https://rhiaro.co.uk/2018
type: Collection
type: Container
contains: leipzig-34c3
contains: malta-phots
contains: malta
contains: vegan-in-malta
contains: week-in-review
contains: transit-photos
contains: malta-to-bosnia
contains: photos-sarajevo
contains: photos-sarajevo-2
contains: week-in-review-2
contains: jsonld-context
contains: morrissey
contains: sarajevo
contains: not-an-escalator
contains: 2017-in-review
contains: photos-sarajevo-3
contains: week-in-review-3
contains: activitypub
contains: social
contains: social-2
contains: photos-mostar
contains: mostar
contains: week-in-review-4
contains: sea
contains: nurse
contains: photos-sarajevo-4
contains: crew
contains: https://rhiaro.co.uk/2018/02/5a928c5b07d37
contains: damnitjim
contains: https://rhiaro.co.uk/2018/02/5a837ba8e69ec
contains: vegan-discovery
contains: photos-uk
contains: https://rhiaro.co.uk/2018/02/5a928b85771f8
contains: conf-reg
contains: cwebber-semweb
contains: photos-amsterdam
contains: photos-prague
contains: sister
contains: til
contains: also
contains: phots-prague-2
contains: prague
contains: vegan-in-prague
contains: low-in-highschool
contains: spent-the-day
contains: photos-ljubljana
contains: thesis
contains: what-if
contains: tfw-tired
contains: centralisation-thesis
contains: photos-budapest
contains: vipassan
contains: mention-travel
contains: photos-budapest-2
contains: twitter
contains: budapest-3
contains: twitter-2
contains: photos-budapest-3
contains: twitter-3
contains: moving
contains: budapest
contains: vegan-in-budapest
contains: photos-budapest-4
contains: photos-mariazelle
contains: photos-bratislava
contains: i-love-bratislava
contains: photos-bratislava-2
contains: photos-bratislava-3
contains: vegan-in-bratislava
contains: photos-bratislava-5
contains: bratislava
contains: cooking
contains: passionate
contains: moderately
contains: searching
contains: vegan-in-vienna
contains: photos-vienna
contains: vienna

2017-in-review
type: Article
content: tl;dr Turns out I packed a lot into last year. Seemed worth writing up. Highlights include: Travelled a bunch, Asia, Australia, Europe. Became Dr Amy Guy: finished my PhD thesis, defended it, did corrections, graduated. Went to a bunch of conferences, won an award, got an article published in a magazine. Got a job at OCCRP, moved to Bosnia. Drafted a novel. Published some W3C specs. Goals for 2018: travel more, write more, work less. Skip to: Words Travel Work Code Stuff January: adventures February: food and procrastination March: instability, productivity April: the pit May: a mental shift, and closure on many fronts June: hard work rewarded, and a new start July: an interlude, and resettling August: summer in Sarajevo September: anxiety and relief October: time with friends new and old November: rediscovery and creation December: ending as I mean to go on 2018 Words I posted to my site 4,656 times. I wrote 275 things on here. 173 were short notes, 102 were longer articles, and they comprise approximately 59,492 words in total. That's a mean of 162.99 words and 0.75 posts per day. I wrote about 237 different topics, with the most common being travel (105), life (63), food (36), phd (34), thesis (29), hacking (27), Bali, Indonesia (25), week in review (24), vegan (24), linked research (23), nanowrimo (20), and sloph (19). I also wrote (or contributed to) 3 academic papers: Observing the decentralised social web (one telescope at a time) (Web Observatories Workshop, WWW2017) Linked Data Notifications: a resource-centric communication protocol (ESWC2017, Best Student Paper Award) Decentralised Authoring, Annotations and Notifications for a Read-Write Web with dokieli (ICWE2017) And: a W3C Recommendation: Linked Data Notifications (May); a W3C Working Group Note: Social Web Protocols (December); an article in a print magazine, NetMag: Web Standards Column: Linked Data Notifications (July); an unfinished draft of 30k word novel: Of the Moon (November); and a 70k word P…
name: 2017 in review
published: 2018-01-17T16:31:00+01:00
tag: stats
tag: lifelogging
tag: https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/2017
tag: year+in+review
tag: life
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: phd
tag: work

activitypub
type: Note
content: ActivityPub is a W3C Recommendatiiiiooooonnnnnn.
published: 2018-01-23T15:10:00+01:00
tag: dustycloud.org
tag: w3c
tag: activitypub
tag: socialwg

jsonld-context
type: Note
content: Do any of the Python JSON-LD libraries make it easy to serialize a @context rather than just the data? All examples I can see which don't use external contexts just write it in as a string.
published: 2018-01-15T12:52:00+01:00
tag: https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/jsonld
tag: question
tag: https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/rdf

leipzig-34c3
type: Article
content: December in Leipzig is cold. The bus from Sarajevo was 20 hours, mostly overnight. The bus arrived at the airport an hour late, and I promptly got on an express train in the wrong direction. Eventually I made it into the city, and checked into the hostel which had entirely to myself for three days. I didn't even see any staff; I was given a door code to get in. Apparently people have other things to do around the 25th of December. So do restaurant owners. None of the veg*n places I'd noted were open. I ended up spending the 25th in the central train station eating pretzels and drinking coffee, and enjoying the bubble of non-festive activities which managed to continue. I'd thought about going to 34c3 buildup at the conference center, but never quite made it. In between checking out of my hostel and checking in to a shared airbnb, I spent a few hours hiking around Clara-Zetkin park. It was cold but clear. Leipzig has a lot of green spaces, and I probably should have made time to explore more. I went to the Congress Center on the evening of the 26th for the first time. Food options were not exceptional, but there was a vegan food truck on premises (Vegan Spirit). The food they served was really good, but as with everywhere else in the vicinity, overpriced. I alternated between this and supermarket supplies. The Congress Center is huge. It has a rocket. I signed up to be an Angel, went to some intro meetings, and registered for some Speaker Desk and Subtitling shifts. But when I went to pick up the first Speaker Desk shift I was told they were not and had never been recruiting (so the 30 minutes I spent there the day before being signed up to a thousand wikis and stuff were apparently a waste of time). When I went to do subtitling, they weren't expecting so many people and I waited around for a while before being assigned anything to do. I did one shift, but gave up with helping with anything after that. I got the impression you really have to be part of an in-crowd to…
name: Leipzig and 34c3
published: 2018-01-01T09:30:00+01:00
tag: leipzig
tag: travel
tag: 34c3
tag: mastodon
tag: event

malta
type: Article
content: Liz and I spent four days in Malta, without much of a plan. We stayed in Sliema and mostly took public transport around. The bus system appears good outwardly, but actually is kind of a joke. They don't run to schedule, often sail by without stopping, come in clusters and then there are no more for an hour or more. Most stops have electronic signs which show the next bus due, but the bus may not show up at all and the sign will quietly move on. Anyway my point is, don't plan anything based on the bus schedule. It's cheap though; a ticket valid for 2 hours is 1.50EUR and more than once we accidentally or on purpose presented expired tickets to the driver and it was fine. The on purpose time was when my ticket expired whilst I was waiting 30+ minutes for a bus that should have come twice in that time, and I was all ready to argue about it, but I didn't have to. When the Sliema to Valetta ferry isn't running, the best chance of getting a bus to Valetta is to walk to the start of the line in San Giljan. The bus was packed, and not even high season.. The night we arrived was New Year's Eve. We took the ferry across the bay to Valetta and wandered around. There were lots of street stalls, crowds, and a party atmosphere. In the central square was a stage and lightshow. One one day we paid 10EUR for a harbour cruise. It lasted a little over an hour, and was pleasantly relaxing. The boat was small and sometimes the waves were big. Another day, we paid 20EUR each of the hop-on-hop-off bus. We took the south route, and visited quite a few sights. Except at our last stop, we were the victims of an unexpected schedule change and ended up waiting for over an hour and a half outside the Ghar Dalam cave (where there is nothing) and eventually gave up and got on a regular bus back to Valetta. Of course, 5 minutes later the sightseeing bus went past. I was disappointed to miss the rest of the route, as it went around the coast, to the Blue Grotto and something else. We should probabl…
name: Malta
published: 2018-01-04T22:00:00+01:00
tag: boats
tag: travel
tag: malta

malta-phots
type: Add
content: Some days in Malta with Liz. We stayed in Valetta, but visited as many hotspots as we could manage. Post about the trip.

malta-to-bosnia
type: Article
content: Travelling from Malta to Bosnia without flying seemed like a good idea at the time. Well, overall it was a good idea. I'm just really tired right now, the morning after. Ferry 1: Valetta (Malta) to Catania (Sicily) I took a 9 hour night ferry from Valetta to Catania. The ferry was called Barbara. Hi Mum. There are two ports at Valetta. Forni was all closed up, and the one I wanted was Pinto (deduced from the office address on the Tirrenia website, not through any helpful where-to-checkin instructions). Pinta is at the very far end of the Valetta Waterfront, after all the shops and restaurants. The point that is labelled on the big wall maps as Pinta was dark when I reached it, and panic started to rise. I checked my GPS and backed up a bit in case I'd missed it. I hadn't. I charged forward again to look for signs or secret doors I might have missed. Aha! Tirrenia was at the far end of this particular structure, opposite to where it is labelled. A small printed sign directed passengers around a corner, through a waiting room and up some stairs. I entered a small office, where a smiling old man said 'Hello! We've been waiting for you!'. I'm not kidding. I was a good hour early at this point. He directed me to take a seat, and took my ticket and passport, and scribbled some things and typed some things, then printed a sticker with a barcode on it which went on the back of my ticket. Then another gentleman said 'come, I will escort you to the ship.' I felt quite important. We picked up another guy from the waiting room, and we were shown across the carpark to the ferry. Turns out we were the only two passengers. The other was a pleasant Ukrainian man named Vlad. We had our pick of sofas in a very small room next to the cafeteria, where a few ferry staff were eating and the TV was blaring. I went up on deck until we had cleared Valetta port. The stone walls and forts around the town were lit up and made an impressive sight. The sky was mostly clear, the moon almost full,…
name: Malta to Bosnia, by land and sea
published: 2018-01-08T12:30:00+01:00
tag: sicily
tag: naples
tag: ferry
tag: bus
tag: travel
tag: malta
tag: transit
tag: italy
tag: catania

morrissey
type: Note
content: I'm going to have to listen to the new Morrissey album at some point, aren't I.
published: 2018-01-15T23:04:00+01:00
tag: life
tag: music

mostar
type: Article
content: This weekend I went to Mostar with Elizabeth and MB. We took the 0707 train from Sarajevo on Saturday morning. The pinky sunrise was softened by the already accumulated smog, which obscured our view from the train for at least thirty minutes before we finally crawled out of it in the mountains. The smog was still waiting on Sunday evening to greet us on our return. So.. it was a good idea to go away this weekend. Mostar was bright, clear, and less cold throughout. And the colour of that water! Officially the train arrives into Mostar at 9am, but it was after 0930 when we got there. Between three of us we paid 46km (23EUR) for an apartment a hop and a skip away from the old town. Our hosts picked us up from the train station. Mostar is small, and at least as battered by the war as Sarajevo if not more so. Abandoned buildings are striking. We went to see the famous bridge of course, and had coffee looking over the river. We went to the Hammam museum (15 mins, 4km) and inside a mosque beside the river and up the minaret (12km), which was super cool. The Bridge Museum was closed. Old town is nice to wander around, but packed up pretty early. It's not tourist season I guess. After a nap, we hiked up to the controversial cross on Hum Hill. Instead of taking a path or road around the back of the hill, we charged straight up the Mostar-side, which was rocky and steep and probably there weren't landmines but also it was a sniper stronghold so you know. Good views of town. We returned via the road, which took longer but was less perilous. Veggie food was not easy to find. Nowhere even had krompirusa. It was on the menus (but spelled krompirača??), but nobody had it. One place managed to dredge up some vegetable mush and rice for me. I ate the apple part of a tufahija (baked apple) and the others ate the cream. Turkish delight and halva were abundant. This was a high sugar weekend. We also drank a lot of Bosnian coffee. Except the next day! We headed to Teco, since it's listed…
name: A weekend in Mostar
published: 2018-01-28T23:00:00+01:00
tag: mostar
tag: travel
tag: bosnia
tag: vegan

not-an-escalator
type: Note
content: "I'm a doctor not an escalator!" That's my favourite one so far. I'm on Season 2 of ToS. It's still a chore, but there are little things that make it bearable. The way Spock and Kirk look at each other, for one. Also every time Sulu does a countdown, and Chekov constantly claiming everything was invented in Russia.
published: 2018-01-16T22:41:00+01:00
tag: tos
tag: star+trek

nurse
type: Note
content: Nurse Chapel is the real hero of the piece.
published: 2018-01-31T22:46:00+01:00
tag: star+trek
tag: tos

photos-mostar
type: Add
content: A weekend in Mostar, Bosnia. Blog post here.

photos-sarajevo-2
type: Add
content: To the Bobsled track in the snow with Elizabeth and Marybeth.
published: 2018-01-14T18:31:35+01:00
summary: Amy added 6 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2017-sarajevo/
target: 2017-sarajevo

photos-sarajevo-3
type: Add
content: The Bosnian pyramids at Visocko. Plot twist: they're not really pyramids. Also on this trip I couldn't really see them, but it was still fun.
published: 2018-01-20T15:05:09+01:00
summary: Amy added 18 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2017-sarajevo/
target: 2017-sarajevo

sarajevo
type: Note
content: Sarajevo is having a bad air day. Badum tchsh. *cough*
published: 2018-01-16T09:46:00+01:00
tag: sarajevo
tag: life

sea
type: Note
content: I left a script running overnight and to start with the sound of my laptop fan was annoying, but then I reshaped it to feel like I was falling asleep to the sound of the sea.
published: 2018-01-31T08:10:00+01:00
tag: life
tag: hacking

social
type: Note
content: ActivityPub and WebSub went to REC this week and the work of the Social Web WG in general has been getting a lot of attention, including AP making it to the top of hackernews. There are lots of good comments, but of course it's the negative ones that stick around when you release your babies into the harsh wilds of the Web for the last time. There was a lot of conflict inside the SocialWG, and a lot of compromise. The comments that irk me the most are the ones that suggest we made decisions on a whim without thinking about things at length, or ignored prior art. Sure we standardised multiple ways of doing similar things, but the decision to do that came only after much wailing and gnashing of teeth* and faced with the prospect of not standardising anything at all in this space. Or alternatively one- to two-thirds of the group meeting with suspicious accidents in lieu of consensus. It wasn't for funsies. We weren't trolling implementors. We were just trying to cope. Anyway, what reassures me in the end is that, as we could never make everyone happy, at least we've somehow succeeded in making nobody at all happy. The art of consensus™. * and over a year of work, dozens of telecons and several face-to-face meetings around the world often at participants' own expense, and not a little yelling.
published: 2018-01-25T18:15:00+01:00
tag: standards
tag: websub
tag: social+web+protocols
tag: socialwg
tag: activitypub
tag: w3c

social-2
type: Note
content: BY THE WAY anonymous internet strangers, if you are upset and confused about decentralised social networks but (and this part is important) don't want to be confused any more, and maybe even are implementing some things or at the very least skimming the specs a bit, do come on over to #social channel on irc.w3.org where we're all still hanging out and willing to help. This stuff is complicated and distressing... trust us... and we (the Working Group and proximate communities) went through a lot of shiz so hopefully you don't have to. If IRC isn't your thing, most of the editors and implementors are willing to help out to some degree, and you can track down contact details starting in the metadata at the tops of specs. We do have lives though and most of us aren't being paid to work on this stuff, but we stick around because it's important to us, so please be patient and considerate too.
published: 2018-01-25T18:37:00+01:00
tag: social+web
tag: decentralisation
tag: socialwg

transit-photos
type: Add
content: A three day voyage over sea and land from Malta to Bosnia, with stops in Catania (Siciliy), Naples (Italy), and Zagreb (Croatia). Blog post here.

vegan-in-malta
type: Article
content: My airbnb host in Malta expressed alarm and concern when she found out I am vegan. I hadn't gone there with particularly high hopes, but there were a few places on Happycow. So without further ado... Valetta Our first night in Malta was NYE and we wandered into Valetta to find it packed and bustling. We stumbled upon Soul Foods, who were able to squeeze us in at 1900 but were otherwise full. Soul Foods is really wholesome homemade food for omnivores. The vegan main was an ayurvedic dish of lentils and grains. It was really delicious and flavoursome. Liz and I split two raw desserts; chocolate 'salami' and carrot cake. I loved them both, but they were 'too healthy' / not sweet enough for Liz. More for me. Not cheap, but justifiably so. Every time I tried to stop at Grassy Hopper, a veggie place, it was closed. We found Theobroma, a rawvegan dessert stand. I had a spectacular chilli hot chocolate with homemade almond milk (cashew is also an option; and hot chocolates come in plain, orange or white too). We picked up a peanut butter cup and a hemp seed chocolate bar ('too healthy') to enjoy later. Everything is also gluten free. Next to Theobroma is Pastahaus. We went in on Liz's instinct, and this was probably both of our favourite meals. They have a huge array of homemade pasta, and at least four without eggs. They understand and are happy to explain what's vegan, and persistently offered a vegan wine. I chose a pasta made from semolina and hemp, accompanied by an avocado and almond sauce. They have a vegetable curry sauce too, as well as basic chilli oil and tomato and basil ones which I suspect are amazing. We shared bruschetta to start. On the way to the ferry on my final evening, I stopped by Gurag. This place was somehow just what I needed; it seemed attuned to my mood. It's an all-veggie 'hangout and bar'. The space is small and was busy and loud, but they have seats downstairs. Nobody else was down there, so I had sofas and a generally peaceful laid back space…
name: Vegan in Malta
published: 2018-01-04T22:30:00+01:00
tag: travel
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: malta

week-in-review
type: Article
content: Spent 4 days exploring Malta. Spent three days travelling by land and sea from Malta to Sarajevo.
name: Week in review: 1 - 7 January
published: 2018-01-07T23:59:59+01:00
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: Made an RDF exporter for aleph. Blog post coming soon. And some data modelling. Went to yoga thrice. Went to Karuzo \o/ it had been so long. Wrote 1800 words of fiction. Went on Sarajevo mini-adventures, to Kozija ćuprija (Goat's Bridge) and up Trebevic to the bobsled track in the snow. My SD card suddenly ceased to function :o lost a week of photos. Mostly mundane, but 2/3 of the Goat's Bridge walk. (It stopped in the middle of taking photos on that walk). Chilled and cooked and ate with Elizabeth and Marybeth. Wrote a short storie about Evie Blue's first day at school.
name: Week in review: 8 - 14 January
published: 2018-01-14T23:59:59+01:00
tag: yoga
tag: sarajevo
tag: week+in+review
tag: writing
tag: travel
tag: aleph

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Made followthemoney into an RDF ontology and put docs up for the namespace. Fiiiinally got /yyyy/ and /yyyy/mm collections up in sloph. Went to Visoko to see the Bosnian Pyramids.
name: Week in review: 15 - 21 January
published: 2018-01-21T23:59:00+01:00
tag: hacking
tag: sloph
tag: travel

week-in-review-4
type: Article
content: Data modelling. ActivityPub and WebSub went to REC. Learnt how to crocodile stitch. Went to Mostar for a weekend.
name: Week in review: 22 - 28 January
published: 2018-01-28T23:59:00+01:00
tag: mbaking
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: socialwg

https://rhiaro.co.uk/2018/02/5a837ba8e69ec
type: Add
object: fan is a tool using animal.htm
published: 2018-02-14T00:18:00+00:00
tag: folksonomy
tag: fandom
tag: dustyweb
tag: star+trek
tag: social+web
tag: user+generated+content
target: bookmarks

https://rhiaro.co.uk/2018/02/5a928b85771f8
type: Add
content: Home comfort food, largely junk.
published: 2018-02-20T18:10:07+00:00
summary: Amy added 15 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
target: madefood

https://rhiaro.co.uk/2018/02/5a928c5b07d37
type: Add
content: Some chips, some pizza, some pasta, some pancakes, some tacos, some beans, some coffee muffins, some curry, and a particularly good fried tofu and mushroom sandwich.
published: 2018-02-04T14:13:40+01:00
summary: Amy added 16 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
target: madefood

also
type: Note
content: I'm also enjoying things like "obimovlastenja" -> "Insurrection... did you mean obimovlaštenja?" -> "perpetuation... did you mean obim ovlaštenja?" -> "scope of authority"
in reply to: https://rhiaro.co.uk/2018/02/til
published: 2018-02-24T22:46:00+01:00
tag: language

conf-reg
type: Note
content: Literally every time I register for an academic conference I have to email the organisers to request that the 'title' field of the registration form doesn't force women to declare their marital status, or non-binary people to pick a gender. Like jeeebus just make it an optional field if you have to include it at all.
published: 2018-02-20T21:59:00+00:00
tag: conferences
tag: feminism
tag: equality
tag: life
tag: diversity
tag: academia

crew
type: Note
content: The remainder of the crew who have not been turned into papier-mache blocks must distract the invading aliens with sensory overload. Bones drugs one up. Scottie gets one drunk. Kirk seduces the lady one. Spock is playing chess with one. I think I'm starting to love this. Sigh. Apart from the still rampant misogyny.
published: 2018-02-02T22:22:22+01:00
tag: tos
tag: star+trek

cwebber-semweb
type: Add
object: https://octodon.social/@cwebber/99559526356657916
published: 2018-02-20T22:12:00+00:00
tag: semantic+web
tag: cwebber
tag: linked+data
target: bookmarks

damnitjim
type: Note
content: Damnit Jim, I'm a doctor not a well-developed character. Season 3 and Bones hasn't changed. I am sick of his shit. Him being an asshole to Spock was funny for a few episodes but DUDE move on. And as for the 'strange Vulcan physiology' issue every time Spock stubs his toe STUDY IT ALREADY ugh This has been building up for a while, but what really did it just now was Kirk left Scotty in command and Bones is on the Bridge as usual for no fucking reason and Scotty's like "wow I dunno what to do, this sucks" and Bones is like "yikes oh well happens to the best of us" but when Spock is in command Bones spends the entire episode screaming in his ear because he hasn't immediately rescued the Captain even though Spock is clearly executing a well thought out plan at every moment. Bones is racist. But mostly Bones is jealous of Kirk's feelings for Spock.
published: 2018-02-13T23:41:00+00:00
tag: star+trek
tag: tos

photos-amsterdam
type: Add
content: Dinner in London at Wulf and Lamb. A nightbus to Amsterdam. Wandering: the library, the top of Nemo, the free ferry. Food: at Vegabond, and Dutch Weed Burger.
published: 2018-02-22T19:16:19+01:00
summary: Amy added 23 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201802-eu/
target: 201802-eu

photos-prague
type: Add
content: Day 1 in Prague. Food at Puro and Plevel. General wandering, and a trip up the TV tower (which has wifi and good seats, as well as the views, but costs 10EUR).
published: 2018-02-23T23:18:52+01:00
summary: Amy added 42 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201802-eu/
target: 201802-eu

photos-sarajevo
type: Add
content: A walk to Goat's Bridge, east of Sarajevo. Lost half the photos cos my SD card went kaputt en route.
published: 2018-01-13T19:30:01+01:00
summary: Amy added 11 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2017-sarajevo/
target: 2017-sarajevo

photos-sarajevo-2
type: Add
content: The tram to Ilidza, then a couple of hours walking to and around Vrelo Bosne, the mouth of the river Bosne. It's a beautiful park, tranquil in the mist and gentle rain. The water was deep and bright. The derelict once-fancy Austro-Hungarian houses that line the two mile strait to the park are gorgeous. Almost 8 miles of walking in total; GPS trace.
published: 2018-02-04T19:37:44+01:00
summary: Amy added 38 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2017-sarajevo/
target: 2017-sarajevo

photos-sarajevo-3
type: Add
content: My last nights in Sarajevo, and some bus photos. Featuring falafel and grah at Barhana, and wonderful friends.
published: 2018-02-09T11:32:02+01:00
summary: Amy added 20 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2017-sarajevo/
target: 2017-sarajevo

photos-sarajevo-4
type: Add
content: Misc Sarajevo. Mosty Karuzo and krompirusa.
published: 2018-02-02T14:36:21+01:00
summary: Amy added 23 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2017-sarajevo/
target: 2017-sarajevo

photos-uk
type: Add
content: Sarajevo to London, via Cologne, on two Flixbuses. An afternoon at the Southbank Center. Food at Nando's for Jamie's birthday. Visiting family, Tigo, Pingu the cat, Lincolnshire countryside. A day in Lincoln with Alan and Pete.
published: 2018-02-19T14:07:31+00:00
summary: Amy added 76 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2018-uk/

phots-prague-2
type: Add
content: Days 2 to 5 in Prague. Blog post here.

prague
type: Article
content: I wasn't charmed by Prague. It's nice enough, but I didn't fall in love with the city or anything. I stayed in ArtHarmony hostel, a super nice plantlife themed place with lots of bamboo, and mezzenine sleeping platforms in the rooms instead of bunkbeds. It was quiet, the kitchen functions if a bit small, and the staff were friendly. I discovered too late they buy 1 EUR for 26 CZK (for guests only) which is by far the best rate you'll see in town. Internet was good, and common area plus a desk in the dorm were both good to work from. I'd stay there again. I alternated laptop days with touristing, but it was so freaking cold I ended up more on the side of laptop. At least it was dry and sunny though. But oh god, so cold. On the first afternoon I went for a wander, and found the TV Tower. It's 250czk (10eur) entry, and good views. I ended up at the top slightly after sunset, which was not optimal. There's wifi up there, sofas, and interesting chairs, so it's a good place to pass time without freezing to death. I went to see Black Panther at a little independant cinema (chosen due to its proximity to a vegan restaurant). I worked all through the weekend, with a little break to visit the old town. Of course the astronomical clock, the only thing that sounded particularly interesting to see, was shut down for repairs and covered in scaffolding. Otherwise there's gothic spires and fancy architecture and bright coloured buildings and stuff. I had a full sightseeing day on Monday. It was so cold that when I wrapped a scarf around my face, the damp patch from my breath condensation froze into a solid block. The small block of scarf-ice was still preferable to the air directly though. I walked along the river to the Castle. I didn't pay to go inside, but the grounds are extensive. The Cathedral is impressive from the outside. I walked through Petrin Park and climbed the hill. There's a little funicular, which takes the same tickets as the regular tram, but I am committed to cl…
name: Five days in Prague
published: 2018-02-28T23:59:58+01:00
tag: czech+republic
tag: travel
tag: prague
tag: tourism

sister
type: Note
content: My sister just emailed me asking "should I do a PhD?" hahahaha <3 I worked to overcome the initial PTSD-driven reaction before trying to come up with sound advice.
published: 2018-02-24T16:44:00+01:00
tag: phdchat

til
type: Note
content: Today's random discovery in the course of data wrangling: Google translate tells me "imeiprezime" is Basque for "I am depressed", though what I actually needed to know is that it's Bosnian for "name and surname".
published: 2018-02-24T22:32:00+01:00
tag: language

vegan-discovery
type: Note
content: Vegan discovery of the week: I wanted scrambled tofu but all I could find was silken, so I sliced gently and fried it (gently) and it spat loads but came out exactly like fried egg white \o/ No photo, I ate it.
published: 2018-02-14T10:55:00+00:00
tag: tofu
tag: food
tag: vegan
tag: cooking

vegan-in-prague
type: Article
content: If you want to know what I was doing between meals, I also have a post about Prague in general. That was easier than expected. Though also more expensive than expected. I thought I could do two meals on 10-15EUR per day but had to quickly laugh that idea out of the window. But there are enough vegan restaurants that I could eat solely at vegan-only establishments and still didn't try them all. There are about 6 Loving Huts. There's lots of Vietnamese food. Here goes: Veganland A stark, canteen-like ambience, but very friendly staff. There are a couple of Veganlands; I went to one in small mall, which didn't help with the atomsphere. It's a buffet (25czk/100g) as well as a fixed menu. The buffet food is mostly Asian style, vegetables, mock meats and noodles. Some good stuff, mostly kind of greasy and junky, but satisfying. It reminded me of the terrible-but-awesome Chinese food I ate in Penang, the likes of which I haven't had in a really long time. On one occasion I had the buffet for lunch, and took away summer rolls and sushi (from the menu) to eat later. I ended up eating them for lunch the next day, and they were all good. The next time I went (it was the closest vegan place to my hostel) I had the mozzerella pizza and it was fab. All the HappyCow reviews said so, and they are right. It was the right size, and super cheesey. I also had 'homemade lemonade' which was just a syrup and they mixed it with sparkling water and this was a terrible idea. They have some raw cakes, but they didn't look particularly appetising and I didn't try them. Loving Hut Loving Huts in Prague are buffet style, 24czk/100g, and similarly Asian fare. Actually very similar to Veganland. The fixed menu is different though. I tried pho and wonton dumplings and they were both great. I didn't try the buffet. The pho was way more filling than I expected. The atmosphere, in the x location at least, was nicer than Veganland. Still pretty stark, but less canteen-y. It opened last month though, an…
name: Vegan in Prague
published: 2018-02-28T23:59:59+01:00
tag: prague
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: travel

week-in-review
type: Article
content: Fixed some things, broke some things. Aleph 2 is launching soon; data migration required. Thrice to yoga. Completely overhauled my upcoming travel plans. Went to Vrelo Bosna. Entertained the idea of writing some code but spent all weekend watching Star Trek ToS and crocheting gloves instead.
name: Week in review: 29 Jan - 4 Feb
published: 2018-02-04T22:47:00+01:00
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: Piecing together an authoritative overview of aaaaaall of OCCRP's data, which is a lot of data, in many forms. Gave away 3/4 of my posessions and a dreadlock. Repacked my life into 45L and handed my apartment keys to someone else. Departed sweet Sarajevo! Two buses to London, via Cologne. Was promptly replaced by a potted plant with a Mastodon account. Saw a few cool people in London I wasn't really expecting to see again for some time. Planned, unplanned, replanned, travel in the next couple of months. I still don't know where I'm to be between now and March. Any ideas?
name: Week in review: 5 - 11 Feb
published: 2018-02-11T23:59:59+00:00
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Spent the week in the countryside with my wee bird and my Mum's angsty cat and no transport links. Worked from couch. Reviewed a paper for the Linked Data on the Web workshop (WebConf2018) and meta-reviewed for the Developer Track. Shaved my head. Surprise visit to friends in Lincoln.
name: Week in review: 12 - 18 Feb
published: 2018-02-18T22:37:00+00:00
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: uk
tag: academia
tag: thewebconf2018

week-in-review-4
type: Article
content: Finished Star Trek ToS, abruptly. Had a rushed dinner with Laurel in London at Wulf and Lamb. Took a night bus to Amsterdam; spent the day eating and wandering. Took another night bus to Prague.. cue more eating and wandering. Data migration stuff.
name: Week in review: 19 - 25 Feb
published: 2018-02-25T23:59:59+01:00
tag: star+trek
tag: prague
tag: food
tag: vegan
tag: travel
tag: london
tag: amsterdam

budapest
type: Article
content: I mostly worked and cafe-hopped, and did all the usual touristy things when Naomi came to visit. The weather of course was beautiful, right up until it was time to go outside. But we braved the rain, and walked a lot. Along the river, and Margaret Island. Through the city center, Parliament (supposedly designed to look like Westminster? I sort of see it, but not all the way), the German Occupation Memorial, and counter-monument to Holocaust victims. We went to the Aquincum museum, with Roman ruins, which is not usually open in the winter or bad weather, but we went on a public holiday by chance so it was both open and free to enter. Stuff at the top of various hills. The castle, Fisherman's Bastion, the Liberty Statue. While I was there I went to three thermal baths. Szechenyi, the biggest one, with many indoor and outdoor pools of different temperatures. Being outdoors in the hot water surrounded by steam was awesome, but deciding to get out to go somewhere else was horrible because it was bloody cold outside. Rudas is smaller, super touristy and super expensive. We went on a Saturday afternoon on the holiday weekend and it was packed. The draw is a 'panoramic jaccuzzi pool' on the roof which was very underwhelming and not really warm enough. It snowed a tiny bit while we were up there, but really we were just cold. One evening I went to relax at the more local (therefore cheaper and less busy) Veli Bej. It was pretty nice and there are many things I'd like to come back for, to eat, mainly. The traditional food post, and all photo sets.
name: Two weeks in Budapest
published: 2018-03-21T09:00:00+01:00
tag: travel
tag: budapest

budapest-3
type: Add
content: A walking tour, up the castle hill, and to the Acquinium.
published: 2018-03-15T20:04:48+01:00
summary: Amy added 14 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201803-hungary/
target: 201803-hungary

centralisation-thesis
type: Note
content: The concept of a thesis as "centralisation of ideas" is not an excuse to not finish your thesis. You know who you are.
published: 2018-03-08T18:36:00+01:00
tag: phdchat

low-in-highschool
type: Note
content: I finally listened to Low in High School all the way through, and it was like I already knew all of the songs. It was already part of me. I like it. Spent the Day in Bed and Girl from Tel-Aviv are my favourites, sound-wise. I'm still sulking with Morrissey about politics though.
published: 2018-03-01T16:39:00+01:00
tag: morrissey
tag: music
tag: life

mention-travel
type: Note
content: Just mention that you are planning to travel between any two destinations in Europe within earshot of me and you will get immediate unsolicited detailed advice about all available bus routes, times and prices, and in some cases the comfort of any bus stations you might need to wait around in. I HAVE A PROBLEM
published: 2018-03-12T20:57:59+01:00
tag: travel
tag: bus

moving
type: Note
content: Over the next couple of days I'm moving webhosts. So probably not a good time to expect me to get your email.
published: 2018-03-19T10:24:00+01:00
tag: evohosting
tag: sloph
tag: life
tag: dreamhost

photos-budapest
type: Add
content: Eating and wandering Budapest.
published: 2018-03-09T21:01:35+01:00
summary: Amy added 36 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201803-hungary/
target: 201803-hungary

photos-budapest-2
type: Add
content: More eating and wandering Budapest..
published: 2018-03-13T20:03:09+01:00
summary: Amy added 36 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201803-hungary/
target: 201803-hungary

photos-budapest-3
type: Add
content: Raining. To the Hospital in the Rock museum, the Fisherman's Bastion, and more food.
published: 2018-03-16T21:06:43+01:00
summary: Amy added 24 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201803-hungary/
target: 201803-hungary

photos-budapest-4
type: Add
content: Last days in Budapest. To the Liberty Statue, and eating.
published: 2018-03-21T09:01:23+01:00
summary: Amy added 28 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201803-hungary/
target: 201803-hungary

photos-ljubljana
type: Add
content: Four days in Ljubljana with Elizabeth and family (and some in-transit pics too, between Prague, Budapest and Ljubljana, variously).
published: 2018-03-04T12:43:25+01:00
summary: Amy added 65 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201802-eu/
target: 201802-eu

spent-the-day
type: Note
content: "Spent the day on bus" to the tune of Spent the Day in Bed
published: 2018-03-01T16:41:00+01:00
tag: morrissey
tag: travel

tfw-tired
type: Note
content: TFW you're so tired you're fantasising about being in bed, but also you're already in bed
in reply to: what-if
published: 2018-03-07T13:03:00+01:00
tag: life

thesis
type: Note
content: OH: "my hypothetical thesis is an extension of my insanity"
published: 2018-03-06T21:35:00+01:00
tag: phdchat

twitter
type: Note
content: I dunno what's up with Twitter in firefox the past few days but it's making my fan whiirrrrr and crashes every time I click on a tweet. It's fine in Chromium. Probably a sign I should get off twitter and do something useful anyway.
published: 2018-03-14T12:31:00+01:00
tag: twitter

twitter-2
type: Note
content: I get home from a hard day of completely offline touristing and I just wanna see what happened on the internet before I go to sleep but oh no my twitter account is locked because I exhibited 'automated behaviour that may violate the twitter rules' like what I literally haven't been near a computer all day, is that the problem?? And now it wants a phone number but my phone is dead and I don't want to give them my number anyway grumble
published: 2018-03-15T23:22:00+01:00
tag: twitter

twitter-3
type: Note
content: For what it's worth, Twitter restored my account after a couple of days of looping through 'help' forms. Initially I was supposed to put a phone number in to restore it, but it wouldn't accept a Bosnian number. Each time I filed a support request I'd get an automated email telling me something I already knew, which I could reply to, which triggered another automated email telling me something else I already knew. Eventually I got one that said: Your account is now unlocked, and we're sorry for the inconvenience. Twitter has automated systems that find and remove automated spam accounts and it looks like your account got caught up in one of these spam groups by mistake. I couldn't figure out what twitter rule I could possibly have violated (except maybe using a VPN left a flag?) and nor did they answer my appeals for why a Bosnian phone number is considered invalid.
published: 2018-03-19T10:20:00+01:00
tag: twitter

vegan-in-budapest
type: Article
content: aka Hungry in Hungary. So many good options, for eating in, takeaway, and vegan groceries, I almost regretted getting a flat with a kitchen. In no particular order... Vegan Love Junk food and proud, a variety of burgers, not-dogs, salads, macaroni cheese and donuts. Delicious and fast, and pretty cheap, but cramped and busy. Las Vegans A food truck pretty close to where I was staying. They had a ton of different burgers and I wanted to try most of them. They also have smoothies and mango lassi. It's in a little street of foodtrucks which are open late, so it's a good place to go in nice weather with omnivores; something for everyone. Tokmag Sandwiches, soups, salads and burgers. The 'chips' are thin-sliced potato, more like crisps. Nice soft burger buns, easy to eat. Soup was good too, and I had a 'cream cheese' sandwich which was kind of boring. Only two seats, so one time I went we had to stand and juggle the food because it was pouring with rain outside. Good quality food, and close to attractions. Vegacity If I ran a vegan restaurant, the kind of food I'd serve can be found at Vegacity. A vast array of pre-made stews, soups, delicious mush, fried things, salads, sushi, vegetables, brightly coloured burgers, rainbow of smoothies and an excellent cake selection. I tried to read the signs, but then just pointed at what looks good. There are two floors of seats, and wifi; I hung out here quite a lot. I should have more food photos, I don't know what happened to them. Naspolya Nassolda Raw cake, breakfasts and snacks. Stopped for good coffee and a few hours working. Not a lot of space, but it wasn't busy. Would return for interesting granola. Vegazzi A pizza foodtruck in the courtyard of a bar. All very hip and lively at night. And omg the pizza. Amongst the best pizza I've ever had, with an interesting selection of toppings. Sweet potato and chestnut, with vegan mozzerella added, a little combo of sweet and salty, was perfection. The mushroom one also rocked hard. I…
name: Vegan in Budapest
published: 2018-03-21T09:01:00+01:00
tag: hungary
tag: budapest
tag: travel
tag: food
tag: vegan

vipassan
type: Note
content: I'm sitting another 10 day Vipassana course this month. I thought I'd sit another complete one, then attend my next as a server. But they're short of servers for this location, so I'll be a server this time after all. This means a little less meditation and a little more chopping vegetables. Which.. I'm greatly looking forward to.
published: 2018-03-12T17:24:00+01:00
tag: meditation
tag: vipassana
tag: life
tag: dhamma

week-in-review
type: Article
content: Wandered Prague. Data migration. Went to stay with Elizabeth and family in Ljubljana. Bussed to Budapest.
name: Week in review: 26th Feb - 4th March
published: 2018-03-04T23:59:59+01:00
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: Started settling into Budapest. Tested out the vegan restaurant and good espresso scenes. Some aleph tinkering and data migration. Helped someone with someone's PhD thesis.
name: Week in review: 5th - 11th March
published: 2018-03-11T23:59:59+01:00
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Touristing around Budapest. Data importing stuff. Roadtripped to Austria for Vipassana. See you in 10 days.
name: Week-and-a-half in review: 12 - 21 March
published: 2018-03-21T11:25:00+01:00
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: vipassana
tag: tourism

what-if
type: Note
content: What if bed time but all the time
published: 2018-03-07T13:02:00+01:00
tag: life

bratislava
type: Article
content: I fell in love with Bratislava immediately. I arrived on a pleasant afternoon, checked into my AirBnb (a comically small apartment) and then went wandering, ending up exploring the castle at dusk. The city reminded me in ways of Edinburgh and in ways of Sarajevo, both places I felt like I could call home. Close to where I was staying was the presidential palace, and a big inverted pyramid building. I went to see them, but like, don't go out of your way. Walks along the river on both sides are pleasant. There are footpaths and parkland, not too much street hassle. I climbed to the Slavin monument. It wasn't so far. I took one afternoon to hike to Devin Castle, about 12km from the city. I mostly followed the river, having to detour on a couple of occassions. There was plenty of greenery, some parks that seemed to be crafted for nearby apartment blocks to enjoy, as well as wilder looking riverside beaches. THe walk took me along the top of an old quarry, through some vinyards, and eventually to the town of Devin. The castle itself is situated on the far side of town from where I emerged from the hills, and I was running out of steam and ready for lunch by the time I got there. I bought a ticket just in time to have lunch in the grounds, as they close for a break for half an hour at 1300. Part of the castle (perhaps the interesting part) was closed for repairs. The rest was fairly pleasant, but pretty full of tourists. There's an exhibition about the history of Slovakia in one room. The next part of the trek was to Dubravka, over the hills, about another two hours. From here, I caught a bus back into town. When H arrived we embarked on another hike, this time to the distant Kamzik TV tower. You know I can never resist a tower on a hill. We took the elevator to the top, and stayed for a drink in the restaurant. It was pretty cloudy. The whole area is a 'forest park' and it's huge. There are places set out for campsites, kids playgrounds, and exercise. There are a couple …
name: A week in Bratislava
published: 2018-04-08T19:30:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: bratislava

cooking
type: Note
content: I've finally got pretty good at cooking for one recently. Which is a problem as this week I'm feeding my sister, who eats for twenty.
published: 2018-04-09T19:11:57+02:00
tag: travel
tag: food
tag: life

data
type: Note
content: Kira Radinsky: Data is going to be the new currency. Not sharing health data is inadvertently causing someone else to die. Same with terrorism-related data. And the way she said it... is a terrifying lay justification of surveillance and authoritarianism. This is how you convince the population to give up their privacy.. through fear.. I'm not buying what she's selling. Fortunately one of the subsequent questions from the floor pointed out that privacy has been distinctly lacking from this panel discussion so far.
in reply to: https://twitter.com/maulikkamdar/status/989416285275598848
published: 2018-04-26T10:13:00+02:00
tag: data
tag: thewebconf

devtrack-ldn
type: Note
content: csarven massively overengineered, automated, semantic-ised and self-dogfooded the LDN spec requirements, test suite and implementation reports, but it all paid off.
published: 2018-04-26T11:49:00+02:00
tag: ldn
tag: thewebconf
tag: devtrack
tag: linked+data

i-love-bratislava
type: Note
content: I love Bratislava.
published: 2018-04-04T13:08:00+02:00
tag: bratislava
tag: travel

maybe
type: Note
content: Maybe one day I will have a day where I don't spent several hours staring at bus timetables and calendars.
published: 2018-04-19T13:32:00+02:00
tag: travel

moderately
type: Note
content: "Moderately interested in not entirely fucking things up, some of the time, when I'm awake" is more my vibe
in reply to: passionate
published: 2018-04-11T14:26:00+02:00
tag: life

nightbuses
type: Note
content: Night buses + bus station storage lockers + a different city every day > paying rent. just kidding jfc I'm exhausted.
published: 2018-04-29T21:30:00+02:00
tag: travel

passionate
type: Note
content: The phrase "passionate about delivering innovative solutions" just overwhelms me with dead-weight exhaustion. And I'm suspicious of anyone who says it about themselves.
published: 2018-04-11T14:21:00+02:00
tag: life

photos-bratislava
type: Add
content: Arrival in Bratislava. Evening castle and old town wandering.
published: 2018-04-01T21:49:16+02:00
summary: Amy added 37 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201804-slovakia-austria-czech/
target: 201804-slovakia-austria-czech

photos-bratislava-2
type: Add
content: Cafe-hopping and wandering around Bratislava.
published: 2018-04-04T20:00:04+02:00
summary: Amy added 37 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201804-slovakia-austria-czech/
target: 201804-slovakia-austria-czech

photos-bratislava-3
type: Add
content: Walk up to Slavin monument (and more Bratislava old town).
published: 2018-04-05T20:03:57+02:00
summary: Amy added 25 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201804-slovakia-austria-czech/
target: 201804-slovakia-austria-czech

photos-bratislava-4
type: Add
content: Hike to Devin Castle along the river.
published: 2018-05-06T21:08:25+02:00
summary: Amy added 61 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201804-slovakia-austria-czech/
target: 201804-slovakia-austria-czech

photos-bratislava-5
type: Add
content: The arrival of the sister. Hike to Kamzik, wandering around old town, up the UFO Bridge, and a bus to Vienna.
published: 2018-04-08T19:10:22+02:00
summary: Amy added 50 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201804-slovakia-austria-czech/
target: 201804-slovakia-austria-czech

photos-brno
type: Add
content: An evening in Brno, Czech Republic.
published: 2018-04-14T23:58:39+02:00
summary: Amy added 28 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201804-slovakia-austria-czech/
target: 201804-slovakia-austria-czech

photos-hustopece
type: Add
content: Walks around Hustopece, South Moravia.
published: 2018-04-15T17:20:53+02:00
summary: Amy added 20 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201804-slovakia-austria-czech/
target: 201804-slovakia-austria-czech

photos-lyon
type: Add
content: A week in Lyon, eating and attending TheWebConf. Writeup.
published: 2018-04-28T21:20:00+02:00
summary: Amy added 55 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201804-lyon-munich/
target: 201804-lyon-munich

photos-mariazelle
type: Add
content: Driving through the snowy mountains to Mariazelle (Austria).
published: 2018-04-01T08:58:29+02:00
summary: Amy added 5 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201804-slovakia-austria-czech/
target: 201804-slovakia-austria-czech

photos-mikulov
type: Add
content: Day trip to Mikulov

photos-munich
type: Add
content: A day between two night buses, wandering around Munich. Writeup.
published: 2018-04-29T21:35:00+02:00
summary: Amy added 22 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201804-lyon-munich/
target: 201804-lyon-munich

photos-palava
type: Add
content: Walk through Palava Hills.

photos-prague
type: Add
content: An afternoon and a morning in Prague.
published: 2018-04-21T21:03:57+02:00
summary: Amy added 44 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201804-slovakia-austria-czech/
target: 201804-slovakia-austria-czech

photos-vienna
type: Add
content: Walking and eating in Vienna.
published: 2018-04-14T14:15:59+02:00
summary: Amy added 71 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201804-slovakia-austria-czech/
target: 201804-slovakia-austria-czech

searching
type: Note
content: Web searches for stuff about Celery, Flower, brokers, queue management, yields a really weird combination of results.
published: 2018-04-11T14:46:00+02:00
tag: hacking
tag: celery
tag: rabbitmq

some-nightbuses
type: Article
content: Prague to Lyon, via Munich with Flixbus. About 50eur, 18 hours, a couple of hours to wait in Munich (time for a pretzel and a coffee). Munich ZOB has a Lidl, and a dm, some restaurants, luggage lockers and isn't far from town. Downside: the toilets are 50c, and grim. There's a much cheaper direct bus from Prague to Lyon with Regiojet, which I originally thought I'd be taking when I decided to go from Prague. But it has limited departures, and I would have arrived a day earlier than I wanted, so I went with Flix. The journey itself (the night part, Munich to Lyon) was pretty awful. Constant interruptions by the police, mostly in Switzerland. They came to passport check at every stop and sometimes in between. The two black guys on the bus always seemed to be singled out for a bag search when nobody else was. The bus driver had yelling fights with two different sets of passengers, both a couple with a small child. The first, brought too much luggage and he wouldn't let them on the bus. They were yelling a lot outside the bus, which was audible inside, making lots of phonecalls, and eventually the Swiss police turned up anyway. The bus was delayed about 45 minutes, and the family did not board. The second time a family hadn't been woken up at Zurich and were upset to find themselves in Lausanne. Dad was yelling in French, Mum was begging the driver to speak English, and driver only wanted to make demands in German. Some passengers tried to help, but of course the Swiss police were already here. The driver wanted to charge them for their 'illegal' ride from Zurich to Lausanne. Srsly. The return Lyon to Munich with Flixbus was 30eur, 12 hours; same driver, but no yelling this time. I had two seats to myself, and mostly slept. Still interrupted by Swiss police a lot, one time with a cute dog who sniffed everything. After a day in Munich, I took Munich to Krakow; 13 hours, 40eur, Flixbus again. After Regensburg I again had two seats to myself, and slept pretty well. We were…
name: Some nightbuses
published: 2018-04-30T14:59:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: bus
tag: transit

sometimes
type: Note
content: Sometimes I like to walk through malls, just to feel invisible.
published: 2018-04-28T13:40:00+02:00
tag: life
tag: travel

south-moravia
type: Article
content: Some chill time in the Czech countryside, with my new Vipassana friend P. Photosets linked throughout. P met me in Brno, and we spent the evening wandering around in the sun. And whiled the evening away in an amazing tea shop, with different culturally themed rooms (Japanese, Chinese, Indian) and a super chill atmosphere. We walked around the local countryside, around P's town Hustopece. It's largely flat, with gentle rolling hills and lots of vinyards. Spring was here and the flowers were blooming. We took the bus to Mikulov, and explored this beautiful town. There's a castle with stunning grounds and gardens, and view over the town from above. We went into the crypt and learnt about the history of the building which had once been a church. We had a great lunch with some amazing DIY hot chocolates, before wandering up nearby hills. We hiked up Palava Hill, with stops along the way to look out over the lake, and see various ruins. The lake used to be a valley with villages; you can still see some trees standing tall out of the water, and a small island with the remains of a church. We ended in a town where we visited a chaotic art studio, and had drinks in a nationally famous coffee place, with a beautiful terrace and view from the hillside. At the end of the week we took the bus to Prague. In the evening we took a boat ride on the river, and ate at Loving Hut. The next morning we walked into the city from the suburbs, and at at Moment, before parting ways.
name: A week in South Moravia
published: 2018-04-21T13:30:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: czech+republic

thewebconf-history
type: Note
actor: history
actor: thewebconf
content: Wendy Hall talks about the importance of recording Web history... pix or it didn't happen: "People didn't realise they were witnessing history, then." And the trouble with memories.. Wendy, Tim and others are reminiscing with the room and remembering things differently.
published: 2018-04-27T12:18:00+02:00

thewebconf-in-lyon
type: Article
content: Despite the fact I am no longer officially an academic, I hauled myself off-route from my EU wanderings to France to attend my fifth World Wide Web Conference. This conference series holds a little nostalgia for me, because it's the very first place I published a paper (in Seoul in 2014) and somewhere I met for the first time many academic idols and people who have gone on to become great friends, collaborators, and shape my future in ways that are even now still unfolding. Not being institutionally supported though, there was no way I could justify the registration fees out of my own pocket. Fortunately I got two free days for chairing the Developer's track, and one free day courtesy of csarven for helping out with his workshop. On the Monday I stayed home and worked until it was time to join the LDOW dinner. On Tuesday I sat in on the Researcher Centric Scholarly Communication workshop, and by 'sat in' I mean took detailed transcription of everything everyone said. It went well. In the evening I somehow managed to convene a dinner attended by (hashtag namedropping) TimBL, Henry Thompson, Jeni Tennison, Sarven, Sandro, Jenny and An from CredCo. Wendy Hall and Ruben Verborgh had planned to attend too but missed out due to VIP activities and going to the wrong restaurant respectively. On Wednesday I tried to pay attention to the Journalism and Misinformation track. I also joined the Minute Madness to present a one minute plug for data.occrp.org. Thursday was the Developer's track, the official reason I was there. I took turns chairing with Thomas Steiner, and all of the presentations went really well - including all live demos and a remote speaker! Thursday evening's alternative to the Gala dinner was fancy delicious vegan food at Like An Elephant. I got lost, fell off my bike, and had to climb a hill to get there, but it was totally worth it. I spent Friday morning in the Web History track and the afternoon in W3C. Web History was fascinating of course, with Tim, We…
name: TheWebConf 2018 in Lyon
published: 2018-04-28T20:00:00+02:00
tag: sandro
tag: http://csarven.ca/#i
tag: thewebconf
tag: academia
tag: conference
tag: Berners-Lee

thewebconf-sandro
type: Note
content: Sandro Hawke at the W3C track presents the work done by the W3C Social Web WG and ongoing work by the CG, and importantly.. what comes next? Slides and links.
published: 2018-04-27T13:52:00+02:00
tag: social+web
tag: socialwg
tag: thewebconf
tag: sandro

thewebconf-timbl
type: Note
content: I wrote everything Timbl said in the Web history session, but it needs some serious clean up before I post it xD Stand by.
published: 2018-04-27T12:50:00+02:00
tag: thewebconf
tag: timbl

vegan-in-bratislava
type: Article
content: Compared to the size of the city, there are a lot of veg*n places to eat. Most regular coffeeshops have plant milks, and a surprising number have raw vegan cakes too. It's overall cheap. Also quite a few places have vegan ice cream options. I got chestnut from Luculus 5 minutes after hopping off the bus. Balans Bistro Busy both times I went, this all vegan place has a pretty extensive menu. I tried the quesadilla which was more beans than cheese, but still good. A plate of some of the best chips I've had outside of the UK (high praise, y'know). Another time I was really not hungry enough for a full meal and I was definitely going to get soup or/and a cake, but the day's special was a pulled jackfruit burger.. It was great. I got fluffy creamy chestnut cake to go. My sister had the soup which was spicy and had avocado floating in it, which worked surprisingly well. Vegan Kiosk A foodtruck outside Tesco. Various burgers, drinks, bananabread. Interesting burger buns. Approved. U Dobrozrutra All vegan bakery; I wish I had been able to try everything here. They also had a few groceries like nut butters. I ate a poppyseed pastry. No wifi, but a few seats and coffee as well. Foodstock All veggie, mostly vegan. One of the only places I could find open on Easter Sunday, they have gyoza, ramen and falafel and hummus. Food quality is good. I ate miso soup and gyoza, which were covered in edamame and mushrooms. A small portion, but very delicious. They also have bottomless green tea. Pestre A French crepe place, with coffees and fresh juices. They can make vegan and gluten-free crepes from almond milk and buckwheat flour, and have vegan chocolate options. I tried one with banana and blueberries, and one with 'nougat' chocolate sauce. There's wifi and lots of seating; I worked here for a whole morning. The espresso is good too. Re:fresh Need vegan junk food at 2am? No problem. I didn't go at 2am, but it was nice to know it was an option. Mid-afternoon, it wasn't busy and was a f…
name: Vegan in Bratislava
published: 2018-04-08T18:00:00+02:00
tag: bratislava
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: travel
tag: slovakia

vegan-in-lyon
type: Article
content: Mostly I cooked for myself or ate (terrible) conference food, but on a couple of occasions I ate out in Lyon... Aux Bonheurs des Chats Arriving by nightbus first thing on a Sunday morning didn't yield a lot of breakfast options. Aux Bonheurs des Chats, a vegan cat cafe, opened at 11 though, so I waited. A wonderful decision! I sat down at a window table, already occupied by a moggie who declined to move, and inched closer and closer to my laptop over the course of the morning. Everything was covered in hair. They offered brunch for 16eur which seemed a bit much, and I wasn't that hungry. I had a hazelnut chocolate brownie (big!) and a super creamy matcha latte. Hank Vegan Burger Good burgers, lots of different toppings, and coleslaw or potato wedges as a side, and some vegan cakes. Small meal deal (drink and side) or large (plus dessert) at 13 and 15eur respectively. I just ate a burger and potato wedges. Like An Elephant A trek across town and up a hill was absolutely worth it. The menu wasn't huge, which means I wasn't paralysed by choice. Between two of us, we shared two starters, two mains, and two desserts, which came to 49eur. Delicious gazpacho soup, and an avocado mush thing were the starters. The avocado mush was seated upon a cheesecake-like grount nut crust, and topped with dark chocolate flakes. It was as close to dessert as you can get without actually being sweet. The mains were seitan with bok choi and mango noodles, and a burger with baby potatoes. And the desserts were two tiny cakes; one with chocolate and one with pear. I loved all of it. It was also a nice cosy place, with friendly staff and witty signage. YAAFA Recommended for the 'potato things', and it was open late, and there is a branch not too far from the bus station, I went to YAAFA on my last afternoon. There are many falafel pita options, half of which are vegan (all vegetarian), plus homemade bottomless lemonade and iced tea, and indeed good potato things - something between wedges and…
name: Vegan in Lyon
published: 2018-04-28T19:30:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: lyon
tag: france

vegan-in-vienna
type: Article
content: There are quite a lot of options in Vienna, but everything is expensive, so I mostly bought groceries and cooked. But not always.. Vegan Anker Anker is a bakery chain that's everywhere in the city. Regular branches have a few vegan things, but there's an entirely vegan Anker right in Stefansplatz Metro station. There are a couple of tables, and it's around a corner away from the bustle of the main station, so a nice place to hide away and pass the time. It's also really cheap by Vienna standards. They have a huge array of cakes and pastries of course, as well as sandwiches and other savouries. My sister (who's not vegan) got a sandwich from there for her conference lunch one day and raved about it for the whole evening afterwards. I only tried a great sticky pastry, plus an espresso, and read my kindle for a couple of hours. Elmira I went to this place cos it was relatively close to where I was staying. It's a small biomarket with a vegan cafe added on, only a couple of tables. The food is super fresh and homemade; they have a couple of salad options and a hot main dish each day, on a changing menu. I tried goulash, and a big fluffy latte. It was all good. She tried to upsell me a salad, but I wasn't hungry enough. It was hard to find somehow.. but I can't recall exactly why now. The street of the address is not actually where the entrance is, or something. Veganista An ice cream chain, these are everywhere. Great flavours, generous scoops, good prices. I tried black forest and poppyseed. Pita Box They have a big kebab-shaped lump of seitan rotating in the same way normal kebab places have meat! Wild. An extensive mostly-vegan menu, including different kebab combos and falafel. I had seitan in a pita and was able to load it with toppings from the counter myself. They have a bunch of interesting hummus flavours, including peanut (which obviously is what I had). The guy told me which things in the counter weren't vegan, which I think was just the tzatziki. HappyCow li…
name: Vegan in Vienna
published: 2018-04-14T09:00:00+02:00
tag: vienna
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: travel
updated: 2018-06-18T12:41:00+02:00

vienna
type: Article
content: I didn't do a lot of touristy stuff in Vienna (I did eat of course), but here's a few things... I went to the Central Library. It's pretty awesome, straddling a highway and a metro station, with lots of floors, a good view, and a restaurant at the very top. The main library, in the museum quarter, is an architectural marvel in itself and costs 3eur to enter for a day. Since I was passing by late afternoon, I figured I'd come back when I had a full day to spend, but I never did. I went for a run with H along the river. There are tons of good places to run. We also hiked through some vinyards, to the Alps. We found a lookout tower, but it was closed until May. There were some great views of the city on the way down. More Vienna photos.
name: Some stuff I did in Vienna
published: 2018-04-14T18:00:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: vienna

webconf
type: Note
content: I'm in Lyon for TheWebConf. It's a beautiful day and I'm starting out by getting everything I own thoroughly covered in hair at a cat cafe. I think it's gonna be a good week. I'll be at Researcher Centric Scholarly Communication on Tuesday, the journalism and misinformation track on Wednesday, and the Developer track on Thursday. See you around!
published: 2018-04-22T13:39:00+02:00
tag: thewebconf
tag: www2018
tag: linked+research

webconf-dev-demos
type: Note
content: Great quality live demos on a variety of topics at the Dev Track, has been really nice to see :D
published: 2018-04-26T14:59:00+02:00
tag: thewebconf
tag: devtrack

webconf-timbl
type: Note
content: My transcription of TimBL's talk in the Web History track at TheWebConf 2018. So much stuff I could bore you with. I'll tell you about some random bits, some of the other systems. I start with the tip of the hat to Mum and Dad for brining me up as two programmers, some of the earlier programmers. Mum and Dad met designing and working on the team that put together the Ferranti Mark I computer, the commercialization of the Ferranti Mark I. The spirit then was very much that all computers were the same and whatever you can do with one computer you can do with all and it's really up to your imagination. They imagined they'd have early computers translating to Russian and back by the end of the week. Figuring out that some things were easy and some things were more difficult. One of the early themes was my Dad talking to people about computers, explaining things to people, using intersecting water jets to explain how binary worked for people. One of the things he tried to explain was the difference between what people can do and what computers can do. People can do that random association, they can think about something technical they learned and every time they smell the cheese they were eating when they learned it (at the WebConf in Lyon) then they can make that connection, random connection, between cheese and the idea. Computers couldn't do that. One of the early fascinations was with things that could do that. The first time I went to CERN in 1980 was write a program called ENQUIRE. Two versions, one for PC, COMPAQ portable luggable PC. This was a notepad thing, basically ran on a terminal so you could look at a notepad, create a note and at the bottom of the note would be links, you could add extra links, browse through the thing, only go through it by following links, start with the homepage and organise your stuff with an hierarchy, remember the place, mark this point, go to another place and say you want to link to this place, mark and link, a link would store t…
in reply to: thewebconf-timbl
published: 2018-04-27T15:59:00+02:00
tag: timbl
tag: thewebconf

week-in-review
type: Article
content: Spent ten days on a snowy mountain in Austria serving on a Viapssana course. I helped to cook for and clean up after 165 people as part of a team of ~17. I got to stir giant pots with giant spoons and make volumes of apple crumble I've never seen before. Meditated at least 4 hours per day. Made wonderful new friends. Got a ride to Vienna, then took a bus to Bratislava.
name: Week-and-a-half in review: 22 March - 1 April
published: 2018-04-01T23:59:59+02:00
tag: bratislava
tag: dhamma
tag: vipassana
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: austria

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: Wandered and ate and cafe-worked around Bratislava. My sister showed up for a couple of nights. Then we took the bus to Vienna.
name: Week in review: 2 - 8 April
published: 2018-04-08T23:59:59+02:00
tag: bratislava
tag: travel

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Wandered around Vienna a bit; worked from a few cafes and the library, but it's pretty darn expensive. Continued loading and reloading datasets into the new and improved OCCRP Data Portal. Messed with Celery Flower for queue monitoring so I can actually see what I'm doing when I'm loading datasets. Ran and hiked. Took a train from Vienna to Brno, then a bus from Brno to Hustopece, to stay with my Vipassana friend in the countryside. Wandered around the area. Did yoga. Resumed meditating.
name: Week in review: 9 - 15 April
published: 2018-04-15T23:59:59+02:00
tag: vienna
tag: celery
tag: hacking
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: czech+republic

week-in-review-4
type: Article
content: Explored the South Moravian countryside. Spent one night in Prague, then took a bus to Munich. Night bus to Lyon. Cat cafe.
name: Week in review: 16 - 22 April
published: 2018-04-22T23:59:59+02:00
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel

week-in-review-5
type: Article
content: Attended TheWebConf in Lyon. Saw Avengers: Infinity War omg Took a night bus to Munich, and spent a day in Munich. Took a night bus to Krakow.
name: Week in review: 23 - 29 April
published: 2018-04-29T23:59:59+02:00
tag: thewebconf
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel

yoga
type: Note
content: This week I did yoga for the first time since I cut my hair and oh my god the floor is just so... there.
published: 2018-04-18T09:33:00+02:00
tag: life
tag: yoga
tag: hair

always-comment
type: Note
content: Always comment your code, kids. Especially when writing a monstrous inaccessible JavaScript frontend. It makes it much easier to disassemble for scraping purposes.
published: 2018-05-02T14:35:00+02:00
tag: hacking

breaking
type: Note
content: Breaking news: I bought two new* pairs of shoes today. Madness! Stay tuned for more details on how this could possibly have happened. * As in, not second hand.
published: 2018-05-14T22:00:00+02:00
tag: clothes
tag: stuff
tag: life

by-age-35
type: Note
content: By age 35 you should have died. (Medieval Europe edition)
published: 2018-05-29T12:57:00+01:00
tag: meme

couchsurfing
type: Note
content: Went to the Tri-City Couchsurfing meetup this evening, and met so many wonderful people. Receiving such warmth and hospitality from strangers makes me wanna host again, and offer it to others.
published: 2018-05-16T00:17:00+02:00
tag: life
tag: travel
tag: couchsurfing

currency-conversion
type: Note
content: Oh my god, I finally got on top of currency conversion for my Acquire posts. I've been tracking my purchases since 2016-01-01, but lots of travel complicates aggregation of costs. Exchange rates vary day to day (that's as precise as I care about, at least) and currency conversion APIs vary in what they'll convert between, and how effectively. Several months ago.. maybe a year?.. I was auto-converting all purchases to USD. Some time ago something broke and I finally dug in and put it all back together again - better this time. I abstracted exchange rate API requests and storing the results into CashCache and bulkloaded currency conversions to EUR, GBP and USD for all historical purchases into my triplestore. Henceforth the conversions will happen automatically when I insert something new. This means I can get back on top of my budget and know how much I'm spending again! Which is.. pretty important. Cos though I log everything, and am extremely thrifty, I have little realistic idea of where I am finances-wise. This is about to change. I'm hoping my general caution reveals that I spend much less than I think..
published: 2018-05-21T17:19:00+02:00
tag: cashcache
tag: money
tag: hacking
tag: life
tag: sloph

eu-bouncing
type: Article
content: The plan was to visit every country in the EU (before March 2019 for reasons). The plan was to spend at least a month in each one, ideally in one place, and just kind of absorb the surroundings. I alternate remote laptop work with city wandering, rural hiking, chilling out with the kindle in parks, coffeeshops, and vegan cafes. Things haven't gone quite to plan so far though. I've been pulled around by people and events, in no logical order. Not complaining, but I really need to slow down for a while. My stay in Budapest was cut short on both ends, as at the beginning of March I had the opportunity to stay with Elizabeth and her family in Ljubljana for a long weekend. On the 21st of March, began a Vipassana meditation course in Mariazelle, Austria. I'd applied to sit, then agreed to serve when they emailed to say they were short-handed. Dreading the complicated and lengthy public transport options to the Austrian mountains, at the last minute I managed to catch a ride with another meditation student from Budapest. I made no onward travel plans, guessing I could wing it at the end of the course; I wanted to be in Bratislava, but was confident I'd get a lift at least to Vienna. I did. I slept almost the whole way and was surprised to find myself deposited in a random suburb around 11am. I metro'd to Erdberg bus station, which is not particularly well located. Oh also it was Easter Sunday. Nothing was functioning. No coffee, no food. The bus station was open, but their internet was down. Which meant... they couldn't sell any tickets. I was told to hang about half an hour, then buy a ticket from the driver on the next bus to Bratislava. The bus was full. Next bus in an hour. I went back into the station and it seemed that the internet was back on, and they were frantically selling tickets to frantic people. I joined a line. By the time I got to the front of the line, the internet was broken again. I asked after the nearest wifi hotspot, and was told to go to MacDonald's…
name: Bouncing around Europe
published: 2018-05-01T21:00:00+02:00
tag: austria
tag: germany
tag: poland
tag: vienna
tag: krakow
tag: munich
tag: budapest
tag: europe
tag: travel
tag: bratislava
tag: lyon
tag: czech+republic
tag: prague
tag: france
tag: slovakia

flat
type: Note
content: Moving into a shared flat with stranger(s) for a month seemed like a good idea, and I still think it's a good idea, and when I decided to I promised myself I wouldn't be afraid to enter the kitchen / leave my bedroom when someone else is around like I was during my undergrad BUT APPARENTLY THIS INSTINCT IS VERY HARD TO FIGHT i'm hungry okay i think she's gone i can make lunch now?
published: 2018-05-03T15:16:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: life

fwiw
type: Note
content: FWIW Flix and I have had a pretty solid year.
in reply to: upcoming-bus
published: 2018-05-17T13:59:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: flixbus

itme
type: Note
content: OMG IT ME
published: 2018-05-10T17:38:00+02:00
tag: life

krakow
type: Article
content: I arrived mid-morning from the night bus, and headed straight to the hostel. Dumped my bags, and wandered into town. The old town is surrounded by a park in the area that used to be occupied by city walls before they were torn down. To make space for the park, history be damned. Anyway, it's a nice park. I ended up at the castle, naturally, of course. The old town is all around super nice. After checking in to the hostel properly, and a quick lunch, I joined a walking tour. I pretty much crashed after that. The next day I passed the couple of hours between hostel checkout and train departure at Sweet Life bakery, where I literally bought all of the vegan cake, and also discovered I could veganise one of their lunch bowls. See also, food info. I took the train from the main station. It was fairly easy to find. I bought my ticket the day before from a machine. The train was spacious and after Warsaw I had most of a carridge to myself. It took 5h30 to Gdynia, for 199pln (~50eur). Here are the rest of the photos.
name: A day in Krakow
published: 2018-05-01T11:20:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: krakow
tag: poland

lighthouse
type: Note
content: Today I climbed to the top of the lighthouse from which the first shots of WWII were fired. I feel like this and the Latin Bridge in Sarajevo should make some kind of special collection.
published: 2018-05-23T23:50:00+02:00
tag: travel

mealsome
type: Note
content: Me: okay I spent way too much at the market on imminently expiring vegetables so I'm gonna make a giant chilli and eat it for at least the next three days. Also me: HEY ROOMMATES I MADE LOADS OF FOOD HELP YOSELVES ... Later me: where did my chilli go i don't understand :(
published: 2018-05-10T14:03:00+02:00
tag: food
tag: life

photos-ams
type: Add
content: A few hours in Amsterdam, and transit to London.
published: 2018-05-29T11:11:36+01:00
summary: Amy added 8 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2018-uk/
target: 2018-uk

photos-gdansk
type: Add
content: Good eating in Gdansk Wrzeszcz (pronounced as a guttural sound like you're suppressing a sneeze), and a hike along the length of Stogi Beach and back through the woods.
published: 2018-05-15T15:46:15+02:00
summary: Amy added 36 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201805-poland/
target: 201805-poland

photos-gdansk-2
type: Add
content: Touristing day in Gdansk; WWII museum, Westerplatte, St Mary's Basilica, Gora Gradowa viewpoint.

photos-gdynia
type: Add
content: A week in Gdynia, also featuring Gdansk.

photos-gdynia-2
type: Add
content: Beach and cake in Gdynia.
published: 2018-05-14T00:57:59+02:00
summary: Amy added 5 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201805-poland/
target: 201805-poland

photos-gdynia-3
type: Add
content: Walk along the Gdynia coastline.
published: 2018-05-17T21:20:11+02:00
summary: Amy added 59 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201805-poland/
target: 201805-poland

photos-gdynia-4
type: Add
content: Morning in the Emigration Museum in Gdynia, long walk along the coast to Latarnia Morska lighthouse in Gdansky Nowy Port, wrapped up with dinner at Vege Port.
published: 2018-05-23T21:29:29+02:00
summary: Amy added 60 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201805-poland/
target: 201805-poland

photos-gdynia-5
type: Add
content: Last meals in Gdynia, at Vegan Port and i Krowa Cala.
published: 2018-05-27T17:29:50+02:00
summary: Amy added 6 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201805-poland/
target: 201805-poland

photos-hel
type: Add
content: Absolutely breathtaking 20 mile walk along the Hel Peninusla. Also exhausting. Writeup, GPS.

photos-hike
type: Add
content: A ~25km hike through various woods around Gdansk, starting at Oliwa, ending at the vegan pizza place.
published: 2018-05-12T00:59:00+02:00
summary: Amy added 25 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201805-poland/
target: 201805-poland

photos-krakow
type: Add
content: A day in Krakow. Writeup.
published: 2018-05-01T17:08:58+02:00
summary: Amy added 41 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201805-poland/
target: 201805-poland

photos-museums
type: Add
content: The Long Night of Museums in Gdansk, and dinner at Guga Spicy.
published: 2018-05-20T01:18:35+02:00
summary: Amy added 14 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201805-poland/
target: 201805-poland

photos-russia
type: Add
content: Drove to Nowa Karczma, then walked to the Russian border. Also a climb up the Pacholek viewpoint, and dinner at Vege Port.
published: 2018-05-25T23:02:06+02:00
summary: Amy added 34 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201805-poland/
target: 201805-poland

photos-sopot
type: Add
content: Ice cream on the beach at Sopot.
published: 2018-05-08T22:59:44+02:00
summary: Amy added 17 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201805-poland/
target: 201805-poland

portable
type: Note
content: Does anyone want to recommend (or research) portable travel kitchen-related stuff for me? To date I've been carrying around a small wooden spoon, a bamboo straw, and a ragtag assortment of plastic spoons and forks (sometimes chopsticks) that I've acquired and seemed robust enough to hold onto, until they break. I stuff them into the zip pouch that also holds my USB cables and external hard drive and stuff. I used to have a silicon tea infuser, but I left that at my airbnb in Budapest :( I have never possessed a reusable flask worth keeping, they always leaked or smelled or broke or wandered off by themselves. But I really want to remedy that. The only long-term food item I carry around is loose leaf tea stuffed in gradually degrading plastic pouches. For the first time this month I moved into a place without any coffee making facilities at all, so now I'm fantasising about a collapsible silicone drip coffee cone like this. I'm dumping the grounds straight in the cup and drinking around them at the moment which is basically fine. I usually do this with tea too, even when I had my infuser I only used it about 50% of the time. So maybe I don't neeeed to replace that. I'd like some kind of robust storage pouches for tea and herbs/spices though. Small containers that all attach or fit together somehow so they're not drifting around my backpack or easily lose-able. Ideally something that folds flat when empty. I like the idea of a collapsible coffee cup flask like these. But I'm not sure if I should just get a full size good quality thermos and accept that it is always going to take up space. I should probably try to carry and drink more water anyway. Whatever flask I get I really want space for a clip so I can attach it to things. I should probably get a more long-term spoon/fork solution, and a better pouch to carry them in.
published: 2018-05-06T13:53:00+02:00
tag: life
tag: travel

pretty-sure
type: Note
content: Pretty sure people I meet at CS meetups think I'm super social and talkative, but actually I've spent the entire week prior in complete isolation in preparation for this one evening. Anyway I went to the Tri-City CS meetup again and it was cool again, surprise. Just writing this to remind myself to keep going to stuff with people.
published: 2018-05-23T00:38:00+02:00
tag: life
tag: travel
tag: couchsurfing

raining
type: Note
content: It is raining BIG RAIN and I am very happy about this. The sun this week was starting to mess me up.
published: 2018-05-11T15:53:00+02:00
tag: life
tag: https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/weather

related
type: Note
content: On a related note, I managed to get to Gdynia and find myself a place to live for the next month.
in reply to: started
published: 2018-05-01T20:01:00+02:00
tag: gdynia
tag: poland
tag: travel

started
type: Note
content: Started trying not to arrive to a new unfamiliar place with no food on a Sunday when everything is closed. Managed it! But it's Labour Day, so everything is closed.
published: 2018-05-01T19:58:00+02:00
tag: travel

stuff-update
type: Article
content: Content warning: This post is really boring and self-indulgent, and I definitely overthink clothes-buying. You probably don't want to read it. If you know me at all (or read my logs) you know I only buy clothes about once a year (though I bought a secondhand hoodie in Prague in february, not sure if this makes what I'm about to write about my second shopping trip of 2018) and also I only buy secondhand stuff (except for underwear). This isn't about cost, though that helps, but a determination to make as little dent in the world as possible with my material consumption habits. I also have a one-in one-out policy with new stuff because my backpack is at capacity. Since it's out of character and I feel bad about it, I'm writing about why I bought stuff from SportsDirect in Poland over the past few days. Bag My daypack broke on Saturday. I got it in Japan in Nov 2016, it folds into a little pocket to clip onto my big backpack when not in use, and has lasted way longer than I expected. I thought the straps or seams would go, especially as I use it for carrying my laptop. But uh, the zips fell off. They just disappeared. I do not know how to repair this, and it's a pretty critical piece of my day-to-day infrastructure. So I needed a replacement STAT. I happened to know of an extremely compact ~12eur pack in SportsDirect, so I thought I'd not waste time searching around and just get it. It's not as good as my old one - no side pockets, and the case it packs into is separate rather than attached - but it folds to about one quarter of the size and seems pretty solid. This is what led to the buying of the rest of the things. Shoes For a few months I've been down to my running shoes and my walking boots. So I've wanted something else to serve as sandals/casual shoes/shoes-I-can-wear-with-a-dress-without-looking-like-a-person-who-only-owns-running-shoes-and-walking-boots. Also, my boots are terrible. I got them from a secondhand shop in Bosnia. They look fine, and have good ank…
name: Stuff update
published: 2018-05-16T16:36:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: life
tag: stuff

summary
type: Note
content: Fixing up my /summary script. Appalled at how much I spend eating in restaurants, but pleasantly surprised by accommodation averages. Transit costs are meaningless at the moment because I have a ton of logs missing for long distance bus prices.
published: 2018-05-21T22:22:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: hacking
tag: life

to-hel-and-back
type: Article
content: The Hel Peninusula is a narrow strip of land poking out over the north of Poland, in the Baltic Sea. Yesterday I took a one hour ferry there from Gdynia, walked 20 miles along it, then took a one hour train back. It was exhausting, and beautiful. The ferry from Gdynia runs from May to September, and is 40PLN (~10EUR). There's one guaranteed to run in each direction, and two which run if there are enough people demanding it. I went at 10am, and it takes about an hour. The port is about a 15 minute walk from Gdynia main station, in a straight line. I bought my ticket from the office on the port (they're also available online) about half an hour before departure. There were only a handful of other people on board. Hel itself is the biggest town, on the end of the strip. It is surrounded on all sides by beaches, and backed by woods with many remnants of the World Wars, like bunkers and shelters. I didn't stick around in the town for very long after disembarking the ferry, but plunged into the woods to cross to the less inhabited beaches on the northern side. For a while I followed the beach. It was windy, mini sandstorms peppered my ankles; the waves crashed to my right and there was no-one. Miles and miles of soft white sand, stretching out in both directions. It really felt like paradise. The beach is separated from the woods by banks of sand dunes of various sizes. It was much more sheltered and warm to walk through here, but the dunes were deep and soft; ploughing through took more energy. I wandered between beach, dunes and woods. The trees were far enough apart that an absence of well defined trails didn't matter. Pale green-blue moss on the ground was deliciously crunchy underfoot. Sometimes the woods would open into wide patches of dunes, pure and white and sweeping, completely undisturbed by other footprints. Periodically I came across a bunker or a rusty watch tower, half-buried in the sand or overgrown by trees. I had planned to walk from Hel to Cha&#0322upy,…
name: To Hel and back
published: 2018-05-19T14:50:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: walking
tag: poland

upcoming-bus
type: Note
content: I have a whole four upcoming long distance bus trips this month and none of them are with Flixbus. What uuuuuppp finally I'm seeing other people. (In case you're interested...) Gdynia - Amsterdam with EST Gdansk Amsterdam - London with NationalExpress London - Vienna with Regiojet Vienna - Sarajevo with my beloved Centrotrans
published: 2018-05-17T13:42:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: flixbus

vegan-cake
type: Note
content: I'm in a small bakery in Krakow who usually has several vegan things, but today they only had two muffins left. I ate one, and took the other to go for later. Now I'm sitting here sipping my espresso and some more vegans came in and there's no cake for them. I feel bad but not bad enough to give them my spare muffin. Which, by the way, is an amazing blueberry and lemon giant monster cake and I'm excited to eat it again later.
published: 2018-05-01T10:47:00+02:00
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: travel

vegan-in-krakow
type: Article
content: I only spent a day and a half in Krakow. There are a few good vegan options around. Krowarzywa A burger and hotdog joint, with great salads and toppings, homemade lemonade and bottled sodas. I had seitan pastrami, plus vegan cheese as an extra, and lemonade for less than 5eur. The burger is big. There are also potatoes, and other drink options that look great. The 'meat' part of the burger is also covered by many options, from seasonal roasted vegetables to tofu. You can have it as a wrap or a salad bowl, too. It was crazy busy when I was there between 2 and 3 pm, and I had to wait in line both to order and for the food. They give you a beeper. I'm really happy to see a fully vegan place like this so busy, including families with young kids, and old people. There's enough space to sit, even when busy, a toilet, English menu, and staff are friendly. No wifi. Sweet Life A small bakery, with a few vegan cake options. Opens early. I went here before my train out, as it's so close to the station. They said they usually have more vegan cake, but on this occasion only two lemon and blueberry muffins were in the display. I bought one to eat with my coffee, and one to go. HappyCow said they had pies, so I'd been hoping to get lunch there to take on the train. This was one of the best muffins EVER. It was huge, super moist, lemony and fruity and just.. so good. Later two more vegans came in and there was no cake for them, but I had no regrets. There are lots of seats, and wifi so I got my laptop out. A bit later I noticed a sign on the wall for 'life bowls', including one with tofu. I enquired; they usually have egg, but they were happy to make it without. I had to wait for the kitchen to open at 11. I ate half and took the rest to go. This was also great, lots of flavours and textures, all good. The chef came to ask me how I liked it. Ice cream and juice Loads of places sell vegan sorbets, including some interesting flavours. I didn't eat any, but I audited every ice cream p…
name: Vegan in Krakow
published: 2018-05-01T16:30:00+02:00
tag: poland
tag: travel
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: krakow

week-in-review
type: Article
content: Spent a day in Krakow. Took the train to Gdynia, where I'm staying for a month. Data loading and crawling stuff. Spent a day in Gdansk, which is beautiful. Ran once. Went twice to beaches.
name: Week in review: 30 April - 6 May
published: 2018-05-06T23:59:59+02:00
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: poland

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: Caught up on travel blog posts since March, whew. Data loading and crawling stuff. Went to a beach almost every day (Gdynia, Sopot). May have got sunstroke. Finished new Lost In Space, finally watched Guardians of the Galaxy 2, started Abaddon's Gate (the third book in the Expanse series) and am gagging to watch the Expanse on netflix again. Went for a hike in the hills around Gdynia.
name: Week in review: 7 - 13 May
published: 2018-05-13T23:59:59+02:00
tag: beach
tag: travel
tag: life
tag: poland

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Walked the Gdynia coastline. A 20 mile walk on Hel Peninsula. Generally went to the beach a lot. Had a reasonably productive work week I think? Went to a bunch of museums during the Long Night of Museums.
name: Week in review: 14 - 20 May
published: 2018-05-20T23:59:59+02:00
tag: walking
tag: tourism
tag: week+in+review

week-in-review-4
type: Article
content: Went to a ton of museums and historical places in Gdansk and Gdynia. Hacked on sloph. Did a modicum of work work. Drove to Nowa Karczma then walked to the Russian border on the beach. Packed up my shiz again, and took a bus to Amsterdam; swung by WebSci18 for a couple of hours.
name: Week in review: 21 - 27 May
published: 2018-05-27T23:59:59+02:00
tag: hacking
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: tourism

braincells
type: Note
content: Some people kill their braincells with drugs or alcohol. Mine are dying from three-day bus journeys.
published: 2018-06-18T10:18:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: bus

buses
type: Note
content: On the first of three buses back to Sarajevo. I'm exciiiiiiteeeddddd. Also, don't think I've ever done the Dover border crossing in broad daylight.
published: 2018-06-16T14:38:00+01:00
tag: travel
tag: sarajevo

discovering-ram
type: Note
content: I am in the process of discovering that 4gb of RAM is not enough to run Google Hangouts in Chromium and do anything else at all at the same time.
published: 2018-06-29T11:44:00+02:00
tag: tech
tag: life

false-alarm
type: Note
content: False alarm. It's not all vegan, and whilst they do have a large range of (labelled) vegan sorbets, they don't have any vegan non-sorbet ice cream. Slightly disappointed.
in reply to: important
published: 2018-06-24T19:35:00+02:00
tag: sarajevo
tag: vegan
tag: food

important
type: Note
content: THIS IS AN IMPORTANT PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT. A VEGAN ICE CREAM SHOP JUST OPENED IN SARAJEVO. IN. SARAJEVO. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. STAND BY FOR FURTHER UPDATES.
published: 2018-06-23T23:42:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: food
tag: vegan
tag: sarajevo

london
type: Note
content: London is TOO BIG ugh it's absolutely preposterous. Also I started with nearly £25 on my oyster card yesterday and finished with exactly £0.00 so somebody explain to me how daily capping works please? I admit there was a little bit of zone 5 involved, still this is absurd.
published: 2018-06-13T12:03:00+01:00
tag: transit
tag: travel
tag: london
tag: oyster

occrp-ods
type: Note
content: For the last year I have been honoured to be part of the OCCRP Data Team, working with and for amazing tecchies and journalists, wrangling data I'd never dreamed of and learning things about the world I never expected. I'm loathe to leave but change beckons and this month I'm excited to be joining the fully-remote data-wrangling-for-good workers cooperative Open Data Services. I'm honestly astounded I keep finding great jobs in tech that support my idealistic world view, let me make a living working for positive change, with people who share my ethical stances, whilst travelling the world. I know I'm astonishingly privileged to be able to be so picky about the kind of jobs I take in the first place. It's mindblowing that I have been consistently in work for the past few years despite this.
published: 2018-06-04T14:14:14+01:00
tag: occrp
tag: life
tag: work
tag: open+data+services
tag: cv

photos-birb
type: Add
content: Birb selfies.
published: 2018-06-04T19:13:54+01:00
summary: Amy added 18 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2018-uk/
target: 2018-uk

photos-edinburgh
type: Add
content: Edinbraaaahhhh. Food at Snax, Herbivore Kitchen and Holy Cow; wandering near the Castle, Holyrood, and Forum.
published: 2018-06-08T23:15:31+01:00
summary: Amy added 22 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2018-uk/
target: 2018-uk

photos-edinburgh-2
type: Add
content: A walk through Holyrood on a sunny day. The Museum of Childhood; St Giles Catherdral; wandering through town. Buffalo 'wings' from Land of Bourbon; doughnuts from ConsiderIt; soup from Forest Cafe.
published: 2018-06-10T11:17:20+01:00
summary: Amy added 47 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2018-uk/
target: 2018-uk

photos-edinburgh-3
type: Add
content: Random Edinburgh, featuring vegan froyo from Frisky, the Suffragette March, and antics in the Hoose.
published: 2018-06-11T21:09:27+01:00
summary: Amy added 11 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2018-uk/
target: 2018-uk

photos-lincs
type: Add
content: Dave's birthday, much food.
published: 2018-06-04T16:12:31+01:00
summary: Amy added 10 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2018-uk/
target: 2018-uk

photos-lincs-2
type: Add
content: Dinner with Dave and Dad.
published: 2018-06-05T21:14:39+01:00
summary: Amy added 5 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2018-uk/
target: 2018-uk

photos-london
type: Add
content: Misc London, featuring food chez Laurel, chez Polly, at Piebury Corner, Bijou, and Vegan Yes. And transit to Dover.
content: Misc food in London.
published: 2018-06-16T14:15:43+01:00
published: 2018-06-01T19:10:45+01:00
summary: Amy added 19 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2018-uk/
summary: Amy added 6 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2018-uk/
target: 2018-uk

photos-sarajevo
type: Add
content: Delicious, beautiful, slightly drizzly Sarajevo.
published: 2018-06-22T15:44:21+02:00
summary: Amy added 19 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201806-sarajevo/
target: 201806-sarajevo

photos-sarajevo-2
type: Add
content: Hike from Bukovik to Skakavac.
published: 2018-06-23T18:46:38+02:00
summary: Amy added 68 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201806-sarajevo/
target: 201806-sarajevo

photos-sarajevo-3
type: Add
content: Vegan potluck at Prana; cafe wandering with good people.
published: 2018-06-24T21:35:28+02:00
summary: Amy added 19 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201806-sarajevo/
target: 201806-sarajevo

photos-sarajevo-4
type: Add
content: Data Team trip to the Bobsled track, and down on the cable car.
published: 2018-06-25T22:38:15+02:00
summary: Amy added 48 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201806-sarajevo/
target: 201806-sarajevo

photos-sarajevo-5
type: Add
content: Last day in Sarajevo, one night in the yoga studio, road trip to Croatia..
published: 2018-06-30T10:40:32+03:00
summary: Amy added 14 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201806-sarajevo/
target: 201806-sarajevo

photos-transit
type: Add
content: London -> Prague -> Vienna -> Sarajevo.
published: 2018-06-18T11:35:10+01:00
summary: Amy added 11 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201806-sarajevo/
target: 201806-sarajevo

puppers
type: Add
content: Sandy and Louis bffs4eva.
published: 2018-06-15T23:07:45+01:00
summary: Amy added 23 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2018-uk/
target: 2018-uk

tfw
type: Note
content: TFW you politely decline an invitation to speak at a meeting and then they want an explanation why. When I first declined, I ran through possible explanations and excuses in my head, and then decided I don't need to justify myself. Then the follow-up just threw me. I've been working for years on saying no to stuff, on not over-committing, on focusing on few things at once. I can finally do it, and I don't owe anyone an explanation when I can't perform free labour relating to a distant side project that I'm barely involved in any more. And yet. Just.. respect peoples' energy and time, folks.
published: 2018-06-26T10:01:00+02:00
tag: life

vegan-in-tricity
type: Article
content: I stayed a month in the Trójmiasto (Tri-City) area on the north coast of Poland. The three cities, Gdynia, Sopot and Gdansk, are connected by a handy fast train, or stunning walks along beaches or through the woods. There were plenty of veg*n places to eat, and I didn't get to try everything on HappyCow. But here's what I did try: Gdynia i Krowa Kala A vegan burger bar right outside the SKM exit of the main Gdynia train station. I went there a few times due to convenience on my way back from the city center. It's open late, and has a lot of varied options. No English menu, however, and staff didn't seem keen on translating anything for me. Since it was all vegan, I picked at random. There's wifi, but no power that I could see (I didn't look very hard) and not much seating. (I never saw it full though.) I tried a seitan burger one time, and a tofu grill another time. Both pretty decent. Full of salad and sauces, and hard to eat. The bread is toasted, which doesn't help. They also offer pita though (and gluten-free bread). The fries were particularly good, seasoned with something a little spicy. On another occasion I got 'pierogi samosa', because I had to know... and they were neither pierogi nor samosa. More like mini deep fried cornish pasties stuffed with samosa vegetables? A big portion though, and they travelled well. They have different desserts here every day, too. One time I got a really great jam-filled doughnut. If I ever get back there, I want to try the pita with deep fried oyster mushrooms. They were out when I asked for it. I got a falafel pita instead, with distinctly non-traditional falafel, but still good (the next day, in Amsterdam). Bio-Pierkarnia A chain of eco-bakeries, with multiple branches in all three cities (though not all of the branches listed on HappyCow actually seem to exist). I mostly went to the one next door to i Krowa Kala, for obvious reasons. It's not all vegan, but about one third of their cakes, pastries and desserts are. The one…
name: Vegan in Trójmiasto (Gdynia / Sopot / Gdansk)
published: 2018-06-18T17:09:00+02:00
tag: https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/poland
tag: food
tag: vegan
tag: travel
tag: cake

vegan-in-vienna
type: Article
content: Part one of Vegan in Vienna earlier this year. I passed a few hours in Vienna this afternoon, between buses. It's a Sunday, so not a lot of food options. I walked (about an hour) from Stadion bus terminal to Vegetasia, an all-vegan Chinese buffet. The food was really good, from fried stuff, to fresh stuff, to rice, noodles, soups, and sushi. Ooh and savoury bao! There were desserts too, but I didn't have space. All-you-can-eat is €10.90, and by Vienna standards this is damn good value. I also had a 'cocktail' of aloe vera, lychee and lime, for €6.50, which was generously sized (though too sweet for me really, I've gotta stop ordering lychee things). The interior is well-lit and spacious too, and there are also tables outside (I'd had enough of sun by then). The staff are friendly, and there's wifi. Main drawback is they close between 1500 and 1700, so I couldn't stay there longer. Then I walked, about 35 minutes, to Erdberg bus station.
name: Vegan in Vienna 2
published: 2018-06-17T16:00:00+01:00
tag: vienna
tag: food
tag: travel
tag: vegan

week-in-review
type: Article
content: Spent half a day in Amsterdam, saw some cool people at WebSci. Took a nightbus to London. Three days getting to know the Open Data Services dev team, who have generously agreed to employ me for the forseeable future. Went to Citizen Beta's civic tech meetup. Briefly caught up in Hull trains' crisis, but eventually made it to Lincolnshire and spent the weekend with family. Hid in a box to surprise my brother on his 21st birthday. He was not surprised.
name: Week in review: 28 May - 3 June
published: 2018-06-03T23:40:00+01:00
tag: opendataservices.coop
tag: amsterdam
tag: tech
tag: open+data+services
tag: cv
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: work
tag: websci2018
tag: london

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: A few days with Tigo bird and family. Train to Edinburgh. Co-working in CodeBase; maxin', relaxin', (eating) with friends. Sat in a salt cave for an hour (it was free). No appreciable difference to my nasal functions.
name: Week in review: 4 - 10 June
published: 2018-06-10T23:59:59+01:00
tag: life
tag: edinburgh
tag: travel
tag: sloph
tag: work

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Nightbussed from Edinburgh to London. Spent far too much money travelling around London to see people. Also did some co-working. Fixed a bug, broke the tests, fixed the tests, etc. Hung out with these puppies. Nightbussed to Vienna, via Prague; spent a Sunday afternoon in Vienna (eating). Bussed to Sarajevo.
name: Week in review: 11-17 June
published: 2018-06-17T23:59:59+02:00
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review

week-in-review-4
type: Article
content: Hung out in the OCCRP office. Saw the sights of beautiful Sarajevo; went to Karuzo; hiked from Bukovik to Skacavac. 3 yoga classes. Watched a chunk of newest Brooklyn Nine Nine. Tinkered with sloph (some progress on fixing broken tagging). Worked 3 days.
name: Week in review: 18 - 24 June
published: 2018-06-24T23:59:59+02:00
tag: hacking
tag: sloph
tag: sarajevo
tag: week+in+review
tag: occrp
tag: yoga

accent
type: Note
content: Apparently I have travelled sufficiently that my accent has become ambiguous even to other British people.
published: 2018-07-07T18:19:00+02:00
tag: travel

batumi
type: Note
content: I made it to Batumi. Which, as promised, is a super weird place. In a good way. But not before the bus company copped out at the border (Sarp) and said I was on my own. The border crossing itself was insane, super hot, crowded, people dragging carpets around, and even a small fight broke out. The Georgian side was more civilised, and after passport control is a helpful tourist information place, a toilet, and air conditioning. Outside the doors (you can't get back in again) is the beginning of the border town Sarpi, with an array of definitely poor-value money changers, and a chaos of busses. I hopped in a marshrutka which set off for Batumi when it was full (entirely of locals as far as I could tell). You pay the driver on the way out, and it was 1GEL, about 20 minutes. After checking into my hostel, I wandered around, tried to pick up a ferry ticket for in a couple of weeks (they told me to buy it online), picked up a SIM card, drank coffee, and went on a walking tour. And up the Alphabetic Tower, and ate lobiani in a small cafe. Discovered Sunday trains are sold out, and booked a bus to get to Tbilisi instead. Sooo close to getting a train, but alas. My fate is bus.
published: 2018-07-14T01:04:00+04:00
tag: georgia
tag: travel
tag: tourism

boat
type: Note
content: I'M ON A BOAT It started raining heavily in the hour before I needed to walk to the port. I walked anyway, and was as usual faced with a giant impassable highway completely unfriendly to pedestrians, and no indication of how to get to the port. I found it eventually, completely soaked. Waited for almost two hours under a lean-to with other bedraggled passengers, and went through some half-hearted attempt at passport control I think. Or at least checking the ticket name and passport name matched. Boarded, waiting around some more, got a room key. I have a two bed room, and so far it doesn't look like I'm sharing it with anyone. So far there are many male truck drivers, a couple of families with kids and old people, and three sets of travelling young couples from various locations, who speak English. I haven't seen any of them since I boarded though. This ferry apparently has a sauna, and wifi that only works once it's in Ukraine (by which time it's not much good). Mealtimes are in strict 30 minute slots, but I'm not sure which timezone they run on. Currently still in port; no idea when we'll actually leave.
published: 2018-07-28T22:44:00+04:00
tag: travel
tag: ferry
tag: transit

bosnian
type: Note
content: I have a few new Bosnian laptop stickers, and the bi-lingual 4.5 year old came over to ask what they say, and I'm like I dunno kid you're the one who speaks Bosnian but duh she can't read.
published: 2018-07-03T16:12:00+02:00
tag: life
tag: travel

croatia
type: Note
content: Croatia won and the FERRIES are honking their horns WTF lol
in reply to: related
published: 2018-07-07T22:52:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: croatia

eggplant
type: Note
content: There's also an eggplant with walnut paste salad and I for some reason I ordered it and it was super delicious and today my walnut allergy (or whatever it is) - a very specific head pain - is manifesting in my left ear. Totally worth it though. Since 80% of veggie Georgian dishes contain walnuts, maybe I can use the next couple of weeks to desensitize myself.. if it works like that.. I hope it works like that??
published: 2018-07-14T16:35:00+04:00
tag: life
tag: georgia
tag: food
tag: nuts

georgian-dish
type: Note
content: There's this Georgian dish - ojakhuri, "family meal" - of potatoes slow cooked with mushrooms, and sometimes tomatoes, onions and slightly hot green peppers. I mean. They know what I like. (The mushroom version is the weirdo alternative to pork, obviously, but common everywhere.) On a related note I have extreme potato bloat right now.
published: 2018-07-14T16:15:00+04:00
tag: georgia
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: travel

hostels
type: Note
content: The thing I like about hostels is that it's equally socially acceptable to talk to any person about anything as it is to completely ignore everyone who crosses your path.
published: 2018-07-14T17:43:00+04:00
tag: travel
tag: life

hostels-2
type: Note
content: The thing I don't like about hostels is, somebody else's alarm just went off for a full ten minutes and it was like an industrial siren sound. GOOD MORNING.
published: 2018-07-15T08:44:00+04:00
tag: travel

khinkali
type: Note
content: I ate ten khinkali.
published: 2018-07-20T23:19:00+04:00
tag: food
tag: travel

khinkali-2
type: Note
content: Me: I would like potato khinkali please. Waiter: :o but you're alone and the minimum order is five Me: My good sir, let me tell you about the time I ate ten khinkali. (in case you were wondering, I ate all the khinkali. And a salad. And then the waiter hit on me and I ran away. But the important part of this story is KHINKALI)
published: 2018-07-27T23:32:00+04:00
tag: travel
tag: food
tag: vegan
tag: georgia

lobiani
type: Note
content: I discover a new kind of lobiani every day.
published: 2018-07-26T09:35:00+04:00
tag: vegan
tag: travel
tag: food
tag: georgia

lolferry
type: Note
content: Lol my ferry from Georgia to Ukraine just got pushed back a day and redirected to Turkey. Eh, same same. I go where the sea sends me.
published: 2018-07-25T11:06:00+04:00
tag: travel
tag: ferry

nomadlife
type: Note
content: Nomad life is deciding what I'm going to wear this morning based on the fact I'm going to be wearing it for the next 2+ days, through 3 countries with different climates and cultures.
published: 2018-07-11T11:28:00+03:00
tag: life
tag: travel

odesa
type: Note
content: Odesa is at least as weird as Batumi, but for half the price! And maybe slightly nicer.. though the beach is ridiculously packed.
published: 2018-07-31T20:44:00+03:00
tag: travel
tag: odesa

odesa-coffee
type: Note
content: Odesa is FULL of cute little places to get nice coffees and fancy juices. It's wonderful.
published: 2018-07-31T20:36:00+03:00
tag: travel
tag: odesa

ogpsummit
type: Note
content: This week I'm in Tbilisi for the #OGPSummit. I work for Open Data Services, and if you're so inclined, you can talk to me about open data for anti-corruption, beneficial ownership and open contracting, from the data standards and tools perspective.
published: 2018-07-16T09:35:00+04:00
tag: ogpsummit
tag: travel
tag: ods
tag: open+data

photos-batumi
type: Add
content: A few days of enjoying Batumi, in all it's supreme weirdness. Bizarre architecture, empty buildings, black stoney beaches, hot rainy skies, far more Turkish food than Georgian food. I went up the Alphabet tower (which displays the Georgian alphabet around its spiral) and wandered around the coast and town. The center is chaotic and difficult to navigate and learning to play chicken with drivers and potholes is a necessity. I did a walking tour, which included a sneak peak into an old banya which is now embedded in a hotel building, and a 1+ hour break for a wine tasting... this is Georgia.

photos-batumi-2
type: Add
content: The ferry was delayed a day, so I checked into a hostel and took the opportunity to take the cable car up to the big hill overlooking Batumi. And to eat more khinkali of course, on the beach.
published: 2018-07-27T23:04:23+03:00
summary: Amy added 73 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201807-georgia/
target: 201807-georgia

photos-batumi-3
type: Add
content: Giant bread supplies for my upcoming voyage, and then killing time before departure. My last meal in Batumi was from the one Chinese place. And eventually I managed to find the port and board the ferry across the Black Sea.
published: 2018-07-28T18:04:23+03:00
summary: Amy added 6 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201807-georgia/
target: 201807-georgia

photos-ferry
type: Add
content: Farewell Batumi. A few days on the good ship Kaunas, across the Black Sea to Odesa.
published: 2018-07-31T10:31:41+03:00
summary: Amy added 58 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201807-transit/
target: 201807-transit

photos-iz
type: Add
content: A week on the island of Iz, Croatia. Yoga, TRE, sleeping, eating, reading, chilling, with lovely people in a beautiful place.

photos-odesa
type: Add
content: A day wandering around Odesa. Food at Vegano Hooligano and True. Walks around the old town, parks and beaches.

photos-sofia
type: Add
content: A few days gently exploring Sofia. Food and cafe-working from some nice veg*n places, a walking tour, and general wandering before boarding a bus to Istanbul.
published: 2018-07-11T21:13:12+02:00
summary: Amy added 76 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201807-transit/

photos-tbilisi
type: Add
content: Ajarian khatchapuri and coffee for breakfast, then a dramatic mountain bus ride from Batumi to Tbilisi. A pizza in the wonderful Kiwi Cafe before settling in for the Open Governance Partnership conference, which was up the cable car on the hill.
published: 2018-07-17T18:59:41+03:00
summary: Amy added 32 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201807-georgia/
target: 201807-georgia

photos-tbilisi-2
type: Add
content: Traditional Georgian dancing as well as general pretension at the OGP Summit reception in the Georgian Parliament..
published: 2018-07-17T23:04:23+03:00
summary: Amy added 31 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201807-georgia/
target: 201807-georgia

photos-tbilisi-3
type: Add
content: More OGP Summit hillside theme park antics, and some wandering around town.
published: 2018-07-19T23:04:23+03:00
summary: Amy added 69 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201807-georgia/
target: 201807-georgia

photos-tbilisi-4
type: Add
content: FINALLY khinkali (5 potato, 5 mushroom) at Pasanauri. And lobio of course. Then a walking tour and an evening in the banya.
published: 2018-07-20T23:04:23+03:00
summary: Amy added 24 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201807-georgia/
target: 201807-georgia

photos-tbilisi-5
type: Add
content: A weekend drive to the mountains; hammocks, more amazing food, hiking, rainstorm, landslide.. and back to Tbilisi.

photos-tbilisi-6
type: Add
content: A walking tour of Tbilisi, featuring cable car and castle (and food).
published: 2018-07-23T23:04:23+03:00
summary: Amy added 54 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201807-georgia/
target: 201807-georgia

photos-tbilisi-7
type: Add
content: A trek through the city to the big ol' Cathedral (seriously big). Then a final meal in Kiwi before taking the train back to Batumi.
published: 2018-07-24T23:04:23+03:00
summary: Amy added 38 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201807-georgia/
target: 201807-georgia

photos-transit
type: Add
content: Some waiting around in Istanbul bus station, and a day and a night on a bus to the Turkish-Georgian border.
published: 2018-07-13T08:20:08+03:00
summary: Amy added 8 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201807-transit/
target: 201807-transit

photos-zadar
type: Add
content: Sunset from Zadar.
published: 2018-07-07T21:01:11+02:00
summary: Amy added 36 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201807-croatia/
target: 201807-croatia

photos-zadar-0
type: Add
content: Ferry from Iz back to Zadar, lunch at Art of Raw.
published: 2018-07-07T18:45:12+02:00
summary: Amy added 21 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201807-croatia/
target: 201807-croatia

plans
type: Note
content: Who wants a top-of-my-head rough aspirational some-fantasy-involved draft of travel plans for the next year? rest of July: transit to Georgia and back. August: Estonia. September: Latvia. October: Lithuania. November: Poland for Vipassana, Warsaw, transit; maybe drop by Sarajevo then take the fast train from Belgrade to Thessaloniki. December: Greece. January: Greece. February: Bulgaria. March: Romania. (Yes I know these last two will be cold, but I will go to the coast and staunchly enjoy it. It's the only way I can tick off all EU countries by March :s) April: Moldova?? Parts of Serbia I haven't been to? Kosovo? May: Macedonia. June: Montenegro. July: Albania. August: Ridiculous transit (ferry from Italy) to Morocco.. September: Morocco because we fantasised this week about Aida's next yoga retreat being in Morocco.. Then ridiculous transit (buses through Spain, France and Italy) back east.. ... ..pick back up on attempt to get to China. Probably spend winter in south of Turkey. At some point I should write up a diff between what I thought I'd be doing with the last 6 months and what I actually did because these super far in advance draft plans are funny to look back on.
published: 2018-07-07T20:01:00+02:00
tag: travel

port
type: Note
content: Gooood morning from... still the port of Batumi. After a reasonable but short sleep, an announcement at 7am sent us down for passport control, where we got stamped out of Georgia (and they kept our passports). Two hours later.. at 8am Ukrainian time (this boat runs on Ukrainian time obviously) we were summoned for breakfast.. which was a small plate of some of the worst looking non-foods I have ever seen (plastic omelet, a distressing pink sausage..). I ate my single slice of tomato and cucumber, drank tea with lemon (there isn't even coffee) and couldn't even make myself eat the terrible white bread. Fortunately I massively overstocked on supplies so I actually won't starve. (There's no wifi but I still have 3G because.. we're still in Georgia. Still.)
published: 2018-07-29T09:36:00+04:00
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: georgia
tag: ferry
tag: travel

practicing-russian
type: Note
content: Practicing my Russian reading skills by sounding out every sign I see as I wander around. It's especially delightfully rewarding when it comes out as a western word I know with a slightly wonky accent xD Also sometimes I get out something I recognise from Bosnian or Polish or Czech which is also cool (mostly these are foods).
published: 2018-07-31T20:41:00+03:00
tag: russian
tag: travel
tag: language

pre-ferry
type: Note
content: I've had a fairly satisfactory 24 hours. Some things that needed wrapping up are wrapped up. This morning I went questing for supplies and got two giant shoti breads, burning hot straight from the tone (underground clay oven thing). Compared to Tbilisi, the ones in Batumi (when you eventually find them) are wide, the size of my chest - in Tbilisi they're narrow, more baguette-y. In both cases they have delicious crispy ends that never make it home. For 1 gel each, you could survive on one of these for a day if you needed to. I also got some market fruit and veg, and a little pot of what I hope is tkemali (sour plum sauce) but might be a hot chilli paste. We'll find out. I was a little worried about ending up at a port in Ukraine late at night next week with no language skills and no local money. This morning in the hostel kitchen I met a Ukrainian woman who taught me some useful words and exchanged some of her UAH with GEL for me. So now at least I have bus fare. I think I know what I'm working on next week, and am prepped to do it offline if necessary. That's also nice. And the issue of my brother being homeless in Edinburgh next month was resolved yesterday as well. Whew. So I think I'm all set to without guilt or worry get on a wifi-less ferry of potentially unknown duration across the Black Sea this evening. So if you don't hear from me for a few days, that's why.
published: 2018-07-28T14:14:14+04:00
tag: travel
tag: georgia
tag: food
tag: life

private
type: Note
content: So when I want a 'private' / 'solo' place to stay, I'm actually fine with sharing a dorm with other people for sleeping. And fine with sharing a bathroom. So long as these are people I'm not obligated to socialise with (hosts, friends..). What I really want, is a private kitchen. But shared accommodation with individual kitchens just isn't a thing. So when I need space, I have to book a whole apartment and that gets expeeensive. In off seasons, or in places with lots of restaurants/food culture, I get lucky with hostels where there either are hardly any people around, or people just don't use the kitchen, and that's pretty close. But the uncertainty sucks. Anyway, I could totally live in this little hostel I'm in right now (Sunset Hostel, Zadar). Well, maybe.. when full there would be 10 people (2x 5 bed dorms). Which would work if they weren't all determined too cook.. but it's also not super close to the town center.
published: 2018-07-07T19:17:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: life

related
type: Note
content: On a related note, I may have this dorm to myself but it contains the only TV in the hostel apparently and there are people in here watching the world cup. how long do football matches last why is this taking so long argh
in reply to: walking
published: 2018-07-07T22:47:00+02:00
tag: travel

savasana
type: Note
content: Savasana, in a hot place: the mosquito buffet pose.
published: 2018-07-07T10:34:00+02:00
tag: yoga
tag: life

sofia
type: Note
content: You know how some cities just make sense? Shortly after you arrive, you just kind of get what's going on? I'm 24 hours into Sofia and it doesn't make sense yet. It's chaotic and big. In many ways it reminds me of London. There's a lot going on. On every single street is one of everything you could possibly need. There's stuff everywhere. It's broken and dilapidated; pavements are obstructed, full of holes, uneven. It's super inaccessible to anyone who uses wheels to get around. I've tripped over twice just walking normally and paying attention my surroundings. The mess in this sense reminds me of Penang. When you do occasionally stumble across a nice bit, it's a pleasant surprise, a few minutes reprieve from being hyper-alert at where your feet go. It's residential, industrial, and real, with sudden jarring interruptions for colourful, gilded, domed cathedrals or monument-filled green spaces. It's bustling and alive, and nestled amongst the normality is art, creativity, hippie shit, and little pockets of tranquility. It's confusing. But I like it.
published: 2018-07-10T13:10:00+03:00
tag: travel
tag: sofia

sofia-update
type: Note
content: Sofia update: I love it.
published: 2018-07-11T12:49:00+03:00
tag: sofia
tag: travel

tales-from-the-black-sea
type: Article
content: Walking to the port from Batumi is not super easy. It's not far - about 20 minutes from the cable car - but not a pedestrian friendly route. Also the layout of the roads is different from what I could see on maps.me. If you think you can follow the road around, you can for a while until the pavement literally crumbles into nothing. I traipsed through smashed up concrete on the side of the road for a while, as I thought that was the only way, but eventually it was just fenced off, just as the road starts sloping up and curving around to the left. It's a big and busy highway, so I didn't fancy walking along the side of the road. I contemplated squeezing past the fence, but then wondered if I'd fare better on the other side of the road, presuming of course I'd be able to cross back again when I reached the actual port. By this point there was a large bollard in the middle of the road, so I backed up to where the pavement was whole again, and there was no bollard, and crossed. It became apparently on this side that the road forked; one sort of side road, which initially I thought was more of a layby for trucks, ran alongside the main highway. There was clearly no pavement on the other side of the highway either, so I walked along the layby road a little way.. and a little further. I'm not sure why some instinct told me to keep going, even though it was really not clear where it led, because this turned out to be right way. The layby turned into a real road which went under the curving highway and.. led to the port! There wasn't any real footpath here either, but it was much much less busy than the other road, and vehicles that did pass were going a lot slower. Under the bridge/highway there was a carpark of sorts; pass straight across that and over the next road, and the ferry waiting area appears. It was visible due to the huddle of other soggy passengers under a small shelter. I saw two friendly looking people with bikes, and confirmed they are waiting for the ferry. …
name: Tales from the Black Sea (aka the ferry from Batumi to Odesa)
published: 2018-07-31T15:32:00+03:00
tag: vegan
tag: ukraine
tag: georgia
tag: travel
tag: ferry
tag: transit
tag: life
tag: food

tbilisi
type: Note
content: I made it to Tbilisi a little late (it should be a 6.5 hour bus from Batumi), because the bus stopped for a few silly reasons. Little things like cows in the road.. roof is leaking rain.. side of the bus opened and suitcases flew out and had to be rescued from mountainside.. Then I accidentally didn't get out in the city center - because I didn't think the bus was stopping in the city center. And ended up at a bus station in the south I was entirely unprepared for. I found myself surrounded by taxi drivers, one of whom told me there is no metro connection here. He may have been biased, but it sure looked like a wasteland. My general desire not to get into a taxi had the effect of reducing taxi prices by 5 GEL every minute until I gave in and took a taxi to the old town. This was still not the right place, and I walked through the rain to the vegan cafe, to plan the rest of my night. (Current status: pizza coma.)
published: 2018-07-15T20:58:00+04:00
tag: vegan
tag: georgia
tag: travel
tag: bus

time
type: Note
content: oookay, time to attempt to make it the entire width of a quite wide country without buying any tickets in advance and having only a haphazard knowledge of schedules and probably no wifi. It'll be fine. See you on the other side*. * The other side is Georgia. I'm going through Turkey.
published: 2018-07-11T19:00:00+03:00
tag: transit
tag: travel

tomatoes
type: Note
content: Georgia's fresh tomato game is very strong, but pickling them whole is next level. (And they make a great midnight snack.)
published: 2018-07-26T00:08:00+04:00
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: travel
tag: georgia

travel
type: Note
content: Okay so I've had a suuuper nice week on the Croatian island of Iz, with super cool people, swimming in the sea and doing yoga and eating and sleeping. The week has left me really well rested, but also socially exhausted, on top of a very heavily social June. I'm now in a hostel in Zadar, appear to have the dorm to myself, and it's really small, extremely clean and modern and new-feeling. I leave Zadar tomorrow evening, so I can veg around here, the nearby beach, and the rawfood restaurant in town for the day. Then I have a couple more days to myself in Sofia (fingers crossed for an equally good hostel), then a few days of busses. Hopefully then I'll be recharged in time for OGP Summit in Tbilisi in a week..
published: 2018-07-07T18:39:00+02:00
tag: zadar
tag: travel

twitter
type: Note
content: My twitter timeline this evening is a balanced mix of apocalyptic the world is definitely ending we won't survive the next ten years stuff, and silly jokes that make me lol.
published: 2018-07-28T18:26:00+04:00
tag: twitter
tag: life

vegan-in-georgia
type: Article
content: "Shemomechama" is a Georgian phrase, translating roughly to the passive "it happened that I ate everything." I like to think of it as "I accidentally all the food." Which is very much what happened during my two weeks in Georgia. Traditional (or, some would argue, modern-tourist-adapted-traditional) Georgian food is actually vegan heaven. When you peer around the meat and cheese, you discover a whole world of beans, bread, potatoes and mushrooms. They do great things with veggies, particularly aubergine, and I've never had such spectacular and simple salads. My usual 'vegan in' posts are a list of places to eat, but in this case I'm going to do a list of dishes, most of which you can get in any random Georgian restaurant you find on the street. At the end I'll also list a few places across Tbilisi and Batumi that I thought were particularly good. Other things to note about Georgian cuisine is that it's generally served family-style.. that is, huge plates, ideal for sharing. If you're eating on your own, you really must resist ordering many dishes even if they look like sides because this is too much food. If you're with a group though - even a meat-eating group - it's ace. Because so many totally normal common side dishes and well-loved mains are vegan! On more than one occasion I sat back and let other people order a bunch of stuff, and there was always stuff I could eat. Fasting One of the reasons Georgian food is so vegan-friendly is because of the Orthodox fasting periods. Wednesdays, Fridays, and many many special occasions, many adopt essentially a pesca-vegan diet - they can't have any food from land animals. As a result, many restaurants have a 'fasting menu', or at least understand the concept of vegan if you ask if something is okay for fasting. And since Georiga is not the kind of country to add secret fish to things, ordering anything from a fasting menu that isn't explicitly fish is pretty safe. Lobio Lobio is bean stew. It comes in a clay pot, and is d…
name: Shemomechama (Vegan in Georgia)
published: 2018-07-29T01:46:00+04:00
tag: travel
tag: food
tag: vegan
tag: georgia

walking
type: Note
content: I'm walking along the edge of the land in a residential part of Zadar. The sky is stained pink and orange by the sunset, clouds paint wild shapes, dramatic and peaceful at the same time. It's so beautiful I can hardly breathe. The street I'm following is called 'Karma'. The ocean laps at the rocks, providing the only sound for miles, and I scramble down some stairs to dip my legs. The water is almost warm. Suddenly the air is alive, a roar that becomes discernable as cheers, whistles, applause. Some fire crackers, some car horns. Croatia scored in the World Cup, I suppose, and I am reminded that I'm not the only person in the world.
published: 2018-07-07T22:37:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: life
tag: croatia

week-in-review
type: Article
content: Went on the Sarajevo cable car. Got my old laptop back; installed Ubuntu 18.04 (Mate); had a fight with xmonad as usual. Thrice to yoga. Worked three days. Drove to Croatia, settled in on Iz to commence a week of actual downtime.
name: Week in review: 25 June - 1 July
published: 2018-07-01T21:17:00+02:00
tag: yoga
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: Spent a week in a vegetarian hotel on the Croatian island of Iz with folks affiliated with Prana, doing yoga, sleeping, eating, and swimming in the sea. Actually fixed my /tags/ pages!! eg. /tags/travel is now up to date. Spent one night in Zadar at a beautifully located empty hostel, and fell in love with the sunset. Took a bus to Zagreb, and a night bus to Sofia. Slept particularly well on the latter.
name: Week in review: 2 - 8 July
published: 2018-07-08T23:59:59+02:00
tag: sofia
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: yoga
tag: croatia
tag: hacking
tag: sloph

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Spent two days in Sofia, eating and cafe working. Met cool people around the hostel. Took a night bus to Istanbul. Drama around a guy being seated next to a woman and the driver had to come rearrange the whole bus. Took a day-and-night bus from Istanbul to Batumi. Drama was that it abandoned us at the border and I had to take a matrushka the rest of the way. Spent two days in super weird Batumi. Discovered Georgian food \o/ Also a nice hostel. Bussed from Batumi to Tbilisi. Drama was the luggage flying out on a mountain road lolol
name: Week in review: 9 - 15 July
published: 2018-07-15T23:49:00+04:00
tag: bus
tag: https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: georgia
tag: sofia

week-in-review-4
type: Article
content: Spent most of the week at the Open Government Partnership Summit in Tbilisi. Helped out with a day-and-a-half workshop about Beneficial Ownership data standard, and a one hour session about org-ids and investigative data discovery. Ate a lot. Touristed around Tbilisi. Took off to the mountains of Rachuli for a weekend of walking, chilling and.. surprise.. eating.
name: Week in review: 16 - 22 July
published: 2018-07-22T23:59:59+04:00
tag: food
tag: ogpgeorgia
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: open+data+services
tag: conference

week-in-review-5
type: Article
content: Returned to Tbilisi from the Rachuli mountains. Ate much more food. Did a walking tour, went on the cable car, walked to the giant cathedral. Took a train from Tbilisi to Batumi. Holed up in a nice AirBnB apartment for a few days to work and chill. Went on the Batumi cable car too. Ferry delayed; one night in a hostel. Boarded the ferry to Ukraine, and lived on it in the port for 12 hours and counting..
name: Week in review: 23 - 29 July
published: 2018-07-29T10:10:10+04:00
tag: food
tag: georgia
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: vegan
tag: ferry

a-few-days-in-ukraine
type: Article
content: My impression of Odesa is that it's at least as weird as Batumi, but in subtly different ways. I only spent one day there though, following the ferry from Georgia. Odesa is mostly Russian speaking, full of tourists, and fancy old buildings. The sea front is madness. The beaches are probably nice but you can't see them for the people, loungers, and sun umbrellas. I actually don't think I've seen beaches so efficiently packed; from the wall to the ocean, not in a inch is wasted. They're also lined, Bali-style, with hip bars with nice seats, DJs, cocktails etc. Of course it's all vastly cheaper than Bali. About the same amount of trash. With temperatures pushing the mid 30s when I was there, you really don't need to go all the way to Asia. I think venturing further south might have lead me to quieter beaches, but I didn't have time. There's a large green park space around the coast too, which hopefully means awful apartment block construction by the sea will be limited (unlike Batumi). As I was a day later than planned, I ended up not staying in the hostel I originally planned. Hostel Komuna was generally terrible; packed, hot, loud. Photos from Odesa. I took the train at 10am the next day. The station is utterly confounding, even with rudimentary Russian reading. There are loads of signs with trains, times and routes, but none of them had my train. I did find it closer to departure time by just wandering the platforms, but it was a bit worrying that signs appearing to list the full day's departures just didn't include mine. Oh also it was scheduled one minute earlier than my ticket said, and there are two ways to spell Lviv in Russian. The train itself was 11 hours. I got the ticket the day before, online. There had been no tickets at all in the weeks ahead, but a woman in the hostel in Batumi told me they sometimes add new last minute tickets. Good tip! From Odesa to Lviv is 600UAH - less than 20 EUR. I thought I was choosing a window seat, but turned out to be a top…
name: A few days in Ukraine
published: 2018-08-07T09:20:00+03:00
tag: odesa
tag: lviv
tag: travel
tag: ukraine
tag: tourism
tag: quintagroup.com

admire
type: Note
content: I admire the dedication of the workers who are refacing the building I'm staying in. A solid 8am to 8pm schedule of banging, drilling, scraping, and crashing around, often directly outside my window. I thought they'd at least take Saturdays off so I could sleep in though. Apparently not.
published: 2018-08-25T11:29:00+03:00
tag: life

aida
type: Note
content: My favourite yoga teacher needs some help getting to Thailand for her dream job this winter: GoFundMe. It would be a shame for a silly thing like the cost of transit from Bosnia to Thailand to be all that gets in the way. Aida taught me yoga in Sarajevo last year, and took me on some nice retreats as well. She's a fantastic teacher, and I find the pace of her classes - whether vinyasa or yin - perfect. I've also learnt a lot from her about other topics, from Ayurveda to trauma release. Aida has the opportunity to teach in Thailand this winter (and getting out of Sarajevo in the winter is always a good idea) and she's taking her mischievous little daughter with her too. I hope they make it, they deserve every minute of sunshine :)
published: 2018-08-16T18:43:00+03:00
tag: donation
tag: travel
tag: yoga
tag: prana+yoga

airbnb
type: Note
content: JESUS airbnb freaks out every time I log in from a different country LIKE A COUNTRY WHERE I HAVE BOOKED ACCOMMODATION THROUGH AIRBNB put 2 and 2 together christ One time it absolutely refused to send me a confirmation code by any other means than SMS to a number which I couldn't get reception on where I was and I had to jump through hours of support hoops when trying to deal with a time-sensitive host-contacting issue which was definitely not in any way stressful. At least now it seems to be consistently offering me the email confirmation option. although right now I just get a 500 every time I try to log in did i mention i hate computers
published: 2018-08-10T19:40:00+03:00
tag: airbnb
tag: travel

apartments
type: Note
content: I love tiny apartments which make creative use of vertical space. One thing isn't even that amazing and is totally normal and common the Baltics is having the drying rack over the sink, my god it's life changing, why hasn't the rest of the world caught onto this yet?? But also ceiling beds up ladders. If there's anything that will make me go overbudget for an AirBnB it's a bed up a ladder. In Bratislava in April I stayed in an absurdly small place but it worked for a small person. In Tallinn I have a very similar place, but a levelled up version. It's bigger (but still wee), less structurally dodgy and has two ceiling beds up a ladder.
published: 2018-08-10T11:03:00+03:00
tag: life
tag: travel
tag: accommodation

bussing-baltics
type: Article
content: Originally I'd planned to take the direct bus from Odesa to Tallinn. The flaw in this plan was that it goes through Belarus and getting a fully visa for a stretch on the bus is not practical or financially sensible. Hence the detour to Lviv. I ended up with a change in Riga and an end destination of Tartu. The Polish border is one hour out of Lviv. I was quite looking forward to a border crossing at a sensible time followed by an uninterrupted night of sleep. Hahaha no such luck. The bus was stuck at the border for a full six hours. Four in between Ukraine and Poland, pausing in lines of stopping altogether in carparks. We stopped at Duty Free for a while. When border control came aboard and collected all the passports, half an hour or more later they were all returned except for mine. The bus driver looked worried and tracked it down for me pretty quick. Eventually we progressed to entry to Poland, and the bus was fully unloaded. We hauled our luggage through customs and then.. the bus disappeared. A further two hours were spent perching on suitcases in the carpark outside Polish customs. Nobody had any idea what was going on. I wondered if this duration of delay was factored into the schedule, but figured I'd probably be missing my connection. At least it was still warm. At 0230 the bus finally materialised and I got to sleep. Around mid-morning the next day, it broke down. We waited for a couple of hours by a highway in Lithuania. Other buses stopped and picked up the passengers they could fit. I ended up on an Ecolines from Vilnius to Riga, sitting next to someone who was planning to make the same Tartu connection as me. This bus was scheduled to arrive shortly before the Tartu bus departs, and the latter often waited for it. Hope! And indeed I did make the connection with one minute to spare, and successfully got to Tartu. The funny part is that if the original bus hadn't broken down I probably wouldn't have made it. I am struck by the attitudes of people in au…
name: Bussing to the Baltics
published: 2018-08-07T10:50:00+03:00
tag: bus
tag: travel
tag: transit
tag: ukraine

day2-tallinn
type: Article
content: I went to Tallinn City library this afternoon. It's small, but a nice place, good fancy ceilings, some nice rooms with nice chairs and old books, the wifi is good, lots of power sockets, very quiet. I hung out with my laptop for about an hour and a half. Just before 5.30pm I realised I had thought the library closes at 5, but hey I guess not. A short while later I packed up my stuff and went downstairs. The front door was locked. All the lights were off. Not a soul was in sight. I went back upstairs to ask the other person sitting on her laptop there if she this was normal and she knew another way out. She did not. We wandered around and tried a few doors. Haha. We were locked in the library. It didn't open again until Monday. We proceeded to call and email every contact number on the library webpage we could find. She also called the 24h Tallinn city general helpline, and they promised to call back. She called her mother, who called someone she knew who worked at a different library, who also promised to call back. Meanwhile we found a window that was big enough to climb through and not too far off the ground to jump out if necessary. We decided this or calling the police would be an absolute last resort. We made an effort to get through to the pub next door, in case they either happened to have a spare key or the library employees had gone there after work.. but no answer. M and I introduced ourselves, and bonded over veganism (<3!) and travel and chocolate and the small art display in the library we would not have bothered to look at if we weren't trapped there. M's family members turned up outside the window, and went to see if anyone was in the pub who could help. The city helpline called back and said the director had been contacted and was on her way, but lived 30 minutes away. She eventually showed up, and turned out to be a distant relative of M, and the daughter of the person M's mother had called earlier! It's a small country. She was accompanied by a sur…
name: Day 2 in Tallinn
published: 2018-08-11T20:34:00+03:00
tag: library
tag: life
tag: travel
tag: tallinn

emails
type: Note
content: Me: why does nobody send me emails any more? Also me: never replies to or even opens emails I do receive
published: 2018-08-09T15:15:00+03:00
tag: life
tag: email

excited-peanut
type: Note
content: As soon as I get to a place where I'm gonna stay for longer than a few days, I'm going to buy a jar of peanut butter. I'm so fucking excited about this.
published: 2018-08-07T09:59:00+03:00
tag: travel
tag: food

flyingless
type: Article
content: ... testimonials about flying less..." I'm a perpetual digital nomad, but committed to not flying at the beginning of 2018. I'm not a climate scientist, but as a recent academic I took major advantage of the international conference circuit to travel as much as possible during my PhD. I never liked flying, but I wanted to see the world and that just seemed like what you had to do. In retrospect the sheer volume of academic travel is quite obscene - especially given the number of people I meet who complain about having to do it so much! In 2014 I found myself four events in continental Europe a week apart each, and persuaded my institute to pay for a three week Interrail pass instead of a bunch of flights. I took a bus from Edinburgh to Paris (W3C Working Group meeting), hitchhiked from Paris to Dusseldorf (IndieWebCamp hackathon), then a train to Innsbruck (tourism), train to Florence (World Wide Web Conf), trains to the coast and a ferry to Croatia (tourism, chillin'), buses and trains through Croatia to Slovenia (Extended Semantic Web Conf). Then one flight back to Edinburgh. Since then I dreamed of slow-moving ongoing travel with no date I had to be back by. Now I find myself with all the time in the world, no ties or dependents, and a remote job, and can finally live it. It's a great way to discover new places, get a better grip on international geography, and have diverse experiences. In short if you can swing it, finding alternative ways to travel without flying is the bomb. Learn how to sleep and/or work on buses, make some time, and give it a shot. Academics with flexible schedules and hours (by which I mean, you tend to work all the time and mostly it doesn't matter where from) are in a superb position. If you're in a position to fund (time-rich, schedule- and location-flexible) students to travel, persuade them to look at alternatives before jumping on a plane. I always start investigating a new route with Rome2Rio. Sometimes finding connections can be dau…
in reply to: https://mobile.twitter.com/ClimateHuman/status/1027240444936089601
name: Re: #FlyingLess
published: 2018-08-10T15:52:00+03:00
tag: flyingless
tag: travel

library
type: Note
content: Thinking about going to a library, but compelled to buy supplies beforehand in case I get locked in again.
published: 2018-08-18T14:49:00+03:00
tag: library

mydata2018
type: Note
content: Who is going to MyData2018 in Helsinki at the end of the month? It's horribly expensive for some reason, and I'm too lazy to volunteer, so I won't be at the conference itself but I'll be in town for a couple of days if anyone wants to hang out.
published: 2018-08-18T15:59:00+03:00
tag: quantified+self
tag: mydata2018.org
tag: travel
tag: personal+data

peanut-milk
type: Note
content: I thought I'd tried all the plant milks by now but yesterday I discovered PEANUT MILK and yes it was everything I dreamed.
published: 2018-08-03T09:22:00+03:00
tag: food
tag: https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/vegan

photos-hair
type: Add
content: Hair update. Channeling Beth a bit. It's warmer tones than I was going for but apparently purple shampoo and time will make it grey-er. Or a second round of bleach.
published: 2018-08-28T19:14:50+03:00
summary: Amy added 15 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-estonia/
target: 201808-estonia

photos-helsinki
type: Add
content: The ferry to Helsinki from Tallinn (and a late night).
published: 2018-08-31T04:36:47+03:00
summary: Amy added 14 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-estonia/
target: 201808-estonia

photos-lviv
type: Add
content: Two days of co-working and hanging out in Lviv with the lovely Quinta Group.
published: 2018-08-03T22:24:48+03:00
summary: Amy added 53 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-ukraine/
target: 201808-ukraine

photos-lviv-2
type: Add
content: Wandering around Lviv, including up Castle Hill.
published: 2018-08-04T23:28:23+03:00
summary: Amy added 54 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-ukraine/
target: 201808-ukraine

photos-lviv-3
type: Add
content: Wandering around Lviv, including Lychakiv Cemetery and Strysky Park.
published: 2018-08-05T19:30:34+03:00
summary: Amy added 73 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-ukraine/
target: 201808-ukraine

photos-tallinn
type: Add
content: Arrival in Tallinn. A walking tour, and getting locked in the City Library.
published: 2018-08-11T21:59:21+03:00
summary: Amy added 65 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-estonia/
target: 201808-estonia

photos-tallinn-10
type: Add
content: Misc, and lunch at Vegan Italy.
published: 2018-08-28T17:29:49+03:00
summary: Amy added 8 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-estonia/
target: 201808-estonia

photos-tallinn-11
type: Add
content: Last night in Tallinn; a sunset walk to Paekalda. (And the stuff I left for Red Cross.)
published: 2018-08-29T22:33:59+03:00
summary: Amy added 10 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-estonia/
target: 201808-estonia

photos-tallinn-2
type: Add
content: The closest beach to where I'm staying is a small one called Russalka beach. A little further around the coast is Maarjamäe Park, with a big obelisk, some Soviet-looking concrete statues, and lots of open space. This leads to hilly and wild Paekalda. On the way back towards town is Kadriorg, with Kadrioru Park containing a vast palace estate with fancy buildings hundreds of years old, and beautiful grounds; also home to various museums.
published: 2018-08-13T21:11:35+03:00
summary: Amy added 46 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-estonia/
target: 201808-estonia

photos-tallinn-3
type: Add
content: To the ferry ports, and around the coast to Linnahall - an enormous Soviet concrete structure. The interior is closed but the exterior is available for clambering all over. There are great views out to the ocean, and little scrappy beaches nearby. It's beautifully dystopian. The 'culture kilometer' starts here, but I diverged from the path to follow the cost, and saw the abandoned Patarei sea-fortress prison which is also pretty dystopian. The culture kilometer ends in the Kalamaja district which people keep saying is the hipster area. It's behind the train station, and full of nice wooden houses and cute bars, artisanal stuff and street food.

photos-tallinn-4
type: Add
content: An evening run through Kadrioru Park and a little beyond. A walk to Stroomi beach for a swim in the sea. Then a long trek around the coast through Paljassaare wildlife conservation area which is absolutely beautiful and contains many tranquil spots for swimming and an amazing variety of flora and fauna.

photos-tallinn-5
type: Add
content: To the Estonian National library, only it was closed (with me on the outside this time). A wander around nearby parks. Food at Vegan Inspiratioon. A potluck in the Toompark with local and visiting vegans.
published: 2018-08-20T12:38:44+03:00
summary: Amy added 20 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-estonia/
target: 201808-estonia

photos-tallinn-6
type: Add
content: The National Library of Estonia. A nice place to work, good seats and corners, epic architecture.
published: 2018-08-21T22:49:47+03:00
summary: Amy added 14 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-estonia/
target: 201808-estonia

photos-tallinn-7
type: Add
content: Night wandering around Tallinn old town.
published: 2018-08-23T00:51:48+03:00
summary: Amy added 12 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-estonia/
target: 201808-estonia

photos-tallinn-8
type: Add
content: I walked around the coast to Pirita; a little over an hour. After the harbour is a ruined convent. Usually it's accessible, but there were restoration works or something when I went and it was closed. It looks pretty cool though. I walked through the woods to the Botanical Gardens, which was further than I expected. I detoured through some nice modern cemeteries. The Botanical Gardens are beautiful and serene, and well worth a visit. A combined ticket with the TV Tower (which is next door) is €15, or separately they're €5.50 and €13 respectively. The TV Tower itself is also really worthwhile. It's super high with fantastic views for a start. (If you go on a day with poor visibility, you can get a stamp on your ticket which lets you come back for free any time! I didn't have this problem though.) It's a wonder of Soviet concrete glory, and was largely built by 'volunteers' (unpaid workers..?). Inside on the ground floor is a detailed exhibition of its history and construction. At the top in the main dome are changing exhibits. I saw futuristic clothes designs from a local fashion school, and an electronic interactive set of displays about Estonian digital innovation and current day e-infrastructure. There's also a restaurant at the top, and an outdoor balcony. On the way out after the gift shop is another exhibit about life in Estonia in Soviet times which was really well done and informative. Then I walked a different route through woods and cemetery to Pirita beach. I stopped for food at Vigri, a vegan buffet with an amazing cake selection, which is in the large boat-shaped building at the harbour. Then I chilled on the beach with a book for a few hours, and swam in the sea, before walking back.

photos-tallinn-9
type: Add
content: I met V and his couchsurfer M and we went to Telliskivi creative city. There was a flea market and music and foodtrucks and general festivities. We found vegan doughnuts. We showed M around the old town, and went up the tower of St Olaf's Church, the tallest building in Tallinn - it doesn't look like it, but none of the skyscrapers downtown are taller (you can tell from a distance). They're not allowed to be. Entry is €3 and it's a dizzying narrow climb. We wandered around Linnahall and around the coast to Seaplane Harbour. For a change the boats were open for climbing in, and there was a stage with musicians. It was the Night of Prehistoric Lights, when every coast around the Baltic Sea and further afield are lit up with bonfires and celebrations. We watched the sun set, and sat by the fire for a while.
published: 2018-08-26T21:02:31+03:00
summary: Amy added 40 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-estonia/
target: 201808-estonia

photos-tartu
type: Add
content: A few days in Tartu, walking all through the old town. Including the university campus, botanical garden, Toom hill with cathedral ruins, a swim in Anna Kanal mini-beach, and Supilinn, the Soup District. Tartu has lots of statues, sculptures and ancient houses, all well signposted with the history and interesting facts.

photos-transit
type: Add
content: Bussing from Lviv to Tartu via Riga, with many delays and hindrances.
published: 2018-08-06T23:58:44+03:00
summary: Amy added 6 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-ukraine/
target: 201808-ukraine

photos-ukraine-transit
type: Add
content: The train from Odesa to Lviv.
published: 2018-08-01T22:23:33+03:00
summary: Amy added 11 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-ukraine/
target: 201808-ukraine

query
type: Note
content: Does anyone know of (or want to write) a tutorial for querying JSON in postgres for people who know SPARQL..?
published: 2018-08-21T21:31:00+03:00
tag: sparql
tag: https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/json
tag: postgres
tag: hacking

scotland
type: Note
content: Today it rained in unpredictable and torrential bursts in between blue skies, and I bought loads of really cheap kale. Estonia is basically Scotland.
published: 2018-08-12T20:04:00+03:00
tag: travel
tag: tallinn

shutup
type: Note
content: dudes your settle down / have a family joke is not funny and maybe you didn't realise because you haven't been bombarded your whole life with the idea that this should be your sole purpose for existing but seriously shut the fuck up If at any point you feel like joking about settling down / having a family to someone you know expressly doesn't want to settle down / have a family then take a second and try just not.
published: 2018-08-19T13:43:00+03:00
tag: life

social-web
type: Note
content: Reading people arguing about decentralised social web stuff makes me 50-50 want to pick back up my own implementations and make them work, and leave computing forever to hide in a cave. The compromise between these tensions tends to be go back to my day job / pick up a book / go to the beach / make a sandwich.
published: 2018-08-22T16:08:00+03:00
tag: sloph
tag: life
tag: activitypub
tag: decentralisation
tag: social+web
tag: solid
tag: socialwg
tag: indieweb
tag: hacking
tag: decentralised+social+web

status-update
type: Article
content: My default state is absolutely sleeping late, not going outside, not interacting with people, staying in my pyjamas all day, not showering and eating only toast. I work every day to operate outside of this. Staying in hostels and shared accommodation can actually be really good for me, because I usually have to get dressed and interact with people on some level. Staying in places with shitty internet mean I have to go find a library or a cafe to work from. Staying in places for a short length of time means I have to go out every day if I want to see 'everything' or at least get a good sense of the place. Of course constantly moving around brings its own set of exhaustion and other problems, which is why I inject solo accommodation for longer periods into my travel schedule. I love living on my own, but I have to ramp up effort to not spiral into a sad smelly hole. Some days are easier than others. And it's such a vicious circle. Some days I'm on the sofa absolutely unable to function and wondering what's even the point and I am getting better at realising OH I probably just need to fucking go outside for an hour and I'll feel better. And then actually making myself do it. Last couple of days I've been working on brain-melting server-y stuff and ending the day in a total haze, but managed to go out around 7pm, picked a direction to walk, and discovered new beautiful areas of Tallinn and felt infinitely better, which is much better than curling up with Netflix for the whole night. Relatedly, now I have a job with regular video calls I tend to get mostly dressed for those. Though recenty I bought a nice loose jumper which I can put over my pyjamas and it makes me look semi respectable from a distance. So uh, work in progress. Sorry colleagues. Doesn't help with the showering thing. When I started this job I was quite terrified of how much facetime I would be having because from experience there are days when I just can't but actually I'm getting used to it and it's qui…
name: Status update
published: 2018-08-15T16:40:00+03:00
tag: travel
tag: life

tdbank
type: Note
content: How to make $$$ (when you're TDBank): Persuade your customer they also need a savings account. Require savings account to have an automated monthly transfer in. If not, charge $$. Wait. Eventually all funds from customer's checking account will be transferred to savings account. Charge horrendous overdraft fees on checking account. $$$! Important: do NOT alert customer. Make sure their card continues to work for at least a few days while they're in negative, so they don't notice. Charge the overdraft fees daily, obviously. Bonus points if you continue to charge overdraft fees after customer has realised and transferred money back into checking from savings*. * Seriously what is happening? Is this forever now?
published: 2018-08-24T21:34:00+03:00
tag: life
tag: money

vegan-in-ukraine
type: Article
content: One evening I spent with a table full of locals, including a variety of dietary preferences, trying to think of a Ukrainian dish that was ordinarily vegan. The criteria being that you could walk into any Ukrainian restaurant and order it without modification. Nobody could come up with anything. The closest we got was borsch without meat - nobody was sure how common it would be, but seemed fairly confident you can request it without. And you need to make sure they leave it to you to add sour cream, and don't dollop it on for you. Someone said they were sure in some places varenyky (dumplings) must be vegan, but I understood the traditional recipe for the dough to involve both eggs and sour cream. Nonetheless, there were a handful of lovely vegan cafes in Odes and Lviv, so I did not starve to death. Vegano Hooligano (Odesa) There are two branches, though I only visited the one closest to the train station. The food is healthy Asian-inspired-fusion. A variety of soups, wraps, burgers, salad bowls and cakes, featuring lots of tofu. Also an extensive drinks and breakfast menu. I ate in a couple of times and took food to go on the train. There's an English menu, and one of the waiters was very friendly and happy to speak English. There's power and wifi, and plenty of seating, and they take card. Zelen (Odesa) A vegetarian cafe near the train station... which was not open during the hours on happycow. True (Odesa) A fancy feeling place, pescatarian, with everything well labelled and an emphasis on health. Lots of raw dishes, and many of those containing honey can be veganised. I took the waitress's recommendation and ate a very delicious mushroom steak with lentils. It was a pretty big portion. Also latte with hazelnut milk. Agrus (Lviv) A vegan (except for occasional honey) bakery 30 seconds from my hostel. I had breakfast here several times and afternoon snacks too. There is a lot of space, power and wifi, and they also sell various eco products like bags. On one occasio…
name: Vegan in Ukraine
published: 2018-08-07T09:30:00+03:00
tag: ukraine
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: travel

websites
type: Note
content: My kingdom for restaurant websites which have a text-only one page version of the menu without so much javascript that google translate can't even parse it and nothing is copypastable.
published: 2018-08-10T13:10:00+03:00
tag: food
tag: ux

week-in-review
type: Article
content: Survived the ferry journey from Batumi to Odesa. Spent a day in Odesa. Took an 11h train to Lviv. Hung out with awesome people in Lviv and ate good food. (Post about Ukraine). Work was mucking about with CoVE and BODS data. Boarded a bus to Tartu via Riga.
name: Week in review: 30 July - 5 August
published: 2018-08-05T23:59:59+03:00
tag: tourism
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: ukraine
tag: estonia

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: Took a slightly arduous bus journey from Lviv to Tartu. Hung out in Tartu for a few days, got a cold. Took the train from Tartu to Tallinn. Yay, apartment to myself! Learned stuff about SaltStack and Postgres. Got locked in Tallinn City Library for a couple of hours. Caught up on blog posts about Ukraine (not food and food).
name: Week in review: 6 - 12 August
published: 2018-08-12T23:59:59+03:00
tag: week+in+review
tag: hacking
tag: travel
tag: writing

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Explored Tallinn. Went for evening walks around Russalka beach, Paekalda and Kadriorg, Linnahall, Patarei prison, the culture kilometer and Kalamaja and through old town. Went for a run. Worked 3 days, more or less.. (more) Spent a day at Stroomi beach and Paljassaare conservation area; swam in the sea and walked many miles. Wander around some parks near the Estonian National Library. Hung out with vegans at potluck in Toompark.
name: Week in review: 13 - 19 August
published: 2018-08-19T23:59:59+03:00
tag: travel
tag: estonia
tag: exercise

week-in-review-4
type: Article
content: Wrote some code or whatever. Worked from the National Library of Estonia (didn't get locked in). Went Night wandering around Tallinn. Spent a day wandering around old town and proofreading Someone's thesis chapter in a nice tea shop. A day out in Pirita; woods, Botanical Gardens, TV Tower, cemetaries, beach. Fleamarket and end of summer festival in Telliskivi. Went up the tower of St Olaf's church, the tallest building in Tallinn. Watched the sun set from Sea Plane Harbour then stuck around for bonfires and music on the Night of Prehistoric Lights (and made some dreads for M from Spain). Applied for Estonian e-residency, did my taxes, and applied for some more Euro/travel-friendly banking options.
name: Week in review: 20 - 26 August
published: 2018-08-26T21:27:00+03:00
tag: tourism
tag: food
tag: life
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: estonia

https://rhiaro.co.uk/2018/09/5ba3f2fabf987
type: Add
content: Various delicious things I made with chanterelle mushrooms, and some dumplings with soya and berries.
published: 2018-08-29T22:20:21+03:00
summary: Amy added 10 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
target: madefood

https://rhiaro.co.uk/2018/09/5ba3f352d028d
type: Add
content: Creative hostel breakfasting.
published: 2018-09-20T22:21:46+03:00
summary: Amy added 2 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
target: madefood

aesthetic
type: Note
content: Why is the aesthetic of vape shops globally the same as vegan restaurants?
published: 2018-09-14T14:18:00+03:00
tag: life
tag: vegan

apartment-greek
type: Note
content: Sooo, anyone know anyone with a summer home on a Greek island they want to rent to me for less than €400/mo this winter? :D
published: 2018-09-13T12:49:00+03:00
tag: travel
tag: greece

art
type: Note
content: I went to the National Art Museum today, which is named after and mostly about and full of the works of Čiurlionis. Turns out it was also his 143rd birthday today, so the audio guides for his section were free (as opposed to €4). I'm not super into art museums/galleries, but I was in the mood today, and I've never done with an audioguide before. So that was interesting. I had to take it a lot slower than usual, hearing some (often long and rambling) history and context to the paintings, and also having details pointed out to me that I might not have noticed by myself, I really appreciated the art. Plus Čiurlionis paints super rad alien fantasy landscapes, so that was cool.
published: 2018-09-22T18:13:00+03:00
tag: travel
tag: art
tag: tourism
tag: kaunas

been-meh
type: Note
content: I've been pretty meh and lethargic and unfocussed for a few weeks, but apparently what I needed was a hectic week of barely-planned travel, hostel-hopping and a bus ride a day, and the clouds have lifted. I'm in hostels for the rest of this month, so maybe I'll get some shit done.
published: 2018-09-07T15:47:00+03:00
tag: life
tag: travel

bostonas
type: Note
content: Look at Boston up there with London and Edinburgh! It was on the map once. In the 1300s. THOSE WERE THE DAYS.
published: 2018-09-30T23:50:00+03:00
tag: travel
tag: life
tag: boston

botanical
type: Note
content: I passed by chance through the Botanical Gardens in Vilnius today, and out of the corner of my eye I saw some beautiful puffy looking flowers and steered over to take a look. They were dahlias! This is significant because my MC for premature nanowrimo is called Dahlia. Also dahlias are beautiful. Also October is soon.
published: 2018-09-29T22:13:00+03:00
tag: life
tag: dahlia
tag: travel
tag: nanowrimo

but
type: Note
content: But.. but booking.com.. I can't read 1 million books in 3 months. I wish I could, but I can't..
published: 2018-09-22T10:26:00+03:00
tag: kindle
tag: life

child
type: Note
content: So I couldn't blag a student ticket for the Trakai Island Castle museum, but two different bus drivers by default sold me a child ticket on the way there and back today. (I don't normally try to pretend I'm a student, I just thought the full price was a bit steep on this occasion.)
published: 2018-09-30T21:38:00+03:00
tag: travel
tag: life

curonian-spit
type: Article
content: Remember that time I walked to the (Kaliningrad) Russian border from Poland? I wanted to do that again, from the Lithuanian side. This is a slightly longer ordeal, requiring better transportation than feet. Long story short, I didn't actually make it to the border, but I did see it from the top of a sand dune. I got pretty close though. Anyway, I'm sure that border is less exciting than the Polish one, because you can actually cross it (in a car, not on foot). The Curonian Spit is not connected to Klaipeda, but the ferry takes 5 minutes. They run every hour, from 0700 out, up to 2215 returning. It costs 1 EUR return for foot passengers, or passengers with a bike, and you can buy tickets from the machines at the port in Klaipeda old town. I rented a bike from my hostel for 24 hours for 5 EUR (we managed to lower the seat all the way so I could just about use it). Most bike rental places in town are 10-12 EUR. The spit is well furnished with cycle paths, in various states of decay, but mostly well-maintained. This route is pretty popular. The northern most coast is an enormous long sandy beach. Very glorious. It's backed by epic dunes, and you can only access it at designated points from cycle paths running down the middle, because tramping around on the dunes is a no-no. Large portions of the spit are also do-not-enter nature reserves. After I got off the ferry in Smiltyne, first I went right/east (not the direction of Kaliningrad) to check out the other end of the spit for completeness. There's a sea museum, a dolphinarium (ugh) and the start of the beautiful beach. I pushed my bike along the beach for a while, which wasn't so bad on the wet sand, until I could join one of the main cycle paths, peeking out between the dunes. It was easy sailing for a while; the path was in good repair, and either flat or any ups were well compensated with excellent downs. It weaves through the forest, with views of dunes on the right and pine trees on the left, or sometimes trees on…
name: Cycling the Curonian Spit
published: 2018-09-11T14:17:00+03:00
tag: vegan
tag: curonian+spit
tag: travel
tag: lithuania
tag: cycling

cycled
type: Note
content: I cycled further in one go today than I ever have in my life before (40 miles). Yet I'm a bit disappointed I didn't go further. For some reason I thought I'd be able to make the return journey too. Also everything hurts. Different things from after a too-long hike. Mostly my butt.
published: 2018-09-08T20:49:00+03:00
tag: cycling
tag: travel
tag: life

envy
type: Note
content: A couple of years ago I met people while travelling with lifestyles I envied. Now I'm the person with the lifestyle other travellers envy. Feels good. Specifically the fact that I figured out what I was envious of, and made it happen for myself. Not the being subject of envy part. Not bragging, except I am, because I LOVE living like this and am PROUD of myself for just doing what I felt like even though it was easy and natural to do so. Now 'scuse me while I go stand in a ten person line for the single hostel toilet for the fifth day in a row.
published: 2018-09-18T23:09:00+03:00
tag: life
tag: travel

homesick
type: Note
content: You can't get homesick when everywhere is home.
published: 2018-09-30T21:08:00+03:00
tag: travel
tag: life

kaunas
type: Note
content: When I was deciding how to divide up my month in Lithuania, I looked at the map, zoomed in on the cities, checked out the bus routes, and a voice inside me said "spend two weeks in Kaunas." It's the second biggest city in Lithuania (still not big), not by the sea, and fairly unremarkable apart from having the longest pedestrian street in Eastern Europe going through the middle. The voice was so convincing, I booked two weeks in an non-refundable hostel as far as two months in advance. Anyway, the voice was right, this place is super nice. Maybe I was predisposed to love it, but my first impression on the afternoon I arrived was at least as powerful as my immediate love for Bratislava. Food options are good, stuff is cheap, there's a really nice river and a castle, a new town and an old town, some lakes not too far away; I've made myself at home in a co-working space, and people seem friendly.
published: 2018-09-11T18:23:00+03:00
tag: lithuania
tag: kaunas
tag: travel

lazy
type: Note
content: Staying in the same hostel for more than two weeks earns bonus feature of lazy or vague checkout time.
published: 2018-09-25T13:07:00+03:00
tag: travel
tag: hostel

liepaja
type: Note
content: Liepaja has the purest whitest softest sandy beaches that have ever blessed my feet, I swear.
published: 2018-09-04T19:22:00+03:00
tag: travel
tag: liepaja

love-idle
type: Note
content: Love the idle threats of hostels on booking.com that they'll somehow charge you the full amount if you don't show up. Yet they don't ask for your credit card to book, and explicitly only accept cash on-site. Suuuure you wired that system up. Sure you did.
published: 2018-09-08T21:41:00+03:00
tag: travel

october-nanowrimo
type: Note
content: I filled up November with travel and Vipassana, so I'm psyching myself up to do Nanowrimo in October. I'll track my daily word count as usual of course, and make a script to post the right number each day to the Nanowrimo.org API during November. But HEY WOW October is really soon.
published: 2018-09-22T10:55:00+03:00
tag: writing
tag: nanowrimo
tag: travel

onion-rings
type: Note
content: Onion rings are the conclusive evidence that my passion for deep fried things is more powerful than my extreme distaste for onions.
published: 2018-09-28T10:48:00+03:00
tag: food

photos-helsinki-2
type: Add
content: Helsinki? More like Hellaexpensive, AMIRITE? Wandering around the coast, checking out cemeteries, Finnish National Museum during the 2 hours a week it's free, free walking tour, free accommodation and didn't buy tickets for the trams.. and still spent too much money. And a ferry back to Tallinn.

photos-kaunas
type: Add
content: First day and a half in Kaunas; new town, old town, rivers, parks, churches, sculptures, forts, castles. Food at Holy Donut and Arbatine.
published: 2018-09-11T20:51:11+03:00
summary: Amy added 50 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201809-lithuania/
target: 201809-lithuania

photos-kaunas-10
type: Add
content: A walk. I found a library, and the 6th Fort, and parts of Kaunas technical university campus. I was bound for Kaunas Lagoon Regional Park. A giant reservoir some two hour walk from the city center surrounded by trees, trails, beaches and preserved areas. I angled my approach to arrive at yet another a historical fort by the water. Some of the trails on maps.me are not so functional in real life. I ended up following a railway track a little way, before coming upon construction work carving out a new highway. Recent rain meant the whole place was extremely muddy. I scuttled along grassy embankments as best I could and also got stuck in and covered with mud on a number of occasions, whilst passing digger drivers watched me with amusement. I found the fort, but not before getting lost in a bit of swamp, and climbed damp and rickety steps to get up and down the mound that remained. I stopped for lunch on a small bit of beach, just in time for the skies to open and drop everything they had. I waited it out under the roots of a tree protruding from the side of a cliff. Watching and listening to giant raindrops spreading in waves across the vast surface of the water. I wanted to track south, to reach the grounds of the Pazaisliui monastery, but to reach a trail I'd have to go back the way I came, through the muddy construction site. I didn't fancy that, especially not after a further downpour, so I decided to try following the coast around. This involved occasional undergrowth scrabbling or wet feet as the beach gave way to foliage but by and large worked out. I found the monastery (which is closed to visitors on Mondays) and by then the sun was well and truly out. It's a great domed building, set in grounds of well kept parkland that anyone can use. I headed back to town along the river, and then through Basanavicious park. The day wrapped up with a well earned pizza roll from Mamma Pizza and a fight with a disappointing 'freak shake' from Holy Donut. GPS trace of the wal…

photos-kaunas-11
type: Add
content: Lazy last day in Kaunas. Checked out the library on Laisves Ave and wished I'd had time to spend there. Discovered I'd overbooked one night at Monk's Bunk but they gracefully gave me a refund. Food at Ridikas on the train platform, the train to Vilnius..
published: 2018-09-25T18:33:52+03:00
summary: Amy added 14 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201809-lithuania/
target: 201809-lithuania

photos-kaunas-2
type: Add
content: Slowly taking in Kaunas. Walking around north of the river; bridges, doughnuts, construction, doughnuts, the river is beautiful during a clear dusk. Doughnuts from Holy Donut, notdog from ManGi, soup and patties from Zalia Pupa, pizza from Mamma Pizza.
published: 2018-09-15T20:56:24+03:00
summary: Amy added 43 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201809-lithuania/
target: 201809-lithuania

photos-kaunas-3
type: Add
content: Walk to the Kaunas Botanical Gardens. Peaceful, as expected. About an hour and a half walk from the city center. I sat in a greenhouse and read for a while. Two weddings happened while I was there. Stopped by Akropolis Mall on the way back, which is entirely ridiculous and bigger on the inside. Dinner at MasalaCiti, delicious kofta.
published: 2018-09-15T22:22:35+03:00
summary: Amy added 74 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201809-lithuania/
target: 201809-lithuania

photos-kaunas-4
type: Add
content: A walk to the Vytauto old Soviet theme park (still brightly coloured and functioning, but much smaller than expected, and then around Oak Grove. Stopped at a random cafe, Kregzdute, for lunch because my hostel-friend was hungry, and was surprised by several vegan options on the menu; obviously I had to try something to show demand. We continued on for a long long walk along the beautiful riversides that snake around and through the city, until we got back to old town. Dinner at Hare Krinsha restaurant Radhaarne.
published: 2018-09-16T22:28:14+03:00
summary: Amy added 64 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201809-lithuania/
target: 201809-lithuania

photos-kaunas-5
type: Add
content: A few days of food.. amazing Indian-Thai fusion and Moksha; a healthy burger at Zalia Pupa and delicious homecooked veganised Lithuanian classics at Arbatine.
published: 2018-09-19T22:36:36+03:00
summary: Amy added 18 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201809-lithuania/
target: 201809-lithuania

photos-kaunas-6
type: Add
content: Today I walked to the IX Fort (via the VIII Fort). A historical defense structure, one of many around Kaunas several hundred years old. It was used for horrific things by the Nazis and the Soviets in the 1930s to 1950s, and served as a prison before that too. Today it houses two museums, and on the grounds is a striking Holocaust memorial. One museum tells the stories both of those who survived their experiences in the Fort, and those who did not, as well as the wider context of WWII and the Soviet occupation of Lithuania. The other details the history and construction of the Fort, and the other things it has been used for over the centuries. There's also artwork. It was a very hot day. I walked back along the river, and stopped for some bargain junk food on the way.
published: 2018-09-20T22:43:12+03:00

photos-kaunas-7
type: Add
content: I went to the Kaunas City Hall Museum, which is a big church-y looking building in the central old town square. It didn't look like much on the inside, just some furniture and grandeur, and no displays so I immediately started to regret paying €2.50 to go inside. But then! A hilariously nervous but smiling and enthusiastic dorky man appeared to talk me through everything I was seeing. He opened secret doors that looked like the wall and lead to spiral staircases to other rooms or the balcony up the tower. He emphasised that all the furniture is old and authentic, and described all the things politicians did in all the rooms. I think he thought I was much more excited about the history than I was, because I was so entertained by his mannerisms. Then he pointed me to a basement / former prison; I went down and he didn't follow. This one was full of signs, more like a normal museum. Lots of archeology and history stuff too. So in the end, very cool. Still only took about 15 minutes in total though. Wandering through the old town I stuck my head into every other church I passed. Then I went to the Castle Museum, which was also €2.50 and hecka disappointing. It was really small, I guess. In the top of the tower is a very nice photo exhibition of doors that look like knight helmets and people holding cut-outs of them up to their faces. But apart from that, I wouldn't bother.. just walk around the outside of the castle. Then I went to the massive white church which looms over all of Kaunas from the hillside. The Church of the Resurrection was, I believe, started in the couple of decades of independence Lithuania had between the World Wars, but not finished, and only cleaned up and purposed as a church in the early 90s. It's € 1.20 to climb the stars up the tower to the massive roof terrace, which is worth it. Probably the best views of the city from here. I stuck around and read for an hour or so. It was hot, so I wrapped up my day by heading to the island park and reading…

photos-kaunas-8
type: Add
content: On this day I went to the Vytautas the Great War Museum, where Vytautas is great, not war. Lithuania has been involved a lot of wars, and they are all very well documented here. It also contains the genuine wreckage of the record-breaking but ultimately unsuccessful plane Lituanica (the only time a member of staff spoke to me during the visit was to express to me that the wreckage is the original, in German eventually after trying three languages I didn't understand). The whole museum was still smaller than I expected though, and I was disappointed the tower is closed. It's a big, grand building. Probably worth the €2. Then I went to the National Art Museum around the corner. This is way bigger than expected. I'm not really into art galleries, but this had a lot of interesting cultural, historical stuff in as well as exhibits. The main artist is Čiurlionis who paints awesome abstract alien landscapes. I got a free audio guide because it was his birthday. This one is €4 but turned out to be pretty great. A late lunch at Arbatine.
published: 2018-09-22T20:48:37+03:00
summary: Amy added 34 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201809-lithuania/
target: 201809-lithuania

photos-kaunas-9
type: Add
content: The Pope was in Kaunas today. So were 100,000 people to see him. I went by the castle park to take some photos of the crowds, saw the Pope on the big screen in the old town square and got a fleeting glimpse of the popemobile. Lunch in the ever fantastic Arbatine.
published: 2018-09-23T21:29:48+03:00
summary: Amy added 27 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201809-lithuania/
target: 201809-lithuania

photos-klaipeda
type: Add
content: Photos from around Klaipeda; old town, and beach to the north. Lots of sculptures.

photos-kolka
type: Add
content: One night on Cape Kolka (Latvia). One of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I stayed in one of the Saules Majas - Houses of the Sun - a barrel with a bed in it, electricity or heating or water, right on the beach. The mirrored glass window faces the sea, and you can see the sunrise and sunset from the same place. The Cape is a national park, and it was utterly tranquil. I got up to watch the sun rise, and went for an early hike around the pine forests. The plan was to hitchhike out as the public transport is sparse, which was immediately successful as my barrel-neighbours were driving the right way and took me with them to Ventspils.

photos-latvia
type: Add
content: So I hitchhiked from Kolka to Ventspils, and my drivers dropped me off in town. I went to the library, and wandered around a bit. Ventspils is okay, but didn't really vibe, and there are no hostels or other good places to stay. So I made a plan to get out, and move on to Liepaja. Then I immediately bumped into my original drivers again, who had stopped for a break and were just about to continue around the coast. So they took me to Liepaja. Easy mode. Two nights in Liepaja, which is bigger than Ventspils and has more of a backpacker scene. The beach is unfathomably soft and white. There's also a giant lake (Lake Liepaja) which is surrounded by nature reserve and has a beautiful spit leading a way out into it. Then I took a bus to Klaipeda. Note - the international Ecolines bus does not leave from the main bus station, which I found out after walking all the way across town to it. I had to taxi back to a square in the old town (10 mins from my hostel) to make it on time. I was in Balkan taxi mode I guess, and all set to fight for this to not be more than 5eur.. but there was actually a meter running, and after the driver had quoted me 5 or 6 before we left, it came to 4, and he wouldn't take a tip. I'm so used to taxi drivers trying to rip me off, this was a delightful surprise. Then the bus driver was napping, and we left 20 minutes late. Somehow still arrived to Klaipeda on time though.
published: 2018-09-06T18:12:35+03:00
summary: Amy added 68 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201809-latvia/
target: 201809-latvia

photos-neringa
type: Add
content: A day cycling along the Curonian Spit (~40 miles) near Klaipeda in Lithuania. Great beaches, forests, dunes, and small towns.

photos-parnu
type: Add
content: A day in Parnu, south-west Estonia. Nice beach, some jolly good swamps, cute town center and one vegetarian cafe that I went to for dinner then breakfast (Piccadilly Wine and Chocolate). Then a bus out, Riga-bound.
published: 2018-09-03T11:33:32+03:00
summary: Amy added 62 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-estonia/
target: 201808-estonia

photos-riga
type: Add
content: Hasty turnaround in Riga; there long enough to buy a sim card, lunch, and a bus to Kolka, westwards around the coast.
published: 2018-09-03T15:03:01+03:00
summary: Amy added 5 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201809-latvia/
target: 201809-latvia

photos-tallinn-12
type: Add
content: Coming back to Tallinn after two days in Helsinki felt like returning home after a long voyage for some reason. So I stayed an extra night than planned, and went to Parnu in the morning. Enjoyed pizza on the Linnahall at sunset, and breakfast in the market from Toormoor.
published: 2018-09-02T12:30:48+03:00
summary: Amy added 29 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201808-estonia/
target: 201808-estonia

photos-trakai
type: Add
content: Day trip to Trakai, Lithuania's number one domestic tourist destination. The town is squeezed between two large lakes, and features castles on islands, and an absolute butt-ton of interesting anthropological history. The bus from Vilnius is €1.80 and takes about 30 minutes. They go pretty regularly so you don't need to plan much, just show up at the bus station. The bus station in Trakai is out of town, but Trakai ain't big, so you can walk to the other end in 30 minutes or so if you go directly. I ambled around a bit and stopped for lunch on the lakeside, eventually making it to the big Island Castle. The entry is €8 which I thought was steep so I tried to wrangle a half price student ticket. No such luck. The museum is quite extensive, which detailed history of the area from the 1200s or so. There are also collections of artefacts, old and modern, and lots of information about the dereliction and restoration of the castle itself. Disappointingly access to the higher towers of the castle doesn't seem to be available. It was all very full of tourists. I spent a good hour and a half here though. Then I ambled back through town, dropping into one of the big famous churches which was very ostentatious. I found the Karaim museum (€2 or €1 if you have an Island Castle ticket), which is tiny but suuuper interesting about this very small minority people, a few hundred of whom Vytautas the Great 'brought' over from Crimea in the 1400s and then.. built a town for. Having trouble figuring out exactly why or what happened here, even wikipedia isn't saying much. I guess records from then are sparse. There aren't many of these people left in Europe now - not that there were many to begin with - especially since Soviet stuff and Nazi stuff. Those who are are pretty well concentrated in Trakai, with others in Vilnius and Warsaw. I went to the Trakai History Museum (€3) which is somewhat in the Peninsula Castle grounds, but is disappointingly tiny and doesn't contain anything castl…

photos-vilnius
type: Add
content: Three days of cafe-working (and eating) in Vilnius. It has been cold, but the city seems nice at night. Food options are good. Also a hostel rave.
published: 2018-09-29T02:45:47+03:00
summary: Amy added 56 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201809-lithuania/
target: 201809-lithuania

photos-vilnius-2
type: Add
content: I walked through town, along the river, the long way to Vilnius TV Tower. There are lots of steep climbs through forest and nice views on the TV Tower side. The TV Tower itself is kind of disappointing given the high price (€9). There's no separate observation deck, only the restaurant, so you have to kind of hang around the windows in between the tables. There's also not much of an exhibition. A few photos and notes about when it was attacked by the Soviets, and in the grounds some cool old satellite dishes. But compared to Tallinn, not even close. Obviously the view is good. Though no good angles to take photos from, and not much annotation about what you're seeing. The river and park surroundings are nicer. I got a bit lost in the woods on the return and scrambled down a hillside that probably shouldn't have been scrambled down, to get back to the river. Then I crossed over to Vingio Park and walked through to the Botanical Gardens. The park is more civilised than the other side of the river, but still broadly woods. There's a stadium and some other human things there too though. Back into town to end the day with pizza at Pizza di Ascari. Approximated GPS trace.
published: 2018-09-29T21:51:08+03:00
summary: Amy added 67 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201809-lithuania/
target: 201809-lithuania

photos-vilnius-3
type: Add
content: A walking tour of Vilnius, including the independent Republic of Uzupis, which has lots of art, its own parliament and a constitution printed in many different languages on the wall, and a general hippie vibe. Then I walked around the castle and nearby hills, including the Hill of Crosses, before lunch in Rosehip Cafe. I detoured through some gardens on the way home, where I met an old lady (70, 75, she couldn't remember) who has lived her whole life in Vilnius and was delighted to have someone to talk to for a while (3 hours). She used to be an English teacher, and soon start repeating her stories and the questions she was asking me. She was a bit muddled too about whether her parents were dead, or if she still lived with them. She said she lived in her house in Vilnius her whole life, her parents had, and her grandparents before them. Her brother and sister had families and moved out, but still live in Vilnius. We had delightful chatter about dogs, the Pope, and Vilnius in general, on something of a loop. She invited me into her house when we got there, but I declined. She took out a hairpin instead of a key when it came time to lock the door. She wanted to walk me home too, and we went a bit further, but I managed to persuade her to go home before it got too dark and cold. She wrote down her name and address for me, and made me promise to call her without giving me a phone number. Her name is Dalia. You know, the same as Dahlia, the main character in my current nanowrimo novel who I named in January and isn't exactly a common name. Coincidence? Divine intervention?
published: 2018-10-01T20:51:15+03:00
summary: Amy added 71 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201809-lithuania/
target: 201809-lithuania

photos-vilnius-4
type: Add
content: Last days in Vilnius, mostly cafe-hopping. The park/pedestrian area through the center of town has a special lane for mobile phone users.. Then a bus to Riga.
published: 2018-10-05T17:03:46+03:00
summary: Amy added 28 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201809-lithuania/
target: 201809-lithuania

rave
type: Note
content: There's a giant rave at the club under my hostel tonight. The options the hostel offers to help people cope with this are free earplugs, or free entry to the rave. Since earplugs don't fit in my unnaturally tiny earholes, I guess I'm going to the rave. I've never been to a rave before.
published: 2018-09-28T17:34:00+03:00
tag: rave
tag: travel
tag: life

rave-assessment
type: Note
content: Rave assessment: dark and loud. I found a high place where I could stand and watch the crowds bobbing around for a while. I enjoyed the invisible feeling I also like in crowded shopping malls. Pushing through the crowds to find an open space was scary, and I was always taken aback when I made physical contact with someone else and had to remind myself that is just life in a crowd. Once I had a bit more space it was okay though. The music was sometimes interesting, but mostly repetitive beats too loud to hear. There wasn't anything.. artistic about it. It's sort of weird people come here on purpose (and stand in line for hours and pay money to do so). I guess drinking makes a difference I will never fully comprehend. As ever, it was nice to watch people dance, though most people weren't so much dancing as vaguely pulsating with the music. I was relaxed and completely alone and free and still had no urge to move with the music. I closed my eyes and tried to find that place, but it isn't there. If I did this sort of thing often I would definitely find a way to make my hair glow under ultraviolet.
in reply to: rave
published: 2018-09-29T10:54:00+03:00
tag: travel
tag: life

resident
type: Note
content: A new hostel guest arrived and I was introduced as the "long term resident". Dude, I've been here a week. People travel too fast..
published: 2018-09-16T22:10:00+03:00
tag: hostel
tag: travel

runkeeper
type: Note
content: Mashing the 'resend to RunKeeper' button and praying to the quantified self gods to fucking sync my last week+ of activities already. Grumble. It's all very well GPS tracking my life, but if I can't get it off my phone it never really happened, did it?! (Might be in the market for a new android (4.4 or lower) GPS tracker.. any recommendations? Doesn't have to do anything except draw a map, and be exportable to an open format. Auto-posting to twitter is a bonus. Fantastic API would be great too, for when I get around to owning this stuff myself. Oh and also NOT CRASH all the time like RunKeeper, eh.)
published: 2018-09-09T11:32:00+03:00
tag: gps
tag: quantified+self
tag: runkeeper
tag: hacking

sia
type: Note
content: Last summer I listened endlessly to Sia, and now the sound of her voice POWERFULLY invokes sunny Sarajevo; the feeling of hanging out by myself in my little flat, making flatbreads and waiting 4 hours for beans to cook in my half-assed kitchen, and feeling very very sad about something. If I'm feeling even a tiny bit fragile, just a couple of seconds of hearing her can make me burst into tears on the spot, from a combination of how I was feeling last summer, and a touch of Sarajevo-homesickness. Doesn't even have to be a song I know, just her voice. Which is slightly problematic, as she's still played in public spaces a lot. And also because I just want to listen to her when I need something bouncy and sometimes I can't.
published: 2018-09-14T17:38:00+03:00
tag: life
tag: sia

suddenly-oldest
type: Note
content: Am I suddenly the oldest person in a dorm at hostels? People keep asking my permission to do things. Can I open the window? Turn off the light? Okay if I take a shower? And not even like I'm the only other person in the room. But for some reason I'm in charge..?
published: 2018-09-10T09:52:00+03:00
tag: hostel
tag: travel
tag: life

twitter-ad
type: Note
content: I just got a promoted tweet about a chicken and bacon sandwich from a store in the UAE I thiiiiiiink twitter ad targeting might be not great (I clicked why am I seeing this ad it it said the reason is not available..)
published: 2018-09-24T09:45:00+03:00
tag: twitter
tag: social+media

undoing
type: Note
content: Which will be my spine's ultimate undoing? Carrying all worldly possessions in backpack. Posture at laptop.
published: 2018-09-11T21:14:00+03:00
tag: life
tag: travel
tag: hacking

vegan-in-estonia
type: Article
content: Tallinn There are a small number of veg*n places in Tallinn, and many places are vegan friendly. Loads of regular coffee shops and cafes clearly mark vegan options on their menu; varying quality though, if the reviews on happycow are anything to go by. Also many homemade ice cream shops have vegan flavours. Despite staying there for a few weeks I didn't actually try them all (I was having a budgetarily-challenged month, for a start). Food in Tallinn is fairly cheap overall, but the vegan places are a bit pricier, and cafes and coffeeshops in the old town certainly are. I mostly cooked for myself. Groceries Biomarket seemed like a good candidate for vegan supplies, but actually there was very little specialist stuff there, and it was pretty expensive. They have bulk grains and organic food. But many of the same things can be found for much cheaper in regular supermarkets. Plant milks are common in all supermarkets, but not particularly cheap. Rimi is the cheapest for everything. You'd be hard pressed to find a litre for less than €2, but you might if you shop around for special offers. The food shop in the basement of Solaris has a good selection of not-meats and not-cheeses, and other vegan goodies. They're in their own dedicated display near the front of the store. Everything else here is more expensive than Rimi though. Vegan mayo in a squashy packet can be found in Solaris for 79c and Rimi for 65c. This is the cheapest vegan mayo I've ever seen. The sachet is not as big as a jar but one lasted me for 3 weeks. Tofu seems to be expensive everywhere. I never found it, but apparently if you look hard enough it's cheap in Rimi. Veg Machine Behind Balti Jaam train station, through the market and into the main hall on the left. It's a small stand with a few seats and healthy all-vegan junk food. The pulled sweet potato burger looks fantastic. But for €4 I had a cheesy tofu melt sandwich. Toormoor Also in Balti Jaam, right behind the fruit market in the entrance, this is…
name: Vegan in Estonia
published: 2018-09-05T22:00:00+03:00
tag: tartu
tag: helsinki
tag: travel
tag: food
tag: vegan
tag: estonia
tag: tallinn

weather
type: Note
content: Temperature dropped over 10 degrees Celcius over the weekend and it's grey and drizzly buuuuut it's my last day in Kaunas and I don't have to work so I guess I should go for a long hike anyway.
published: 2018-09-24T09:53:00+03:00
tag: weather
tag: kaunas
tag: travel

week-in-review
type: Article
content: New hair. i18n workflow stuff. Ferry to Helsinki; touristed in Helsinki; spent far too much money and didn't sleep enough. Those Fins sure know how to party. Hung out with bengo and the MyData2018 crowd. Return ferry to Tallinn, and another night there. Bus to Parnu; beach, mosquitoes, nice food.
name: Week in review: 27 August - 2 September
published: 2018-09-02T23:59:59+03:00
tag: bengo.is
tag: helsinki
tag: estonia
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: mydata2018

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: Bussed from Parnu (Estonia) to Riga (Latvia) and then straight on to Cape Kolka. Spent a night on the beach in a barrel house. Hitchhiked around the coast to Liepaja with a stop in Ventspils. A day chilling in Liepaja before a bus to Klaipeda (Lithuania). A few days in Klaipeda, wandering and cafe- and hostel-working on i18n stuff. Cycled 40 miles along the Curonian Spit. Estonian e-residency was granted, pending pickup of ID card in a couple of weeks.
name: Week in review: 3 - 9 September
published: 2018-09-09T23:59:59+03:00
tag: lithuania
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: i18n
tag: klaipeda

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Bussed to Kaunas. Settled in to a hostel and co-working space. Did a bunch of i18n related stuff involving babel extractors and the transifex API for OCDS extensions. Generally explored Kaunas city center, ate lots of good food. Went to Kaunas botanical gardens and for a long walk along the river.
name: Week in review: 10 - 16 September
published: 2018-09-16T23:59:59+03:00
tag: hacking
tag: lithuania
tag: travel
tag: i18n
tag: kaunas

week-in-review-4
type: Article
content: Continued work on i18n stuff for OCDS extensions. Went into tourist mode; visited the Ninth Fort, memorial and museum, the City Hall Museum, the Kaunas Castle Museum and Church of the Ressurection (and some random other churches), the Vytautas the Great War Museum and the National Art Museum, aaaand saw the Pope and the crowds of 100k people who came to Kaunas to see the Pope. Finished Bojack Horseman (again (by which I mean I just finished it all when the new season came out)) and the Expanse book 6. Did a ton of character sketches for my imminent month-early Nanowrimo novel Birds.
name: Week in review: 17 - 23 September
published: 2018-09-23T20:38:00+03:00
tag: tourism
tag: kaunas
tag: week+in+review
tag: i18n
tag: travel
tag: nanowrimo

week-in-review-5
type: Article
content: Went for a long walk to the reservoir at Kaunas Lagoon Regional Park. Took the train from Kaunas to Vilnius. Toured the Vilnius vegan food scene. Researched and spec'd i18n stuff for BODS. Went to a rave in my hostel.. for like 10 minutes. Went to Vilnius TV tower and nearby green spaces. Day trip to Trakai, castle, lake, etc.
name: Week in review: 24 - 30 September
published: 2018-09-30T23:59:59+03:00
tag: vilnius
tag: kaunas
tag: tourism
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: i18n

workplace
type: Note
content: Workplace design for small people: make sure when the chair is at its highest, the arms don't align perfectly with the desk preventing it from sliding all the way under. Also.. make the highest height of the chair higher. I am so smol.
published: 2018-09-17T10:46:00+03:00
tag: life

wrong
type: Article
content: Holy Donut has this thing called a 'freak shake', one of which is vegan. It looks fantastic in the picture and description so finally I managed to give it a try. The only thing 'freak' about it though is how many things are wrong with it. Get it together people. Issue 1: They were out of coconut cream. No dairy cream is not okay. So okay, I go without. I resent that it's still more expensive than the non-vegan ones though. Issue 2: The chocolate crumbs were glued to the inside of the glass, with chocolate. How am I supposed to eat this? I object to such delicious chocolatey goodness being used solely for decoration. I chipped them off with my spoon and made a mess everywhere. Issue 3: Chocolate may look good swirled around the outside of the glass, but it set rock solid in the cold soy milk. I made a lot of noise and not much progress chipping away at it with my spoon. I. Want. To. Eat. The. Chocolate. Issue 4: The menu advertises 'lots of bananas'. There was only half a banana involved in the whole affair. How can I count this as a portion of fruit now? I spent a long time eating this milkshake and eventually got most of the chocolate out. It was a loud and messy process, and people definitely looked at me funny. In conclusion: I do not recommend the Holy Donut 'freak shake'. Also it was €7 which is EXCESSIVE. I had such high hopes.
name: Everything wrong with this Holy Donut milkshake
published: 2018-09-24T20:20:00+03:00
tag: holy+donut
tag: vegan
tag: food

30k
type: Note
content: I just passed 30k words and I am ON TRACK for the FIRST TIME EVER. Even the year I passed 50k by month end only happened because of a huge push in the last couple of days, rather than keeping a consistent pace throughout. I've definitely had low days, and high ones to compensate, but nothing extreme. It just sort of feels much more doable this year. Not sure what's different. Well, lots of things are different; not sure which is the cause. I'm writing a totally different genre to what I'm used to: Earth, presentish day (near future, perhaps), humans and parrots (and a dog); familiar setting, regular people, no aliens, no epic journeys. I was very worried about this actually, but things are flowing well, and I don't feel like I have written any absolute garbage purely for wordcount yet. I've travelled, socialised and worked probably about the same amount as I did last year, though at different velocities. Not any less busy, particularly. I was free of all PhD concerns before last year's. Maybe my head is just in a better place. Maybe I'm becoming better at writing. Maybe October is better for writing than November. Who knows.
published: 2018-10-18T23:14:00+03:00
tag: life
tag: birds
tag: nanowrimo
tag: travel
tag: writing

digital
type: Note
content: I picked up my e-residency from the Estonian Embassy this morning, and now I'm in a proper hipster cafe to work and eat vegan cake and drink flat white with quinoa milk surrounded by other cool lookin' laptop people, I'm at peak digital nomad today. Also posting about it to social media.
published: 2018-10-18T12:36:00+03:00
tag: digital+nomad
tag: travel
tag: life
tag: hacking

ebooks
type: Note
content: Okay help me out internets. Where do I buy (with money!) DRM-free ebooks that I can put on my not-amazon-linked Kindle? (If it needs converting to a Kindle-friendly format that's fine). Somewhere with new releases and stuff. Specifically The Expanse Book 8 next March. Update: Okay, looks like Calibre can remove most DRM which is awesome, just need to test it out before I throw money at a DRM version.
published: 2018-10-17T14:46:00+03:00
tag: the+expanse
tag: ebook
updated: 2018-10-17T14:56:00+03:00

github-emoji
type: Note
content: Love github emoji reactions for enabling passive agressiveness in issue comments. Makes the world a better place.
published: 2018-10-25T14:27:00+03:00
tag: github
tag: hacking
tag: life

life
type: Note
content: My life is a neverending series of logistical puzzles to solve.
published: 2018-10-07T20:17:00+03:00
tag: life

look
type: Note
content: "You look good for having just come off a two day bus ride!" This is just my look now. The multiple consecutive night bus look. I own it. I look like this all the time. I have no other look.
published: 2018-10-16T18:43:00+03:00
tag: bus
tag: travel
tag: life

miss
type: Note
content: As the weather is getting colder and wetter, I've started to miss having boots. Lace up or zip up mid-calf or almost knee-high waterproof boots. Boots that look nice over tights or jeans and are also practical. I can't have boots because I just don't have space to pack them, and I don't always want to wear them while on the road. If I'm on a bus, I want shoes I can kick off or slip back on quickly. It's very not practical to attach them to the outside of my backpack. And I would never wear them in hot weather and I'm really trying to keep the contents of my backpack to all-weather clothes. Sigh.
published: 2018-10-30T17:51:00+02:00
tag: life
tag: clothes

nanowrimo
type: Note
content: Missing the little chart that appears in November on my nanowrimo profile, I made a NaNoWriMo progress page on my site. Obviously I got carried away and embellished it with all my past attempts, too.
published: 2018-10-04T22:20:00+03:00
tag: nanowrimo
tag: sloph
tag: hacking

photos-mushrooms
type: Add
content: The great Latvian mushroom adventure. I bought a bunch of different types of mushrooms from the giant market, all new to me, in various states of decay. Some were bizarrely cheap, some were shockingly expensive. Obviously I had no idea what to expect, so maybe this was all perfectly normal. When I got home I discovered one batch had some teeny tiny larvae crawling around on them. I rehomed them in the plumbing system, where I am sure they will thrive, and threw out any mushrooms they had thoroughly moved inside of, which was fortunately few. The giant one is a bolete, and I think the smaller ones that look the same must be as well. I sorted out all of the small probably-boletes and halved them. I threw them in a pan and added naught but heat, and they soon turned into soup all by themselves. I'd rinsed them to try to get rid of some slime, and they just sucked the water right up. It was impossible to remove. See also: photo of me trying to try the big one out with a hair dryer (not successful). I let them simmer for an hour or more, until they were thoroughly mush, then stuck them in the fridge when they were cool cos I had plans to eat out that night. When I finally got around to consuming them as soup, they had reduced and gelled up a bit. I reheated them, and added a drizzle of soya sauce, almond milk and a handful of nutritional yeast. The soup was delicious. When I'd been preparing them, the texture and sounds started to really weird me out - I'm not usually squeamish. Fortunately they were just soft and melty in the soup and not weird at all. The giant bolete, I sliced and fast-fried in vegetable oil. The internet advised me to cook it quick so the outside would go crispy but retain the moisture on the inside. It wasn't really like this; the result was preeetty slimy. It definitely resembled some kind of seafood, not that I know much about that. I could see it as a substitute though. The more solid mushrooms, a mix of yellow, grey (beautiful grey) and a lonely…
published: 2018-10-25T21:50:31+02:00
summary: Amy added 12 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
target: madefood

photos-riga
type: Add
content: A weekend in Riga with Claire, touristing and eating. We saw the old town, spent too much time in the market, and took a train for an evening stroll along the beach in Jurmala. Food at Bhajan (wholefoods, custom cakes), Wok n Kurry (emergency Indian food, exceptionally helpful staff for gluten-free options) and Terepija (astonishing Sunday brunch buffet).

photos-riga-2
type: Add
content: Some days peacefully enjoying Riga. Coffee and cake and laptop time at Miit Coffee, which is a fantastic space, plenty of room to work, welcoming to hipsters and digital nomads, and serving fantastic vegan cakes and veg*n lunch offers, and pure coffee snobbery. They have quinoa milk for lattes too. I went to a very small flea market in some reclaimed abandoned space, hosted by Free Riga. The market wasn't very exciting, but the buildings and area were cool. The War Museum turns out to be free, and is very detailed and I spent a good two hours there. A great way to spend a rainy afternoon. The sun came out in time for me to cross over the bridge by the Castle, then walk along the river and return over the one near the library. The former has a terrifying/hilarious tiny lift which you control by holding down a button. I didn't know what would happen if I let go, and was scared to find out.
published: 2018-10-20T22:13:56+02:00
summary: Amy added 76 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201810-latvia/

photos-riga-3
type: Add
content: Wandering and eating in the Old Town... food at Rama (cheap hearty veggie Hare Krishna buffet), Bahjan (high quality super delicious vegan food in a calm environment), Miit (hipster coffeeshop chic; cracking vegan burgers and pizzas in the evenings), and Fat Pumpkin (slightly overpriced upscale vegan dining).
published: 2018-10-23T22:20:15+02:00
summary: Amy added 28 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201810-latvia/
target: 201810-latvia

photos-riga-4
type: Add
content: Library tourism in the National Library of Latvia, which is full of interesting stuff and has great views. Probably better on a sunny day. Fantastic place to work, and not too busy either. Then pizza at L'Acquerello, a cake break in Salada Terepija, and some cathedral interiors.
published: 2018-10-24T22:28:14+02:00
summary: Amy added 63 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201810-latvia/
target: 201810-latvia

photos-riga-5
type: Add
content: Lunch and extended laptop time at delicious Bahjan Cafe. Great breakfast plate. Extreme cake. Last minute walk to the TV Tower as the sun came out, which turns out to close at 1900! Lucky. Only €3.70 to enter, and a friendly tour guide escorts you up. It's going to be closed for renovation soon and will reopen in a few years as a totally new beast. For now, there's nothing up there except for the views.
published: 2018-10-25T22:33:36+02:00
summary: Amy added 52 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201810-latvia/
target: 201810-latvia

photos-riga-6
type: Add
content: More Riga wandering. Interesting buildings. Food at Rama and Miit (twice).
published: 2018-10-28T22:40:08+02:00
summary: Amy added 13 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201810-latvia/
target: 201810-latvia

photos-riga-7
type: Add
content: Last days in Riga.. mostly eating. Featuring: Salada Terepija and a whole day in Miit Coffee.
published: 2018-10-31T21:29:23+02:00
summary: Amy added 9 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201810-latvia/
target: 201810-latvia

sleepy
type: Note
content: I'm way too sleepy to write anything intelligent today, but I'm 3000 words behind schedule, so I guess I'm just gonna write about cake for a while.
published: 2018-10-09T16:06:00+02:00
tag: nanowrimo
tag: cake

week-in-review
type: Article
content: Started NaNoWriMo a month early. Wandered around Vilnius some more and went on a walking tour. Met a local old lady named Dalia. Cafe worked with treora. Bussed to Riga, Latvia. Holed up and thought about tooling around the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard for a few days. Claire came for the weekend and we comprehensively ate our way around Riga's vegan food scene, went to Jurmala, and did general touristing. Decided at the last minute to radically change my plans for next week...
name: Week in review: 1 - 7 October
published: 2018-10-07T23:59:59+03:00
tag: vegan
tag: latvia
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: lithuania
tag: food

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: Bussed from Riga to Prague and Prague to London and train to Nottingham. Three day ODS OGM and testing Nottingham's vegan food scene. Visited family at the weekend. Train to London, bussed from London to Dortmund. Passed 20,000 words of nanowrimo, about one day behind schedule.
name: Week in review: 8 - 14 October
published: 2018-10-14T19:10:00+01:00
tag: family
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: ods
tag: work

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Bussed from Dortmund to Berlin and Berlin to Riga. Day job.. Still on top of nanowrimo somehow, and really enjoying writing. Crashed slightly from not having had a real break in two weeks. Walked around Riga; went to the war museum, a flea market, and the other side of the river. Accidentally discovered the 'Eletric' mellow and extended version of Jaden Smith's SYRE.
name: Week in review: 15 - 21 October
published: 2018-10-21T23:59:59+03:00
tag: syre
tag: nanowrimo
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel

week-in-review-4
type: Article
content: Various wandering, touristing, and eating around Riga. Explored the National Library of Latvia. Hung out with some local Semantic Web nerds :) Bought amazing unfamiliar mushrooms from the market and cooked and ate them. Went up the Riga TV Tower. Behind on nanowrimo but passed 40,000 words and still having fun. Messed around with CoVE.
name: Week in review: 22 - 28 October
published: 2018-10-28T23:01:00+02:00
tag: tourism
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: nanowrimo

wrap
type: Note
content: I'm wrapping up this year's National Novel Writing Month attempt after 30 days with 43,996 words. Shy of 50k, but a new second place. I feel like I'm about half way through Birds and I'm going to try to keep up a pace of at least 750 words per day (thanks 750words.com) for days I can - the only real excuse not to being Vipassana meditation courses - until it's done. In a way, doing nanowrimo in a different month has reminded me that I can write during months that aren't November. Usually, on the 1st of December I decide I'll take a break, recharge, it's been crazy.. but I'll get back to it. I'll write the ending, I'll edit. And I haven't, yet. This time should be different. For a start, I don't feel burnt out on the story. I haven't had a single day of writing words for the sake of words. It's all been to advance the plot or develop the characters, moving ever forwards. This month it didn't feel crazy. This is a mean of 1,466 words per day. Only on one day I wrote 0 words (the 26th). Apart from that, the least I wrote in a day was 16 words (the 21st). The most I wrote in a day was 3,410 (on the 10th). On 12 days I wrote more than the 1,667 target.
published: 2018-10-31T00:00:01+02:00
tag: nanowrimo
tag: birds
tag: writing

afk
type: Note
content: Gonna be AFK until about the 18th of November. I won't necessarily read any emails sent during that time. You'll figure it out.
published: 2018-11-07T12:08:08+01:00
tag: dhamma
tag: life
tag: vipassana

best
type: Note
content: I found a place that serves peanut and jalapeno hummus for breakfast. This life is best life.
published: 2018-11-21T08:55:00+01:00
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: travel

dorm
type: Note
content: Looks like I have the dorm to myself tonight, the height of hostel luxury.
published: 2018-11-21T22:26:00+01:00
tag: hostel
tag: travel

language
type: Note
content: There are lots of little quirks of English language I enjoy from people whose first language isn't English as I travel around Europe, but one of my all time favourites is "she just got a baby" instead of "she just had a baby". It's funny because it carries connotations of picking a baby off a shelf, or finding one lying around. It's profound because even though that's not usually what the person means, it is more inclusive of people with new babies who didn't personally give birth to them. It also makes more standard grammatical sense if you think about it hard enough.
published: 2018-11-27T12:00:00+01:00
tag: language
tag: travel

night
type: Note
content: I put twitter in night mode and now I keep thinking I'm looking at Mastodon (via pinafore) and getting excited that someone I knew from twitter now has Mastodon and then being disappointed when I realise it's actually twitter.
published: 2018-11-19T16:06:00+01:00
tag: mastodon
tag: twitter
tag: social+media
tag: life

photos-bratislava
type: Add
content: A weekend in Bratislava. Which, I forgot, is never a good time to go. Many things close on Saturdays and most things close on Sundays. However there was a christmas market, and its various extensions around the city. I got to visit Vipassana friends in their homemade container house on the hill.
published: 2018-11-25T18:42:56+01:00
summary: Amy added 29 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201811-bratislava-sarajevo/
target: 201811-bratislava-sarajevo

photos-kalisz
type: Add
content: One night and a morning in Kalisz, a bus to Turek, a taxi to Dhamma Pallava.. and some pics of the centre, before (warm and sunny) and after (frozen) the Vipassana retreat.
published: 2018-11-18T09:59:32+01:00
summary: Amy added 32 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201811-poland/
target: 201811-poland

photos-warsaw
type: Add
content: Holy wow nobody told me how beautiful Warsaw is. Or that it'd be 17degC and blue skies in November. This is day 1. I did a walking tour and saw the old town, walked along the river and through some parks. The University library (the green and pink leafy building) is incredible inside and out, and has a 1 hectare roof garden! Of course I arrived on a national holiday, as is traditional with my visits to Poland, so most things were closed. I did mange to find food at Mango Vegan Street Food and a Hare Krisna place called Vege, which was senselessly cheap and filling. Also visited the Warsaw Hackerspace; no pics there though.

photos-warsaw-2
type: Add
content: Day 2: another sunny day, mostly cafe working. Featuring Loka Dela Krem pancakes and Kryzys, the anarchist cooperative vegan squat cafe. I stayed in Kryzys all afternoon, and in the evening a punk metal gig in support of antifacism happened around me. It was pretty great. I somehow had time for pizza (at Leonardo Verde) afterwards, too. Day 3: a gloomy foggy day. I wandered around, found a warm museum in the citadel, ate pierogi, went to the cinema in the Palace of Arts and Culture (to see First Man) and then went for super fancy pants sushi at Youmiko.
published: 2018-11-03T21:43:00+01:00
summary: Amy added 64 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201811-poland/
target: 201811-poland

photos-warsaw-3
type: Add
content: I bought a day pass for the trams and zoomed about everywhere (15PLN). Which was nice because it was gloomy and drizzly again. I went to the Warsaw Uprising Museum, which is free on Sundays, and spent a solid 3 hours there. It's super big and interesting with quite diverse installations and all very informative about Warsaw during and after the Second World War. Then I trammed to Praga, over the other side of the river, with the intention of having lunch at Vegan Ramen Shop. There was a line down the street when I got there, and I was starving, so I figured I'd come back for dinner instead, and doubled back to a vegan falafel place (Zudi) I saw in the tunnel under the road/tram and had a really good seitan kebab. Then I trammed to the Praga Museum, which I thought was also free on Sundays but turned out to be 15PLN. It was a bit weird, but some things were interesting. It's about local history and culture of the Praga area. I got really into the stories in the audio guide for a while, but then the battery ran out. There are some more modern exhibitions by students trying out traditional handicrafts, too. The whole museum wasn't huge though. I wandered around Praga a bit before it got dark, then went back to Vegan Ramen Shop. There was still a line down the street. Unbelievable. This time I could wait though. Totally worth it. I think the mad queues are for their limited time hallowe'en menu..
published: 2018-11-04T22:02:45+01:00
summary: Amy added 30 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201811-poland/
target: 201811-poland

photos-warsaw-4
type: Add
content: The clouds cleared up, so I went up to the top of the Palace of Arts and Culture. Visibility still wasn't super high, but I waited until sunset and everything is really shiny at night. I also wandered around a cemetery, and through the grounds of the Museum of Polish Jews. Then pizza.
published: 2018-11-05T22:23:50+01:00
summary: Amy added 70 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201811-poland/
target: 201811-poland

photos-warsaw-5
type: Add
content: A last beautiful day in Warsaw. I walked through some parks, saw some statues (including Chopin) and some squirrels and the Palace on the Water. Breakfast at Coco Bowls, lunch at Lokal, and a train to Kalisz.
published: 2018-11-06T22:53:40+01:00
summary: Amy added 66 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201811-poland/
target: 201811-poland

photos-wroclaw
type: Add
content: A day of touristing and eating in Wroclaw. A walking tour of the gnomes, with Communist history, and then one of the bridges and islands after sunset. So much great vegan food.
published: 2018-11-19T23:02:55+01:00
summary: Amy added 69 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201811-poland/
target: 201811-poland

photos-wroclaw-2
type: Add
content: Cafe working in Wroclaw. Some more gnomes, and finally the sun came out. Not long enough for me to get to the top of the Sky Tower, but I tried. Not the best investment, alas.

sarajevo
type: Note
content: Goooood morning Sarajevo <3
published: 2018-11-26T09:12:00+01:00
tag: travel
tag: sarajevo

tired
type: Note
content: Aaaaargh I'm tired. Seems like a good day to take a nightbus that arrives at 6am to a city with no places open until mid-moring on weekends. Right? Right.
published: 2018-11-23T19:52:00+01:00
tag: travel
tag: bus

websummit
type: Note
content: I'm late to the party, but I just noticed the Web Summit requires a mobile app to register. This Web thing is so cool, 70k person event cool. If only someone could figure out how to sell conference tickets with it it'd have everything.
published: 2018-11-06T14:53:00+01:00
tag: web
tag: websummit.com

week-in-review
type: Article
content: Finished nanowrimo with 43,996 words. Took a nightbus from Riga to Warsaw. Had an amazing time eating and touristing my way around Warsaw for a week. Took a train to Kalisz, then a bus to Turek, then a car to Dhamma Palava... See you in 10 days.
name: Week and a half in review: 29 Oct - 7 Nov
published: 2018-11-07T12:00:00+01:00
tag: latvia
tag: poland
tag: nanowrimo
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: dhamma

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: Sat a Vipassana retreat in Dhamma Pallava, Poland. It was peaceful, there were woods, and mushrooms, and silence. Got a ride from the centre to Wroclaw.
name: Week and a half in review: 8 - 18 Nov
published: 2018-11-18T19:40:00+01:00
tag: poland
tag: vipassana
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Touristed and cafe worked around Wroclaw. It is wonderful. Lots of water. Very cheap food. A bit cold though.. Took a nightbus to Bratislava for the weekend and saw Vipassana friends. Took a bus to Vienna and a nightbus to Sarajevo.
name: Week in review: 19 - 25 November
published: 2018-11-25T18:40:00+01:00
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review

winter
type: Note
content: Winter is come, it's pissing freezing, and I'm still in Poland. It's not that things aren't going according to plan, more that my plan wasn't very good.
published: 2018-11-18T13:18:00+01:00
tag: travel
tag: life

belgrade
type: Note
content: Belgrade is a bit grimy and smells funny, but also sunny and actually warm and relatively smog-free.
published: 2018-12-03T11:43:00+01:00
tag: travel
tag: belgrade

broken-earth
type: Note
content: I finished the third of NK Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy last week. For me it was just so much about love, the diversity of love, how there are so many possible ways and reasons to feel and express and perform love (or not). We see familial love as a core theme of course, and reluctant love, unrequited love, love for and within a community, chosen family, forbidden, painful, passionate and physical, between different genders and the same, polyamorous, challenging, accepting, unconditional, unexpected. Sure it's about magic and rock-people and apocalypse. But it's the most thorough and detailed and diverse exploration of love I've ever read.
published: 2018-12-10T13:18:00+02:00
tag: love
tag: broken+earth
tag: read
tag: life
tag: nkjemisin.com

bug
type: Note
content: Oh good, a bug on the staging server I can't replicate on my local machine. My favourite kind of bug.
published: 2018-12-09T17:37:00+02:00
tag: hacking
tag: sloph

bye-sarajevo
type: Note
content: It would be hard to say goodbye to Sarajevo again, but I can't see it for the smog and I think the walk to the bus station is going to take another year off my life, along with those this place took last winter. (Air quality index currently 229: "Health warnings of emergency conditions", and visibility is about a block.) I finally made it to the vegan cafe though.
published: 2018-12-02T12:24:00+01:00
tag: sarajevo
tag: life
tag: travel

christmas
type: Note
content: It's official. I found one christmas thing I enjoy. The only one. Neo Yokio: Pink Christmas.
published: 2018-12-10T23:25:00+02:00
tag: christmas
tag: jaden
tag: life
tag: neo+yokio

english
type: Note
content: So far briefly met two English people in Petra today and I think we were all equally disappointed about that.
published: 2018-12-18T14:10:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: greece

gender
type: Note
content: "Society must learn that every combination of gender and gender expression is possible."
in reply to: femme-trans-men-on-what-you-should-know-about-gender-expression
published: 2018-12-07T22:05:00+02:00
tag: trans
tag: lgbtq+
tag: gender
tag: life

gravy
type: Note
content: gravy is the best liquid, and i'll fight anyone who says otherwise
published: 2018-12-25T16:27:00+02:00
tag: food
tag: life

hotels
type: Note
content: I can't lie, a hotel room ever once in a while is a niiice luxury. Just one night before my ferry out. Especially after a few weeks of hostels and couchsurfing. (There are no hostels in Kavala.. but I still booked the cheapest thing I could find and I did NOT shell out for a sea view room with a balcony.. yet here I am.)
published: 2018-12-11T22:31:00+02:00
tag: digital+nomad
tag: travel
tag: hotel

madness
type: Note
content: Madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. But this is also the only way I've figured out how to work with docker. (I swear I must be a fucking idiot, this happens every week, please nobody hire me to do software development oh oops.)
published: 2018-12-10T17:33:00+02:00
tag: hacking
tag: docker

madness-also
type: Note
content: Madness also involves talking to yourself right, because I just said "oh haha that's fucking hilarious" out loud to this docker container in a restaurant* in like a regular conversational voice. * The same restaurant in which I was cry-laughing at tumblr (RIP) screenshots earlier, but fortunately there has been a complete staff and customer turnover since then.
in reply to: madness
published: 2018-12-10T17:44:00+02:00
tag: docker
tag: life

opposite
type: Note
content: What's the opposite of FOMO? Choice paralysis? It's such a weird relief that I'm now in a place with nothing to do and no reasonable way to get anywhere else for a while. And it rained torrentially this afternoon so my choice to stay in bed and not go hiking was totally vindicated. (Also I have a cold bleh.)
published: 2018-12-15T16:05:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: life

orange
type: Note
content: I witnessed an orange fall from a tree into the road today so I saved it from being squashed by cars and squashed it by hand when I got home. It was quite sour. I guess that's why the locals don't pick them all. I topped it up with water and drank it anyway.
published: 2018-12-16T23:28:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: food

outside
type: Note
content: I like going outside, but I also like not going outside, you know?
published: 2018-12-22T11:37:00+02:00
tag: life

photos-belgrade
type: Add
content: A couple of days of drizzly but bizarrely warm weather in Belgrade. Some good food. General floating around with laptop. Nothing touristy or interesting for you, dear reader. Sorry.
published: 2018-12-04T14:17:58+01:00
summary: Amy added 25 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201811-bratislava-sarajevo/
target: 201811-bratislava-sarajevo

photos-food
type: Add
content: Pancakes with pomegranate and fig syrup; rice pudding with pomegranate and fig syrup. And comfort food.
published: 2018-12-21T17:43:08+02:00
summary: Amy added 7 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
target: madefood

photos-food-2
type: Add
content: Greek pastries and coffee. Then I couldn't decide whether I wanted mashed potatoes and gravy or pizza. So I made both. And feasted for the next two days.
published: 2018-12-25T21:32:37+02:00
summary: Amy added 9 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
target: madefood

photos-kavala
type: Add
content: The bus from Thessolaniki to Kavala takes about 2 hours express, and is €16.30. Thessolaniki bus station is out of town and huge and a bit confusing. It took me a while to find the ticket offices, but I wasn't stressed as there are plenty of buses throughout the afternoon. Ticket offices are divided by destination, so there's a lot of mostly Greek sign-reading involved. It was late afternoon when I arrived in Kavala, and I had time to wander around the harbour before the sun set. I hiked up to the castle and found it closes at 1600. I ate in an Italian restaurant because the Greek ones don't really open til later, though I was still the only person there. I saw the old aquaduct in the middle of town, that's cool The next morning I went to the archaelogical museum first thing, because it closes at 1400. I spent less than 45 minutes there, it was €2, and the woman the the front desk was super surprised I wanted to visit.
published: 2018-12-12T10:50:33+02:00
summary: Amy added 72 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201812-greece/
target: 201812-greece

photos-kavala-2
type: Add
content: An afternoon wandering around Kavala, and a visit to the castle. It's always nice when the cool tower is actually open. Health and safety related paraphernalia is minimal, and I wandered around the walls where a sharp gust might have sent me over. I still only managed to spend 45 minutes here though, and spent some time wandering the cute cobbled streets on the hill as well. I found a friendly cafe called Fouat who had vegan spinach pie, which I ate before I remembered to take a photo. Later I went to another Italian place, expecting to get a cheeseless pizza, and lo and behold they had soy cheese! Under 'fasting' pizza on the menu, super subtle. It was good, too! Generous and cheesey. What a day. Then I headed the port, more than an hour early but was able to board the ferry at once. Many comfortable looking seats were labelled 'economy' on the signs, but only the most crowded ones were where I was allowed to sit. There's about one power socket for every 2,000 people, and presumably directly over the engine because it's the loudest ferry I've ever been on. Oh well.
published: 2018-12-12T21:48:33+02:00
summary: Amy added 51 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201812-greece/
target: 201812-greece

photos-lesvos
type: Add
content: Ferry arrives in Mytilene, Lesvos, before 6am. I wandered along the harbour, ate my leftover pizza, and went into cafe Meli for coffee. They had no vegan pastries. Staff were very friendly, but seating wasn't super comfortable. I could leave my stuff there for a bit while I went to wander around and take pictures of the sunrise. I relocated to Coffee Island next door for comfier seating and superior wifi when they opened. The bus to Petra was at 11; there are two buses, the other being at 1330. It's not the easiest island to transit in the offseason. The bus was €7, I bought a ticket at the bus station, and fortunately learnt the bus number because it didn't have a sign. In Kalloni we changed buses, and it was unclear what was going on. There were lots of old people yelling. I think that's just how Greek people talk to each other. Anyway I made it to Petra on schedule, but the bus didn't stop in the middle of town where it normally does. It was cloudy and started to drizzle by then. The woman I'm renting my flat from came to the bus stop to pick me up in the car, but obviously I wasn't at the bus stop, and beat her home on foot. She was very upset I'd had to get cold and wet but actually it barely even qualified as rain by Scotland's standards. And then I finally moved in to my new sea-view home. Turns out my hosts are beyond lovely, as well, and keep bringing me things like homemade marmalade, and iron-rich fig syrup (also homemade) oh and in the cupboard was also homemade local olive oil.
published: 2018-12-13T22:00:42+02:00
summary: Amy added 23 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201812-greece/
target: 201812-greece

photos-lesvos-2
type: Add
content: Still drizzly in Petra, but the sun came out for a wander around the town (village?). There are three :o supermarkets, and many cafes but only a couple are open. There's a big volcanic rock with a thing on it in the centre of town, just like Edinburgh. Well, this one is smaller and the thing is a church (closed) not a castle, but eh. Proportionally, the sea is the same distance away.
published: 2018-12-14T16:14:18+02:00
summary: Amy added 35 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201812-greece/
target: 201812-greece

photos-lesvos-3
type: Add
content: Yesterday I was ill and stayed in bed all day. It also rained torrentially and thunderstormed so that was okay. Today I'm still coughing and snuffling but mostly better. I hiked an easy trail from Petra, winding between the hills to Molyvos reservoir (which was looking quite dry) and around the back of Molyvos then along the coast to Efthalou. There's not much there, except famous hot springs. They're closed at this time of year of course, or on Sundays, or in the middle of the afternoon, take your pick. But two friendly cats live in the locked Ottomon dome which is right on the sea. They told me where to find the origin of the hot spring for an outdoor bathing experience. (Just kidding, I read that part on the internet.) A pool forms in rocks right behind the dome wall, next to the sea. The spring water bubbles out of the sand barely a meter from the shoreline. The water is super hot, but the sea water periodically rushes in to the little pool formed from boulders, making a very pleasant water sitting experience indeed. The air temperature was about 14c, so I hung out there for a while. One of the cats came for a cuddle the whole time, then later watched over me while I got dried and dressed, helped me eat some crisps, and walked me up the hill to the gate. I walked back around the cost all the way, via Molyvos castle this time. Obviously the castle was closed, but views from the top over the sea were nice, and also there was a big rainbow. As the sun started to set, Molyvos town on the hillside was dramatically lit with an orange glow, backed by dark stormy skies. Fortunately, though clouds threatened all day, the worst of the rain held off.

photos-lesvos-4
type: Add
content: I walked to the next village south, Anaxos. It's apparently a fake village that only exists for tourists, in the summer season. And true enough, it was a total ghost town. A little bit creepy, even. A few leash-less dogs around which always makes me nervous, and the only human I saw was a distinctly grouchy looking old man who just stared at me as I passed. I followed the coast around to get there, which involved a little rock balancing in some parts as there isn't a full beach or path. It was very calm and beautiful though. I scrambled up some hillside and found myself in the gardens of some fancy holiday cottages. I hopped a fence to get into the village, rather than going all the way back down and around. There's a nice beach, albeit desolate. I returned via the road, and saw some more humans on the way out. There are some volcanic rock formations around here, too, which is always pretty cool.
published: 2018-12-17T17:55:32+02:00
summary: Amy added 70 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201812-greece/
target: 201812-greece

photos-lesvos-5
type: Add
content: Cafe working and miscellaneous views from my window in Petra.
published: 2018-12-22T19:16:19+02:00
summary: Amy added 23 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201812-greece/
target: 201812-greece

photos-lesvos-6
type: Add
content: A lovely day out with my new Greek family. We did some shopping in Kalloni, went to the highest town on Lesvos, Agiasos to look at quaint streets and old buildings, had a meal in a traditional taverna - turns out the 40 days before christmas are a good time to eat with a Greek family who fast, because they were abstaining from meat! - so we got loads of amazing vegan dishes to share. I wouldn't have discovered this secretly vegan side of Greek cuisine by myself, I'm sure. We took the 8 year old to visit santa in Kalloni, and while he was doing that I went to the big supermarket.. where it turns out they have three kinds of vegan cheese sold by weight in the regular cheese counter! I've never seen that anywhere. So that was exciting. My hosts are so generous, and it was lovely of them to take me to parts of the island I wouldn't be able to get to by myself.
published: 2018-12-23T23:09:36+02:00
summary: Amy added 36 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201812-greece/
target: 201812-greece

photos-lesvos-7
type: Add
content: I hiked from Petra, through the Ligona valley. I saw old watermills, impressive huge stone structures nestled among natural epic volcanic rock formations on both sides of the valley walls. I followed the valley to the spring. Then walked back around the mountain through the village of Petri. The return walk saw amazing views over Petra and the sea. At some point I could see all the way from Molyvos to Anaxos. I saw cats and sheeps and dogs. The sheep wear bells around their neck and you can hear them jangling and clanking across the mountains. It's a really beautiful place to hike.

photos-sarajevo
type: Add
content: A few beautiful days in Sarajevo, followed by a few disgustingly smoggy days in Sarajevo. I love Sarajevo, but only when I can see it. Food at all the best places, which isn't a high bar to be fair: Karuzo twice, Falafel, krompirusa, Barhana, Blind Tiger, the burrito place in SCC, Vapiano.. And newcomers, La Vincenzo and finally Zdravo!
published: 2018-12-02T16:04:42+01:00
summary: Amy added 76 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201811-bratislava-sarajevo/

photos-thessaloniki
type: Add
content: A few days of cafe working in Thessaloniki. The city is huge and sprawling; chaotic in a nice way. Winding uneven streets and cars and scooters to dodge. Maybe if it was hotter it would feel harder (more stressful?) to navigate, but the temperature is perfect. The seafront is concrete and the water is clear. Streets are pucked with excavated old shit; Roman amphitheatres, Byzantine towers. Churches are varied and extravagant and quite a few feet down from the pavements, roads and blocks of flats. This is a city of layers and layers.
published: 2018-12-07T19:17:01+02:00
summary: Amy added 41 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201812-greece/
target: 201812-greece

photos-thessaloniki-2
type: Add
content: A day of ambling around Thessaloniki, looking at old stuff and new stuff and the sea.
published: 2018-12-08T23:32:43+02:00
summary: Amy added 60 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201812-greece/
target: 201812-greece

photos-thessaloniki-3
type: Add
content: Brunch at Butterflies & Hurricanes, a dessert cafe where chance would have it a fundraising vegan brunch was being held. It was packed and chaotic but I squeezed in. Most of the regular menu wasn't being served, but I ate some of the brunch buffet and then managed to get chocolate pancakes. I proceeded through the hills just beyond the city to the Heptapyrgion fort and the Byzantine city walls. The sun was warm and the views were unreasonably good. Dinner at Orea Ellas, a Cypriot restaurant full of locals, with friendly staff and an English menu with plenty of vegetable dishes. I ate hyacinth bulbs - which taste like olives but way stronger - with greens and potatoes, and for no clear reason got free cake, which happened to be vegan!
published: 2018-12-09T23:34:49+02:00
summary: Amy added 62 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201812-greece/
target: 201812-greece

photos-thessaloniki-4
type: Add
content: Food and night wandering in Thessaloniki. It's pretty alive at night.
published: 2018-12-11T21:29:14+02:00
summary: Amy added 5 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201812-greece/
target: 201812-greece

photos-xmas
type: Add
content: Remote christmas day with the digital family.
published: 2018-12-25T23:43:54+02:00
summary: Amy added 8 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201812-greece/
target: 201812-greece

pomegranate
type: Note
content: Looked up how to open a pomegranate. Immediately fucked it up. Now my kitchen looks like a murder scene, in which I am extremely implicated. Pretty sure I'm going to be finding pink splotches in unexpected places for weeks to come.
published: 2018-12-17T12:32:00+02:00
tag: food
tag: life

problems
type: Note
content: Fiiiinally. Now my problem is sun glare on my screen, which I've gotta say is a tremendous improvement over freezing to death.
published: 2018-12-06T15:30:00+02:00
tag: digital+nomad
tag: greece
tag: travel
tag: thessaloniki

read
type: Note
content: Me: Okay I should find something intelligent to read while I eat lunch. Also me: *opens twitter, immediately finds a 100-post long thread of tumblr (RIP) screenshots.* okay I'm set
published: 2018-12-10T14:51:00+02:00
tag: life
tag: social+media

round-bread
type: Note
content: I always want to buy bread from bakeries not supermarkets, but what do you do when you're in a country where bakeries just only have round bread loaves? Sometimes I just want a piece of bread with corners. Why is this too much to ask? No slicing the sides off to make it square is not a solution, I still need crusts.
published: 2018-12-29T12:14:00+02:00
tag: bread
tag: food
tag: travel

sarajevo
type: Note
content: Cold, but would have been a beautiful day for a walk by the river in Sarajevo today. BUT THE SMOG. I walked an hour by the river anyway, to go to the new vegan cafe. It was closed. *splutters and dies*
published: 2018-11-27T17:44:00+01:00
tag: life
tag: travel
tag: vegan
tag: sarajevo

some-part
type: Note
content: Some part of me still thinks all my problems are going to go away when I make it to an island but intellectually I know that's only going to happen if I leave my fucking computer on the mainland. Still, I live in hope. The ferry sails tomorrow evening!
published: 2018-12-10T19:46:00+02:00
tag: life
tag: travel

the-sea
type: Note
content: Living right next to the sea is amazing. Seeing it all blue and green and rolling every time I look out of the window. Hearing the waves crash rhythmically, perpetually, never stopping. I fucking love it.
published: 2018-12-26T20:44:00+02:00
tag: sea
tag: travel
tag: life

today
type: Note
content: Today's adventures in Petra include finding a cafe full of middle-to-retired-aged English people, who clearly live here, complaining about immigrants taking jobs. I kid you not. It's also very smoky, but Sarajevo hardened my lungs.
published: 2018-12-20T15:21:00+02:00
tag: life
tag: travel
tag: greece
tag: lesbos

week-in-review
type: Article
content: Arrived in Sarajevo. Bounced between friends, the OCCRP office, and my favourite restaurants for a few days. Did some refactoring to improve i18n for various CoVE libraries. Soft launched a redesign of my homepage. Ate at Karuzo twice. Smog reached deadly levels. Finally made it to the new vegan place in Sarajevo. Took a bus to Belgrade; this took longer than expected.
name: Week in review: 26 Nov - 2 Dec
published: 2018-12-02T23:59:59+01:00
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: vegan
tag: sarajevo
tag: sloph
tag: hacking

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: A couple of days in Belgrade, mostly eating. A bus from Belgrade to Thessaloniki. Days of cafe working and half-assed touristing in Thessaloniki, enjoying sun and views and old stuff. Had lots of meetings, thought about crawlers and i18n stuff. Did work on a new photo gallery for sloph. Wrote over 1000 words of Quest for Brothers.
name: Week in review: 3 - 9 Dec
published: 2018-12-09T23:59:59+02:00
tag: thessaloniki
tag: belgrade
tag: sloph
tag: writing
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: hacking

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Touristed in Thessaloniki; saw the fort and city walls. Took a bus to Kavala, and spent a day there; <a href="saw the castle and archaelogical museum. Took a night ferry to Mytilene, Lesvos, and spent the morning there before taking a bus to Petra. Moved into the super nice sea-view studio flat I'll stay in for the next month, warmly welcomed by generous hosts. Worked on scraper related OCDS things. Watched all of The OA and all of The Durrells.. Generally chilled out in Petra. Yay for cooking my own food again! Hiked from Petra to Efthalou hot springs to Mytilene and back.
name: Week in review: 10 - 16 December
published: 2018-12-16T23:59:59+02:00
tag: life
tag: hiking
tag: greece
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: lesvos
tag: hacking

week-in-review-4
type: Article
content: Walked to Anaxos around the coast and back. Cafe worked in Petra, on scrapers and infrastructure for OCDS data. Gazed at the ocean. Found an amazing Dutch lady who gave me the best haircut ever and dyed the long parts dusty purple. Made a minimal PHP image resizing proxy and started piping the image-heavy parts of my website through that. Added some new features to sloph and switched over to the new version for my homepage. Massively fixed up my photo slideshow JS so it should be less buggy and easier to browse my photos with keyboard shortcuts now. Finished Hank Green's An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (it's really good). Went for a day out in Kalloni and Agiasos and ate secretly vegan Greek food.
name: Week in review: 17 - 23 December
published: 2018-12-23T23:59:59+02:00
tag: sloph
tag: hacking
tag: food
tag: vegan
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: greece
tag: ocds
tag: hair

week-in-review-5
type: Article
content: Walked through the Ligona Valley. Finished A Long Way To A Small Angry Planet. Developed a love-hate relationship with Scrapy. Spent a lot of glorious time not going outside but still being about to look out over the ocean. Started a new piece of fiction. Maybe one day I'll even finish one. Worked on filling on gaps in this year's logs and fixing a few bugs in sloph to help generate Year In Review stats.
name: Week in review: 24 - 30 December
published: 2018-12-30T23:59:59+02:00
tag: hacking
tag: sloph
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: writing
tag: hiking

yeast
type: Note
content: Rarely do I see a tweet so relevant to my interests. In my professional opinion, the Tesco Yeast Extract is the *perfect* middle ground between Vegemite and Marmite, I was very impressed. And it's cheaper. Vegemite is better than Marmite.
in reply to: https://mobile.twitter.com/karenblakeman/status/1069914714275221504
published: 2018-12-04T12:41:00+01:00
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: vegemite
tag: marmite

photos-lesvos-8
type: Add
content: I walked south-ish from Petra for three and a half hours. Climbing the hill up to the village of Lafionas provided a constant supply of stunning views across Petra's bay. As I got higher, I could see Anaxos and Molyvos too. But the really exciting part came when I finally went over/around the hill and lost the sea view, because this meant I was in a new part of the island I hadn't seen before. The road zigzags up the mountain for a while, with views of the valley and sheep fields and exciting rock formations, through dramatic pine forests. Then over the next hill is like another world entirely. The pine trees are more or less gone, and there's a mini-valley filled with white rocks in every size, and all surfaces covered with a bright green moss. It was utterly peaceful, and despite the clearly human-carved mud track I was walking on, felt undisturbed. As this hill descended, I had views of a new sea. The bay of Kalloni - the other side of the island! I could see Kalloni town, but bore west instead of east, and headed down to the village of Filia, nestled between the hills. Filia is (I think) the only settlement on the island that still has a mosque, though it's not in use. Eleni met me in the village, fed me a wonderful lunch, let me nap on the sofa and then woke me up with coffee and traditional quince sweets. She gave me a tour of the village, with a lot of detail about the history of every house, and we visited her mother, who also gave me traditional pastries. I am endlessly lucky and spoiled and can't think of a better way to have ended the year.
published: 2018-12-31T23:46:47+02:00
summary: Amy added 58 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201812-greece/
target: 201812-greece

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