Thinking about the afternoon and evening I spent exploring Sofia by the subway. I almost never use mass transit -- the point is to walk through the world. It wasn't until the fourth or fifth month in Belgrade that I used the (free) trams and buses. But the point was to reach as many corners of Sofia as possible, and I found at least one rather remarkable area.
--
Have very much set my face towards the sea, like an early modern English scholar forced to abjure the realm who knows that the libraries of the continent are waiting for him after his long journey to the coast bearing the small cross before him. Within industrial prosperity, things have gone indiscernibly (as yet, for most) bad, and what I think is important to do in life isn't a notion shared by many others, especially those who would try to control my meanderings. The prosperity for the heathy preponderance is relatively harmless -- until you test the meritocracy. Then things can turn rather quickly.
It is possible to work, and think, and pray in a peripatetic life abroad, so it is logical that I go abroad. Auerbach wrote his book on mimesis in similar conditions. (Benjamin fared less well.) I haven't despaired of the Republic, but I also realize that, given the folks arrayed against me, I'm not going to be able to do much to help it.
At least vis-a-vis temporal things.
O Scotland, Scotland...