mindstalk: (I do escher)
Spent a couple hours looking at transportation and hotel options. I haaaate this part. Trains looked complicated and going through the strike zone, Orbitz was expensive, but easyjet had good prices... at 9am or 7pm. And Tuesday was half the price of tomorrow. So I'll move to a hotel for one day in Amsterdam, 25 minutes closer to everything, and fly to Madrid Tuesday morning. Got a heavily discounted 4-star hotel for 3 days there... should have gone for 4, 3 nights really means only 2 full days. Well, I can juggle later.

Future plans are still a toss between "flee to Boston!" and "winter in South America". mlc23 had suggested language study as something for purpose; even if I didn't get into a class, I could probably put an ad out for someone to tutor me. Once I learned enough to be worthwhile... I realized the smart thing, or a smart thing, would be to hang on in Chile where I have friends, big city love notwithstanding. That could be fun, and I've have help finding an apartment. OTOH it'd delay actually putting down roots somewhere, and part of the appeal of Boston is 3 million SF and anime conventions to start going to, starting in January. Then again New Year's is a good time to leave Chile anyway... and a poor time to fly into Boston, of course.

Sunny today, so I figured I'd take advantage of my location and bike in the countryside some more. Unfortunately my butt is still sore and the bike seat rock hard, so that didn't last long. Tried walking to Katwoude, but know what walking along a flat farmy freeway you've seen for a week is? Boring, at least for me. My body kept voting for "warm sunny nap" so I eventually turned back.

One thing I don't remember Jane Jacobs mentioning in favor of short city blocks is all the interest they afford. You're not just walking in a straight line, or at least forced to, there's all these visual and ambulatory options you keep passing. Hmm, kind of like the advice for garden design, to have blocked sightlines so that there's surprises as you move around. Vs. very long blocks, which just feel oppressive to me. Or freeways. Trapped! On a line!

Skype is awesome; I called anime-German-Anna and talked for an hour for 1 euro and half my battery. Bad battery! Called got dropped once early on. It's occurred to me I might have more energy if I'd been talking to my friends more; text and e-mail are nice (though quiet recently), but hearing voices is cool.

Had second pepperburger, then tried some grilled cheese sandwiches with margarine (it was what was in the fridge) and the last of my brie. Came out... ok.

Anna asked if I've been eating healthily. Answer: somewhat? Diet low on vegetables or salads. Well, green vegetables. Decent in fruit -- bananas, oranges or OJ, apples -- and easy veggies like carrots or cherry tomatoes. Muesli and whole milk for breakfast for the past week, which I wonder if is a good idea given how little I've been drinking milk. Otherwise, lots of steaks, lasagna, bread, cheese.
mindstalk: (angry sky)
I want to ride it where I like

Nothing as crazy as the first AMV I ever loved (despite no exposure to the components) happened today, but I did ask my hostess about the bicycle rental the property description mentioned. Actually she just let me use it for free -- appropriate given the cobwebs, flat tires, and disturbing noises. Neighbor had a bike pump, though they seem to go for squishy tires here; I'm used to rock hard. I deferred to local expertise.

Anyway, the howling wasteland is a lot nice with sunlight and a bicycle! Got used to the bike down to the end of the lane -- it's a "City Hybrid", road bike tires, upright posture, weird gears -- then south down the main road to the next bus stop, Lagerdijk Katwoude. 8 minutes. Went west again, and unlike De Zedde the lane just keeps on going. Not much there -- a few houses, farms. I got pretty close to a cow. Lane kept on going, and a map later indicated it would have gone to an inland town, but a big incidence of mud caused me to turn back. On the otherside of the freeway is Katwoude, or Monnedickensomething, the signs are confusing. A "historic town", according to a sign, and it did look it. Decent size. I didn't run across a supermarket, even the lame kind, but got meat at a butcher's and saw that a bakery had no bread I wanted. Lots of boats. I found a continuation that didn't look historical, but absent a map or cell/GPS/map reception I halted my explorations. Passed some jewelry shops, which reminded me of the stores in Portree on Skye, surely not supported by the local 2500 (or 11,000 island, though maybe) population. People travel across the world to buy jewelry and stuff that's also been shipped across the world. o_O

6 minutes back home for a brief rest, then north. I discovered that Edam and Volendam, though connected, have funny roads. Yesterday I'd basically walked up a side road that branches east to Volendam. Today I stayed on the west side of the freeway, passing a branch due east to Volendam, and ended up in Edam. Where I hit the main road, curving southeast into Volendam, and apparently anything interesting in either town is off the main road. Lots of canals and ducks and swans, though. And separated bike lanes are awesome... apart from sharing the lane with motorcycles. Good for *them* I guess, but scary for me.

That main road seems to lack bicycle support, I asked around and ended up directed to the side road I'd walked up yesterday. I might investigate the branch tomorrow, because it looked like it started off having bike support, does it really evaporate halfway through?

Found another cheese and clog shop by Katwoude. Oh, and pump guy said the canals are freshwater. Makes them more useful (animals drinking? crops irrigating?) but man, ocean's just over there, waterlogged Low Countries are right here, and the water stays fresh? And lots of it, too.

I feel pretty good about today. Sunlight and motion and maybe aerobic exercise -- my build is such that I can walk pretty fast without it being particularly lung-working, unless hills are involved, and walking even faster is kind of stressful and boring. Legs and butt hurt though, bike seat was hard and I haven't biked in 71 days or so.

Still haven't planned what to do next... and it's after midnight so I think I'll try going straight to bed.

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