Fairly certain that there were a good bit of environmental toxins around the last Humble Quarters. Bulgarian vacation property, studio, foot of the mountains in a ski resort area. Quite popular with domestic tourists in August, as it turned out. Loud party outside the windows until 5AM during my last night there, though there were some quiet stretches as well. Very inexpensive, apparently a broker in a third country handling it for the local developer. Woke many mornings absolutely exhausted. Air unbreathable at occupancy, took a few days for the chemical scent to lift. And then the 4 mile walk up the mountain with the groceries, though I knew about that in advance, and even looked forward to it.
And yet.
The purpose of the visit was the mountains, so for all the difficulties (no washing machine, etc.), the proximity was sufficient. The way in which the mountains were good didn't bear relation to the ways in which the place was difficult. Much like the difficulties with the local grocery in the town before, it was simply in the foreground, only possibly obscuring the more full image in the background.
Much the same here. Decent place, almost everyone very friendly, and I've wandered the Balkans enough that I don't take the occasional discouraging word amiss. (And, on those rare occasions, the worst of it invariably is associated with an American accent. We genuinely don't send our best folks to these climes.) But the way in which I'm paying attention to this place has nothing to do with the usual modern creature comforts or their absence, or the social niceties, vel non. The most egregious thing could happen to me here, and my consciousness would still be in the large-frame world on a timescale of centuries. The only thing such distractions could accomplish would be obscuring the view. The things that could possibly go wrong simply bear no relation to the good presently at hand.
Small things could go wrong. The local culture is at a bit of a crossroads, so even existing here is a bit ad hoc. But if you traverse the time, not by getting away with what you can, but by doing the best that can reasonably be done and not allowing the larger picture to be obscured, then -- sufficient is the day. Inshallah. Which is, being translated, God willin' and the crick don't rise.