Tripoli

Monday 21st November, we braved getting into our cars again to try and find the Niger Consulate/Embassy for visas for Lucas and Barbara. This was tricky enough even with Ramadan making a number of phone calls as the guide book certainly does not see this worthy of listing. We then parked up in a central car park near the green square which seems to double up as a camping site for camper vans. Not my idea of a campsite! The main museum in the castle is unfortunately closed on Mondays, but we wondered around the medina, saw inside the Gurgi mosque and the Marcus Aurelius arch. Wandering around the medina was very easy – no hassle at all, and although not quite the character of Fes’s medina, it did mean that you had a good chance of finding your own way out! John, Barbara and Steve went for a longer wander and brought us back some good food and John was pleased with the pictures he got of some kids in the medina. A young girl took a photo of her little brother, and she was so excited at seeing the digital image of her bother John had to prise his camera back out of her hands. Cashpoints do not yet seem to have been established in Tripoli. There seems to be only one and this was temporarily offline, so it was quite a relief to go in and get some Libyan dinars later.
Ramadan took us to meet his family, wife, three daughters and one of his two sons. The son is studying to be an architect and his eldest daughter is studying English at an Institute. We enjoyed some of his wife’s great food. Chilli spiced meat and onions and sweet prune baklava like pastries.