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My foot is finally healing. Obviously, I was quite worried when I wrote my last entry, having been at least six days without any sign of repair. I had iced the foot the night before and it did feel a bit better the next morning. However, I finally decided to go to the “doctor”, that is, an apothecary. She did not have any relevant products for arch repair and recommended going to a shoe store close by which specialized in insoles. Though I found the store exactly where the apothecary said, the store did not have any insoles and suggested I make an appointment with a custom sole maker she mentioned. That seemed like it would take too long, so I continued to my second destination, to work at the library.
As usual, I took a new route and got completely lost. I ran into a strange building with a boat poking out the front. It turned out to be an orthopedist. I went inside and they directed me to their sole shop (http://www.devoetzaak.be/). The sole designer there told me everything I needed to know:
- Current insoles do not work
- There is no sign of wear on the arc, suggesting it is not high enough
- Also, the arc is much longer and higher than the sole’s shape
- No insoles come in a shape that will help me. As a result, custom insoles are recommended. However, they should be purchased when settled down, so follow up appointments can evaluate their effectiveness. (That is Belgian honesty for you, though their machine was down anyway)
- High arches must be stretched in the morning and night after too much use
- The arc section of the shoe cannot be flimsy like the Wranglers I have just purchased
- The heel section should be at least one centimeter higher than the toe
- Heat is better than ice for the arch ligament, though neither will do much good
He did have some soles that were better than mine. They were for sports and extremely expensive, but seemed to reach a bit higher on my arches. Those insoles, the suggested techniques, resting, and my anti-inflammatories have healed my foot the past few days. I can finally continue with my travels, once I finish my work for the month.
Bruges Music and Travel Plans
Bruges is a great place to go after Amsterdam. It is quiet and quaint. Actually, everything I liked in Amsterdam is also in Bruges. When the winter is cold enough, there is ice-skating on the canals here too. Everything is similarly covered in beautiful jade moss and teal algae. Nevertheless, five nights is far too long, even with work; three or four would have been perfect. I could not go for less time lest I leave the city character undiscovered. I knew I was planning to stay too long the way people responded to hearing my plans. They have an even more pitying expression when I tell them about my six planned days in Kortrijk. I guess what happened was that I gave up on living in Belgium before I finished my research. Maybe I never did it in the first place because there were only the two options. One of my main city specifications is that cities cannot be too close together, less than one hour drive, lest people commute to work from ridiculous distances. Everyone I have met says that is an unreasonable disqualifier, an American standard not suitable for European life. Nevertheless, it eliminated virtually every other city in Flanders. When the travel plans were finally arranged, I assumed that since I was still considering these two cities for future relocation (once I learned Dutch), they needed longer stays. This was wholeheartedly incorrect. So, I have decided to revise my travel and relocation plans a bit:
- · Though I will be staying 6 nights in Kortrjik, I will spend 1-2 of those days in Ghent or other important cities.
- · Exeter (population 100,000) is clearly too small to live in and has been removed from the itinerary. Also, 14 nights in my final relocation city might be too long, especially with the initial 5 judgment nights, and has been reduced to a week.
- · With the additional days, I will be adding Liverpool, Manchester, and (Leeds or Sheffield) to the trip. They are by far the most popular places to live in England, but I avoided them because of the proximity specification.
The other interesting thing Belgium taught me was that none of my online music is working. I had been prepared to lose Spotify soon, since it’s absurdly long, six month trial in the US was ending. However, we are not allowed to travel with it, largely because the Europeans are already using the paid plan and could feasibly use it for free. Thus, after a few weeks of warnings, they cut off my access. Of course it is not a big loss: I do not really care for the site and would never support them with a membership. So I was thrown back to my old services, of which there are many. Unexpectedly, none of them work in the EU, due mainly to the complications of buying the additional music rights.
I have been trying to find EU specific streaming services without too much luck. Only We7.com works, but not well enough to use. Grooveshark still functions, but their information architecture did not end up being repaired with their interface redesign and is not worth the trouble. What I realized is that the library has CDs, especially for hard to find local music. Since I have to go to the libraries for work, this passive cultural engagement arrangement could not have been setup better. Today I listened to De NederlandsTalige Top 100 Allertijder (Top 100 Dutch Songs of All-Time). This will simplify everything.
