August is just as lovely as July; the days are still very warm and long, with over 14h of daylight, and the evenings are fresh, sometimes requiring a long shirt and jeans to be cozy. I’ve settled into life here quite comfortably, and have even picked up a few small contracts to keep my mind occupied.

The first is to develop an e-commerce store for Stefan’s business partner in Lichtenstein. It’s been while since I developed anything myself, but really need the cash to supplement my dying travel budget. Plus it’s good for me to keep up to date on the latest technologies. The second is to help a local web development agency. They produce lovely designs, but not all of them are very usable. So I make recommendations to improve the overall user experience, resulting in a website that’s much easier to use. Both these contracts can be done remotely, so they will allow me to work while travelling.

In terms of online services, Poland is still several years behind North America. As such, there are many opportunities to be found, and Stef and I are trying to setup a business. We agreed it would be relatively easy to copy a successful business from Canada and paste it in Poland, and that’s exactly what we are discussing. Although progress is slow, if things go well, I could have the passive revenue stream I’ve always been aiming to achieve.

Work aside, Stefan is doing his best to convince me to stay in Poland long term. He’s trying to find me a nice Polish wife, something my mom would love to see, and is generally going out of his way to make me feel comfortable and appreciated. We still train at the gym together 3 times as week, and spent many evenings drinking wine and laughing at each other.

We’ve also spent many afternoons at the “mobile office”, which means bicycle rides along the river that cuts through Warsaw. While in Montreal, there was many sunny and warm days where I would kick myself for having to go into an office all day, longing for a majestic motorcycle ride instead. Well, I’m finally living that experience here: when it’s cloudy or raining, I’m usually working in an indoor office. But during sunny days, I either setup my laptop on a restaurant terrasse or ride the bicycle with Stef. 🙂

Several years ago, I was in Tuscany, driving along some of the most dazzling landscapes ever witnessed. I wanted to accelerate through the tight curves in the low-powered rental car but my girlfriend at the time was afraid and kept asking me to slow down. Then several high-powered motorcycles zoomed past, and I promised myself to return one day on a motorcycle. Well, that day has finally arrived!

A few weeks ago I met a charming Polish girl named Weronika. She’s a motorcycle chick, and we’ve had several days trips around Warsaw. At one point she mentioned she’s travelling alone on a 3 week motorcycle trip around Europe, including Italy. Without hesitation, I invited myself. We leave on Sunday, Sept 4th, head down to Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, and along the Croatian sea (although I’ve seen the coast before by car, I’m eager to re-experience it by moto). Then we head west through the Italian mountains and down to Tuscany, before heading north again through Germany and Czech Republic. This is a dream come true! Since Stef’s Yamaha R6 is much too sporty, I rented a 2010 BMW R1200GS Adventure. It’s designed for very long trips, and even comes in my favourite colour, red.

Last week I was invited to Runmageddon, a boot-camp style race similar to the Tough Mudders or Spartan race. It was a 6km course with 30 obstacles such as running through tires, climbing ropes, slopes and walls, jumping over bags of hay, trudging through thick mud and dense forests. Although not in top shape, I was up for the challenge and joined thousands of fellow masochists for the event. Stef and a friend came to cheer for me; Stef called me a “pussy” and a “slow fucker”, while my friend encouraged me with “you can do it, don’t give up!”.

The event was extremely well organized, with a huge field, tents for post run massages, grilled meats, ice cream and hot showers. I completed the race in 1 hour and 20 minutes, which I think is a decent time because I didn’t walk much. The only real challenges for me were the rope obstacles, as the mud made it impossible to climb. Anytime you couldn’t physically perform an obstacle, they allowed you to do 20 burpees as an alternative; I did them three times.

People keeps asking whether I’ll stay in Poland. Life is easy here, so while it’s very possible, I’m not sure how I would manage with the cold and dark winter days. Since it’s not really a choice that needs to be made at the moment, it’s not something I think about often. Time will tell. For now, I’m enjoying myself and being present.