So, some body observations after a couple weeks in europe. Some of this stuff is crazy and just initial observations so imma just type some stuff and not worry about it being polished. Also I am NOT claiming to be an expert on avoidance in europe by any means, simply sharing some INITIAL observations as a newbie here.
First, yes, there are a LOT of new things going on in my body. The bread that smells amazing and you can eat without reaction – the SMELL is AMAZING – you can smell the bakeries from a mile away and they smell so pure. Same with produce.
In the states I always had this weird symptom, it is hard to describe, has anyone else had this? It is where you can’t fully exercise because it feels like when your muscles get to like 90% of a contraction, there is something “stuck” and your muscles don’t want to fully contract. Feels like some toxins or goo stuck at that end point of a muscle contraction. I could stil exercise in the states and had energy but that always sort of felt like a limitation. That has started to go away here for the first time in – maybe decades??? It feels really interesting.
Along those lines, I do think my body is undergoing further deeper detox here beyond what I could attain in the usa, though I don’t know the significance of this in terms of meaningful health recovery or if it is just a novelty / toy. When I use the bathroom both 1 and 2 it feels MUCH more toxic like a lot of stuff is coming out. Also I can feel my detox a lot more in hotel rooms. I don’t move rooms but I am aware of it. That didn’t happen in the usa for the last 3-5 years. I also notice the famous “re-breathing” effect a lot more here, I haven’t quite figured this out but I guess it indicates that actually I am detoxing a lot from “american toxins” that I never got clear enough of in the usa perhaps.
Also I have seen some serious bicyclists around this area riding in their full spandex gear and in college this used to be my sport, I was a serious cyclist – both road and mountain. I’ve lost all interest in doing that again since being sick and even after recovering still no interest. Not sure why.
But today I was thinking about stopping by a bike store and trying to get a bike. I just FELT like doing it again, it wasn’t a philosophical or intellectual decision. It was like a light switch that was off and turned back on in terms of a desire to do it, and my body feels a lot more springy and energetic like I could just go out and do it. I still think at my age that crashing on a bike is a really dumb thing to do and so I still don’t know if it is a good idea or not on a practical level. But that desire to go do it is definitely new.
I’ve noticed some things happening that also happened in the states but which have just happened MORE here. So not totally new, just a new degree. For example my eyes – I seem to need prescription glasses much less here, this has been talked about in the mold community. Also – the brightness of the sun – just doesn’t bother me and the idea of sunglasses seems silly even on a bright day, my eyes are fine. In fact putting on prescription sunglasses feels kind of bad – it is almost like I have “unmasked” to not needing glasses at all – feels so weird.
I do not think being in europe is some kind of magic cure, I still feel my body sort of counting down the days til needing ozone treatment again, some of you know ozone is my magic treatment. So I wouldn’t say it is a magic cure by any means.
I also find that an interesting “homeopathic” effect of toxins is happening to me again, this happened early in avoidance. Basically like you get a small dose of a bad toxin and – like a diluted homeopathic remedy – it kicks your body into gear to do a LARGER degree of detox for that toxin and hence you end up better off than when you started out. I’m a little less sure of this observation but something “new” is definitely going on with this.
Also chemical sensitivity – I’d say my MCS was still 95% gone in the usa but it is even MORE gone now. Like you get a waft of super strong cologne, perfume, cigarette smoke – all very common in europe – and I can truthfully say it doesn’t bother me AT ALL. Like it has just become back-of-mind instead of something I am aware of. Newbies should also be aware that heightened reactions to these is also a sign of the super toxin MT being present, for example when I was in Bordeaux france a few days ago, there is a lot of MT and all of a sudden those fragrances felt terrible to me again.
I’ve been going on long walks and I just feel a lot more robust in general, like I could walk forever and not get achy and tired and also things like thirst, heat, too much son, etc – all sort of doesn’t matter at all.
Don’t get me wrong there are a TON of challenges in europe and I really don’t suggest coming here at all without some general confidence in locations you are going to … what I am describing in this writeup are the POSITIVE things I have noticed. There are a lot of negatives too especially in terms of practicality, conveniences, expenses, visas, language, other kinds of toxins, etc. So I am not by any means trying to just paint a rosy picture. Moreso I was just trying to talk about some of those “unicorn” changes that people wonder if occur in Europe or abroad. At this point it seems INSANE to try to go back to the states and fight with all the stupid toxins and impossible housing, like it just feels totally absurd to do that. Probably I wil have to though.
Also, you really CAN find better housing and hotels throughout a lot of europe. Here is why: Basically most of europe is a combo of old and new buildings. Some being very old and mostly stone. I find that the batting average for these stone buildings is VERY good especially for more recovered avoiders who can deal with small amounts of building mold (you’re gonna still have some wood and issues in these buildings). But I have found that maybe at least 20-40% of this older stone housing / hotels is good, and maybe 10-15% of it is EXCELLENT. And much of it is a lot cheaper than the usa too. Sometimes, MUCH cheaper.
For example in USA I rarely find hotels in old/historic stone buildings, and the one time I did recently and it was blissful on the east coast – was $500/night. So that is like a super rare thing and a special treat. But in europe you can find these quite easily (more common) and also much cheaper (more affordable).
Rental cars are a lot more money than I thought, so I tend to spend more money on rental cars than housing here! However, a lot of the areas I’ve found – should I choose to “settle in” at some point and stay for a while (as opposed to keep bouncing around) then a lot of these areas are very walkable and have great public transport so I could envision myself staying for a longer period and not even having a car at all, which would cut WAYYYYYYYYYYY down on the expenses. I think because tourism is so popular in europe, they can get away with charging an arm and a leg for rental cars – and trust me they do.
One big problem here that I haven’t experienced in the usa – and I sort of anticipated this based on research I did – is that there seems to be a lot more heavy metal contamination in drinking water, bottled water, shower water, even sometimes in the air – and since heavy metals are really bad for mold avoiders, I might possibly say that this is the worst thing about europe so far – navigating the heavy metal issues. If you ask Chat GPT for a summary of the industrialized and heavy metal pollution in various europe cities you’ll see that basically every single city is a landmine of historical dumping, industry, ship building, etc etc etc etc. Yes, huge downside.
Also I’ve learned a lot of practical stuff as well, such as you really don’t need cash – everyone said you needed real physical money to transact but I have not found that to be the case at all, in fact I haven’t used physical money A SINGLE TIME yet, every single place has tap-to-pay with your phone.
Other interesting observations are that you can get flights MUCH cheaper for some reason if you connect through certain cities, even if those flight routes include legs to identical cities that are very expensive, if you just add on a random city for one of the legs sometimes the price drops like 70%. So you really need to play around with the google flights tool and try different combinations. Also I have found flying itself to be an EXTREMELY pleasant experience, I seem to feel fantastic on most airplanes and it is a nice break from needing to think / navigate / etc. I had one moldy plane but it was just a minor mold, no big deal. And only one moldy airport so far of the 12 airports recently – Bordeaux airport was terrible, not surprisingly since has MT there too and often outdoor supertoxins make indoor spaces bad as well.
Oh, and here’s a doozy that I learned the hard way – there are really TWO aspects of europe – the main cities where tourists go and then the long distances between them / the rural countryside. Do NOT assume that just because a city is nice, that the drive outside the city is nice. What I have found is that oftentimes when you get into the countryside, it turns into an absolutely typical first world industrialized nation, with agriculture, glyphosate spraying, industrial stuff, NASTY. So, there are the cities of europe that everyone talks about and then there is the countryside which CAN BE (not always) horrendous. So from that perspective even though I did try driving 5 hours from one city to another, I MUCH prefer flying from point to point.
I do think the “older” flavors of europe cities and buildings have an appealing biome and generally much fewer supertoxins, I’ve talked before about how later in avoidance my body is craving more of these older / rich / established biome areas – like cities – rather than just being on the top of some clear mountains. Combined with the fact that costs are lower here and older stone buildings are easier to find, that makes europe a pretty interesting place to do avoidance, all things considered, as long as you aren’t rushing into it and accidentally going to the bad parts, because yes there are a LOT of bad parts in europe.
I do think europe is probably easier for experienced avoiders who are a little further along, there is not much pristine here at all due to how old everything is and how close together it all is, and there is a lot less flexibility in terms of just going off in a tent and RV and randomly camping on public land. Plus all the rules and regulations in other languages are harder to navigate in terms of camping “how and where you want”, the usa in general seems to be more flexible about just sort of exploring and sleeping wherever you want. You CAN camp and travel in a van or RV in europe it is all just a lot more regimented and structured.
In fact, I would say that that is a major observation I’ve had about europe, sort of summarizes a lot – the roads, lifetyle, traveling, everything is sort of prepackaged and regimented and strict, a lot of the roads – even local village roads – FEEL like the freeways / highways of the USA, you can’t just “pull over” anywhere you want or turn on side streets, EVERYTHING feels like you are on a train ride (even driving) and you have to “exit the ride” only at “pre-determined spots.” In fact the first few days I was here I found myself getting really worn out from driving around because unlike America, where you can just sort of pull over somewhere and gather your thoughts, in much of europe you CANT do that, once you start driving it is actually hard to just stop somewhere – you kind of have to follow all of these serpentine twists and turns on the roads and even if you DO find a place to stop, often there is “no parking” or it is a RIDICULOUSLY narrow/inappropriate space where there is no room for cars or locals are yelling at you and telling you to get out of their driveway. in this way you are sort of “forced” to funnel yourself into more normal/common ways of moving around including “ending up” at a real “destination” like a hotel. Massive difference from the states.
Of course it seems like Putin really wants to take over Europe and so I am not sure how great an idea it is to just sit around here and smell the roses, we shall see.
I have also shared and will continue to share other observations mainly in this thread on my FB group, you need to be signed into FB and a member of my “mold avoidance milestones” group for this to work.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/moldavoidanceqa/posts/3345361515595054/
And I am also sharing some on my instagram account called @lymemeetsmold
https://www.instagram.com/lymemeetsmold/
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