I sailed cape to cape on the Bark Europa in 2018, and while we did need to use the engines at times, there was a strong preference to sail under wind power unless absolutely necessary. Everyone in the crew was very much environmentally focused.
On the point about warm showers... It's pretty cold down there around Antarctica!
I loved travelling with nothing but the wind powering us, and I'd prefer to sail over flying, preventing a lot of emissions. Unfortunately the world moves too fast now and we can't afford to spend months at sea.
Having visited Iran by myself and having had the pleasure of being invited to join strangers in several cities to meet their friends and join them for meals at their homes, I found this a bit depressing to read.
Would Iranians expect foreigners to understand and play along? Surely not.
I definitely didn't perceive that the invitations were anything but sincere at the time, but now I'll never know for sure.
I can relate to this. I was briefly around 1800 in HD and DE, but found that if I didn't play for a while that I'd come back and find myself outclassed.
I uninstalled and reinstalled the game about five times over a couple of years because I found myself putting too much time into it to try to maintain a competitive skill level.
I actually tried to get into chess after quitting AoE2, to fill that strategic urge, but found the same thing - if I wasn't dedicating time and thought to it regularly I couldn't retain the advances I'd made in skill without going through a "warm up" period all over again (usually of losses).
I share the same interest. I remember years ago looking on Google Maps at South Georgia and dreaming about going there one day.
Well I decided to make "one day" happen and visited there as part of a two month sailing voyage on a tall ship. We also visited Antarctica and a number of Antarctic islands. Deception Island was a highlight.
We approached Tristan da Cunha but couldn't land due to the swell, which was disappointing.
I still dream about visiting these remote places, but the voyage did a great job of satisfying the urge (for now).
The voyage was via barkeuropa.com and it was one of the best experiences of my life.
I loved travelling with nothing but the wind powering us, and I'd prefer to sail over flying, preventing a lot of emissions. Unfortunately the world moves too fast now and we can't afford to spend months at sea.