Best vacation of my life was when I spent two weeks in Tunisia. Loved the country and the people. Spent time in Tunis and you are right, a very cosmopolitan city. The US Embassy was sponsering a weeklong event based on the life and writings of Mark Twain. I will never forget the lines of Tunisians waiting to see the speakers. But then again, this was in the eighties, when American values were celebrated and not disavowed and apologized for.
We stayed in a place called Souse (sp?) We were stationed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (the true definition of a sh@thole). Tunisia was the complete opposite of any middle east country I had ever been to We went to Egypt as well. We knew then Islam would be an issue, in 1982, but it took 911 to wake the rest of America up..