Update from Germany: What I’m Up To and What’s Up Next

It’s been a little while since my last post – about a month, in fact – so it’s probably time I got everyone up to date on where I am and what I’m up to. Right now, I’m writing from Rügen, Germany, which is a lovely little island in the Baltic Sea situated in the northeast corner of Germany. It’s pretty much just vacation towns on the coast and farmland in the interior, but the atmosphere is relaxed, the natural beauty is abundant, and the beer and smoked fish sandwiches are excellent and plentiful. Honestly, I’ve thought on a few occasions during our stay that I could really see myself retiring here someday. It’s too slow paced for my life right now, but I have been enjoying my time here after being in Lisbon for a few weeks.

Which brings me to what I’ve been up to since my last post from Tarifa, Spain – I’ll write more about it later, but to be brief, after heading out from Tarifa and a short stay in Malaga, Spain (it was supposed to be one night but turned into two because of a mix-up with bus tickets) it was off on an overnight bus trip to Lisbon, Portugal. Elani and I rented a place in a nice, modern area of town for three weeks. For about a week in the middle of this, I was off to an inn just outside the little town of Elvas (which is a couple of hours drive east from Lisbon, almost on the Spanish border) for an intensive training seminar on the Spanish school of classical fencing.  It was an amazing experience and a great way to get to spend time with the folks from my classical fencing school in Seattle and to get to know students and teachers from the classical fencing schools associated with it from across the country. During the time I was away, Elani stayed in Lisbon and had the chance to get a bit of work done and explore the city. After Lisbon, we flew out to Berlin, grabbed a rental car, and made the three hour drive to Rügen.

So, what’s next? Well, when we leave Rügen in a couple of days, we’re going to stay in Berlin for a little over a week. That being said, Elani and I both agree that if we’d known how much we would like it here, we would have just stayed the whole time. But Berlin is a nice city, and I am excited to get me some currywurst. From Berlin, we fly out to Sanur on the island of Bali, Indonesia. The plan is to stay there as long as our visa allows – and it looks like we should be able to get a 60 day visa without too much hassle. It’s going to mark a bit of a shift in this adventure, I think – Europe has been a lot of touristing and moving around every few weeks, and seeing lots of folks from back home. But Sanur is a smallish town, we’re going to be staying there a lot longer, and the plan is to adopt that model a lot more in the future. It’s a bit more of a sustainable pace and a bit easier on the pocketbook, to boot. After Bali, it’s a bit more undecided, but top contenders are Thailand and Vietnam. After that, who knows?

In the meantime, it’s time to get back to telling the story of our adventures in a little more depth, so back to Costa Rica for our move to the town of La Fortuna and our meeting with a good natured and slightly overfed sloth.