Why Romania? To attend FIWE (Financial Independence Week Europe), a gathering of two dozen people interested in maximizing happiness, lifestyle design, anti-consumerism, minimalism, investing, frugality, and more.
To get to Romania, I took the complicated way. Step 1) run to Jakominiplatz, the central bus station in Graz with a backpack and a guitar (the instrument is important later), 2) take a bus to the Vienna Airport, 3) pick up a rental car and another conference attendee, 4) drive through Hungary, 5) cross the border into Romania, brave narrow 2-lane roads with speeding cars and heavy city traffic to arrive Timișoara for the first part of the conference.
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| A cool conference T-shirt |
Early mornings were filled with running (and talking), eating breakfast (and talking). Each day had multiple presentations, but with time for walking (and talking), eating (and talking), and drinking (and talking). The conference was small enough to get to know everyone there, but large enough to have a diverse set of view points. There were people in all stages of life: new graduates, new retirees, mid-career workers doing all sorts of different types of work: full-time workers, part-time workers, self-employed freelancers, entrepreneurs, retirees.
Sunday, we were interrupted by a freak storm with winds up to 100km/h. Many of the street lights and traffic lights stopped working due to downed power lines. The next morning, we dodged downed tree limbs on our run along the river.
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| Devastation from a freak storm in Timișoara |
On Sunday night, after a conference wrap-up / feedback session, I got out my guitar and held a sing-along for songs about financial topics that I'd written over the summer. For example "What Do You Do With a Chunk Of Money?" (Tune: "Drunken Sailor", by the Irish Rovers) and "One More Year To Work" (Tune: "One More River to Cross"). I was glad that others joined in the singing, because my voice and guitar playing aren't good enough to be solo, they are best enjoyed while being distracted by your own singing.
The next morning, most of the conference attendees moved on to the "extra" part of the conference. Everyone took a train, except for me and my carpool buddy from Vienna. We took everyone's luggage in the car, which ended up piled high enough to block the back window. It was an exciting experience to drive out of Timișoara with not rearview mirror and half the traffic lights not working.
We arrived in the quiet, relaxing stay in Jimbolia, a town of 10,000 on the western border of Romania near Serbia. North of the town, there are several lakes, artifacts decades of digging out clay to produce bricks and roofing tiles that can be seen in buildings around the town and across the rest of the country.
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| Brick church built with local materials in Jimbolia |
The lakes officially provide a habitat for fish, fishing and beautiful views. Unofficially, they also provide swimming. One morning, I ran there with a friend and jumped in for a cool refreshing swim.
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| At the lake, dodging horses and stray dogs |
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| Abandoned factory building in Jimbolia |
On the way back to Austria, I stopped in Budapest for a few hours. For several reasons: 1) I've never been to Budapest and had heard it is beautiful, 2) I planned to meet up with someone from an online forum I frequent, 3) another conference attendee was traveling there and asked for a ride.
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| A view of the Pest side of the river, from the Buda side |
At 3am the next morning, I arrived back in Graz. Tired from the journey, but happy and full of excitement about designing our life to be as we want it and maximizing our family's happiness. I have a hypothesis that working fewer hours, leaving more hours for other endeavors will increase my family's happiness level. The company I work for is supportive of experiments and will likely be willing to give it a try. First step: reduce my work schedule from four to three days a week.
How are you designing your life to maximize your happiness?
