From there, it was about a half hour walk to the louage station. We were told that there were no more Louages headed only to Kairouan, our next stop, as the louages only run in the morning. We ended up paying the fare to go all the way to Sousse (well past Kairouan), and they dropped us off on the outskirts of Kairouan where we got a local cab in to the old city.

Blue-washed door, Kairouan

We had originally intended to stay at the 5 star Hotel de la Kasbah, thinking that we would treat ourselves after the previous night’s accommodation. But unfortunately, the price we had thought it was, $70 US, ended up being per person. So we headed through the medina, and ended up staying in Tunisia Hotel . It was actually a nice hotel, well located, with hot showers (in the morning). Kairouan is the religious center of Tunisia. We visited the not very impressive Great Mosque (Sidi Okba Mosque), although, as always, non-Muslims are not allowed inside. The town is full of pretty blue-wash painted buildings. There is one main route through the medina, with a few offshoots, but it’s impossible to get lost. There was some horrible sounding tourist trap of a blindfolded camel pulling water out of the ground (Bir Barouta) but we passed. I can’t really remember that much more about the city, which is not a very good sign for it’s worthiness as a stop along the trail.

 remember that much more about the city, which is not a very good sign for it’s worthiness as a stop along the trail.