Tangier is inarguably Somewhere Else. As a woman of a certain age and experience, it is an ongoing project to find a spot that is just right to live out my happy golden years. Due to a slight miscalculation, made in my rollicking misspent prolonged youth, my happy golden years will be lived out in the parallel universe. My decrepit, old age is likely to be lived out, right here, chained to this damn desk.
I see you scratching your collective heads wondering, “Why Elroy, why Tangier? Why not a nicely discounted condo in Arizona, or a desirable lot with a trailer and shuffleboard in Florida? What if you get sick? You don’t know anyone there.” You’re right. I don’t know a soul there. I’m pretty sure there are people there I’d like to know; new people whose stories I haven’t heard, fresh people who haven’t heard my stories.
North Africa, the Middle East, and India have always fascinated me. I should have gone when I was younger but I was enmeshed in misguided, failed acquaintances, invested in Hollywood propaganda. Hormones trick people into believing they must be paired. I wasted a lot of my time with gentlemen who did not share my interpretation of life. In fairness, I must concede the poor dears wasted their time too.
I did travel in SE Asia when I was young and I loved it. I was left unattended, on my own for months on end. I wasn’t the least bit timid. The mixed aromas of joss, things rotting, flowers blooming, and raw sewage provided olfactory background to my adventures. The worn, soft edges of the architecture were a reassuring contradiction to human mortality. The sense of being other and the label ex-pat fit perfectly, in the drama in my head. In my imagination, I lived in the time of British colonialism and rubber plantations. In reality, I was admiring the Chai Thais on Bugis Street, wishing I could be as pretty as a man pretending to be a woman. The irony doesn’t escape me. Bugis Street has been revitalized. The Chai Thais are gone. An era is over. I was there before it ended, thinking about the era that ended before I got there.
Tangier will be different. I won’t be disappointed because I haven’t been there so I won’t know what I missed.
Traveling is the great joy and adventure of life! Keep the dream alive.
Tangier does sound much more interesting than a trailer in Florida.
Tell you what… if we both end up old and single, we can shack up in Tangiers … platonically of course… I’m a good cook, can do my own laundry, though I do enjoy a cluttered desk…
Deal!
Is it a survivable place for an apocalypse? There’s fish in FL.
I don’t intend to survive the apocalypse. I’m pretty sure I won’t survive daily life indefinitely.
I’m having the same wonderings but I’ve mostly limited mine to different parts of this state and I Still can’t decide. I don’t think I dare add Tangiers into the mix..I’ll never get anywhere. Look forward to hearing about it though π
Happy to hear from you, Annie!
Hmm Tangiers. It sounds fascinating but …. well…. I can’t wait to read about it! My fear is that I will be chained to a desk no matter where I go!
Same!
Elroy, this is a lovely descriptive post. You make me want to visit there, too! Great post. π
Thanks very much, Judith. I’d spend my life wandering if I could afford it.
I certainly would, too. I will do as much travel as I can in these later years of my life. π