Digital Wanderer |

Crete — 23, Conclusion

2008-10-20

This is just an overview post with links to all the others, needed for quick navigation. If anyone suddenly wants to promote the series (which, considering last time, is highly unlikely), post the link here. Writing it was fun for me. I hope reading it was fun for you, too. If you liked it and still haven't read my story about the US, you definitely should. If I travel anywhere else, I'll try not to be lazy and actually take notes. Maybe on a voice recorder, since writing things down doesn't really work out for me.

0. Intro
Don't confuse Crete with Cyprus, even though they're similar.

1. Departure
Musings on yogurt, capitalism, and nationalism, diluted with photos of Riga at night

2. Arrival
Palm trees as a mandatory attribute of paradise, and barracks as the antithesis to this attribute

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Crete — 21, Bike Tour

2008-10-19

At the hotel reception desk, there was a brochure for a company called Adventure Bikes advertising bicycle tours. There were about 5 different tours, and they specifically highlighted that the bikes were Scott brand. I, being no fool, asked the receptionist on duty to call and book a tour for me. She did, but for some reason started speaking to them in English, and then just handed the phone over to me. The thing was, each of the tours shown in the brochure and on the website took place on its own strictly specified day. And since I had been nursing the idea for quite a while, I was only able to sign up for our last day in Crete, Saturday, when there was a tour that more or less suited me. I should have called earlier instead of being an indecisive wimp. On the other hand, we had been busy before that — driving around, and before that we were acclimatizing, so let it be as it turned out — the main thing is that it worked out.

I had almost never spoken English on the phone. It's not an easy thing to do, but if the person on the other end isn't a native speaker or some Indian-sounding guy, but rather an average person who has studied and knows it reasonably well, you can communicate, albeit with some asking to repeat things.

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Meh

2008-10-19

I've had a horribly upset stomach since yesterday evening. It's bearable, but still nasty. Even the usually foolproof Smecta only helps a little. And last night I had this absurd dream where Dr. House was diagnosing me, while I was trying to tell him that everything was obvious and it would soon go away on its own.

I've also been watching a bit of the detective anime Death Note, video tutorials from https://asp.net/mvc, and writing a small program for personal use. I'm on vacation next week, so while I have the time, I'm going to do everything properly and with unit tests (and maybe even TDD).

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