Sidi Bou

Hello, good afternoon, I'm spending golden hour exploring in this short video so without further ado I'm going to head to the pedestrian streets with no traffic just behind me here is quite a famous mosque not far from one of the main roundabouts, a few cafes dotted around but this is more of the town center, the real charm is in the streets just ahead. So this is the color that you're going to find absolutely everywhere dotted around Sidi Bou Said and these beautiful doorways working my way up the street now to the main touristic area of Sidi Bou Said. Kabab shops, cafes, tourist souvenir items as you can see by some of the paintings and shops behind me Sidi Bou Said has become synonymous with art and creativity over the years many famous journalists, painters and writers used to live here and gained inspiration from the village. You can see the main street here, men selling flowers, tourists, it's a very calm atmosphere especially to walk around in the early evening. There'some really nice souvenir shops around here. Wow! You can see the interior here, whoa and this is just a souvenir shop. Look at that! It's not every day you come across a souvenir shop just So we're walking back out to the evening streets. Working my way to some of the viewpoints further ahead you have various cafes all around the town at the top of some of the beautiful buildings a mix of Ottoman andalusian architecture. Great evening vibe here. So let me tell you a little bit about the history of Sidi Bou Said and how it came about. It was named after a 13th century Sufi saint who actually prayed at the Zatuna Mosque which is the one I showed in my previous video in Tunis. Some doughnuts here. I'll get back to the history in just a second let's check out some of these doughnut street foods called Bambaluni. So point eight of a dinar for Bambaluni here which is kind of Very soft and doughy. Plenty of sugar so it's definitely satisfying. You can't miss it walking through the main street of the town. You'll definitely spot this doughnut place if you want to give it a try. Really amazing evening vibe here even in October which is arguably out of season. I'm so lucky with the weather at the moment. This is filmed in mid-October. I'm not sure how long it will be until it's uploaded. Maybe you're watching this in its November or December. Mid-October though not too many tourists here in Tunisia. In fact it's a really comfortable amount. And the weather is perfect. It's 25 degrees. It's now the sunset time and it's very cool but also warm. As you can see I've got my shirt on here and I don't feel So perfect weather. All these rugs and carpets souvenirs to pick up while you're here. I'm so excited. Continuing onwards. So there are three different viewpoints that I want to show you and I've just made it to the first one right now. So let'see how it all opens up. In the far distance is downtown Tunis and here we have obviously the sun setting, the Mediterranean, beautiful colour at this time of day. Beautiful colour usually. Most times of day. Tourists here but just not too many people. Perfect and still warm. So as I was saying Sidi Bou Said is named after Abu Said who was a Sufi who came here in the 13th century. He talked and prayed in the Zatuna mosque in the centre of Tunis but fell in love with the location of Sidi Bou Said. I've now reached the second viewpoint, the Gulf of Tunis right in front of me. Some beautiful landscape in the distance, somewhat covered by clouds. Tunis in that direction, Sidi Bou Said on this side. This place used to be called Jabal El-Munar and that was because it translated to fire on the mountain. The fire that would have been on these cliffs helped guide the ships coming through the Gulf of Tunis hundreds of years ago and that's why it had that name before it then changed to Sidi Bou Said. Abu Said then spent the rest of his life meditating and praying here until his death in 1231 which was then Jabal El-Munar as I've mentioned and then it was renamed Making my way to the third viewpoint hopefully just in time before the sun disappears for good and we'll take some of the quieter back streets to reach it. What a beautiful place this would be to live. There are a few guest houses I think three or four in Sidi Bou Said that you can stay at. I'm not staying here, I'm staying in Lasukra which is around a 15 minute taxi journey away between the airport and the coast. There's also some other interesting areas not far from here Carthage, Lamasa and if you I'm now here just beside what is the oldest mosque and where I believe the shrine dedicated to Abu Said is. You can see down into the center of the mosque there. I can't go in because I have shorts on but the quarter prayer is anytime now the sun has nearly disappeared in the horizon as you can see. Here we are at the third and final viewpoint. You can see almost the entire city of Tunis in this area in the distance. Having left that third viewpoint you can see around here the town kind of comes alive a little bit in the evening hours. You can sit in one of the cafes, have your dinner in one of the restaurants. The souvenir shops are all still open. It's really charming. Just strolling through on my way back down and I'm going to end this video here. Thank you very much for watching. I hope it gave you a good idea of what this very quaint and picturesque town is It's definitely something not to be missed if you're here in Tunisia. Only 20 kilometers away from Tunis, it's not far. You can do it in just an afternoon or evening and I'll put Stay tuned for more videos in the country and I'll see you on the next one.