Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Ego wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 19, 2024 1:56 pm

It is beautiful. As tempting as it is, I can't help but ask myself why I would live in any one place when I can move from place to place, enjoying a few weeks here, a month there, then moving on to the next interesting place. And I don't have to worry about electrical shorts or roof leaks. No doubt, our outlook will change in the future. When that day comes, I hope we have a good idea of the pros and cons of many different places, which will help us make good decisions. For now, onward!

Which makes complete sense. It is actually in line with my own suggestion to you earlier when you brought up the possibility to buy a cheap place in Italy!

But I myself can't resist to check out prices of houses when I am in other places, just because of curiosity and perhaps day-dreaming.

Enjoy your trip and the Greek islands soon!

rube wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 19, 2024 3:10 pm

But I myself can't resist to check out prices of houses when I am in other places, just because of curiosity and perhaps day-dreaming.

You and me both! We have no intention to buy here but I have figured out the exact neighborhood I would buy in if we did.

Last Sunday we went to a makeshift flea market in a massive open dirt lot out in the suburbs of Sevilla. The sellers were evenly split between Moroccan immigrants, Gypsies and Sub-Saharan Africans. Mrs. Ego bought a pair of second-hand espadrilles shoes from a Moroccan who spoke very little Spanish. Years ago we had visited his village, Zagora, way out near the border with Algeria, and we were all excited to have met.

Later, I was looking at this traje de luces and took a photo of it. When I didn't buy it, the Gypsy seller got angry and followed me, demanding I delete the photo. I walked faster and Gypsies came from other stalls to surround me, demanding I delete the photo. So I stopped and deleted it. It was an interesting experience, to say the least.

Step count peaked at 604,000/month and is now down significantly, but I have a regular 1500m open water swim that could not be better.

I have a sil-nylon stuff sack and began using it as a sandbag weight in conjunction with the TRX. It works perfect for various kettlebell-like exercises.



We are on Naxos now. Back in 1994 we spent a month here free-camping on a beach. This time around we are staying in a studio apartment. We booked a few days in advance and then went around to look at places for a longer term, three-week stay. Most of the young people who manage their family places were not open to negotiating, but a few older people reacted well to the question, "What would the price be if we stayed for three weeks?" Back when we were here in '94, the lodging owners waited at the port to catch potential guests as they stepped off the ferry. The older people remember those days. It is amazing how much Booking and Airbnb have changed things. We ended up paying cash for an apartment one block from the beach for 50% of the price listed on Booking.

I really admire how you two seem to live the same lifestyle no matter where you are.

How are you thinking about and developing your itinerary? It seems like you are leaving things somewhat open (Fisherman's trail). How much is planned and how much is spontaneous?

Thanks @theanimal! It is easier to be consistent with workouts and healthy eating in Europe and Asia than it is elsewhere.

@WRC, we have a ferry booked to the next island and then a flight to Sicily. From there we could go anywhere. One of my Great-Grandfathers came from a village in Calabria, so we may visit it as it is a short ferry ride from Messina. This morning I was looking at ferries from Palermo to Tunisia or Salerno or Malta. We've never been to Tunisia, Malta, nor the Amalfi Coast.

I use google flights one way function a lot, as well as rome2rio to find unusual connections between places. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Ego wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 19, 2024 7:45 am

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Corsica and Sardinia are often overlooked and very worth visiting. You're in the med at a good time of year as well.

Ego wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 19, 2024 7:45 am

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

There's also skyscanner.net. If money is a concern, within Europe bus connections can be cheaper than flights, like flixbus.com or regiojet.com. And ask the locals for travel tips if you get the chance.

Can second chenda's recommendation of Corsica and Sardinia!

Thanks chenda & delay. Those two are high on the list of places we will visit when we have our touring bikes with us.

Delay, I will give Skyscanner a try for our next leg. Thank you!

Ego wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 19, 2024 7:45 am

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

I don't have anything specific to recommend for that part of the world. I was more curious about your general philosophy towards travel and establishing an itinerary.

We tend to choose a country or region, find a place we know we want to visit, then leave some buffer time to explore places we learn about from other travelers, online or elsewhere. We try to stay in the same region for at least 3-6 months to limit transportation needs and keep costs down. I suspect that approach is easier in Europe, with such great public transportation and so much culture packed into a relatively small area.

Recommendations from other travelers are often quite helpful (depending on the particular traveler). We also like to identify YouTubers or travel writers that resemble our travel preferences to generate ideas.

Tourist visas and weather windows have been two of the biggest variables influencing our itinerary in Asia. Kudos to you for obtaining the EU passport so you don't need to worry about the former.

I am sure you know this, but Siracusa is older than Rome and fathered Pythagoras.
Strongly, strongly recommended

Seppia wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 21, 2024 1:05 am

I am sure you know this, but Siracusa is older than Rome and fathered Pythagoras.
Strongly, strongly recommended

According to Wikipedia, Syracuse is 20 years older than Rome? (733 BC vs 753 BC).

@WRC, we are not meeting as many fellow travelers as we once did, partly because we have not stayed in many places with shared kitchens which are perfect for meeting others. Also, in the not too distant past it was prohibitively expensive to buy a locale sim, so the average traveler was not sucked into their phone like they are at home. E-sims have changed that.

@Seppia, Syracuse is on the list of places we will visit. Thank you!

We rented a car for 16 days for a loop around Sicily. Highlights were Siracusa (as suggested by @Seppia), hiking Mt. Etna, Cefalu and the Unesco towns in the south called Val di Noto. Recommended.

When renting the car online I booked the smallest thing available. A Fiat 500. At the rental counter I mentioned to the girl that I would be grateful if she happened to have something larger. She did. Boy was that a mistake. She gave us a Citroen C4 Aircross. A nice sub-compact SUV. A sub-compact in Sicily is equivalent to driving a Hummer in New York City. We had two Airbnbs where the car was far too long for the parking spaces. In one place I had to drive across town and pay for parking in a public lot because of the parking restrictions.

In Palermo we did a ParkRun. What a great organization! They are mostly in the UK. Groups of people get together every week for free, fun, 5K races. The group in Palermo is incredibly friendly. We met a lot of nice people. Some locals and some people who travel around the world doing different ParkRuns.

https://www.parkrun.com/

Rental cars can be tricky. When we were in Ireland, we were downgraded to a subcompact. The disappointment wore off when we discovered how narrow and rock wall-lined the secondary lanes were.

Thanks for the ParkRun info. I appreciate skipping the pay for an unnecessary t-shirt drill.

One of the few fitness YouTubers I like, Mark Lewis, got his athletic journey started with ParkRuns. I wish there was one nearby me. They seem particularly wholesome and welcoming with a great organizing culture.

As someone who recently completed their first a pay-to-play run, I really appreciated having a properly recorded "achievement" run to orient my training around. I could have likely done with about 5% of the total organizing and support system. A well arranged course and someone handing we water was lovely. Having corporate sponsored cheering sections with professionally printed signs left me cold.

The ParkRun seems to have found a great balance. It offers plenty of people a regular crack at a new PB in a setting that celebrates all efforts. Simply as a diagnostic run I think it offers a lot to people as they develop their athleticism. I'm intrigued by the peripatetic ParkRun travelers. Seems like a nice thing to orient your travel around.

Good to know ParkRuns are an international phenomenon, we have them happening at more than one location where we live. I admire the volunteer cheerleaders

I recently met a 78-year-old guy who retired from Bethlehem Steel a while ago. The company went bankrupt just after he retired. At the time of retirement, his pension, healthcare and life insurance were valued at about $5,000+ per month. Bethlehem Steel underfunded pensions by $3.2b by the time of bankruptcy, with 13,000 employees and 70,000 pensioners drawing from the plan. The pensions were transferred to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) which administers and distributes the remaining funds. The healthcare and life insurance benefits were eliminated outright. He now receives just over $1,000 a month. It was interesting to hear a first person perspective on pension plan collapse from someone who lived it.

Since the global financial crisis, many legacy companies transferred their pension obligations to large insurance companies. Some large examples are GM which transferred $25b and IBM $16b to Prudential. AT&T sent $8.1b, Verizon $7.5b and Lockheed Martin $4.3b to Athene. Many smaller companies have done the same.

Any one company with a pension could fail like Bethlehem Steel. leaving the employees holding the bag. When companies transfer their pensions obligations en masse to too-big-to-fail insurers, are they successfully shifting the obligations to the taxpayers?

@Ego - Does the government not insure/guarantee all pensions up to a certain amount ?

How did the 78-year-old guy take it at the time and how long did he take to (re)adjust / grieve (if at all) and get on with life? Surely he shared the story!