HeyJaredItinerant Cat Lady
A bit about solo travel, a bit about petsitting, a lot about making a rich life on a skimpy budget
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 13
- Latest publication
- Sep 27, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 5, 2026
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An uncommon place becomes commonplace (opens the original)
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I’ve passed the halfway point of this stay in Herceg Novi. A thing I’m calling a stomach bug took me out of commission for a good two weeks—one week was the overt stomach stuff, and this past week has been a lingering under-the-weather-ness. I dragged myself out for a walk last night after a rainy morning. Fridge needed stocking, so I popped into a grocery store. The guy ahead of me in line made me furious with his habit of switching his weight from one foot to the other, with only about three s
Annie Dillard made me a sojourner (opens the original)
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I used to have a cat, an old fighting tom, who would jump through the open window by my bed in the middle of the night and land on my chest. I’d half-awaken. He’d stick his skull under my nose and purr, stinking of urine and blood. Some nights he kneaded my bare chest with his front paws, powerfully, arching his back, as if sharpening his claws, or pummeling a mother for milk. And some mornings I’d wake in daylight to find my body covered with paw prints in blood; I looked as though I’d been pai
Another Balkan bus day (opens the original)
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I’ve managed to solve the puzzle of travelling overland between Athens and Herceg Novi. A few weeks ago, I told you about the first half of that journey, from Athens to Vlorë. After staying in Vlorë for a week and a half, I made the trip to Herceg Novi. I wanted sophisticated online booking systems that showed me everything I needed to know. They weren’t easy to find. After spending loads of time with Rome2Rio, FlixBus, and Google Maps, I can tell you there are plenty of ways to travel by bus fr
Vlorë beyond day one (opens the original)
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Last week, I told you how my first morning in Albania went. I spent 10 nights in Vlorë. When I was planning the visit, I checked out a lot of YouTube videos from folks who’d visited before me. Could be algorithm bias, but I get the impression that lots of Americans have emigrated to Albanian in recent years—and have been vlogging their experiences. That’s how I learned that Albanian shops typically don’t accept card payments but might accept euros instead of leks if you’re in a pinch.I joined a
First-day problems in Albania (opens the original)
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For the past two weeks, I’ve told you about my bus ride from Athens to Vlorë and a bit about the strange place on the beach the taxi driver brought me to by mistake. My actual holiday apartment wasn’t on the beach, but it was indeed off the beaten path.Or, maybe better to say a beaten path was exactly where it was located. It was at a fair remove from the paved roads, though.<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QwyD!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_pro
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