Things change quickly. My initial plans to spend two months in Germany began to shift about a week ago as I considered what I was accomplishing and what my time here was doing to my budget. (Consider: In twenty-nine days in Germany I spent exactly $7 less than I did in fifty-nine days in Armenia.) The second point speaks for itself.
Considerations regarding the first arose as I discovered how jarring it felt to spend only 1-2 weeks in each city. There’s a certain richness of experience that comes with doing what I did in Armenia: two full months living in once place, traveling elsewhere only for brief and sporadic excursions. Two months is enough time to feel like you are actually living in a place and not simply visiting. You know where to get groceries, you have places you like to go to read, you become a familiar regular at your favorite restaurant, and you settle into a rhythm.
None of those things were happening in Germany. Only in Essen and Berlin did I have concrete ideas of what I wanted to do. In Essen, however, other than a four day convention there is nothing of note, and thus no reason for me to stay outside of the four days. Berlin is a thoroughly interesting city, but also an expensive one. And so I had decided to split my time up between Munich, Essen, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, and Berlin. I quickly discovered, however, that the effect was very unpleasant. The traveling made me tired, and the short stays in each city meant that I largely played the role of tourist, spending enough time in each place to see everything once before heading on again. Doing a long stay in Berlin was logistically unfeasible, so a week ago I decided to cut my losses and head to Turkey early. A $90 plane ticket on top of what I already had on hand was easily balanced out by the savings on food and accommodations.
My plan now is to stay out the full length of my 90 day Turkish visa before heading on to Hungary at the end of January (for three months there as well).