Day 2: Ambition hits the wall
12:45pm
I'm way off the map, when the map is the one provided by the hostel. Yesterday I had found what I confidently concluded to be a long commercial drag. After discussing the OLPC project and both European and American travel with Germans Jan and Johannes this morning, I headed further down the drag than yesterday and started finding shops that sold useful things. I found a digital camera store and got a universal battery charger (€60), then bought lunch at "De Kaaswaag" ("Specialist in Kaas, Noten, Wijn, en Delicatessen"). Got some leverworst and a ridiculously good cheese: Oud Snijdwase, I think it was. Every cheese on the shelf looked good anyway. Most of them were in giant wheels. Kept walking, out of the kaaswaag, until I found a park. Up until a few minutes ago it was teeming with kids and flying soccer balls. Now it's a quaint setting with a few picnicking families and the usual assortment of city park dwellers. There's a fantastic fountain in the center of the park.
This is the real Amsterdam I came to see. Shopkeepers greet me in Dutch here and I still feel weird with either asking them to speak English to me, or greeting them back using unmistakeable English.
The weather is cool today, while the Sun is warm. This is much nicer than yesterday when it was scorching until it rained. It's a gorgeous day overall.
1:20pm
A small group is doing Chinese sword forms on the park grass.
2:45pm
Found a bench outside an apartment building on Gerard Dou Straat. Found an open air market consisting mainly of extended storefronts from the stores on the street. In this way it is much like Portobello market, London, but bigger, denser, and more varied. Found a headset so I can get on the conference call tonight, (€7.50) and a tea/spice/fragrance/kitchenware shop that had dried rose petals for sale. (€1.50) Naturally I picked up a packet. Have been wandering around aimlessly since finding both ends of the market. Am currently rehydrating with 1.5L of Spa Reine water. (€3.50)
I notice a lack of two things; one: convenience stores in the London style, i.e. tiny groceries with an emphasis on ready to eat food and chilled beer; two: the presence of uniformed police officers. I'm starting to get a bit brain-tired from all the Dutch that I'm constantly parsing (shop signs, etc.) and body-tired from walking everywhere.
9:30pm
I managed to lose my key card walking around town. The whole shopping excursion was nearly a bust. My phone won't recognize the SIM i bought to get €0.06/min international calls. The next Sorriso conference call was pushed to Monday, nullifying my need for a headset. At least the battery charger was worthwhile. The rose petals should be too.
I started negotiating the next leg of my trip. I ordered a train ticket to Bruges. I hear that the cleanliness of the online-bookable HI-affiliated hostel is lacking, so I'm seeing about getting a room at a B&B.
Lack of sleep, lack of real relaxation, lack of fun, too much walking, too much BS. I'm starting to feel like I'm not getting much of anything worthwhile out of this trip. Locals at cafes and other places I've been are still hard to talk to. They don't seem interested in conversing even when I start. Free wi-fi is nonexistent everywhere I've been so far. I think I've hit a plateau in the amount of Dutch words and phrases I can roughly interpret. I'm really starting to miss speaking the majority langauge, flushable toilet paper, less confusing road lane schemes, and free parking. Not that I am driving here, but there doesn't seem to be any street on which the corner chipknip (like an ancient version of the digital parking meter) doesn't exist.
Going to get a beer or two somewhere in Leidseplein tonight before I write this place off. Mediocre satay skewers with a loaf of bread at a local cafe for dinner did not help.
In addition to the bodily cuts, my left ear is still recoiling from the altitude adjustment. It feels and sounds like water in the ear.
I'm way off the map, when the map is the one provided by the hostel. Yesterday I had found what I confidently concluded to be a long commercial drag. After discussing the OLPC project and both European and American travel with Germans Jan and Johannes this morning, I headed further down the drag than yesterday and started finding shops that sold useful things. I found a digital camera store and got a universal battery charger (€60), then bought lunch at "De Kaaswaag" ("Specialist in Kaas, Noten, Wijn, en Delicatessen"). Got some leverworst and a ridiculously good cheese: Oud Snijdwase, I think it was. Every cheese on the shelf looked good anyway. Most of them were in giant wheels. Kept walking, out of the kaaswaag, until I found a park. Up until a few minutes ago it was teeming with kids and flying soccer balls. Now it's a quaint setting with a few picnicking families and the usual assortment of city park dwellers. There's a fantastic fountain in the center of the park.
This is the real Amsterdam I came to see. Shopkeepers greet me in Dutch here and I still feel weird with either asking them to speak English to me, or greeting them back using unmistakeable English.
The weather is cool today, while the Sun is warm. This is much nicer than yesterday when it was scorching until it rained. It's a gorgeous day overall.
1:20pm
A small group is doing Chinese sword forms on the park grass.
2:45pm
Found a bench outside an apartment building on Gerard Dou Straat. Found an open air market consisting mainly of extended storefronts from the stores on the street. In this way it is much like Portobello market, London, but bigger, denser, and more varied. Found a headset so I can get on the conference call tonight, (€7.50) and a tea/spice/fragrance/kitchenware shop that had dried rose petals for sale. (€1.50) Naturally I picked up a packet. Have been wandering around aimlessly since finding both ends of the market. Am currently rehydrating with 1.5L of Spa Reine water. (€3.50)
I notice a lack of two things; one: convenience stores in the London style, i.e. tiny groceries with an emphasis on ready to eat food and chilled beer; two: the presence of uniformed police officers. I'm starting to get a bit brain-tired from all the Dutch that I'm constantly parsing (shop signs, etc.) and body-tired from walking everywhere.
9:30pm
I managed to lose my key card walking around town. The whole shopping excursion was nearly a bust. My phone won't recognize the SIM i bought to get €0.06/min international calls. The next Sorriso conference call was pushed to Monday, nullifying my need for a headset. At least the battery charger was worthwhile. The rose petals should be too.
I started negotiating the next leg of my trip. I ordered a train ticket to Bruges. I hear that the cleanliness of the online-bookable HI-affiliated hostel is lacking, so I'm seeing about getting a room at a B&B.
Lack of sleep, lack of real relaxation, lack of fun, too much walking, too much BS. I'm starting to feel like I'm not getting much of anything worthwhile out of this trip. Locals at cafes and other places I've been are still hard to talk to. They don't seem interested in conversing even when I start. Free wi-fi is nonexistent everywhere I've been so far. I think I've hit a plateau in the amount of Dutch words and phrases I can roughly interpret. I'm really starting to miss speaking the majority langauge, flushable toilet paper, less confusing road lane schemes, and free parking. Not that I am driving here, but there doesn't seem to be any street on which the corner chipknip (like an ancient version of the digital parking meter) doesn't exist.
Going to get a beer or two somewhere in Leidseplein tonight before I write this place off. Mediocre satay skewers with a loaf of bread at a local cafe for dinner did not help.
In addition to the bodily cuts, my left ear is still recoiling from the altitude adjustment. It feels and sounds like water in the ear.