Hike on a hot day!

Did a ton of walking today, and took some pictures too; will probably try to integrate the pictures into a project later on.

Had my my first moment of feeling on-edge and vulnerable; having drained my pantry from the previous shopping trip, I needed to convert some money (America-style) into money (India-style) in order to eat! However, once I got to MG road, the main currency exchange places were all closed for Sunday. I was really planning to head back and try to rustle up something to survive on from the snack kitchens at Microsoft or something,* but then I passed a handbag shop (!) that did exchanges, and traded money. Then I went to Empire Hotel, a nearby Indian place that I remembered from last visit, and ate delicious food ravenously.

On the way back, I was walking down Infantry Road and realized I was pretty confident that that road leading off to the right was a shortcut (I did not have my GPS). I was very excited when I was right; I really feel like I'm getting a feel for the "neighborhood." I have no aspirations to do any sort of "pac tom" project, but I'd informally just like to know where I am and how to get home from anywhere within a three or four mile radius of my apartment, which would be a fair portion of Bangalore and would probably put me ahead of most residents and many autorickshaw drivers. I think I'm well on the way there.

By the way, my cousin is currently in Uganda, and has a blog of his own. He posted a video with the comment "the traffic is insane." This has maybe made me just a little bit competitive, so expect some crazy traffic videos next week. Until then I leave you with these pictures from last time.

Windsor Manor Road Bridge Accident

* In reality, I probably would have just broken down and tried to use a credit card; my cards should presumably work here, but in case "oh hi, I'm in bangalore" trips an alarm and the card is denied, I've been avoiding this when I don't have a backup of paying in cash.

Saturday run, Saturday walk

Failed to do any running this week, so this morning I got up early and ran for a bit around Cubbon Park, and then after piddling around the office for a bit, took the scenic route home from work today; I'll have to do that again with a camera to actually give people a sense of the place.

My priority for tomorrow is to walk down to MG road and try to trade some U.S. dollars for some rupees so I can re-stock my kitchen. It is an inevitable complication of working in a foreign country that you always start out with an inconveniently small amount of foreign currency and end up with an inconveniently large amount of the same.

Happy Memorial Day!

2 Runs

Yesterday I talked about my walk, but Saturday (2 days ago) and today I went on some runs; these are likely to be more frequent.

Saturday's run was just around the block, I'm still recovering from the Pittsburgh Marathon and mostly just wanted to stretch my legs. This morning (Monday) I ran this route, which more-or-less went around the cricket stadium. I had plans to run the length of Cubbon Road and back, but those plans were not to be: in the confusion of construction in Minsk Square, I took Queen's Road towards MG Road instead of Cubbon, and then overshot MG Road, circled the stadium, and made my way back on Infantry Road, a path I'd thought though a little bit after the walk yesterday.

Having a GPS watch was absolutely a godsend for this run: I didn't have a clear idea where I was at any point between Minsk Square and Infantry Road, but I knew whether I was more-or-less running towards or away from familiar areas.

Bangalore, Take II

I'm back in Bangalore! I'm not planning on traveling as much as last time, but I am going to try to get to know the city better through running and walking. Right now, the only part of Bangalore where I am confident that I know where I am is on the route between my hotel and Bashyam Circle, which I walked almost daily the last time I was here, (the office is right before Bashyam Circle).

Today I tried to walk to Commercial Street and/or MG road, but kind of failed: once I got to the bus station I was confused and thought I may have gotten off track: I had not, and if I'd kept going straight I would have ended up at Kamaraj Road as I intended. Instead, I turned right at the bus station, but then needed to go one block further than I actually went in order to get to Cubbon Road. I did, however, recognize the intersection of Infantry and Central as a hazy landmark, so I may try to pass that intersection again from another direction to reinforce that.

Anyway, after I bailed and found my way back to familiar relatively-familiar Cunningham Road, I went to the new Au Bon Pain (right across the street from the McDonald's that didn't get the memo about Indian Independence Day), where I got a delicious cappuchino that cost me $0.90. If those guys had WiFi I'd probably move in! Back at the apartment I was able to reconstruct my path with high confidence.

Photos from trip

Finally got the photos up on Picasa:

Italy

Happy Birthday To Me (or: Go West, Old Man!)

Happy Birthday in the local time zone happy birthday to me.

I get a thirty-hour birthday this year, thanks to flying West across six time zones starting at 10:30 local time (2:30 AM eastern USA time).

More blogging on Venice flooding

As I said before, Venice was flooded (again) in the morning, so we took a train out about 4 hours earlier than we had planned. I'm not terribly surprised, but CNN did a pretty bad job of explaining what was going on - this website gives context to the information I linked to before. I'm writing this on the train to Venice, because I actually downloaded this in the hotel room but didn't realize what I've downloaded:

Centro Maree forecasts the level day by day, summarized by tables and graphs. Here is how to read them:

* if the water level in St.Mark's basin is 65-68 cms., expect to find some water on the ground in front of St.Marks' church entrance. Important: do not think you'll see water 65 cms. high in St.Mark's square: this measure refers to the sea level.
* if the level is up to 85, expect some big puddles in St.Mark's square and in some "calli" (streets) in Venice. The middle area of St.Mark's square will be dry, as it is not perfectly flat. Wear water-proof boots!
* at 90 cms., St.Mark's square will be a lake of salty water. Some vaporettos (public boats) routes will be cancelled and alternative routes will be used. This is because they won't be able to pass under some bridges. Quite a confusion at boat stops. Lower areas in Venice can be accessed via special "walkways"
* at 110 cms, you'll hear sirens: this informs population to get ready. Most shops and warehouse at ground floors are likely to be flooded.
* from 120 cms to 140 cms, Venetians will get worried. Important: again, do not think you'll see water 120 cms. high all around in the streets: this measure refers to the sea level. Acqua alta can result in a 50 cms. water in the streets: which is not little anyway.

The point is that there is a "tide" in Venice that is about a third "regular old lunar" tide, half atmospheric effects, and some grab bag other issues like how much Antarctica's been melting this week. While we were there, the composition of the various sine waves meant that the tide was lowest at dinnertime.

If we read that chart backwards into the past (I couldn't find a "recent history of water levels" when I looked) then we get this story: when Rachel arrived at about 10:30, the water was near it's "second peak," about 100 cm - the high air pressure probably kept it lower the first day than it might otherwise have been. While she waited for me to show up in the train station, it peaked at 110/120 cm and then started going down. This, practically, meant that the plaza in front of the hotel and train station had one spot about a foot or so underwater, and that St. Mark's square was probably a foot underwater, maybe a bit more. The water went down about a foot while Rachel napped off some jet lag and by the time we took the "slow bus" (vaporetto) to St. Mark's square the square was above water, barely, and it kept getting lower while we were inside the chapel up until dinnertime. The air pressure then dropped in the evening and overnight, and that goofy siren about 8 AM was when the water passed 110cm again. When we went to get a train at 11, the water in front of the train station/hotel was back where it had been when I arrived the day before, or maybe an inch higher.

Now we're in Florence!