Theory 3: The Desert Bride Kidnapping
(aka: My friends’ creativity is starting to worry me) This theory belongs in the category: “Technically not impossible, but so unlikely it circles back into comedy.” Here is how my friends frame it: “What if…
Theory 2: The Supervillain Nightmare Scenario
(aka: My friends watch too many crime documentaries) This one is… dramatic. And extremely entertaining. Whenever I travel, at least one friend comes up with a scenario so over-the-top that even Marvel Studios would say:…
Theory 1: The Master Manipulator
Theory 1: The Master Manipulator (When my friends turn my dating life into a true-crime pilot episode) It always happens the same way: the moment I mention that there is someone new in my life,…
A Sunday Kind of Love
It’s Sunday.I woke up early – as always – in my apartment by the sea in Chott Meriem.Luna was still asleep, curled up like a comma at the end of a peaceful sentence. After coffee,…
The Lamppost, the Language Lesson & My 24-Hour Mind Affair
A Swiss woman in Tunisia puts up a flyer for a language teacher and ends up with a charming tutor, scrambled eggs, and a wildly overactive imagination. A story about attraction, translation, and the fine art of keeping your pubic hair.
Flâneries at Dusk – Tantana’s Raw Soul
An evening walk through Tantana with Luna and Riadh – stray cats, street dogs, trash piles and coffee by the sea. A raw photo gallery of wild beauty at the edge of Tunisia.
Tantana vs. Kantaoui – My Tunisian Reality Check
Act I – The Master Plan I always have a plan. Not just one – usually two or three, stacked neatly like a deck of tarot cards predicting my future. The plan for my Tunisian…
When “Not Spicy” Burns a Hole in Your Soul
I’m sitting in my temporary apartment, waiting for the fire in my mouth and throat to calm down.“Not spicy,” Riadh said yesterday, with complete sincerity. Well. Not spicy for him. For me it was a…
One beach. Two hearts. Kantaoui.
As two Swiss souls, one human, one canine, we found our wild hearts’ rhythm on the shores of El Kantaoui. Like ancient goddesses reborn, with sun-kissed fur and wind-blown hair, we chased the waves and…
Gratitude, Tinder Therapy & Souk Kidnappings
I have never felt this connected while being this far away. A net of friends and family, a dog-sitting angel named Riadh (plus his mum), a Tinder soul with midnight balm, and the annoying sage who keeps saying “Just say no”—which is why I sometimes don’t.
Klein Luna, Big Queenship (Week 2 in Kantaoui)
Small doesn’t mean silent: Luna finds her roar on the beach, I level up my street-crossing protocol on Route Touristique, and a landlord asks me to fund her couch. Heavy metal life—too loud to be safe, too good to be boring.
Wide Awake, Week One
Sometimes the only way through is to write the whole mess out of my head. It’s early Saturday morning and I’m still not sleeping. After a week of almost no real rest, I’m at a…
One Week in Kantaoui: Heat, Hormones & “Haute Standing” (lol)
Arrival: August 14, 2025 — exactly one week later I’m typing this in Kantaoui. Touchdown with zero drama Despite a delay of almost three hours, immigration in Tunis was a non-event: no checks, no fuss.…
Last Train – In More Ways Than One – Weed in Tunisia
Weed Was Nice. Sometimes. Today I smoked my last joint. And yes, I’ll miss it. And at the same time – not really. Weed was nice as long as it stayed occasional. But once it…
24 Days Until Take-off
Only 24 days left. Then I’ll board a plane and fly away—leaving a country that never truly wanted me. Behind me: an apartment that has become a storage unit. Half-packed bags, discarded furniture, the remains…
Blissfully Paperless: The Day I Let the Form God Starve
I don’t know what possessed me. Maybe it was defiance. Maybe exhaustion. Maybe the quiet realization that a system forcing you to perform a useless duty eventually becomes absurd, if you simply stop moving. It…
Mubawab or the Mystery of Kantaoui
Chapter 1: The Fatal Click 🖱️ It began the way all great tragicomedies begin: with a click. More precisely, a click on a “send inquiry” button on Mubawab, the Tunisian version of Immoscout—just with more…
El Kantaoui To-Go-Liste
Meine persönliche El Kantaoui To-Go-Liste mit allem, was rund um die Résidence Chatt El Kantaoui fussläufig oder schnell erreichbar ist – perfekt für Alltag, Entspannung & Abenteuer: 🛒 Einkaufen & Besorgungen 🐾 Spazieren & Hundeplätze…
Zia, 47 — and so done with this place
II’m Zia. And this is my blog. Forty-eight, born in the Canton of Bern, currently marooned in the bureaucratic limbo of the Canton of Solothurn.Swiss, officially. But at this point my passport is the Swissest…
Embracing Change: Zia’s Journey Towards a New Life in Tunisia
Life is a journey, an ever-evolving process of self-discovery, healing, and transformation. Over the past three months, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing and supporting Zia through one of the most profound and courageous periods…
Stress, Dissociation, and the Art of Napping
December 2019: The disability pension arrives – and suddenly (almost) everything gets better In December 2019, I finally received the official confirmation for my disability pension. For the first time, life didn’t feel like a…
When Abuse Is Spoken About – and No One Listens
Back at Work After a Break Yesterday and today I returned to the cooperative after a week of vacation. Paddy showed up too – even though his sister died just a week ago. Both Paddy…
Brain Overload: When Overthinking Is the Only Workout
One week off—though “vacation” might be the wrong word, since I wasn’t exactly relaxed. I meant to enjoy the free time and be productive, but, as usual, that mission failed spectacularly. Instead: lots of sleep,…
When Truth Hits: A Week of Revelations
This week completely overwhelmed me. I had barely finished and published my post, “Paddy – Child Abuse, and What Remains,” when life opened the next chapter—one that I hadn’t even processed myself. Monday: Pia’s Slow…
Pfändung oder Bulgarien? Eine mentale Flucht
Letzten Dienstag hatte ich einen Termin beim Betreibungsamt – eine Pfändungsvollstreckung. In den letzten zwanzig Jahren waren solche Termine ein wiederkehrender Teil meines Lebens. Dies ist nicht meine erste Betreibung und wird auch nicht meine…
Bye bye Genossenschaft, Stiftung ich komme
Im Dezember 2019 erhielt ich endlich die lang ersehnte Nachricht: Ich bekam eine Teilrente der IV zugesprochen. Nach einer langen Zeit der Arbeitslosigkeit war das ein Wendepunkt. Denn Zeit ist eine Droge – zu viel…
Experiencing the Future: Paying for My Coffee with a Smartwatch
Last December, I made a discovery during the Black Friday sales—a Google Smartwatch at an unbeatable deal on Amazon. I’ve always had a deep love for technology and gadgets, often finding myself captivated by the…
Zias Fotoalbum April 2023
In dieser Galerie zeige ich meine liebsten Schnappschüsse aus jener Zeit, als Luna in mein Leben trat. Ich habe sie geliebt, noch bevor ich sie das erste Mal gesehen habe – und als sie dann…
Fotogalerie Juni 2020
Mein Juni 2020 war ganz den Pflanzen gewidmet. In meiner neuen Wohnung geniesse ich das Alleinsein – ohne Scheissfigur Eric, der mir das letzte halbe Jahr eigentlich nur verdorben hat. Als Gärtnerin bin ich nur…
Foto-Erinnerungen November 2019
Kurz nach dem positiven Vorbescheid der IV habe ich mir eine eigene Wohnung gesucht. Eigentlich wollte ich eine moderne Wohnung, aber das Bruchbüdeli der Swatch Immo war halt das einzige was mit meinem Betreibungsregister-Auszug trotz…