (even though I manage to open other devil's websites such as youtube and FB). After I came back to Poland (yes, I finally came back home; absolutely temporarily though!) I was really too lazy to catch up with the posts. And I'm not gonna do it now either, as I can't quite imagine writing about my last 7 months of life. I can do some retrospections and digressions in following posts or adding some stories from my time in China.

Long story short, I travelled 2 months in China, alone, hitch-hiking, it was fucking awesome and I absolutely fell in love with this country, and as today's Valentine's day: I'll always love you, China! Later 4 months I spent being so-called spoken English teacher Middle School, in the city facing Taiwan. Awesome time of working 3 hours a day, 4 times a week and earning over $1000 ^^ If that was bigger city, with a little more than 5 foreigners (including me) I'd beg to stay longer. But I'd really wanted to do big homecoming and making my folks drop dead when they saw me (almost succeeded). Anyways, 6 months in China, was probably the best time I've had from those 28 months I was abroad.

Again, unforeseen circumstances lead me to Tunisia for lovely 2 weeks of hitch-hiking, meeting loads of people and smoking Algerian hash. As I had 3 weeks time before flight China-London and London-Poland, and I wasn't reach and spoiled enough to spend it in the UK, I chose Tunisia as my side trip. Couldn't have made better decision!

I was chickening out a bit before going to Tunisia alone and, what's more, with a brave idea to hitch the country. But I did and survived, and had a blast! From the first moments of hitting the road from the airport to Tunis until my last lift back to the same airport, I had only 4 immoral proposals (don't forget: blond European female, solo in a Muslim country - Turkey was 100 worse even with a male travel mate) and 1 semi-dangerous situation (which I, personally "asked" for, as I agreed to go alone to some guys flat - don't ask me why, coz I don't know myself :/). In most of the cases drivers were more worried about me then I was myself. I exchanged dozens of phone numbers and was almost forced to inform the previous driver when I reached my destination. 4 times was invited to spend the night with locals:

village on the desert in the early morning

1. in the desert village near Matmata - village which was a film set for Star Wars. Amazing experience to come out after sunset and see all the stars on the sky and absolutely no lights; and to wake up at 5:30 am to set up the fire to bake morning bread for breakfast.
2.family who gave me a lift invited me for a wedding in the village, where I also spent a night and got henna tattoo on my hands.

me and bride at the wedding party

3. random guy on the street of Douz asked me for help with writing a letter in English to his foreign friend. It started like this and ended up with a party in his flat with his brother and friends, drinking beers, smoking hash and making a BBQ inside a room.
4. another driver and his family got so interested in my story, that they invited me to their house some 400 km away from the city I was going to. But because I saved some time afterwards I finally made in to Kasserine, there they lived and stayed there one night. We're still in touch until now.
I really couldn't believe in those people, so friendly, helpful and welcoming. And always greeting you by kissing either twice or 4 times in the cheek. Kinda Polish style (we do it always 3 times).
After China and its size, whole Tunisia seemed to me like a tiny place. I've never had to hitch more than 200 km a day, which makes you feel comfortable without worrying about being too late or having problems with lifts. I've never waited more than 10 minutes for a car (ok, ok, I'm a single female, that helps a lot!), sometimes squeezed between 2 guys, sometimes having really comfortable ride with extra snacks and coffee. Thanks to the size of the country I managed to visit most of the places I wanted to, including 3 or 4 UNESCO sites (I think I've missed only one or two more), but on the other hand I had this feeling I've been doing some kinda race, changing cities almost every day, not like before - staying in one place for 2-3 days and exploring most of the attractions. Anyways, small country, so you don't need much time to see medinas and ports (actually, after being in 2 or 3 port cities, all you see in another medina, another souk and another port, so you get sick of it). I love Tunisian tiles! They're everywhere, in every house and every city, with lovely ornaments and bright colours. And on the last day in Tunisia I prayed in mosque in Sousse, first time in 1,5 years I think. I love the people, food, architecture. Got at least 2 invitation for another weddings and had to make promises I'd visit all those people again in summer or in not specified future. And I will! I really, genuinely want to :)
And now I'm still at home, Radom, Poland. Starting from Xmas Eve, 6pm. i did, what I wanted to do - got drunk, high, stoned, met loads of people, went to dozens of parties, read books and watched films whole days, slept whole day and generally did nothing constructive. I even tried to get a job and lead "normal" life for some time, but well, that's Poland, what's more - that's Radom, where some things are harder to be done than the other. But leaving is quite easy, and that's what I plan to do in near future...

 bakery in Sidi Bou Said

     Sahara!