Mongolia To Bulgaria (and beyond)

Okay, it's time to take another trip. If for no other reason than I was able to find one way tickets from Albuquerque to Shanghai, Dubrovnik to Dublin, and Dublin to ABQ, all for around $1200.

So I'm going to go overland to Beijing, Mongolia, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia, all of them (kind of coincidentally) with a Communist heritage. And, as you can imagine, there are all kinds of niggly details that have been bedeviling me. Things like finding a cheap rental car in Romania that I can book even though I'm not quite sure what day I'm going to be there. Or dealing with the fact that the cheapest hotel room in Moscow is now more than $100 a night.

Then there's the reality that I'm feeling old and tired, which I am fairly certain I can blame on the fact that the macrocosm of these United States that we live in is sucking all the microcosm out of me. Of course, that's probably the best reason to get the hell out of here and start wandering around the world. After all, it's always perked me up before.

And, yes, I am well aware that when it's all over I'm going to be back in the exact same place where I had started out from. On the other hand, it's also true that every day on the road has more excitement than at least two weeks here at home. For me, at least, nothing focuses and raises my consciousness like world travel. (And unlike drugs you don't wake up the next morning feeling awful.)

Besides which, there's also the educational/cultural value. After all, who is there besides me who shall fearlessly go out and determine to what extent the human condition needs reconditioning?

Anyway, it's now Friday night, a large part of the i's and t's have been crossed and dotted, and I can calmly look forward to getting up at 5am Monday and starting to roll the ball westward.

Oh, and a few days ago I talked my daughter Sumi into coming with me as far as Mongolia. It's up to her to figure out how to get back.