Digital Wanderer

We live as long as we fly

☰

Valencia — 19

 2023-04-06

From mulled wine to a closed cave

In the Netherlands, there's a tradition of weekend Christmas markets, probably copied from Germany. Even so, locals say the markets are better in Germany and travel there. But the local one is enough for us. The next evening, we picked up another friend and headed to one of these markets. It was really cute: little stalls, dancing, mulled wine, whatever they call it here, traditional local dishes – croquettes, and, of course, sausages with stewed sauerkraut. Our Christmas spirit levels immediately spiked, so much so that we even chugged some mulled wine in a noisy pub.

We took a trip to another town where there's a big cave that they apparently also celebrate in, but we didn't make it into the cave, I already forgot why. It was closed, I think, because a carnival procession was taking place right in the city center. We only caught a glimpse of it, because we were hungry and looking for something to devour. All the restos were booked solid, so we ended up scarfing down some fried mushrooms and croquettes from a temporary wooden stall.

We had a wonderful time, and I was glad I dropped by, even though getting back to the airport was a massive pain in the ass.

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Valencia — 17, a northern night bike promenade from Olot to Girona

 2023-03-19

The next day, Sunday arrived. Inspired by a successful trip, I hastily cobbled together another rough route. And while on Saturday I rode mostly south of Olot, this time I decided to push north. The track wasn't as ready-made and convenient. Part of it was also a via verde (greenway), but some sections I had to draw blindly along roads and trails.

This time I arrived early, afraid of missing the bike bus (there are no alternatives, after all), and so I even managed to grab a coffee at the bus station cafeteria. I took a pic for you of the loft vibe there, and the huge departure boards, still with segment displays rather than monitors. So vintage!

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Valencia — 15, stretched over a workweek

 2023-03-05

During the first week, I worked in a small living room near my room. I used the TV as a monitor and sat on a regular chair at a regular table. I'm the kind of guy who is clearly bothered by this: an ergonomic chair is a must-have. And a second monitor wouldn't have hurt either. Using my laptop as a second screen didn't work out: there was nowhere convenient to put it. Good thing I at least had a Microsoft Designer Compact wireless keyboard to sit more comfortably.

I also suffered from the internet quality: it clearly fell short of Latvian standards. I work on a virtual machine in the cloud. It's a remote computer, you connect, it shows you a screen, and your keystrokes are sent to the cloud. This is called VDI. Unfortunately, my VDI is in the US, which heavily affects the latency of packets bouncing back and forth.

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