written by a student, so don’t judge 😂❤️
It was a cloudy Thursday when Slavica told me the story about her Tunisia trip. Just like in all romantic movies, even this love story has its ups and downs.
Not to spoil everything, let’s start from the beginning.
The story took place in Tunisia, where our main characters Slavica and her husband, landed in the early 2000s. Based on Slavica’s descriptions, it was a hot and sultry day and not that fascinating since the sun scorched everything. 45° C in the shade, she said.
The sand was everywhere, waiters enthusiasm was below expected, their tour guide only worried about trips and how to sell them, coffee too weak, water not for drinking, and whatever you can think of – nothing impressed her.
Not even the pool, or a trip to Carthage where she learned and saw with her own eyes that pepper grows on a tree, a very high tree!
But, as always, there has to be at least one thing that makes you remember a trip.
Apparently, Slavica’s favourite part turned out to be the last day at the airport, where one camel changed her life forever.
Their flight was delayed from 5 pm to 8 pm at first, so the only thing Siniša and Slavica could do was walk around the airport halls and enjoy the shop windows view. They had time to examine the airport facilities from top to bottom, not thinking about eating and drinking because they would get everything in the plane. Still, it was time they had some food and water. Coffee as well. Slavica stayed with the luggage while Siniša went to buy something.
Have you ever wondered about shopping opportunities at Tunisian airport? I haven’t, but based on Slavica’s story, Siniša knew best offers and prices there, and it was assumed that he had gone to buy some coffee and water at least. But it seems that he particularly loves camels.
You would not expect that, but Siniša bumped into a small shop with camel heaven. Imagine coming across the store where everything has a camel picture, toy camels of different sizes and types, cups with camels, pendants and t-shirts. After a week of seeing only sand and camels, and other passengers having toys in all shapes and sizes of the most famous animal in the desert, Siniša decided that the best farewell memory from Tunisia even for adults would be a toy camel.
The funny and for some annoying part is that Siniša spent the last Tunisan dinars on the beautiful toy camel. As we all know, camels can live without water, especially a toy camel. Sadly our main characters in this story can’t.
Airport rules are simple – only Tunisian dinar is acceptable. Credit cards were not acceptable and there were no ATMs ANYWHERE!
Like in the desert, hunger and thirst overcome our main characters. The piece of bread looked like a cake, the water from the tap made you even more thirsty, but Slavica’s pride and anger of her own ‘not thinking straight’ took over her feelings.
She decided to punish herself and her husband, did not ask for water or food from their fellow passengers, or borrow some money from them, explain what had happened, so they did not eat or drink water for hours since the flight was postponed again and they did not board the plane until after 10:00 pm.
Now, this particular story has a beautiful and not that beautiful sort of ending.
The beautiful part is that Slavica and Siniša drank a lot of water and had some food on the plane. They even managed to buy some Toblerone!
The camel, on the other hand, became the least loved souvenir in their house. For nearly 20 years it has been collecting dust on a shelf in their home. A reminder not to spend all the cash and rely on credit cards.
Now, remember, it was a cloudy Thursday when Slavica decided to narrate the story. It was also a sunny day for a toy camel since it was the day when Slavica chose to take it on a trip. Because I told her that she should forget the bad feelings, thirst, hunger, her miserable memories of that day and show some love to the camel. None of it was its fault.
And so the toy camel went into its natural habitat to a nearby small sahara and met camel Romeo, saw the sand after such a long time and finally enjoyed some sunshine again. It was a day when the toy camel felt loved again. It was a day when Slavica and the toy camel had fun and decided to have more trips like this.
The moral of the story:
Every cloud has a silver lining! And every experience, good or bad, turns into a great story!
