Last year in planning my route to Moscow one option was to head straight east from Istanbul, and at the time I thought heck, if I’m going to go around the Black Sea why not go around the Caspian as well? but in the end I opted to go north instead and check out several Romanian castles which may have been models for Bram Stoker. A couple months ago one of the proctors at a German proficiency test was the son of Iranian immigrants, and I really enjoyed talking with him about visiting Iran, then last week I was speaking with a German man at a tech firm about his trip to Tehran. I’m starting to seriously research now, and happily the US State Department has useful advice to offer. I’m updating my will, and am clear about my funeral wishes, but am undecided about what to do with my collection of artwork.