"Oh, your phone can do that. It uses the same mechanism that it uses to make notification sounds. The sound on most phones is a little high-pitched and less accurate than a dedicated machine, so some people do prefer dedicated playback machines. I have a one that goes over my ears that I like well enough."

He mimes putting on earmuffs.

"There are shops in the city that have them, but which one you want probably depends on things like what shape you want it in and how loud you want it to get."

He was imagining a tabletop unit, something he could leave on the roof for the crows when he wasn't using it; he'll ask his guide about it if any sort will do.

"I'm sure you can find one like that," he agrees.

When the lesson is done, and contact details exchanged, he will wave and head off to catch the train back into the city.

Whoof, that was kind of exhausting. He spends the rest of the day relaxing and converting things to crafting material, after letting Vesherti know that he's going to want to go shopping for an audio player and recordings, and the next day he takes the dog for a run, following the edge of the city for a few miles.

The city is roughly blob-shaped, as so many are. Unlike Earthly cities, however, there's a fairly sharp gradient between the built-up city proper and the countryside around it; the lack of cars in the city proper makes suburbs less appealing.

Running along the edge, Traveler will come across such things as: long-term supplemental storage facilities, a few detached houses, and (eventually) the river.

...does the river look any good to swim in?

It looks perhaps a bit chilly, but the water is relatively clear. The river is high on the banks, and running with snowmelt from the mountains. He's upstream of the city's industry and shipping, here — a few miles further upstream is the reservoir from which the city's drinking water comes.

It may be a little chilly but he can put a warming net up upstream of where he wants to swim and a cooling net downstream and that won't disrupt the fish too too much. Whee! Any interesting wildlife in there? 

That depends entirely what interests him, but there are small silver fish that hover and dart in the shallows, juvenile salamanders still in their aquatic phase, and small frogs still burrowed into the mud for winter.

Salamanders are always fun. He'll see if he can coax one into the palm of his hand - it's tricky, but he can be quite patient - and then either way he takes a break on the bank to sketch the animals and their environment and grow himself a snack.

The salamanders are a normal amount of skittish, but also a normal amount of dumb. If he holds still for a minute, he can definitely coax one into his hand.

This particular bit of river doesn't see much use this time of year — the port is downstream, of course, but also the river itself is too cold for most people who can't construct spontaneous warming nets, and the upstream hydropower dam means that there's no through traffic.

There is the occasional very dedicated swim athlete doing their training here rather than in a pool for one reason or another.

In fact, one of them is visible a ways down-river, making her way up toward Traveler's resting spot. She probably hasn't spotted him yet, though, because she's doing one of those efficient swimming strokes that leaves her face underwater half the time and sucking in air the other half.

He doesn't spot her either, until she gets close enough that the dog alerts him, and then he has to scramble to take down the downstream net before she runs into it - he won't be able to make it to the upstream one in time, but he can warn her about it as she passes.