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Moved from the hotel, which was stopgap due to schedule messup, to the Airbnb place originally asked for. Had been described as somewhat rural and rustic village not too far out. More like 6 or so houses in the middle or green flatness, 25 minutes by bus. My amsterdam pass doesn't work on those buses, I need another 4€ each way. The buses run "6x an hour" which is actually 3 overlapping 30 minute buses, not one bus running every 10 minutes. Nearest food is in Edam, supposedly 5 minutes away by bus but I wouldn't know since two buses raced by without stopping. I'm currently going back to Amsterdam for the evening since I know it and have maps, though I don't know of a good supermarket downtown. Though I'm already rather tempted to look into cancellation and just go somewhere else.
Finally got a SIM card, Vodafone. Comes with data though I can't tell the rates. Signal is very weak where I'm staying.
The two bus drivers I've talked to on this line have had poor English, which I realize is an irrational complaint.
Naturally, my eee/Ubuntu doesn't like the wifi encryption, and this time there's no ethernet jack so I've had to revert to old USB boot.
Hans had recommended Dutch fried food. This would require my having seen a Dutch restaurant. I have not. Everything is some other type of restaurant, or generic pizza/burger place... Ok, no longer true; I passed a hotel restaurant with a short but explicitly Dutch menu. The items did not particularly appeal... I asked a guy on the street, and he could think of one place, reachable by "avoid being eaten by a grue" directions.
So I'm at an all you can eat Japanese restaurant, though it might not be worth it, compared to my happy memories of Vancouver. Can order 5 items at once, many being singlel pieces of nigiri. And they don't serve tap water, which morally offends me, though I didn't think to just walk out at that point. Fast serving of my order, though, except for the gyoza. Nigiri are half the usual width. Miso was the most interesting I've had ina while, tofu and seaweed and green onion. Bloomington had better gyoza. Decent salmon. Worst red snapper ever. I now realize that what I wanted was yellowtail, and I got confused between that (which isn't on the menu) and the always bland snapper, but it was still, well, different than any other snapper. Chewier and more opaque. Wasn't a mistaken piece of octopus, in case you wonder. Bunch of tempura, including novel fish tempura. Cold soba noodles. Tuna salad, which from the picture I'd though would be seared tuna but was actually more like canned tuna. Fish balls, which are okay but not very exciting.
Jack's having hallucinations outside of Paris. Quicksilver just got weird.
They're irritatingly inconsistent. Order one thing, and you get a little piece of sushi. Order another, and you get a plate of beef or bowl full of noodles and things.
Earlier I'd stopped into the Victoria Hotel, which turned out to be an experience itself: the entrance is an automatic revolving... thing, like a glass door but missing a partition, so it's more like a secret bookcase... Anyway, I went in to ask about proper supermarkets downtown, figuring there must be some. It's physically inobvious, only the store name announcing its presence. I think it's in a converted hotel story itself. Anyway, went there after dinner; it's right by the bus station so as convenient a market as I'd find in Edam, barring the travel time. Hardly any bread though, though I did get a couple more crappy Dutch croissants (the last batch was crunchier than usual, especially the next morning). Some muesli was cheap, €1/kg, so I figured I could have that and milk for a while. I asked, and kaerne milk is sour milk. Buttermilk? Reminds me of the sour milk I inadvertently got in London, though it didn't say so. I got volle instead -- whole, obviously.
The 7.50 seems to get me a daypass, so I could at least go back and forth. Possibly even take other lines from this company. There seems to be some integration with my card -- maybe I could put cash on top of the pass and pay for the daypasses that way.
BTW, when I say 25 minute bus ride, I don't mean slow urban, I mean down a highway at speed, with a stop every 5 minutes. There's a TV screen of sorts on the bus, which on the first one was a mix of ads and upcoming stops, on the second one didn't work, and on the third one was just ads. Fortunately a voice announced the upcoming stops.
Sorry for being so negative, but I'm tired and still coughing and moving into surprises like this is stressful.
Finally got a SIM card, Vodafone. Comes with data though I can't tell the rates. Signal is very weak where I'm staying.
The two bus drivers I've talked to on this line have had poor English, which I realize is an irrational complaint.
Naturally, my eee/Ubuntu doesn't like the wifi encryption, and this time there's no ethernet jack so I've had to revert to old USB boot.
Hans had recommended Dutch fried food. This would require my having seen a Dutch restaurant. I have not. Everything is some other type of restaurant, or generic pizza/burger place... Ok, no longer true; I passed a hotel restaurant with a short but explicitly Dutch menu. The items did not particularly appeal... I asked a guy on the street, and he could think of one place, reachable by "avoid being eaten by a grue" directions.
So I'm at an all you can eat Japanese restaurant, though it might not be worth it, compared to my happy memories of Vancouver. Can order 5 items at once, many being singlel pieces of nigiri. And they don't serve tap water, which morally offends me, though I didn't think to just walk out at that point. Fast serving of my order, though, except for the gyoza. Nigiri are half the usual width. Miso was the most interesting I've had ina while, tofu and seaweed and green onion. Bloomington had better gyoza. Decent salmon. Worst red snapper ever. I now realize that what I wanted was yellowtail, and I got confused between that (which isn't on the menu) and the always bland snapper, but it was still, well, different than any other snapper. Chewier and more opaque. Wasn't a mistaken piece of octopus, in case you wonder. Bunch of tempura, including novel fish tempura. Cold soba noodles. Tuna salad, which from the picture I'd though would be seared tuna but was actually more like canned tuna. Fish balls, which are okay but not very exciting.
Jack's having hallucinations outside of Paris. Quicksilver just got weird.
They're irritatingly inconsistent. Order one thing, and you get a little piece of sushi. Order another, and you get a plate of beef or bowl full of noodles and things.
Earlier I'd stopped into the Victoria Hotel, which turned out to be an experience itself: the entrance is an automatic revolving... thing, like a glass door but missing a partition, so it's more like a secret bookcase... Anyway, I went in to ask about proper supermarkets downtown, figuring there must be some. It's physically inobvious, only the store name announcing its presence. I think it's in a converted hotel story itself. Anyway, went there after dinner; it's right by the bus station so as convenient a market as I'd find in Edam, barring the travel time. Hardly any bread though, though I did get a couple more crappy Dutch croissants (the last batch was crunchier than usual, especially the next morning). Some muesli was cheap, €1/kg, so I figured I could have that and milk for a while. I asked, and kaerne milk is sour milk. Buttermilk? Reminds me of the sour milk I inadvertently got in London, though it didn't say so. I got volle instead -- whole, obviously.
The 7.50 seems to get me a daypass, so I could at least go back and forth. Possibly even take other lines from this company. There seems to be some integration with my card -- maybe I could put cash on top of the pass and pay for the daypasses that way.
BTW, when I say 25 minute bus ride, I don't mean slow urban, I mean down a highway at speed, with a stop every 5 minutes. There's a TV screen of sorts on the bus, which on the first one was a mix of ads and upcoming stops, on the second one didn't work, and on the third one was just ads. Fortunately a voice announced the upcoming stops.
Sorry for being so negative, but I'm tired and still coughing and moving into surprises like this is stressful.