I recently had the amazing good fortune to visit Paris, France (yea, well, I could have meant Texas…) and Tunis, Tunisia for ten days. What an adventure! I saw things I’d read about in books and magazines for years – IRL – and things I never even imagined too.
Paris was, honestly, not a city I thought I would ever visit – because I don’t speak French – at all. Not that 4 years of high school Spanish would help a great deal in Madrid, but at least I could read the signs. Amazingly, we got along just fine with Google translate and many kind French persons who spoke excellent English. I stood on the Eiffel Tower and in front of Notre Dame (still encased in an impressive array of scaffolding since the 2019 fire), walked through the halls of the Louvre (the ceilings are incredible) and Versailles (so much gold!), and sailed down the much-lauded Seine River. I would love to go back, to walk through the Tuileries one more time, but even if I never do, I’m so delighted to have been!
After Paris, we (my sister and brother-in-law and me) flew to Tunisia. My nephew and his lovely wife are stationed in Tunis – its capitol city- with the US Embassy. Tunisia is at the very northern tip of Africa – hence the title of this blog. Not only a new country to visit – but a new continent! It is also considered by many to be part of the Middle East – because its population speaks mainly Arabic – so a new region too! On a clear day, you can see Italy across the Mediterranean Sea – a beautiful, sea green body of water – which gives you a little geographic context. It is also – pretty much – a third-world country.
A great way to find appreciation for some things you take for granted at home – and I don’t mean speaking English and sleeping in your own bed – is to spend a few days in a country that is about 30 years behind ours. Traffic laws? Nope, not really. The roads are kind of a survival of the pushiest free-for-all. People drive the wrong way down the side of the road, turn left or right across multiple lanes – things that can get your car banged up, you banged up – or at the very least – a hefty ticket in the U.S.
There is litter everywhere. Paper, plastic, construction debris. Piles of junk. You immediately noticed it, and wondered why people didn’t seem to care about the trash – or – the stray cats and dogs on every street. So many dogs that there are packs in some of the parks which make it a dicey proposition to visit them alone. And cats of every age, color, and condition just hanging out on the sidewalks, walking across the plazas, sleeping under the bushes. Why don’t the Tunisians do anything about it?
But, you know, they have bigger problems. There’s not much wealth in the country. A lot of people don’t have jobs, especially not good jobs – or careers. The country is currently a democracy – but their president generally ignores their constitution, and recently dissolved parliament when they tried to check his gaining power – not the best situation and the reason for the tanks on the plaza downtown. There’s been a lot of corrupt politicians in the past – to the tune of billions of lost dollars in bribes and theft – and the wealth is concentrated among very few people (that does sound kinda familiar). Like every country, they have their wealthy elite who send their children to Europe to study and still speak French, but common Tunisians are mostly just getting by.
You need to devote a lot of resources to educational and promotional programs to address issues like littering. When I was a kid, in the 1970’s, I remember seeing ads on television for the “Keep America Beautiful” campaign. Advertising, litter laws, and a lot of community service projects have helped to reduce litter along our highways and in our parks – but it’s still an ongoing battle – even after we’ve devoted millions of dollars to it. And every animal shelter and rescue program in the country is continually asking people to spay/neuter their pets. We have thousands of stray animals here too, they’re just mostly in shelters. So, even though I was kind of taken aback by some of the conditions I saw in Tunis – we certainly are not in any position to judge.
Our Embassy is trying to make life better for the Tunisians through education and health programs, and aid – certainly a good thing – but even one of the richest countries in the world has limitations on how much help it can offer. I hope that someday Tunisia has enough available wealth of its own to deal with societal issues like jobs, traffic laws, stray dogs and litter, and a proactive, stable government to help combat them, but for now, I just hope their peace and democracy survives and things get a little easier for their people.
I’m glad I visited Tunisia. Maybe it’s not quite as glamorous as Paris – not many places are – but there are beautiful vistas everywhere, dates and peppercorns growing on trees (I mean proper big, tall trees – I had no idea), exotic-smelling jasmine growing in the hedges, fascinating people in dense, crowded markets, the gorgeous Mediterranean Sea, camels, (even wild ones!- but I didn’t get to see them) and amazing Roman ruins like Carthage and Dougga just waiting to be explored. Traveling abroad makes you appreciate your own culture, but it gives you a new understanding and appreciation for other peoples’ too. I know Covid and inflation are currently making it tough to travel. And I know there are a million (literally) amazing things to see in the US. But if you ever have the chance to travel abroad – do it! You won’t regret it, and it will expand your horizons like nothing else!
After our brief hiatus of blogging due entirely to my mom’s lack of work ethic and not at all due to my pure laziness, we have returned. I tried to get her to blog while she was in Paris / Tunisia but she said some BS about their being a lack of Wi-Fi in Tunisia? What ever you say, mother.
Anyway, on a serious note, I have done my own share of horizon expanding during my stint on this planet so far. In my junior year of college I traveled to Iceland for spring break, and the following year I traveled to Costa Rica.
After spending almost entirely all of my life in central Pennsylvania, save a couple of trips to states in New England and North Carolina, my biggest surprise in a new place like Iceland was the natural beauty. I’m sure everyone’s heard someone talk about Iceland as a spectacular travel location seeing as it is one of the most popular tourism destinations, but I want to reaffirm the positive things that you’ve been told. There’s something about kicking back in a natural hot spring with your boys and a beer that just hits different, and I recommend that everyone tries it at least once in their life.
The following year’s spring break, I was lucky to venture to Costa Rica with my best friends from my business fraternity. Just so you know, Costa Rica is a part of continental North America. I for sure thought it was an island before visiting, so I just wanted to clear that up with everybody and make sure we’re on the same page. Anyway, we rented cars upon landing in San Jose, the capital, and traveled coast to coast in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. What a dream, right?. Along the way, we went ziplining, hit a town where strippers run rampant, and stayed at the most boujee AirBnB I have seen to date (pictured right). It was an awesome trip, but I remember asking my travel mates multiple times about what they thought it would be like to grow up in a poor country such as Costa Rica.
As we drove through the mountains and villages, I took notice of the stark difference between the apparent quality of life between America and Costa Rica. Makeshift rooftops assembled with aluminum sheets, dirt roads with potholes and intrusive rocks, and not a Walmart in sight. Much like my mom’s experience in Tunisia, it was easy for me to take a minute and be thankful for the quality of goods and services that we have here in America.
Spending any amount of time in a poor country such as Tunisia or Costa Rica will leave an impression on any individual. My mom’s experience visiting my cousins who work in politics at the US embassy gave her insight into the political situation of the country which I did not receive in Costa Rica. However, I was able to have a couple conversations about what it was like growing up and living in Costa Rica with one of my AirBnB hosts. He was about 35 at the time and lived in the house he grew up in with his wife and two kids. He was a family oriented man who owned and operated a small farm on the side of a hill in a rural area. One night during our stay, he cooked all nine of us staying at his AirBnB a delicious fish and fruit dinner and shared stories from his life so far.
We did a lot of cool shit during our trip, but I think that dinner is my favorite memory. Our host was hilarious and was more than willing to answer any questions we had about his experiences growing up and living in Costa Rica.
Traveling abroad is something I 1000% will do in the future. Maybe not to Tunisia after my mom’s review, she didn’t make it seem like the most safe place to go… But I definitely want to make it back to Europe to visit some of the cities that so heavily influenced my friends who studied abroad during college. You all know what I’m talking about. I’m sure everybody reading this can recall a friend who went to Madrid and came back an entirely different person. Mike Riley, if you’re reading this, I’m subtweeting you.
Seriously though, travel is one of the most exciting parts of life, and I am stoked to see more of the world as I get older. Hopefully, I will be surrounded by my loved ones on the trips to make them even more memorable. We will see!
Then I Was... 
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