5 countries, 3 days and a car

February 3rd, after almost half-a-year it was time to visit a new country once again. For a month already I had the urge to travel around; no more planning what I would do in spring, just do it now. Finally after an exhausting study and exam period, me, Judit, Maria, a new exchange student from Hong Kong Hyacinth (I call her Hangar) and Linda my class mate from Finland, who does her exchange year in Haarlem (where I was supposed to go study first) started our little roadtrip.

Right from the very beginning when we left our lovely cottage, it got stressful, since I had to be in charge of the map. It's really hard to instruct the driver, when you've hardly ever moved around by car in Breda. Luckily we managed to pick up Maria and Hangar with less pain as I thought, considering that I had to talk with Linda on the phone for about 20 minutes so she could find her way to our place the previous evening. I trusted she had a navigator in the car.

 

After 4 hours we crossed the boarder of Luxembourg, the bank center of the world. We felt a bit nauseous from our ears getting jammed, but at the same time couldn't believe our eyes; there were mountains. With Explosions In The Sky playing in the background, it was a perfect moment.

a stop at a belgium gas station

We had our hotel booked from the airport area and the room with the jail-liked beds and white walls looked like a mental institution as Linda said it. But who cares, Luxembourg City was soon to be ours. Buses from the airport left like almost every moment and one trip cost 1,5€ and a day pass was 4€. Day pass it was. Probably the public transportation is one of the rare things in the country, which is cheap.

 

Without having any knowledge what to do and see in Lux (since no one really knew much about the country and didn't bother reading Wikipedia thoroughly), we dropped off at the train station and asked for the information over there. The service desk lady seemed like she hated her job, but we got the info what we wanted and so we started our long walking tour. Long not because of walking hugely many kilometers, but long because of everyone wanting to take a lot of pictures. For instance there was this bridge called Adolf bridge, don't know if it's named after that dude with the horrible moustache, but anyways the bridge and everything underneath it was just mesmerizing. So mesmerizing that it took ages to move forward, since pictures were taken from every single angle. Move few meters forward and it looks even more fascinating than few meters back. The general view of the city though looked gloomy with the cloudy grey weather, people dressing in black and everyone looking like a banker.

train station

ceiling of the train station

All of that didn't matter as soon as we got to the valley. The whole place was straight from a fantasy movie. People forget about New Zealand, make your movies in Luxembourg!

We were freezing and hungry. All that we saw in the old centre were luxurious shops including one for pets PFFF. But there was light in the end of the tunnel; McDonalds!!! No, we have to try something typical of Lux. Quick it was. Quick meaning the McDonalds of Luxembourg and Belgium, which was located just next to the McDonalds. After a satisfying burger meal, we really wanted to check out the grocery store, just to see what they have. We had 5 minutes for that, because of their ridiculous closing time. That's what I miss from Finland; grocery stores closing not earlier than 9PM.

Having the day pass wasn't that convenient in the end, so to make full use of it we went back to the hotel to drop of our groceries and to have a nap. We felt really exhausted, but had to go back to the centre for dinner. We ran into a few traffic wardens in the empty streets and asked them for a student budget eating place. First one was McDonalds and another one a Mexican place. First one it was. But only to have a proper comparison to Quick.

Waiting for the bus back to the hotel, we found a bar, which was abnormal from the city scene; a bar, which was nothing fancy with young people dressed indie-style and a band jamming. Finally something normal for our eyes! We stayed outside listening to good music, because Linda was still eating her McFlurry and later on she fell in love with probably a 40-year-old guy in the bus. I noticed from his iPod that he was listening to ABBA. We weren't sure if the we took the right bus, but we didn't care, because it could have been exciting to just randomly tour around. However, for our disappointment it was the right bus.

As we got back to our "home" we checked places where to go to. Really lucky to find out that there was an American military cemetery just a few km from the hotel. Couldn't believe that, but true it was. I remember our history teacher talking about those cemeteries during 8th grade, and since then it had been a dream to see one.

Next morning my dream came true. There is no words to describe the feeling, not even all the pictures can do that, you just have to be there yourself. There with them, who fought in both World Wars.

Then we explored the fortress of the city. Much time was spent on taking jumping pictures. After a good exercise it was time to gain the lost calories back. But again no cheap place was found, so we just bought some food from the super market and went back to our hotel. By the way, travelling by car in the city, you see a lot, but it's really annoying when the route is like a labyrinth.

show off

We hit the country side early evening, it looked really beautiful, but it started to get dark already. The small town/village called Remisch was by a river, but once again we didn't see anything. We just saw a sign saying "France 11km". QUEEE?! France like a city or the country. Only option was to find out. Yep the country. As crossing the boarder, we saw Germany on our left. QUEEE?!?! Some might say that you should plan your trip beforehand, so you know what to expect, but I say these kinds of surprises make trips even better.

So quick stop in France just to see the Eiffel Tower and then Germany for cheap groceries at Norma. We decided to have dinner in Germany after driving around a bit; it was kind of scary to not see the surroundings and I waited for the tyre to burst just like in the movies. Finally, we found a cheap place to eat, which was surprising, since there was a Lux office building just 2 m away from our dining place, so we thought it would be more expensive. 

 

the result of a vegetarian era

After a satisfying dinner we went back to Lux with Spice Girls playing in the radio. We also decided to go back the same route the next day to just see what we didn't see and through Belgium back to Holland.

And the same route with eyes opened. Okey it wasn't that great as I thought, but hey we got to climb the Eiffel Tower again! It felt like ages to travel to Leuven, Belgium and we had to quickly pick a place to eat, because Linda had to go to the WC. Döner it was. Leuven had beautful buildings as usually in Belgium and probably the coolest pulpit I've ever seen.

leaving the hotel

last chance to buy cheap gas

you know when you're i france, when people show the finger to you

definitely in germany

leuven

Wasn't a long way back home anymore, but the wind was so strong that even the cars were swaying from right to left, but good thing we got back safely to Breda. It was a trip definitely needed and another trip will be needed soon!

Lost, wet and sweaty

August 26th, 2010

Waking up for the first introduction day at my exchange school, NHTV, ridiculously early and seeing the dark clouds for the first of many times here in The Netherlands was not great at all. But hey, me hearing Nuria's voice during the night was not a dream, she really was there! And she was standing right in front of my room's door and I remember being shocked to notice how much taller she was than I expected.

nurimodo

All five of us were ready to leave to the main campus, and Rebecca first as the map master. It felt like a long trip not knowing where we were heading, just following the leader. I was really terrified thinking that I for sure would get lost, if I had to go around by myself. Finally we made it and the school looked really nice from inside with walls painted in different colors. Why my own school JAMK doesn't have colorful walls like the NHTV does? What we lack in color, they lack in not causing head aches...

An auditorium full of international students and basically just introduction by the international office and awful short impros by the school's theatre telling when to call the school's emergency number and when not. Look at the bright side; at least they have an emergency number! After that we were divided into groups according to our study programs and toured around the campus. Just remember one thing; if you have a problem, go to the service desk. Yup, that's the way to summarize the campus tour. The most interesting fact was that at some point I realized that there should be a Finnish guy there with whom I talked to on Facebook. And the point was when I noticed this guy, who looked really shy and wore shorts, a t-shirt and worn out shoes as others had a bit more on. When I pointed and looked at him, he did the same thing at the same time and we both let out this silent "hey". The guy turned out the be the Fin and really cool. I think his name was Janne.

We were served sandwiches, fruits and coffee and tea in the cafetaria, which was a really nice surprise, also considering the cheap reputation of the Dutch. After eating we were introduced to our tutor teacher, and to a bunch of students, who happened to be buddy tutors. There was this weird trio in the corner; a skater girl, a leopard stuff wearing girl and a girl. Last mentioned was the actual buddy and the other two the assistants. They just happened to be the buddies for me, Janne and this geeky American guy called Troy. As I talked about wanting to go see Interpol in November, Troy mentioned that he loved Interpol too and wanted to go see them. Not only was the geeky impression swapped into "hey musical soul mate, I'll be surely exchanging music with ya!", I also finally got someone to go see the gig with me, which I had been worrying about for the past few months.

buddies from left; britt, niki & jolien

There was an international student party coming up at bar Speeltuin, so we decided to have a pre-get to know each other- party at Janne's place later in the evening. I was supposed to meet Henna, at the central park before that and it was raining really bad as I left with my bike. She had to patiently wait for me for 15 min outside. oops.

Without Henna's good map skills and yelling, we would have been more lost in finding our way to Janne's. Being the first time there with some of his flat mates Philip, David and Maren was a bit ackward, until the buddies started to talk about some crazy Greek girl, who they had as an exchange student. And it was time for the Speeltuin! The rain still didn't stop.

First time in a Dutch bar. It was really small, had only one girls' toilet and you just hang your jacket in a rack. It was also very full and had bad air con. So everybody was all sweaty. We saw some stuff what only can be seen here and Janne had these outrageous dance moves. Troy came much later and left really early, I guess he wasn't the party guy.

We stayed there until the bar closed and it was a lot of fun!

sven

henna

britt

janne

August 27th, 2010

School at 12.00 for reason unknown. Me and Janne were wondering where Troy was, probably he just forgot to come to school. There weren't really that much people. We found out that they were taking us for a city tour and we had some papers to answer questions about the city. It was interesting to hear that the bowling alley, cinema and jail were all at the same square. The jail, WHAT?! And the military school or whatever just in the center. You Dutch are weird.

cinema on the left, jail back, bowling alley front

recycling is fun here

As I got home and checked my Facebook, Troy's status said something about him waking up in a park somewhere with his bike stolen. Wrong again.

Later in the evening I had my first döner with fries. Weird that it had melted cheese on the lettuce, but it was gooood. And you also got garlic or chili sauce. Chili with anything -> +5p. After that we went to Speeltuin again with buddy Jolien to meet up with Janne and his flat mate Philip. The bar was a bit empty and people just tired. I was tired too, so it was better to go to bed.

 

The first moments were great. I miss that.

Going back to the start

Have you seen 500 days of Summer? If not, then you should, because it simply is a good movie. It does not have a normal chronological order; it bounces from a day to another back and forth. Basically, that's what I'm going to do now. I'll take you back to the first days, over 5 months ago. Hope this won't mess up your brains, but some things need to be explained at some point. Even though I probably have forgotten a lot, and will try to remember something by looking at pictures and diving deep into my memories. But not too deep.

August, 25th. Second day in Breda and waking up in an unsual way. The expression killing two birds with one stone was something what I wanted to do. The landlady's pet roosters were singing and so no more sleep for the one who loves to sleep. However I can't entirely blame the "hope to be dinner" for not sleeping long. I was anxious to go explore the city with my flat mates on an agreed time. But the Italian Alice didn't wake up, so I wondered are we even going. It turned out that she only overslept. The first tought was that that's normal for her, when in fact she is pretty much on time, but often attends lectures when there aren't any and the opposite. Luckily I wasn't the only one waiting for her to wake up, Judit the Spanish (or Catalan like they insist in saying, but end up saying Spanish anyways) started to wash the dishes. The impression of her being "the cleaner" is more or less right on. And her pyjamas being really loose.

After Alice woke up we were ready to hit the centre. Rebecca, our German flat mate decided to stay at home, since she had already been in Breda for a few days and seen the centre. Walking there was really pleasant and the neighborhood and weather beautiful. We met Alice's Italian friends Valentina and Francesca and then went to get ourselves bikes. At first I didn't want to buy lights for my bike, because I'm not used to having them, but here you get a fine of 30-80€ if the police catches you. Lights, please! Also, later on I noticed that Breda isn't really a city of light like my hometown is, so important they are.

shall not be named

When all of us got our bikes, we went home to have pasta made by the Italians. Really tasty and simple. Before coming here, I didn't know anything else simple to do, except for fried potatoes and instant noodles.

With full tummies we hit the centre again. The streets looked really pretty, but the most striking landmark is the church. Nothing beats that. It was 5-7PM and the shops were already closing, but we managed to get our prepaids, after which we explored a couple of pubs. Relaxing times. We expected for the last flat mate Nuria (also from Catalan) to be at home when we arrived, but she was having dinner somewhere else with her parents. I only heard her voice, when I was between dream world and reality. That's how it felt for the first days/weeks. Being confused, not knowing what is real and what not.

 

rebecca got a punch in her face

But a true fact is that I waited for so long to have stroopwaffels again and when I had them, I couldn't eat them anymore, without feeling sick. Pity.

If you felt confused reading this, you can go back to the second entry of my blog written sometime pff ago. And I always think a song gives more meaning about my emotions, so just click on the video below and you'll know.