…I didn't want to sully our last post about Habib with the following frustrating incident. And so, in its own post, is the conclusion of our day:

We arrived at the hostile in Sfax around 6:30PM. As we approached the entrance, the three men on staff completely ignored us. We stood in their direct line of sight for over a minute, practically doing acrobatics indicating that we wanted to check in. They just stood there perfecting their thousand yard stares. For a moment it really seemed that no amount of communication, verbal or otherwise was going to motivate these guys to actually acknowledge us and our desire (we must have been insane to go back) to sleep in their prison ward establishment.

Confused, we boldly walked around them to the front desk. Only then did the indolent group finally come alive! One of them went so far as to turn his head towards us so he could grunt that there were no rooms available. When I gestured at the wall behind the front desk which was completely covered in room keys hanging on little hooks, he clarified by disdainfully stating that there were no rooms available for us.

In disbelief that these men could be so insensitive and spiteful, Tara repeated for the tenth time that we wanted a room for one night. This time one of the men muttered that the only rooms left were for women. When we indicated that we were married and that we'd stayed there together before, the third man, who before and after this moment would not move a single muscle, wagged his wrinkled finger in my face. And that was that.

We left bewildered and upset, but eventually managed to find a hotel for 22 TND a night (the aptly named "Hotel de la Paix," or Hotel of Peace) and vowed never to visit the wretched Sfax Hostile again.