Welcome to Widdershinning Weiss

Greetings! Allow me to orient you to the purpose of this here site. I’m going exploring, and I intend to catalog it on these pages. In October 2019 I depart for Europe, where I’ll spend a month or so, and then to onto Asia. After that whenever/wherever it stops, nobody knows. My intent is to circumnavigate the wet rock and eventually return from whence I came. You know, kind of like that whole Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria thing, but with less smallpox. Below are some FAQs to shed a little more light on this plan of mine.

Why? I want to see and hear and taste and touch all that this planet has to offer (the jury’s still out on smell).

What? Let’s start with: what’s Widdershinning? Is that even a word? Nope! But the word widdershins is. It’s a seldom used adverb, which refers to moving in the direction opposite of the path of the sun (better known as counterclockwise; meanwhile the antonym of widdershins is deisul (or… you probably guessed it, clockwise)). As this journey of mine is as far from an ordinary experience as I can experience, an equally foreign word felt appropriate to use to title my blog. Making it more apt, the origin of the word widdershins is in the German language, where I’m beginning my journey. If I travel widdershins, am I not widdershinning? And thus you are reading Widdershinning Weiss.

When? I’ll be leaving Boston at the end of September for a pit stop in New York and will shortly thereafter depart the U.S. on October 1. I’m leaving with a couple of one-way flights, none of which to return me to American soil. But for the sake of argument let’s assume this trip will end in winter 2020.

How? Planes, trains, and automobiles of course! A little less literally; I have temporarily set aside housing and employment in favor of international flavor. As I go I plan to enjoy modest accommodations. Everything I’ll need I will carry on my back. And if I don’t have it, then I don’t need it.

Who? Me! And you? Let me know if you want to tag along for a leg of the journey, or if you’ll already be somewhere out there and want to see if we can rendez vous. Email is probably the most reliable way to communicate for now.

Where? I already told you, East! Europe and Asia!! Specifically hovering around 50° for a few weeks gradually down to 10°. Not familiar with latitudinal coordinates? Alright, if you must know, the tentative plan in rough chronological order is: Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Nepal, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. Likely with a few other places sprinkled in where convenient or worthy. And all subject to change, of course. I have many ideas but things will remain amorphous for a while and I will have plenty of research to do the entire time, so please share your thoughts on what I should be doing!

So again welcome, and congratulations on making it through my first blog post! For now, I’ll leave you with my song of the moment: You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet by Bachman Turner Overdrive.