The Netherlands

Super condensed version for lazy people --

I have immersed myself in Dutch culture:

1] I have biked extensively through tulip fields.
2] I have eaten stroopwafels.
3] I have eaten raw herring with onion.
4] I have also had someone... bike me (like drive me, but not?) somewhere.

Other notes:

1] The Netherlands is really flat and there are many swans.
2] So. Many. Bikes.

---

... it's May 20th, and I'm finally writing the long version. I don't even remember which days I was in the Netherlands, to be honest. Erm. Ah, April 15th (hurrah for calendars). Wow, that was over a month ago. Somehow, it feels even longer than that though, which is a bit strange. Anyway, my memory is horrible so I'll have to consult my written journal entries for details, heh.

Let us begin. On April 15th, I left Brussels and took a train to Utrecht (quite a short trip -- only about 2.5 hours). When the train left Belgium, my phone lost service which I figured was normal because it had to latch onto a new Dutch network and those things take a bit of time. However, after an hour, I still had no signal and I started to worry. It turns out that the thing I was using works basically everywhere in the world except the Netherlands (I didn't find this out until AFTER I got there... figures). Yeah, normally this wouldn't be a problem because I'm not permanently attached to my phone like some people, but in the Netherlands, it was an issue. Why? Because I had to contact my friend, who was supposed to fetch me from the train station. (Okay, this will be really disorganized because I'm just writing as I think of things).

Before I elaborate on the phone incident, I just want to mention that the Netherlands has rather similar landscape as Illinois -- flat with many farms. However, there are also many canal type things and LOTS of swans for some reason. During the entire train ride, I basically saw cows and swans. It was quite odd. Oh, and of course there are windmills (but they are not all over the place, contrary to what many people may think, I guess).

Anyway, back to the phone thing. So I had no signal and I had no way to contact my friend. Also, apparently we are very stupid because we didn't arrange an actual meeting place beforehand. Of course, neither one of us anticipated that I would have no phone service. When I got to Utrecht Centraal, I tried to use a pay phone (pay phones in the NL can send texts too... Is that normal? I have no idea because I never use pay phones) but all the instructions were in Dutch, so that failed (and no, I promise I am not that stupid. They just have very complicated pay phones). Basically, I ended up having to ask random people if I could borrow their phones. I don't know if you know this, but Dutch people are generally very private and stuff, so most people were rather reluctant to let me use their phone, even when I told them that I was going to pay them. This was incredibly awkward but eventually, I found someone who was nice enough so I guess that was okay. Either way, I managed to contact my friend and all was well.

Another tangent -- public transportation in the Netherlands is FREAKING EXPENSIVE. I think it was about €1.60 for the bus and students don't get a discount unless you're actually a Dutch citizen. Even in that case, you can only get free transport on either weekdays or weekends (you choose). Train tickets are also incredibly expensive. No wonder Dutch people bike everywhere... I would too. At least biking is free. Plus it's healthy so why not? Speaking of biking everywhere... never in my life have I seen so many bikes. It was awesome (in both the sense that the sheer number of bikes awed me and that people biking instead of driving and stuff is great). Seriously though -- there were people biking (long) distances between towns, people in suits biking, people biking with other people sitting on their bikes, people with all sorts of attachments on their bikes that I didn't understand, little children riding huge bikes, etc, etc. There are even bike "parking lots" in front of train stations and such because so many people have bikes!

Bike parking.

That is just a tiny section of the huge bike parking lot things.

Anyway, I could write A LOT more, but I won't because I'm too lazy. Basically, I had a lovely time in the Netherlands. I think I would have had an okay time if I had just gone there and done all the normal things that I do while traveling, but because I stayed at a friend's dorm, it was even better. It's quite awesome to meet people and feel like a part of a community again (the dorm was a bit like GC, in a sense). The people I stayed with were so good to me, and I am extremely grateful for them.

Oh, and one last mishap/adventure... So on the last day before I was due to leave Utrecht on an overnight train to Copenhagen, I went out to explore. My friend gave me his phone (yay GPS) so that I wouldn't get lost, but somehow, because I am an idiot, I still managed to get lost. It was so scary. I had wandered through the main part of Utrecht so I figured I should start heading back to the university so that I could do some last minute packing and eat. However, when I punched in the street address on the GPS thing, I forgot to specify Utrecht. The place I was trying to go was Prins Hendriklaan, but of course, in the next town over, there is also a street called Prins Hendriklaan. The walking time was about an hour, so I didn't think of much of it because it did take me about an hour to walk through that part of Utrecht. I started walking and after a while, things didn't look right. I ended up walking along a highway. At first, I thought it was just some random/more direct route but then I came across a sign that said "Utrecht", but it was crossed out. In Europe, this generally means that you are leaving a town. WHAT. I didn't want to leave Utrecht?! Upon seeing this sign, I whipped out the phone and re-entered the address, specifying "Utrecht". Turns out, I had to walk all the way back in the opposite direction. 1 hour and 30 minutes. At this point, I was basically thinking, "FMLFMLFMLFML!" Luckily, I left enough time because I had planned on packing/eating so I did make it back to the university. My feet were dying (my shoes were destroyed) and I was panicking like heck because I could NOT miss the train. Luckily, everything turned out okay in the end. Whew.

Picture time!

Awesome cloud

Canals in Amsterdam

Near the train station (bikes... again)

Biking through flower fields

I really want this bike...

Schröder House in Utrecht

Utrecht

Oude Gracht (part of a main street in Utrecht)

University College Utrecht campus (sort of like home? Haha)