One of the main reasons why I am actually doing this blog is that how
the small details and memories of all kinds tend to disappear soon enough
without being recorded. I travel quite a lot these days - since it's pretty
much first year in my life when I am allowed to travel freely without the visa
boundaries and other troubles - and would like to have these records nearby.
Just in case, for the benefits of sharing and telling the world how amazing it
is.
The Netherlands, February'14
I never really planned to go to Netherlands, and even after buying
tickets I still didn't manage to plan the whole thing properly. I had one
evening for all of this - planning, printing maps, packing, writing down addresses,
checking if my flight ticket is actually for the right date. It appeared to be
- so the very next morning in the middle of February I landed in Eindhoven.
There were things there which just stroked me - in the good way, the
best way. In the airport it was how perfectly accurate everybody was speaking
English. On the way to Eindhoven - how good the roads have been that I was able
to catch some sleep leaning on the window glass (without that terrible feeling
when your head beats into the glass every five seconds). Then, already in my
train to Amsterdam I finally managed to see the CANALS and was so somehow proud
and fascinated that the trip seemed to be going all the perfect way.
Not that it was an absolute disaster after, but the rest of the day
somehow went all wrong. The train stopped in the middle of nowhere because of
some problems on the line - we were walking, taking bus, walking again, waiting
for another train. All the way along I was taking to the Dutch guy next to me
about the traffic on the Dutch roads and his studies in something I would
describe persuasive psychology. With my significantly enriched knowledge on Dutch
traffic rules, I arrived in Amsterdam and spend the rest of the evening -
almost 4 hours - looking for a flat where a dear friend of mine was waiting for
me and where I was supposed to spend this night.
Well, it took me quite a while - the house was right in the center and
still I spent all this time trying to find the right street. In the process
I've seen Olympic ice skating in a coffee place (no, I mean really coffee),
accidently got into someone's flat without the owners knowing and by the time I
actually found the right place felt a bit like dying.
The next morning I woke at seven, somehow feeling perfectly okey once
again, said goodbye to my friend, had a cup of tea with her parents, got in
love with waffles, packed my suitcase once again and left Amsterdam - to
Rotterdam.
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Now when I think about it it seems an absolutely rights decision - to
spent my vacations in Netherlands in Rotterdam, not in Amsterdam with all these
billions of tourists visiting it every day. When I was just going to
Netherlands, it didn't seem that right - in the end, even the train
tickets to go from one city to another coasted me a small fortune, especially
for a country that small. I paid something like 18 euro for Eindhoven-Amsterdam
ticket (with lots of troubles - machines on the train station didn't want to
accept my not-chipped card and I ended up asking people to buy it for me,
returning money in cash) and a bit less for Amsterdam-Eindhoven. Still, there
were nice trains, a lot of canals on my way, free wifi, tulips on the train
station - it was a nice day and a nice trip.
I spent two whole days in
Rotterdam, and how I remember that city - sunny, windy, risky, both strict and
illogically free. That's a city-harbor, and you feel it even in the furthest
from the port districts. It's about how the city moves, about so not typically Dutch
streets and buildings. It's about how we spent two days to find a Dutch
restaurant and didn't find any - although what we found was the food all around
the world (it took us an evening and a lot of arguing to understand why there
were so many Surinamese places everywhere - Suriname was a Dutch colony until
50 years ago). We didn't meet a lot of tourists, used a couple of trams, and
had a cool time looking for Erasmus Bridge. The whole city is covered with
graffiti, which look each like a piece of art, always in a fitting place and
with something which seemed the story behind. Apart from these accidental
graffiti and modern art all around the city it seemed almost sterile.
We visited The Hague as well - the
only city with the article "the" in Europe and only half an hour away
from Rotterdam on the underground. I was so overexcited to see the sea in the
winter so didn't even mind when the winds on that sea appeared to be that
strong so to blow me away all the time. The sea was violent, the skies above
clear and transparent, Dutch restaurants absent (no surprises). I found the
road to Peace Palace staying next to the restaurant with free wifi and although
we didn't manage to get inside - well, that was a pretty much impressive view
from the outside just as well, and a nice, very thought-out exhibition about it
history next to the entrance. The city seemed to be tranquil, pretty calm,
accurate (well something I can say about all the cities I've seen in Netherlands).
The funny part was when on the way back we didn't find the underground we came
by and took a train back to Rotterdam.
Since flying right
from Rotterdam back home would be, apparently, too easy for a trip of this
kind, I spent a night in Tilburg, with one another friend of mine I met the
previous summer in Barcelona. The next morning I packed the suitcase AGAIN and
finally went to Eindhoven Airport, buying waffles on my way and taking last
pictures of the beautiful surrounding.
As I am back home
for a week already, my storage of waffles is coming to an end and I am - not
entirely planning - but thinking that I may go back for a while. It felt so
right there, and still so many places to go and see, that it seems only
appropriate.
