Shopping in the city
I have at home – repair. Who survived him, I will understand, another – I will not wish. After two months, eating the year of life, I did on male. I went on a business trip. Grabbing the first turned back, not inquiring by the program and conditions, not visiting the weather certificates. Those in a suitcase, which was able to find in the apartment destroyed to the foundation, firmly said the brigade that I did not care where and which the outlets would be installed, and flew into Tunisia. Having a solid intention is never remembered for repair within a week.
Whether the country was chosen unsuccessfully, whether the repair is more contagious, which I assumed, but I managed to distract only for an hour – when I swinging on the back of the camel, drove into the sugar.
Yes, this hour, I can say, put your hand on the heart, I did not think about anything. From the camel cozy, smells, the lounge soul was in bliss and rest. The day died in his eyes, wrinkled verakhans, changing the shade every minute, from blind-white and white. Palms in the distance manili like beacons of a better life. It was magically and should not have ended. The driversman said that a couple of German tourists hired camels for a week and went to the Sahara. I did not envy anyone like this tourists. I did not even ask the drivers, whether they returned.
I have all the rest of the time at Tunisia to your apartment, with despair realizing that in one plane, even if IL-86, he will not enter. In this country, where in Europe, the dressed population resembles the discharged provinces, the architecture has retained an ancient and strict style and taste. Villas of local nuvhorisha, five star hotels, modest hotels without stars, ordinary five-story buildings and Berber caves are equally marked by his print.
The Mediterranean coast – the capital of Tunisia, Sidi Said, Hammamed, Carthage – sparkling under the sun white with a blue city, against a rainy greenery, tropical colors and orange fruits. South cities with flat roofs, impassable narrow streets, sometimes merging with others, and sometimes the end of the blue door in the tiled frame with a small card – M-ME name. Further no. It is necessary to return back or try to get out of other ladies, arches, where is not always sure: do you go on the street, or already make your way through someone’s home. Even carpets on the walls do not mean anything – they can hang out on the street, denoting a microscopic shop.
In the medina – the closed center of the city – you will definitely be a voluntary guide, offering in all European languages to show the way to the mosque or a special view from the roof of your own home. And you need to be a very worn person, so as not to rise with him to the roof, also laid out with tiles, with an indispensable table and a bench, covered with a carpet, not admire the labyrinth of local streets and other people, – Neighboring will definitely be the roof of Joe Dassin or Dalida, and then having haughtily, not thank the guide pair dinars for a fascinating tour. (Dinar, if anyone knows, is not a penny, but a dollar and five cents). There is also a new volunteer, who knows one store, where you can buy all the best at the lowest prices. And here you need to be finished idiot to agree. Because in this store, the old woman went to me, staggering from a quarter of an hour, a ceramic as seven dinars, the twins of which I met later on all the roads of Tunisia, and even in expensive hotel stores, they did not see more than three for her.
And ask and get in Tunisia – it is, on average, more than three times not the same. Because when I stood on my own legs, and did not care about someone else’s hump, I wanted only one thing – to take away all this unearthly beauty, I know everything about trade. I can give advice if you need.
Doors. Doors caused my admiration at first sight. And not only mine. In Sidi, Said is held an annual exhibition of Tunisian doors. Surprisingly, how many love and fantasy put tunisians into such a simple thing. None of one is repeated ornament. Classic option – with arched rounding Wooden doors, painted blue paint, with forged conversations, massive handles-rings, door hammers in the form of a Fatima’s hand and husky nails. There are rectangular with a geometric pattern of the same nails. Casting bastards knock out nails of fish or the same palm Fatima. Rings I saw and smooth, and with a pattern, and twisted. Closer to the desert doors come across green and just carved wood. Dreaming with all the souls about the same exactly, but in Moscow, I shared in advance the idea of transporting it entirely. In the form of weak compensation, he filmed a whole film of the doors and decided to buy at least rings and nails.
I note that the business trip was not a shopping tour, but a sightseeing program. Yes, and a shop in Tunisia hardly goes to a tinsmith workshop, rather will soon send his feet to the leather or to the carpet factory. But after one evening in the bazaar it seemed to me that I had suffered all the subtleties of Eastern Trade. Actually, there are no subtleties – Help the price three times and stand on your. Catch up and put in hand. Schedule from the window of the bus a large workshop where the soldering lamp was burning and wriggled iron bars, I ran around the rings in the morning before the excursion.
Workshops and shops in Tunisia open at eight in the morning and work up to eight in the evening – say after that about the traditional oriental laziness. Metal is made here all – beds, chairs, lamps, lights, balconies, lattices on the windows – Tunisian lattices deserve a separate paragraph. All this is done manually and worries the heart like a work of art. Sold in a bench and lined rings. What is nice in Tunisia all, regardless of age and social status, speak French. What is unpleasant – our, speaking in French, cause excessive curiosity.
– how many? Ten? And it is impossible cheaper? Two for fifteen goes?
Proud proletarian turned his back and went to the back. I waited ten minutes and left, having taken with me only the valuable reduction of the fact that there is a bazaar for trading. In another shop, the initial price was fifteen. It was ashamed to return, and fifteen dinars sorry. Purchase had to postpone.
From the insult, I decided on an extravagant act. I went to the shop of tile and a forty minutes later I got out of it to vote on the road. The main pricing of Tunisian design – contrasts of clean colors. White walls, and on them rug made of tiles. Doors and windows inside and outside – in the frame of tiles. In the houses, there is a blue-green-green-yellow pattern on the walls, simpler – colored stripes on a white field. I realized that by running in Moscow behind the tile from one store in another, with exactly the same marble-pastel assortment, I subconsciously dreamed of this Tunisian. About her thick cobalt, juicy greenery, sunny yellow. Such ceramics I saw a lot in Andalusia, in the old regions of Madrid, but in Tunisia without her I have not seen a single house.
It’s good that here is a cheap taxi, kilometer – Mall, and you can catch it on every corner. Tile, which I chose with such torment, was handmade, and therefore especially heavy. With the same success, I could try to take out the Roman column, just a tile I now need it, I have a repair.
I do not know where I will fit the grid, which I crushed the tinsmith. Her lace curls can be simply inserted into the frame and hang on the wall. And Tunisia – all in such lace. On the windows – I do not think that for reliability, theft in the number of defects of local residents is not included, like drunkenness. Check in the bazaar – please. But to keep hold of the purse in Tunisia do not have to. I do not know why. No tradition. The Turkish coffee house I watched meeting of the two hotel workers. Two middle-aged man sluggish chatted until one rummaged in his pocket, did not get the chocolate, broke it in half and handed it to the other party. The face of joy lit up. They stood with obvious pleasure nibbled chocolate. The last time I watched this scene in the kindergarten, and the participants were much younger.
However, in my experience, hashish is still in vogue. In spite of the considerable period of imprisonment for trafficking and for possession of less than long. As famous for its views from the terrace a Turkish coffee house in Sidi Bou Said – so famous that it has entered into guides – was surprisingly a lot of young locals, apparently not inclined to admire the scenery. Their orders were taken in a whisper and money collection evoked a suspicion that they are paying not only for coffee. However, they were quiet and decent, no inconvenience to others without causing. And my last night in Tunisia, the hotel "Syi bu Said" It was wonderful cultural program. After the obligatory belly dances, which are performed with varying degrees of success in all hotels, and pulling the audience to dance headwaiter brought a tall, thin man in dark glasses with a great tool wrapped in a bag. According to the respect with which Man bustled around the entire restaurant – from the representatives of travel agencies to the kitchen staff, I realized that we are offered something real. The blind musician was seated at a separate table, he raised the glass and a bottle of pink, he lit his cigarette, the maitre d ‘, he unpacked his instrument turned Iranian lute and sang. In my eyes, he stood up in a number of other "the great blind". At the table, representatives of travel agencies reigned rare revival: they clapping, laughing, it was clear that the lyrics and gives them special pleasure. Our guide whispered to me that this particular genre – verses.
– Well, imagine going to the company, smoke, catch a buzz, and he sings. – And on the face of the guide, a paradise enjoyment was depicted. As I imagine.
So, about lattices: they, except ornamental, do not carry any functions. They sometimes do in the floor window, curved, on the manner of the boom. With me, a tinsmith did a big job – mounted fragments of an old lattice in a new gate. Someone wanted to keep the pattern.
– Actually it is rare. We do not understand the values of old things. Think old – you need to throw away.
Rent me that the tinsmith was not right. Even he in the workshop hung samples of traditional patterns, the same that the windows of the palaces decorate. I have not seen in Tunisia ancient things at the price of walle. On the contrary, it seemed to me that something cunning merchants would become specifically, and the price here is the price here.
Non-good collection Collect hotels. What – depends on the tastes of the owner. V "Syi bu Said" Focus on wooden furniture – It is decorated with delicious painted chests and copper forged lamps. W "Sheratona" In Hammamet puppets, which I have not seen in any antique bench. And the Museum of Applied Arts Hotels "Dar Shrets" Local native Mr. Shrek deserves close attention. Unfortunately, in the museum you get after fun called "1001 night" – Extremely Alyapocent Eastern Disneyland. But in the museum – all presents and all the highest quality: furniture, household items, costumes, decorations, photos.
Under the sign of repair, all my excursions took place: Carthage, where each stone resembles the strugnure of existence (actually, and the Carthage’s stones remained only in dungeons, where wealthy residents organized the burial of their relatives), Roman baths on the spot of the brilliant city are also not those that were once, the luxurious Museum Mosaic Bardo in Tunisia – all this brought the thoughts about left far and destroyed walls.
What to say, Tunisia – Paradise for a curious tourist, but a man burdened with repair will never be a good tourist. I am ashamed to say – in Kerouan, the fourth Saint city of Islam, after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, I wandered on the famous Keroan mosque – the most ancient on the continent, for the construction of which the preserved Carthage columns went (but the columns only the parts of the mosque, it was built out of light and shadow). So, I walked through her spacious yard, tried to determine the time on an old sunny clock (though, even our guide failed to do this), and I did not leave the alarm: I will have time to reach the museum of carpets, because Cerouan is also the center Rowing in Tunisia.
In the museum of carpets we were led by the whole group. The museum was just a big store, where two weavers were sitting for advertising with excellent tattooed faces and demonstrated their skills. Two types of carpets are made in Tunisia – ordinary, nodules, with the Persian ornament, luxurious, the leg is drowning by the ankle, for the manufacture of which goes around a square meter, and the so-called Kilim – Berber woven carpets with manual embroidery of unthinkable colors. I liked Kilim more, but it was embarrassed to bargain at all, and I went to the next store. I immediately looked at myself a rug – even though he was littered with a pile of others, newer and more bright. But on the Eastern custom I was not allowed to immediately buy what I liked, and I was forced to revise all available goods. Conversations about the bus and waiting group did not help.
– Say, finally, the price, – I screamed a terrible voice.
– A good price, – completely not frightened, married the seller, – I will make a very good price, because the ours are not the fact that the Germans.
– Well, what will it be for the price?
Without blinking the eye, he asked a hundred dinars.
– No words, this is a very good price for you. But I would like a good price and for myself too.
– Tell me what price is good for you.
I’m not new to the bazaar. I even thought a rather clever businessman. But in Tunisia I was always uncomfortable in the seller and insulting to make a deal. Such friendly demagogues I did not have to meet before. The carpener told how long it takes this difficult job from a poor woman. Appealed to patriotism, recalling again that only the Germans knocked out stimulm to get a good thing.
No, I do not want to say that I bought a carpet for the slap. But offered twenty five it became awkward. The cage from his own generosity, I suggested fifty, firmly deciding not to give up.
– Not to carpets – repair, – whispered inner voice.
In short, for the seventy I got my keel and three challenging rug connected together undiscliated fringe. In the doorway it turned out that I made a terrible tactlessness not allowing the tea to the employee who won and cut the mats from a large roll. Here it is, the inequality of floors: the poor woman is fifty minus commissions for the month of work, and two dinars behind the sweepy robbers are scissors.
Fortunately, the group was not detained by me, because another our made a purchase at three hundred dinars, and the store for it won the buyer a gift. The gift was sent, and I waited for the whole group with interest. I returned just to the solemn point when a boy rolled down from the stairs with a stone rose in my hands. "Desert roses" – Translucent fragments of a quartzite rock, highlighted by winds, piles lie on the bazaarsk closer to Sahara. When there are many of them and they are big, especially noticeable their peculiar beauty. At the hotel "Occidental", where we stayed, roses in size almost in human growth decorated hall.
In the semi-desert part of the Tunisia, the white-blue motif of the Mediterranean is replaced by warmer tones. Here at home from the same sandstone, from which the Romans built a local Colosseum, preserved, by the way, better than Roman. Sandy Landscape With Silver Greens Olives Revil Brought the Brief Outfolds. Bedouin dresses – folded in half a piece of matter, decorated with braid, – sell in all souvenir lavecons of Tunisia. The cheapest they are, oddly enough, in the most tourist places – Sidi Said and Sousse – the top ten. But the dress is not all the outfit of the Bedouin woman. There are several capes on the dress, which fasten on the chest with silver buckles and ribbonated with multicolored scarves. There is a shawl, but not a triangle, and a square. In the place where the shawl is framed by the face, on the shawls of tassels, or pumps. What surprised me, all these folk clothes are very expensive. I tried to find out if only tourists. It turned out that they are even more expensive to local, what outfits are not worn for themselves. Male buncons in less than fifty dinars to wear on themselves not solid, and they chat on the shoulders even in marketing beggars. So I left Tunisia without Shali. I could not afford. But against another kilim, they did not resist – in the token they are different colors, yellowish green, as if slightly burnt in the wilderness, I didn’t see such such on the carpets.
Closer to the sea begins. The best dates grow in Gabes – large, amber, with translucent bone. In November, the evenings are already cool, and the unstaged harvest is wrapped in cellophane packages right on the palm trees. From one palm, about eighty kilograms of dates are shooting, they grow panicles, each panicle is packaged in a separate bag. At kilometer plantations on each palm there is no less than a dozen carefully tied bags. In Gabes, do the best palm leaves baskets. In addition, it is the capital of henna, which oriental women paint not only hair, but also palms and soles. Like any action, to painting heels treated creatively – what a certificate specially stitched and embroidered with silver threads Shedding boots and mittens for insulation of painted parts. Gabez Bazaar – Mont Blanche baskets, baskets, baskets, bags and henna barrels – red, black and colorless. And some unknown seasonings and spices with a wonder aroma. Plus the usual Tunisian set. To make your return home even less real, I got the biggest basket, which one can get for a reasonable price – six dinars. In her, I quit the half of the henna of each color – why, I do not know. I’ll try to share your impressions.
In the bus Guide makes me a compliment, they say, what I buy good things – you can’t find such more anywhere in the world. That truth is true. Although the compliments are taken here to do at every step, and in such an exquisite form that they even lose. If the buyer appears with a satellite, the most likely will ask how many camels would like to get for his delightful woman. Five thousand it would arrange him? Lonely buyer is considered to be courteous to say: for you, Gazelle, only sixty dinars. Who is not nice to be a gazelle? If you take something for your daughter, then the Surprised seller will release his eyes: how, Madam already has children? And how many crumbs? Can not be. I do not believe. And even calls in the witnesses of the assistant: what do you think, how much lady years? Trifle, and how the soul warms.
Of course, you should not make a warm attention very much for the clean coin. Especially in service sector. Never tell about the goals of your trip to Taksista. But it turns out that he knows better where you need. What is funny: I knew all this in advance. But it was not kept and told that we were not going to do this street, but just dinner in a local restaurant. Well, it is clear that it turned out that restaurants there are just expensive, and so, pah, there is nothing. It is necessary, and from the window of the bus looked so seductively. As a result, we were in a kilometer from the city, the local flavor was present only on the TV, alcohol did not turn out at all, and not what we ordered, but just that God sent, but from the pure heart. The bill was exposed also from him. I was so evil on my boyfriend that I didn’t even attempt to bargain. My humility alerted the owner, and he fled to me for a long time and, looking into the eyes asked, whether everything was fine, did I really like it, are there any insult. What noises, for the lessons of life you have to pay, and even good when you take money.
My arrival at the airport would be good to shoot on the film. Only tiles, carpets and my minor personal luggage fit on the trolley. Hands were busy – one lantern, another – bird cage, white-blue, reminiscent of Tunisian balconies, I pushed the basket, carefully, so that the ceramics do not break.
On the plane, one elegant lady, complaining of a pressure, capriously said: I do not understand what you can take away from here. Where, I think she was?
