Happiness Only Money Can Buy

Happiness only money can buy....what a pompus title. The fact is, anybody in my position would feel the same way, but that's my position. - That's supposed to be funny, not thoughtful. Coming from Paris to one of the nicer areas of a coastal city in a "developing country" and living near the beach makes me appreciate price differences.

After a long, weird trip from Paris to Varna by way of Sofia (7 hrs) in a smoke-filled cab, I've felt a great deal of comfort in this city. I tell my wife, from time to time, that there is a "honeymoon period" that one experiences when moving somewhere new. One moves somewhere because he likes something or some things about a city or has a reason to go there. After awhile, the exciting or appealing things about the city usually mellow a bit and one can make a better estimation. I'll let you know.

For the time being, Varna suits me just fine. It is a laid-back beach town with laid-back beach people. As much as I'd like to view myself as a black tie, wine-sipping, Paris type, at heart I'm really more of a West-Coast guy in American terms. However I'm in the Eastern Hemisphere and I'm an East-Coast guy here, but it means the same thing. I realize I have already made some comparisons but the two cities are actually incomparable. Ancient, world-renowned city with unmistakable identity versus post-communist, democratic republic struggling upward. I'm comparing again, aren't I? Well why don't you get off my back.

Check in soon for a report about how the water pressure here causes inadvertent, internal cleansing and lower birth rates in poor countries........ win-win.