We walked to nearby Sidi Bou Said today and were surprised by how touristy it is compared with the shady little residential neighborhood where we are staying in La Marsa. Here are some photos from our afternoon excursion!

Sidi Bou Said is lovely, sitting high atop a hill overlooking the ocean. There are cobbled streets, pure white buildings, and bright blue doors. It reminds me of photos I've seen of Greece.

Here are some Tunisian tagines for sale, along with a ton of other plates and dishes. If only the salespeople would leave us alone, I might consider purchasing something!

There are so many colorful things to buy here, but the hawkers really put me off of spending any money. Tyler and I agreed that salespeople here need a lesson in how to get Americans to buy their wares—leave us alone!

As we were on our way out of Sidi Bou Said, this man swooped in out of nowhere and put a PEREGRINE FALCON on Tyler's arm. He then tried to grab our camera to take photos for us but I held it firmly and took my own photos, thankyouverymuch. It was totally random and bizarre, but very cool.

After Tyler got a turn, the guy grabbed Sayid (the bird) and put him on my shoulder without so much as a heads up. I am not a fan of flappy, claw-y, birds of prey perched right by my neck, so I was very relieved when the guy unhooked his bird's claws from my flesh and took him away. Until he demanded, "that will be ten dinar!"

We burst out laughing at his audacity and told him we didn't have any money (which was a lie), much to his disbelief and offended disappointment. You cannot just dump a FALCON on my shoulder unasked and then assume I'm going to pay you. Sorry!

We're still waiting on our Libyan visas but so far things look good. We've been told we've been approved, and now we just need to be assigned visa numbers! Our next rendezvous with the embassy in Tunis is this Wednesday. Fingers crossed!