Well, that was a difficult journey, and I wasn't expecting a difficult journey. The rooms in the last place weren't exactly a firm foothold, for several reasons, and the straightest line of the transit would have meant going deep into the offline, informal world. But I stayed with the online vendors; even so, the first leg was in an under-ventilated small mini-bus, which was odd. I generally follow the journey with compass and map, and at one point we passed an intersection at which I knew a turn would get me to the destination in 100km or so. But routes are routes, and so we headed on to the capital city.
My three objectives were to change currency at favorable rates, visit the national church's cathedral, and pick up some cheap boots from the German chain. Noticed an interesting thrift shop near the station, and stopped in -- found a brilliant autumn-weight outer-layer leather coat for five Euros or so. (I am the odd Catholic vegetarian who eats eggs and wears leather; the penultimate has a moral imprimatur, and the last is a practical necessity, as the synthetics (short of the very expensive synthetics) don't last nearly as long.)
Then to the money-changers, which took some circumambulation, as I didn't revisit my notes before setting out. Then to the cathedral, which was simply odd. The historic center of the city is marked with archeological exhibits and passageways beneath street level, and the historic buildings at street level. The difficulty is, given the possibility of communicating underground, the traffic planners apparently decided that there was no need for continuous access aboveground. Fences everywhere, no crosswalks. After doubling back around to the other side of the street to see if there was a passage there, I simply looked at the steeple for a bit and then moved on.
Then the boots -- my notes ended up corresponding only lightly and fancifully to the reality of walking down the street, so I eventually turned back around, increasingly exhausted, and with rain clouds louring overhead. In the event, the same large, cheap shop that furnished the jacket at the beginning of the say furnished a solid pair of Chelsea boots that look like they will serve for the nonce -- Vibram soles, good leather, well stitched. And less than fifteen Euros. When the places change so drastically every month, both fiscal and packing concerns mean that you can't really get decent kit -- but if you look for the solid things that will serve for the nonce, priced at a level that doesn't make a month's use unreasonable, it's possible to survive the day with fair kit.
Then to the train -- having my suspicions about how well things would go, I picked up sufficient groceries for a few days (light and basic, like the pioneers on the wagon trail -- oats, rice, etc.). Then, the train to a rural station for a long layover -- interesting characters there. I've learned a lot watching the behavior of stray dogs at stations in the south Balkans; the random overnight souls of the stations are no less instructive. Without a vision, &c. Found that my powers of forced consciousness might not be as strong as they were a few years ago, and unconsciousness took me like an electric charge two or three times.
Then to the narrow-gauge rail for the last leg of the journey, always an interesting means of travel. Same battles with consciousness, given the long day walking around the capital city. But then we reached the mountains. There were no cabs at the station, so I took my luggage and food supplies in hand, and made the four mile hike up the base of the mountain to the resort areas. At this point, the exhaustion was rather intense. Cleaned up the apartment, set up my things, and put the work table together. An immensely difficult journey, but we are creatures who were made to do immensely difficult things. Unlike those who are part of a societies created in order to do some specific work in the factories or building industries, the immensely difficult things that the free human being sets out to do can awaken the spirit. Unlike the fellow exhausted after the day in the mine or the factory, my exhaustion wasn't in order to serve a certain social objective, or please those in power. And I receive no safety or wealth from it. At the end of my strength, the only thing I have attained is the successful completion of the difficult journey, and the possibility of continuing the work. It suffices. It will have to. And so the spirit awakens.