20070625

      Bored fellow traveler. It is true that I have not placed any of these entries online, though I have been diligently adding to them each day. To my knowledge, Amsterdam has 5 computers at the StayOkay Hostel, and several more at an Internet cafe I discovered yesterday after its 6pm closing hour. Apart from these, I'm not sure there are any computers in the city except my cardboard-covered VAIO, and other such laptops brought into this Internet-free city.
      I dined last night in Chinatown at a fine Thai restaurant. For under EU30, I had fried prawn balls before my fried cuttlefish with peppers, and plenty of hot sake and jasmine tea. Any time I'm having hot sake with jasmine tea, the meal is guaranteed to be good. I'm not sure, though, what to make of the fat cat that cleaned himself by the table across from me. He has either no need, or no trouble catching himself enough mice to eat.
      I woke early this morning to eat my breakfast and pack my backpack, so I could return my bike and get to the central train station. After an hour's wait (I got #401 today, when they were serving #350), I found out that a train ticket would cost EU250, and last overnight. I had found a plane ticket for 9:30pm costing only EU118 last night, but thought I could save half that by taking the train. So much for thinking. So I went through 4 more lines to get a ticket to the airport. (FYI, Europe is a cash place. Any time you have less than EU25 on you, you should start looking for an ATM. If you're taking a train, you should not have less than EU100 on you in case you need to pay for a special ticket.) At the airport, it only took another several lines before I had found a pay phone which could dial the 0800 number for my air-carrier and order the ticket for only EU120! This would all have been easier today if 1) I had listened to advice of others which said that trains are always more expensive for long travel, and 2) if the lady at the Vueling ticket window busy taking a personal call had not lied that her computer was down just to get rid of the line. (Incidentally, it took her five minutes to pause the phone to tell me she could do nothing for me). So here I am enjoying the company of you and Chomsky and waiting to travel. Knowing that every time I travel consumes a full day, I think I might skip Menorca, or try to do a short day-trip and focus my time in Barcelona on enjoying the subtleties of the city. As one of my Australian friends describes it, I much prefer to be a traveler than a tourist.
      For those of you patient enough to have read my words, you'll understand why this next picture is called "Spot the Italian."