After our hotel buffet breakfast we headed back up to the room to get ready for our outing to El Jem. El Jem is yet another Roman ruin and the second largest amphitheater after the coliseum. Nick rented a cute little Fiat for one day.

Millie did NOT want to go. If I’m being honest, the last couple of days have been pretty rough. On top of me being sick, Millie has been having a hard time being away from home. She wants desperately to play with other kids, especially her friends. Some highlights of what she has said are: “when can I be with friends I already know?” “I don’t want to be around my boring parents all the time” and during our drive today she just wailed “I just want to plaaaayy”. We feel guilty and have started questioning if this trip is actually a net-positive for her or a selfish pipe dream of ours. We are going to try to find some camps or classes in upcoming destinations where she can have some structure and time with other (hopefully English speaking) kids.

Anyway, we arrived at El Jem after an hour of driving the Tunisian streets, where lanes and laws are mere suggestions. Right when we thought “it’s gotta be around here somewhere” there it was, right in the middle of the neighborhood.

We parked and walked right in. Like all other sights: unlimited access, minimal visitors, zero signs. The place was massive. We climbed the 4 stories to the top and explored around.

My favorite part was the very old graffiti. It’s funny how I think anyone who defaces an artifact should go to jail, but then it becomes quaint and interesting after about 100 years.

Millie didn’t want to be here in the first place and made it known while we were there. So we didn’t stick around long and headed back to the hotel to swim.

We spent the afternoon swimming and building sandcastles on the beach, and she cheered up.

For dinner we couldn’t face another bad hotel buffet so we took a taxi into downtown Monastir and ate at a restaurant in the marina. Millie’s pasta had very very red sauce.

We walked along the shore to see the ribat, which was closed but beautiful lit up at night.