Another Journey

I flew out of St. Louis at 8:15 AM Tuesday morning to Washington, DC where I had a 5 hour layover. I don’t mind having such a long layover because I’d rather not have to worry about missing my connecting flight. I left DC on a flight to Rome that was totally full. I chose a seat on the end of the middle section of seats hoping that the flight wouldn’t be full and I could move around & spread out. No such luck. I had planned on sleeping on the 8 hour flight but once again I failed. There was a 3-4 year old little boy with his mother sitting behind me talking very loud practically the whole time. They had their earphones on watching a movie and had to talk loud to hear each other. I couldn’t believe that the lady didn’t realize the lights were out and everyone was trying to sleep. At least there wasn’t a screaming baby! I won’t even embarrass myself by disclosing what happened at the Rome airport.  Let’s just suffice it to say that had my connecting flight to Tunis been any sooner than 2 hours, I would’ve missed it. Upon arrival in Tunis I followed the herd to the shuttle that took us to the terminal. When I walked in the door, I saw our guy Materne from Togo standing at a counter to get a visa. I was never so happy to see someone I knew in all my life!  I’ve made another decision and that is that I will not be flying alone anymore on these long flights where I have to catch connections.

Materne & I hooked up with the other girls who had arrived earlier & boarded the bus that would take us to the Hotel & Residence Diar Lemdina in Medina Mediterranea, Hammamet, Tunisia. It is in a resort area that is a huge complex. We are sharing rooms this year and they are 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, living room & private patio-like an apartment. Very nice! Reminds me a lot of the resorts Jim & I have stayed at in Mexico, with the decorative tile and lush landscaping but there’s also a bazaar right in the resort. There are tons of olive trees & orange trees throughout.  By the time I got to my room, I had been awake for over 24 hours, I was dead tired and slept very good.

More later....