Enjoying the wine and smelling the roses

[canuck750]

I am crossing the Bulgarian plateau on my way to Turkey and enjoying the scenery thinking about all the blessings we in North America we have to be thankful for. Europe is amazing and beautiful but my traveling across Canada and the USA just enforces how lucky we are. The local history of Eastern Europe is stained in blood and ancient grievances remain current. We in the new world are so fortunate. I wish we could all realize how insignificant our liberal / conservative differences are. This two month journey my wife and I are on has been great and every day I am thankful for what I have back home.  Not intending to come across schmaltzy, just resetting priorities😉

[JJ]

Amen!!  Well stated...   Safe travels!

[cliffrod]

Agreed. 

One of my very best friends started working in that region about a decade ago, then married & moved to Turkey. Don't think he's been back to the states for at least 5-6 yrs.   It may be a great adventure & he claims all the political unrest is "no big deal" but I cannot imagine leaving the USA like that.   

Lots of red tape about old cars & bikes, too.  If they haven't been continuously registered & used, you cannot just put them back on the road like here.  It's a whole different system.

Ride safe & safe travels home.

[Huzo]

Yes. That happens to me too when around those parts, I start to think that way.
From the top of the Adriatic eastward, it starts to take on a “ look”. Certainly a nice place to visit for a bloke like me whose country has a white history younger than the room I’m staying in quite often..
For me it’s like I’m living in a National Geographic documentary.

[Perazzimx14]

I'm enjoying the Scotch and hydrating with beer. Life is good

[Markcarovilli]

Agreed on all counts....

Mark

[nick949]

I agree Jim, after my jaunt across the north I was extremely thankful for the space, the freedom and the knowledge that I'd be fixed for free if I fell off. All that was missing was a bit of visible culture. All those eons of strife and development certainly resulted in some outstanding buildings and stuff.  Here - we just don't got it.

Have safe fun

Nick

[Lannis]

Ah, we live dangerously today on WG .... although the OP honestly expresses the frank impressions gained from world travel and the broadening effect that it has, I can feel the electricity crackling around the edges, smell the ozone, sense the portending threat to the "safe space" ... only a nudge needed to tip it over into the primordial chaos of forum blood sport ...         

Hum, humph, well being all that as it may, I too always appreciate the scope and span of history that overshadows that of the New World by dozens of centuries when I travel too ....

Lannis