The high cost of living...

Well okay, maybe "like rats" is needless dramatization, but it flows nicely. I was talking to a friend the other day about the exorbitant real estate prices here in Bucharest, especially in our area which, to be fair, is one of the nicer, close to city center areas. I was shocked to find several apartments for sale on my street or adjacent streets in old, Commie buildings (like mine) going for insane prices. For the same price, you could get an apartment, albeit smaller maybe, in some capital or along the coast in Spain or Italy. And pardon me, much as I'm fond of Bucharest, I've walked this street a million times and I've yet to see a single drop of sea.

Nobody seems to know exactly what's going on with the market, how inflation has created this huge surge in prices, some speculate it's bound to fall soon, but the fact remains that you could use something like 150K-200K to live either here or in a nice little flat overlooking the beach.

(To some, that might not seem like that big a deal, but anyone who knows me knows how I love swimming and spending time near the water.)

Even by the kindest comparison, our poor old Bucharest isn't coming out too well - a hop, skip and a jump away from some of the poorest, ugliest neighborhoods in the city, is a nearby Lidl enough to lure you to live on my street? Not to throw shade on Lidl here, big fan, but still, I'm not sure it's a justified investment.

Which leads to a (to me) more interesting question...

How much of our life is lived by default in the place we were assigned, in the place and with the people we simply assumed to be the status quo?

Also,

How much are we willing (or can afford) to invest in creating our ideal life?

Obviously, you've got to end it somewhere, to say okay this may not be ideal, but this is good enough. But do we really go as far as we could down that path of betterment, or simply have the majority of decisions in life set to "default"? I've never understood why so many people assume that simply because they were born in a place, they should die there, that they shouldn't go out and explore, or that accepting that their life will look like this always is a must.

At times, crafting a life you would deem 'ideal' involves changes, abrupt shifts, unexpected moves. Risk-taking. And it might not always pan out, but it's well-worth it, knowing you've strived.

I have this little postcard on my balcony I got in Lisbon that reads "I was meant to exist by the sea". And it's cute, but me, I've always taken it as a challenge. An open question. Is that you saying this simply to be cutesy with no real intention or wistfulness, or is it another case of this forced acceptance of the status quo? "I was meant to", but my parents married and settled in a small nowhere town so I guess that's my life now. But I was meant for great things.

The Universe's effort to bring the Spanish coast closer to me.

I'm sorry, but if you don't believe you were meant for great things and live your life acting intentionally on that assumption, why should the Universe smile on you? I've been observing it a bit, the Universe, and it's not in the habit of smiling on people who expect things to be handed to them without risk or uncertainty.

What do you need around you to be happy?

Aside from the obvious loving family, supportive social circle etc. I mean the physical aspects of it. So many of these ads say stuff like "close to a Lidl/Carrefour, a school, pharmacy, and other such amenities". Those are things you need to exist comfortably. But is comfort the same as happiness? When you were a child or a teenager, was that your big dream? Living near a Lidl? It's undeniably practical (and I've lugged groceries around enough to appreciate that), but isn't there more, and if you're going to make a major purchase, such as an apartment, shouldn't you go for the one that makes your soul sing, instead of the practical, sensible one?

I don't know. I'm just thinking aloud here. I just wish I knew why so many people just seem to accept the life that's carved out for them instead of taking the pickaxe in their own hands, so to speak.

Perhaps my little window sign is right, perhaps you were meant to and for certain adventures in your life, but that's not a ticket bought and paid for. It's an intention, a path among several. Surely, Frodo is meant to save Middle Earth. But he could just as easily never walk out his door. That, also, is an option.