Libya - 3 October 2010 (1)

Tripoli

By now, I had contracted at least one of my unwelcome passengers and my tummy was starting to misbehave.  Happily, I managed to get it under control before we headed off to explore Tripoli.

Arch of Marcus Aurelius

Underneath Arch of Marcus Aurelius

The bus took us close to the starting point of our tour, the Arch of Marcus Aurelius in the medina.  Our guide spent a long time explaining how and why it was built and the carvings on it.  He was a very good guide, but I guess some of our minds began to wander.  I seem to have taken quite a few photos of pigeons nesting inside the arch and Sue started to feed the local cats.

Detail on Arch

Cat in a Palm Tree

The cats along our route had never had it so good.  Sue seemed to have a constant supply of food for them, even asking for scraps as we left restaurants.  Surprisingly, people were happy to comply with her requests.  There were several cats living around the arch: I even spotted one up a palm tree!

Prayer Room in Gurgi Mosque

After our lecture on the arch, we visited the Gurgi Mosque.  We were allowed inside the prayer room and admired the decorations as our guide explained the architecture and the services.

Reading Sign outside Old British Consulate

Then we set off for our walk through the medina. Our route took us past the old British Consulate.  We paused to read the plaque on the wall which explained this, but were unable to look inside.  We were able to look inside one building as we passed.  It was built on traditional lines with a balcony on the first floor, overlooking a central courtyard with a fountain.

Courtyard in Traditional Building

Narrow Street in Medina

The streets were quite narrow and some had buttresses which went from one side to the other.  It made them look a bit like Venice, with lots of bridges, but no water.  Our route took us past the Al-Arba’a Arsaht, a crossroads decorated with sections of ancient columns.  One stop during the walk was a former catholic cathedral.  Some of us went in, but quite a few of us took the opportunity to rest outside.  We did not see many shops and stalls during our walk, but there were some interesting ones selling metal implements.  These added to the mediaeval look of the place.

Al-Arba'a Arsaht

The final stop at the far end of the medina was the museum.  We handed in our bags and my rucksack was locked up with Robin and Anne’s bags.  The museum was over several floors and our guide took us to the most important areas: mostly those with ancient Roman or Greek items.  Many of the Roman items were found in Leptis Magna.  Our group grew as we went round and other visitors listened in to our guide.  At one point there was some Greek writing and the father of a family we had picked up, showed off by reading it to us.  The guide, who worked in the museum, was slightly naughty and led us through some “no entry” doors as a short cut to the more interesting items.

Stall selling Metal Utensils

As we went round, I started to feel more and more uncomfortable and eventually had to dash off.  Unfortunately, I could not go back to the hotel as I would l have liked because my rucksack was locked away and Robin had the key.  I saw Mahmoud near the entrance, who tried to help, but there was not a lot he could do.  When they finally rematerialised, Robin said that they were going for lunch and then back to the hotel.  As I do not like using taxis on my own even in York, I asked whether I could share their taxi back.

Gateway to the Medina

We walked to a café, where I was pleased to see some citronade.  Not feeling up to eating, I had two glasses and waited for Robin and Anne to finish their lunch.  When they had finally finished, Robin said that there had been a change of plan and they were going to remain in the centre of town with the others.

Feeling very upset, I dashed out and found a taxi back to the hotel.  We had all been given cards with the hotel name and a small map, but the taxi driver had to ask for directions when he got close.  Luckily we were not too far away and he found it quite quickly.