Tunis - snake charmers, acrobats, street markets... none of those were present. After visiting Marakesh a couple of years ago it all seemed a bit tame. Nice enough, and the tour we did couldn't really have been any better given the source material, but it didn't really have the buzz that I was expecting.
The weird thing on this trip is the whole concept of waking up in a completely different place, without any real perception of travel. It's like I've stayed in the same place and the world has moved around me. Normally, travelling involves some kind of effort - even if it's enduring a five hour car ride from the back seat. A cruise takes all this away and you magically find yourself in another country after a night's sleep.
After Tunis we had a busy day - pub quiz, gym, bingo (I know, I know..), movie quiz, blackjack tournament, real blackjack, late night food then bed.
Blackjack tournament? Yup, you get £1000 to play with, seven hands to end up with as much as you can, and the top seven people from qualifying get to the final. Both Elaine and I made the final - I was second on the leaderboard, Elaine about 6th. It wasn't really difficult to get there. I think that there were only about ten people who tried. The final was great fun - play aggressively, look at what the others are doing, think a little about strategy. It got to the final hand with three or four people on similar numbers of chips - I had to bet first (there is an order to this in tournament play), so I went all in, full expecting at least one other to put in a bet of the smae size. But they didn't - and it led to a situation whereby if the dealer busted (therefore everyone winning their bets) I would be the overall winner. The dealer's up card was a two, so there was an OK chance that she would... but she didn't.
I ended up with nothing, Elaine came third (and won a hat!), and then we played properly for a couple of hours for and made £100 or so.
Maybe next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment