June 9 to October 8 2022
Bicycle wandering continues, but where to I'm uncertain
First I went to Bansko, Bulgaria via Slovenia (to meet Bozena) then visit the Bansko Nomad Fest, where I stayed for 10 days or so before flying to Barcelona for EthBarcelona.
Then I went to Toulouse via a Buddhist Retreat Center in the Pyrenees (met Frances), took a train to Arcachon, and visited the coastal pine forests during a heat wave and briefly swam in the Atlantic, before taking the train back to Toulouse and then flying to Dubrovnik.
Then I bicycled back to Sofia over the Accursed Mountains (took a train and bus in Kosovo and to North Macedonia, and a train in Bulgaria) to spend more time with Mariana, who I met at Bansko.
Then I went to the Black Sea by bike and train (met Betsy and Lazar) and then to the European Rainbow Gathering in the mountains about 80km from Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Then I returned to Sofia and then to Bansko for a few nights and then back to Sofia and then began making my way to Mantova, Italy to meet Heather. From there I bicycled to Genoa and took trains to Orange (near Avignon) and joined the last three days of the Ecotopia Bicycle Tour.
Then I took a Flix Bus from Marseille to Barcelona and a train & bicycle up into the hills to meet Lea. Then I came back to the coast near Tarragona and caught a train from Cambrils to Valencia.
Along the coast south of Valencia I met Abby, and we bicycled together for ten days (three days of which Lilly also rode with us) to a cave where Abby was going to house sit for a week or so after I left.
Then I bicycled and took a train to Madrid before flying to Dubai, where I had a 21-hour layover so I took a bus for two hours to Abu Dhabi to visit Saad/Mike before catching the next flight to Taipei.
In Taipei, I stayed with Malcolm from couchsurfing and warmshowers for four nights during the mandatory quarantine for new arrivals still in effect at the time. And I’m currently very slowly bicycling around Taiwan.
So that is a fair amount of the where and the how. Very little about the why or about how things felt and nothing about what, if anything, might have been learned or about what my plans for the future might be as a result.
A lot of that story can come out from the pictures which I’ll include links to here soon.
I suppose I could do as I did last time, and include selected pictures in this post. . . but I think a lot of what is going on this time is forgetting and including pictures will not help forgetting. Forgetting is one reason I took so long to write this update. I wanted life to be boring and uneventful and a lot of the emotional content far in the past. And so it is.
And there’s not much (emotion?) left to be honest. Just today I saw that I could go back to LA from Taipei on 21 November for $350. Rather unbelievable that it’s that inexpensive to get back there.
And then? Back to the old rut / enjoyable routine? That might be fun for a while. Really hard to say.
At any rate those are some things I’m pondering. I do like the ecotopia bicycle tour a lot. I might like to spend more time with them and time my Schengen entry some year so I can spend more time with them.
I can’t really say I’ve failed this time.
I’ve met more people, made some new friends. I’m just not feeling very enthusiastic or driven. That’s not horrible. It can be pleasant and relaxing.
Perhaps I’ll get into reading more and that will be my new occupation.
Most likely I’ll flail around a bit as usual until the next avenue becomes more clear.
To get to this point though, the point of writing this, certain progress has been made. In forgetting, in getting through procrastinating, in changing habits, at least for now. I mean I was playing a lot of polytopia not that long ago. And more recently I’ve begun to read again.
Not sure where I’ll find the next exciting adventure.
Now, you’ll probably guess I _was_ organizing my travels around meeting women. For better or worse at the moment I seem to not really care (about meeting women?) and I don’t know how or if I can change that.
I did just reinstall the dating apps after a brief break and message a few earlier today and have some friendly responses. I did have one date in Taipei maybe four weeks ago.
Part of the issue may be that while I like Taiwan well enough I’m not thinking I’ll stay here.
And on the off chance I meet another bicycling nomad, I suppose that’s why I took a look at the apps again.
It would be good to spend more time lifting weights and doing calisthenics. It might be nice to be back at the UCSB pool.
I’ll just leave it at that for now. I don’t know what’s next. I do have a ticket to Vietnam for 30 December.
If you want to follow my travels more in real time, look me up on the polarsteps app.
Until next time!
Colin
If you do look at the photos as I just did again you’ll notice that Abby (who took many of the photos in the second file) was one of the best things that I found on this trip. I haven’t been doing much to keep up the relationship now that that trip is over though. I don’t know if more will happen there or not. But our trip together was the most meaningful part of the last five months I think. Time with Mariana was also very meaningful and I could say more about that. She gave me some very helpful feedback and an interesting example of a way to be in the world. I’ve thought about including a letter she wrote to me here. Because it says a lot. And it informed my actions going forward and Abby and I studied that letter several times—
I could also include a link to the love song playlist. . . First made in response to one Efrat sent me when I was still in Israel.
Yeah. What happens next. Do I really have no intentions? Abby is awesome but I don’t seem to be in love. Not yet at least.
(The above was a first attempt at writing about the time period, I made another more successful effort here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-XtmpzypNovHNuBq8_TPnxjQZmXLGyXwgqYBtuG6yd8/edit?usp=drivesdk )