busy weeks and trips
Two weeks now since I arrived at this place. Guess it's getting time that I post an update :)
It has been two busy weeks now, full of activities. It's completely impossible to describe it all in one post and, since I'm already a little tired while writing this, I will not even try to give a full account, just some comments and ramblings.
Delft is a very nice city. It has many bars and the city center, with the two churches (the oude and niewe kerk) and the canals is really beautiful. However, Delft is also quite male. The presence of the technical university in this city has quite an impact on the kind of people you see when you go out at night.
Besides that, things are going along quite well, though also quite slowly as tends to be my way of doing. One of the main things I have been working on (and still have to finish) is how to arrange financial stuff. Having a spanish account is not too practical here. First, VISA (the main network in spain) is not as frequently used here. Here the cirrus/mastercard network seems to be more widely used. In addition, these people like to use cash cards, something which never worked in spain (in spain they were called "monedero 4B" but I don't know anybody who tried to use them). Of course, the way things are, getting such a cash card for me is currently not possible. well, actually it is, but at least not under good conditions. The only non-personal non-bank card that I have found is a prepaid Chipknip card provided by a company called InterEgi (www.interegi.nl). These cards you just can buy (there are options for 5€, 10€, 20€ or 50€) and then use them to pay without entering a pin code (since they are not tied to an individual person). Unfortunately they cannot be reloaded so you'd need to buy one every now and then. The problem is that these interegi cards are not too popular and can only be bought in some places. From their list of places (see website) it seems that I would need to go to Rotterdam every time I want to buy one. That is not too practical. The temporal solution is to use cash which you can use everywhere except on some vending machines. But then you have the problem with ATMs. My spanish card is tied to the local network called "ServiRed". Guess what, these guys will take a commission of 4% every time I try to withdraw money. That's not very nice. Opening a new account is something that I wanted to avoid (I'm only staying three months here) but it seems that it's probably the best solution.
I leave you with some pictures before going to bed:
The hostel at sebaastiansbrug (where I'm staying)
A sculpture of some sort of gigantic lizard. This is in a cave close to Maastricht
A camera attached to a speed radar. It carries the legend "Go Fast" (click to enlarge)
Me in front of the cathedral of notre dame in Antwerpen (yeah, we did a nice trip last weekend. maybe I should post a specific entry)
It has been two busy weeks now, full of activities. It's completely impossible to describe it all in one post and, since I'm already a little tired while writing this, I will not even try to give a full account, just some comments and ramblings.
Delft is a very nice city. It has many bars and the city center, with the two churches (the oude and niewe kerk) and the canals is really beautiful. However, Delft is also quite male. The presence of the technical university in this city has quite an impact on the kind of people you see when you go out at night.
Besides that, things are going along quite well, though also quite slowly as tends to be my way of doing. One of the main things I have been working on (and still have to finish) is how to arrange financial stuff. Having a spanish account is not too practical here. First, VISA (the main network in spain) is not as frequently used here. Here the cirrus/mastercard network seems to be more widely used. In addition, these people like to use cash cards, something which never worked in spain (in spain they were called "monedero 4B" but I don't know anybody who tried to use them). Of course, the way things are, getting such a cash card for me is currently not possible. well, actually it is, but at least not under good conditions. The only non-personal non-bank card that I have found is a prepaid Chipknip card provided by a company called InterEgi (www.interegi.nl). These cards you just can buy (there are options for 5€, 10€, 20€ or 50€) and then use them to pay without entering a pin code (since they are not tied to an individual person). Unfortunately they cannot be reloaded so you'd need to buy one every now and then. The problem is that these interegi cards are not too popular and can only be bought in some places. From their list of places (see website) it seems that I would need to go to Rotterdam every time I want to buy one. That is not too practical. The temporal solution is to use cash which you can use everywhere except on some vending machines. But then you have the problem with ATMs. My spanish card is tied to the local network called "ServiRed". Guess what, these guys will take a commission of 4% every time I try to withdraw money. That's not very nice. Opening a new account is something that I wanted to avoid (I'm only staying three months here) but it seems that it's probably the best solution.
I leave you with some pictures before going to bed:
The hostel at sebaastiansbrug (where I'm staying)
A sculpture of some sort of gigantic lizard. This is in a cave close to Maastricht
A camera attached to a speed radar. It carries the legend "Go Fast" (click to enlarge)
Me in front of the cathedral of notre dame in Antwerpen (yeah, we did a nice trip last weekend. maybe I should post a specific entry)
posted by miki at
1:08 PM
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