exerpts from a letter to pops

So, i have only JUST applied for the EHIC (old name is E111)...after being decently sick at EXIT festival. Not more than 3 hours sleep for days, and tons of booze (and stuff).

better now, but at one point i thought my kidneys were about to fall out (but it turned out that it was just the muscles in my back right above the kidneys that hurt...from too much dancing!).
also at exit, i drank WAY too much dodgey sangria (which we made in the campsite) and ended up with a monster headache, and the shivers, for a whole night. The next two days saw me not able to go more than 3 hours without having an episode of the runs!

it was partly the lack of sleep, partly the excessive drinking, and partly the insane heat. Breathing dust and second hand smoke for 5 days didn't help either.

anyway,
i updated my blog about Belgrade, a city which really surprised me. i had a really good time there. i was expecting a terribly depressing war ravaged place, but nothing could be further from the truth.

i'm back in Budapest for a day or two, and will be heading through Vienna to Prague and then to Dresden and onto Berlin to hang with a friend from SF who will be there on the 18th or so.

money is still ok. but somewhere near half of what i started with. there is so much more to do! so much i missed along the way. Part of me wants to stop somewhere and work there, but the other part of me knows that i'll earn more money in SF, can save more easily there, and then come back out next year for another big tour!

however, working somewhere is entirely different to just visiting. maybe i'm thinking unrealistically, maybe it's insane to try and work abroad when i can work at home for so much more.
for instance, in Belgrade the average job pays 300 euros a month. rent is about 200 a month. that doesn't leave much left over, and there is the initial setup cost of searching for a job, getting a house and stuff. also. i haven't found a city that i'd really like to live in, not that i think would practically work out. and a big part of me wants to live in the countryside too.

i am dreaming about living in west Marin and commuting for work every day i work in the city (though often i'll be working at home building wheels for people and such).

anyhow, ramble over, hope all is well at home, i'd imagine i'll be thinking about coming through blighty for a couple weeks in a month and a half, since by then i will have flown to Spain from Germany, probably gone to Ibiza, and then perhaps the south of France...and maybe Italy....hmmm. hard to gauge how long to money will last in western Europe, compared to eastern Europe. things are definitely more expensive in eastern Europe than i had expected. most things are a little cheaper, when converted to dollars and then compared to the same thing back home, but some things are about equal also (and still some more things feel pretty pricey!). to me, this just shows how weak the dollar really is.