November 2010:
Since meeting up with Rich, I’ve been in a constant state of laughter. I wake up, look to my left and within seconds, I’m bursting at the seams. I don’t know how, or why, but it never fails. He says the most off-the-wall things and has an uncanny gift for matching songs with scenarios. I seriously wish I could crawl inside his head for a few minutes… I think.
Traveling with someone can be difficult, especially on a trip like this. Days can be long, personal space is often limited, and conditions aren’t always ideal. Luckily, we’re both easygoing and get along swimmingly. In my personal opinion, it’s almost impossible to be mad at someone who makes you laugh; I suppose he has that working in his favor if tension were to arise.
One of the most memorable events from our road trip was attempting to contact Hertz to extend our car rental contract. We rented our trusty steed from the Hertz office at Carthage airport in Tunis. We originally paid for 10 days upfront, but the nice lady working in the office, who spoke decent English, assured us we could extend the lease while on the road if need be. She provided us with a folder that listed the locations throughout the country, and suggested we visit or call the nearest office if we decide to do so. Seems easy enough, right?
Once in Tozeur, we were up against the clock. Our handy-dandy folder listed an office in the area, so we were in luck… or so we thought. The folder, as well as our LP map, listed the office on the main road heading towards the airport. After driving up and down the street multiple times (which is a challenge all on its own), as well as circling the entire city for good measure, we came to the conclusion that the office is no more.
We returned to our hotel and decided to call, but the number provided didn’t work – go figure. The gentleman working the front desk confirmed our conclusion, so we quickly reverted to Plan B: contact the Hertz office in Tunis where we rented it from.
We called the main number too many times to count, but it just rang off the hook, so we switched to the secondary number. The phone would ring, someone would answer in Arabic or French, we’d get transferred 3-5 times, and eventually they’d just hang up on us. This would happen over, and over, and over again. Most would have found this mildly frustrating, and to a certain extent it was, but I also found it rather amusing. With each attempt, Rich’s English became more childlike, as did his voice. Eventually he did away with complete sentences and just stuck to keywords.
After going round and round, we enlisted the help of someone who spoke the language, but as usual, history repeated itself. We were so puzzled by this, because the language barrier obviously wasn’t to blame. Eventually we would learn that the number was for the actual airport, not the Hertz office inside of the airport. Why, oh why, would they do such a thing? No wonder they didn’t want to talk to us.
After two days, we were still at square one and our time was running out. We contacted every office with little to no luck. There was an emergency number listed on the folder, but what classifies as an emergency? Car crash? Theft? Lease extension??? Maybe.
My explanation of the situation was met with little to no sympathy, but the operator took down my information and said she’d do her best to get in touch with someone. We played the waiting game for hours, but our patience was wearing thin. We were seriously considering rolling the dice and just keeping the car, because the operator said we’d only have to cover the additional days, but when I called again to confirm she said, “Well maybe you get arrested?” WHAT!?! Arrested!?! Talk about one extreme to the other, lady.
Feeling slightly discouraged, we continued down the road, mulling over our lack of options when my phone rang. Someone from the office in Douz, who took our phone call and didn’t speak any English, contacted a friend who did. He spent at least an hour tracking down all of the necessary information and eventually put us in touch with someone from the original Hertz office: a miracle indeed. All of that for complete strangers… pretty amazing if you ask me.
Below is a little snippet of what we were dealing with. My camera was acting up, so the majority of the footage was lost – bummer!
