Nebeur Nightlife

Nebeur has a couple of cafes, but Yasser had his favourite, so we ignored the ones in the centre of the village and set out for the one by the main Jendouba-Le Kef road.

It was bitterly cold, and had just started to rain by the time we reached the cafe, so I was looking forward to a cosy warm place, perhaps with a log fire. Well, it wasn't quite that. It was draughty, the door didn't shut properly, the television's sound was crackly but turned up loud, and there was smoke everywhere.

We ordered "allongees" (an espresso with extra water, served in a tea glass) and shisha...well if you can't beat the smoke, you might as well add to it.

One of Yasser's friends came in, and the conversation soon turned to local gossip, all dealt with in rapid-fire Tunisian Arabic of which I got maybe one word in every five. My attention turned to people watching. A raucous game of dominoes kicked off behind us, almost turning violent before the two participants suddenly resolved their differences with an elaborate handshake and a manly hug. On the other side of the rom, two old men wrapped up in brown sheepskin burnooses read newspapers in silence under a naked lightbulb. A teenager sat in the corner playing with his mobile ringtones obsessively. Every so often, the door would blow open, sometimes revealing a frozen customer scowling in the wind, and everyone would look up and shout "shut the door!".

The cafe owner was a small jovial man who ran energetically between the tables serving drinks, lighting cigarettes with his little box of matches, bringing extra coals for the shishas, and making loud jokes with all customers, me included.

It was basic, but I liked it. I stank of smoke by the time we left though.