Monastir (airport of charters and low-cost airlines) lies fourteen kilometers from Sousse.

Monastir is much smaller than Sousse and much calmer. Our driver and guide (a rented  taxi) praised this city of walking and resting. It is less frequented by tourists, because there are no spectacular beaches nearby.

The city is of great importance in Tunisia (besides for links with its old history) because from here came the president Habib Burgiba, who changed the fate of this country after the departure of the colonizers - the French.

He made Tunisia a modern country, with religion separated from the state.

It is thanks to him that this country is still (despite the recurrence of Islamist tendencies) liberal and the most European of all Muslim countries.

An important and noticeable manifestation of this difference is the view of smiling and kind people. Random conversations confirm greater openness of Tunisians in comparison with other Arabs. They say they are Berbers.

*Habib Burgiba; (b. August 3, 1903 in Monastir, d. April 6, 2000 ibid) - Tunisian politician, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Tunisia and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense in 1956–1957, the first president of independent Tunisia in 1957–1987.