Every Day is Saturday, Right?

There is a saying recently used by Patrick, a fellow retiree and YouTuber, “Every day is Saturday” when it comes to life in retirement. That is certainly one way of putting it, and I must agree. So much so that it can sometimes be confusing what day it really is. No appointments, no pressing responsibilities most days, no meetings and especially, NO WORK. I know. What a terrible issue to have, right? Now add in long term slow travel and you create a unique dichotomy.

Another term we have become familiar with is, ‘Decision Fatigue.’ That is where there are so many decisions necessary to be made throughout one’s day that it begins to tire the brain. The “leisure-life” of retirement travel has its daily challenges that can begin to pile on after a while. With long-term travel as a major part of our retirement lifestyle, we are experiencing this to a degree and can confirm this way of living does involve a lot more decisions than we experienced as retirees for the 7-8 months prior to leaving.

Waking up in a new location every 3-30 days begins the minor decisions and problem-solving tasks. As you reach for your phone to turn off the alarm, it’s not on your bedside nightstand. That was last week. Today, it’s on a chair next to the one wall plug available for your EU adaptor necessary to plug it into.

Which way to the bathroom? Is it downstairs, upstairs, off the bedroom and where the heck is the light switch? Which toilet...oh one’s the bidet, that’s right. Now, how do I flush? There are two buttons, sometimes a pull chain, maybe a lever…ok. Problems all solved.

Shannon prefers milk in her coffee. Milk. Trip to the store. We can search the maps for the nearest store but must be specific. They have different terminology. A grocery store might also be what we in the West consider a mini mart. Some are the size of a single car garage or smaller, tucked away and barely seen. Follow the map directions. Can you read the signs from the country you are in? Some are intuitively simple, others are gibberish to us, the ignorant travelers. Fortunately, the locations we have been in so far, all use alphabet characters we are familiar with. It’s actually a fun mental game, (but still induces fatigue), of decoding the message. Taksi in Vlore on a taxi. Patate in Albania is potato. Stazioni in Italy is Station. Very few words are that simple though.

Great. So, we navigated the correct Rruget/ Albania, Strada/Italy, Estrada/Portugal…. And found the store. Now where’s the milk? We search on every shelf in every refrigerated appliance. Cheeses of dozens of varieties and yogurts, but no milk. Use language app and ask someone. Milk, leche, lait, latte is not refrigerated in many European stores. It is packaged in dry-good cartons and on a regular shelf. Use interpreter camera app to decipher the packaging to find which one is actual cows’ milk etc. Whew! Another successful mission. Oh wait. How and where do we line up for the cash register, with all the people seemingly milling around them? People don’t line up or queue the same in Europe or the same throughout Europe either. Will they take a credit card, or is cash necessary? What currency do we have this week? Euro, Lekk, USD? What is the exchange rate today? Now it’s our turn. Quick! How do we say “Good Morning” in their language again? Buongiorno…Miremengjes?

Thanks for coming along on just a tiny sample of our daily problem-solving tasks. We try to laugh them off and think of them as games or mysteries to decode, decipher or navigate. We know fully, and acknowledge, how privileged we are to be living this lifestyle. I just thought it might be humorous and interesting for folks to follow along and learn about the differences between life in retirement at home versus living and slow traveling long-term in retirement.

If you would like to hear more of our daily struggles, 😂 so that you can laugh at us, let me know in the Leave a Stone comment section and maybe we’ll make it a short weekly story.

Milk? Yes, cow's milk. In the cases on the floor or on a shelf. No refrigeration.

Cow's milk, in the cold case, right? No! These are the Albanian yogurt drinks.