Night in Tunisia

fastest taxi...

Well, I guess it's what I get for opening my big mouth (or big moot, as I heard a Quebecois once say). Today I had a ride. The full meal deal - adrenaline pumping, feels like I'm in a movie, yayayayaya! Only it wasn't in a movie which took some of the shine off the experience. A lot of it, actually.

It was the fastest cab ride in a slow car that I've ever had in Tunis.

Slow car, you ask? Yes, the car couldn't manage to crack 100 km/h (as others that I've been in have - consistently). It just wasn't in good enough condition, and hey, it was rush hour. But that didn't mean that it wasn't fast! Far from it.

There are all sorts of ways that you can go fast if you really want to. You can burn every red light (check!); you can squeeze a fourth car in a two-lane road (check!); you can add a third turning lane when there's only supposed to be one (check!); you can pass vehicles as you're cresting a hill (check!); you can honk your horn a lot to intimidate the other drivers (check!): you can go over the speed bumps at full speed (check!); you can swerve around oncoming, turning, stopping or otherwise obstacle-creating cars (check!). There was more. Things like honking at pedestrians and speeding up towards them or whipping down a one-way road, but I'll leave those to the imagination. In any case, through the whole of it, my driver maintained a calm face and managed to avoid hitting anything, so I was somewhat relieved. Except for the whole being in the passenger seat part. Oh well.

Welcome to Tunis!

posted by Loren @ 1:32 p.m.