I am neither a journalist, nor the son of a journalist. Nor, am I an anthropologist. Why would someone want to read this? Once could say that this report joins a long list of works by other Jewish travelers: Benjamin m'Tudela and Bava, but it is highly unlikely that they expected the records of their travels would be read by others, and certainly not be available to everyone with an Internet connection almost as they occur. What makes me think that someone (other than our family and closest friends) wants to read about our adventures?
We each are rabbis of congregations. As such we are leaders of our communities. We have congregants, "desciples", "hassidim" who want to know what we feel, think and do. These wonderful people are interested in the world as mediated through our experience. And, as such, it is appropriate to share.
Sometime at least by January of 2004 Debbie had begun to think of spending her sabbatical visiting small World Union congregations in Europe. We knew of people ("Alek and Maureen") who had spent long amounts of time in Europe traveling by van and the thought was intriguing. We contacted Joel and set up a time to meet at the CCAR convention in Houston in March of that year. Joel told us how much he liked the idea and offered to help connect us with congregations once we got the timing set.
I contacted one of the Macintosh email lists on which I participate to clarify how to my PowerBook to the electricity in the van and how to be connected by phone. These people... all but one completely unknown to me were extremely helpful. We ended up using the advice garnered from the exchange and now travel with a Belkin "universal adapter" (of course, while the connector works, I do not know how to get the electricity to work yet (first day in the van); and a simple phone with an "Explorer" SIM chip from Telestial.
Hah! Now, that's a good question. Finding "cybercafes" is one thing. Finding ones that will enable me to upload my files, is yet another. I had copied all the files to my USB "thumb" drive in the hope of finding the Apple Store and simply plugging it in, accessing my Web site with a downloaded copy of the ftp software I use and moving them all into place. There is no Apple Store in Paris. I kept asking about it as I began to fine "cybercafes". I finally got to what they said was the Apple Store, across the street from the Pompidou Center, but, it turns out it was an "Apple Center" a mere dealer. And they (understandably) did not want me playing with their computers. We finally settled on a "cafe" where the computers were old Windows machines with clunky French AZERTY keyboards, and no USB port. I was so frustrated, I could hardly write to family to let them know the situation.
We've since found a cafe that advertises on its windows that it has free WiFi! We'll go back Wednesday afternoon 15/03/2006. It's important that I have normal internet access as I need to do banking as well.
At that little cafe we did our first update of the Web site since Amsterdam.
To get access to the Internet you simply let the proprietor know you want it. He gives you a card with an access code. You start your We browser and it leads you directly to the page where you enter the code. The code is (it seems, from the various experiences we've had) good for 30 minutes. Of course, at this tiny cafe it's not appropriate to simply sit for hours while you use the Internet (which I presume the proprietor pays for in some way. So, you buy a coffee and something to nibble on each half hour. The WiFi (pronounced in French "WeeFee") is "free" but you need to pay in one way or another. It certainly costs less than at the Starbucks where you pay [need detail here] in addition to feeling the need to buy (ugh) something from Starbucks.
Just off Rue de l'Opera (within site of the Starbucks) we found another, nicer place to sit. La Ferme at 57 rue Saint-Roch, has vegetarian food and a few rooms. One of the rooms has good WiFi, but, it permits smoking there. There's only one electrical outlet. You can, however, sit there for a longer time without feeling the need to buy more provisions. Only every 30 minutes you lose your connection and the Web site leads you to the page were you need to agree to the conditions. We returned to this location (even when it was closed (hope springs eternal)) when we wanted to check our email and look for camping sites further on our way.
Another aspect of WiFi that makes it so much better than an Internet Cafe is that I can write my messages offline on my own computer on my own time and then simply copy and paste them into the email
The camp site in Paris had "Internet access".
This consists of a "kiosk" at which you sit (on a bar stool) and type on an on-screen keyboard. This would be as frustrated as the Cyber Cafe except that you can choose to use an AZERTY or a QWERTY or German keyboard by pressing the appropriate flag icon on screen.
You pay .50 Euro for each 15 minute period (minimum). So you can use this to check your mail and surf the Web. There's no way to print what you have and typing can be quite trying. I was never able to get the "Return" key to enter a return character, so my messages had multiple spaces where new paragraphs would begin.
You'll notice that I used my Gmail account.
I anticipated that I'd have difficulty getting access to my RoadRunner account from afar. I have been able to access it when traveling, but there is no way to sort the incoming mail and also no easy way to search in it. (And, when I try to send when not connected to my usual modem I get problems I cannot fix... and the mail does not go out.) I removed myself from as many lists as I could before we left and told everyone to use the Gmail account for the duration of the trip. Nonetheless, having had that account is good, as the mail I've received is stored on my computer which is no on my lap as I write this and thereby accessible. Even so, whenever I get WiFi access, I log into my RR account and download all the mail, delete the junk and move the messages that need sorting. This keeps my email box at RR from becoming too full to continue to receive mail.
That's the particular, the general is: Wherever you have an activity that involves waiting you should be able to access the Internet.
In a gas station in Briel, France on the way from Sospel to Cuneo we found a "public" Fax and copy machine as well an Internet access point. I don't know how much that cost the proprietors to install and maintain, but, they got the idea.
A Tour of European Pissoirs
Lauren came back from Japan with a photo of a high-tech toilet in a restaurant in Kyoto.
Even before that, Noam had expressed an interest in a portfolio of photographs of toilets.
I was struck by the variety and even, if one might call it that, the sculptural quality, of the urinals I've found here. I've begun taking photos of them... only when clean. I'll begin posting them from here.