Rolling With the Punches

I definitely have to say that I have become a better traveler over the past several weeks. I've learned to more effectively handle airports, public transportation and foreign grocery stores.  However, there are some things that you just can't predict and I still, obviously, have a lot to learn.   I want to make it clear that I have loved all of my traveling experiences this far, so don't get me wrong.  However, London has taught me a very important lesson that, although tons of things can go wrong, you can still have a great trip. Now, I made a previous post about how great London was, so please refer to that if you want to hear about the touristy stuff.  This post is dedicated to describing all the surprises that we encountered when working through the logistics of London. They did not diminish our experience in the least. In fact, I think they made the trip that much more memorable, but they were definitely not what we had bargained for.  The good news is it all worked out and we had a great time!

It all started when Charlotte and I took a different flight from Carolyn to London because we had Thursday classes and she had a friend in London whose birthday party she wanted to attend.  Thursday morning the place where we were planning on staying fell through and we had to book a last minute hostel that still had space.  We chose the cheapest one and marked where we needed to get off on our subway map that we printed out before we left.  It wasn't until after booking it that we read the customer comments mentioning bed bugs.

Amsterdam Airport was fine and then we got rejected at our first attempt through customs in London because we didn't provide enough information about where we would be staying during our visit.  The joke was on that guy though because we had no better idea of where we were staying than he did. :)  We finally got past the border and waited a while for our bus to the city.  We were scolded for standing in the wrong spot to wait but the ride to the city was perfectly painless. 

When we got dropped off at the station in London, we wandered around the train station for a good twenty or so minutes before we could find the entrance into the underground station.  The perfectly lovely woman at the counter was oh so accommodating and didn't make things at all complicated for us. Not true.  But she did tell us to buy the more expensive tickets that would allow us to get on the subway right away and use it all day, since it was midnight at that point.  The only problem was the more expensive ticket that she made us buy wouldn't let us through the gate because, come to find out, it didn't start until 4:00 in the morning. The guy let us through, just as the last train to where we wanted to go was pulling out of the station without us.

That plan was shot so we hopped on the next one to get closer to where we wanted to go.  Of course we couldn't get out of that station without the generosity of the guy at the gate to let us out even though we had the wrong tickets.  He directed us to the bus station and said we could buy another ticket (since ours weren't working) to where we wanted to go.  Two and a half hours later, we finally gave up on the bus that the two drunk girls at the bus stop who drew all over our map said would take us where we wanted to go and broke down to get a taxi.   14 pounds, and a lost cab driver later, we finally ended up at the hostel with the bedbugs.  At that point it was almost 4:00am, the golden hour that our tickets would actually start working.  When we went to pay the hostel the guy said "what the heck is this money, I've never seen it before, I can't accept it."  Well, I took out pounds from an ATM in Scotland, and, although the whole UK uses pounds, each country has a slightly different variation that the other countries are often hesitant to accept. A fact that was reinforced every time we tried to pay for something all weekend. This guy just flat out refused it.  

The hostel was booked for the next two nights so after a quick trip on the computer to book the next cheapest hostel we could find on the other side of the city, we went to bed on mattresses that felt like metal grates.  I think I might still have the imprints of the springs in my skin, but my skin was only a little itchy in the morning.  After a few hours of sleep we tried to hop on the subway, only to find out the awesome passes that the lady sold us still didn't work and had to be personally let in and out of every station.

We spent a great day in the city and when we went to head out to our new hostel that evening we realized it was in a zone further than our passes for the subway permitted.  We had no idea how to get there besides on the subway and, although with the way our luck was going we should have known better, decided to chance it and play dumb if we got questioned about the zones.  Well, they noticed.  But the guy was really nice and let us out.  The other guy at the ticket counter actually did us a favor too and  let us upgrade our passes for that day and the next day to include the new zone, and actually scan ourselves through the gates. 

We found the hostel with no problem only to realize we booked for Saturday and Sunday, instead of Friday and Saturday.  Fortunately, there was still space for that night.  It was however in a room that was about the size of an SUV with 21 beds in it.  The bunks were 3 levels high!  It gets really hot in a room with that many people in it in the middle of the night.  There were about twenty people who lived in the hostel full time and they recognize that we were the newbies.  I can't imagine living in a hostel full time but they all seemed to get a kick out of it and enjoyed their parties in the basement.

The next day was a great day too but we went to bed about midnight because we had to leave at 3:30am to get on a bus to go to the city center to walk to another bus stop to bus to the airport.  The only problem was that it was daylight savings time so we lost an hour.  I set my alarm that was still set on the Netherlands time and verified that it matched my watch so that I would be ok with the time change. Charlotte set her phone but it switched times automatically and woke her up an hour early.  She had to text me to wake me up because she didn't remember the code to get back into the room and was stuck in the hallway. Because of the confusion, and since I was already woken up, we only slept an hour and waited around in the hostel until we had to get to the bus stop. 

There was some difficulty finding the second bus station that was to take us to the airport but we made it just in time.  At the airport we got through security fairly fine and got into Amsterdam without a problem.  There was apparently construction on the tracks to the routes were being diverted a little bit.  Between the announcements in Dutch and the lack of labeling on the trains, we ended up on the wrong train that we didn't have tickets for that went into downtown Amsterdam.  Not a huge problem, we just had to switch stations and add more time to our travel.

Finally, we got home that day after not sleeping in forever and I collapsed into my bed planning on taking a quick nap before I started doing homework, only to have my next door neighbor start practicing trombone.

I swear, I loved London, and the problem that we had (and I'm not positive that this was all of them) only made the experience more memorable.  It's just that, when traveling, especially the way we do it, we have learned that we need to expect the unexpected.

Going Dutch

Last week, a friend posted on a Facebook group a link to an article entitled "You know you've been in The Netherlands for too long when..." An interesting premise, I thought, and became immediately intrigued.  Come to find out, it was an extensive list (to 100) of things that you supposedly start noticing/doing after, as the title so clearly says, spending too much time in the Netherlands.  Now, I don't completely agree with all of them, but there were a couple of them that stood out that I thought would be fun to share.

1/ You have a bike

2/ You even know how to brake using retropedaling

20/ You never go out without your bike lights (for nighttime riding)

Well duh!  Being a Resident 101 mandates a bicycle.  Extra points if you carry at least one or two other people on board with you, as well as all of your shopping.  The retropedaling thing doesn't apply to everyone but it is pretty common.  In my case it's more of a necessity because my hand breaks don't work.  For me, it's either pump the pedals backwards or fly high speed into a canal.

4/ Eating 7 slides of bread for lunch doesn’t scare you anymore

5/ By the way, you stopped eating warm lunch. You just eat bread

My friend told me that, with all the bread and cheese, as well as the obsession to put mayonnaise on everything over here, that it's a good thing I didn't start a diet when I came here.  Anyway, there is so much awesome, fresh bread at the stores and, even better, at the fresh food market every couple of days.  The Dutch are big on simple, cold lunches, which is fine by me.  But, it's pretty true, there's a lot of bread.  The most common lunch I've seen is a couple of sandwiches that consist of two slices of bread and a piece of cheese.  It's great because these are definitely my two favorite food groups. :)

14/ As soon as the sun pops out, you make a barbecue, even if it’s 10°C outside

So true!  As soon as the sun came out (finally by the way!) People moved everything outside like it was midsummer. It was such a welcomed relief after overcast for awhile.  Our house began eating and studying outside whenever we got the chance.

18/ You still don’t know how to speak Dutch. But your English has improved 

Obviously this was geared towards the non-native English speakers (see previous post).

26/ You don’t even bother to ask “do you speak English?”, you just speak English right away

At first, this might sound inconsiderate.  But it's definitely a trend I've been noticing. You need to understand that, as much as you try (and I mean I really do try) to speak in Dutch to somebody, the second they get even a hint that you might speak English, they switch right over.  If you say "pardon" with too much of an accent, the checkout person will immediately switch to "have a nice weekend" or "would you like a receipt."  It makes things easier, but it doesn't make learning Dutch very simple.  

I usually just go along with it when somebody's talking to me in Dutch, hoping I'm interpreting their inflections right, but I eventually have to break down and admit my ignorance if they go on for more than a couple of sentences.  Nodding and smiling only gets you so far.  I tried it at the library the other day until I realize the man was actually trying to kick me out of the room so his class could come in.

27/ When you go to the cinema, you are ok with being told where to sit

28/ And you wouldn’t dare sit anywhere else

54/ You can drink beer in the cinema

This was a weird one for me, I'll admit.  We were in the biggest theater I've ever seen and still had assigned seats. There was hardly anybody there! What was odd was that one of the girls in our group, who bought her ticket at the same time, was assigned to a different row.  We chanced it but we saw another group of people get ousted by some other people for sitting in their seats.  They also sell beer at the theater, which I thought was interesting.  But they also serve it in some university buildings so I guess it's not that strange at all.

29/ You have finally accepted the fact that Gouda is cheese

I have discovered my love for Gouda.  The only thing is, everything is Gouda.  So much Gouda!  When we went to London last week we bought cheddar cheese as a treat.

39/ For you something sweet means stroopwaffels

Super popular cookie-like things.  Crispy outside with syrupy inside.  Also come served fresh at the market and many people like them warmed up.

45/ You think that paying to use the toilets is normal

This one was also new to me.  In many public places, toilets are privately owned by companies so you have to pay to go in and use them.  This was also the case in Germany. 

50/ Your windows have no curtains, and you don’t care

51/ If your windows have curtains, you don’t use them, and just don’t care who might be looking at you

Yeah, the Dutch, they're not real big on curtains.  It's normal to walk down the street and be able to see into everybody's business. Which is great for a nosy person like myself. :)

56/ You can ride your bike in the rain, wind and even snow

That doesn't, however, make it easy or enjoyable.  And, I warn you, no matter what direction you're traveling, it will blowing in your face. It's nice that there aren't hills in the Netherlands, but the wind often makes it feel like you're constantly climbing a mountain that's also suffering from an ongoing earthquake.

58/ You can ride your bike wearing skirt (if you’re a girl), a suit or even high heels (if you’re a girl)

Yup, it's always an appropriate time and you're always in the appropriate attire to ride a bike.  I don't know how they do it.

61/ “Alstublieft and dank u wel” are the only Dutch words you know

I know more than this but these are definitely the staple.  You try too many more and people catch on that you don't know what you're talking about.  A lot of people that I know who are studying here from other countries only know these two phrases. 

64/ You go to the market and you only buy the stuffs that fit in your bike

Valid point, but you'd be surprised about how much you can fit on a bike.  Especially if you have one of these...

A few weeks ago I saw a guy transporting a piano in one of these things!

 82/ You know that the wind blows in your face regardless of the direction in which you are biking

See! I told you so!

92/ You know that the Netherlands doesn’t have a special dish. They just fry everything

Not completely true but there are these things all over the cities, simply called "The Wall" where it's like a vending machine that is open late and opens out into the street full of hot food.  The "kroket" is something that a Dutch girl made me try as a traditional Dutch food.  It was fried all full of some substance that tasted meaty and was kind of creamy. The most information about its contents that I can get is that I don't want to know what's in it and "nobody every asks."

98/ You still don’t speak Dutch but watch silly Dutch TV shows like Take me out and Single 

I don't know what these shows are but I do enjoy listening to the Dutch chatter away on the radio in between the "Top 40" songs that are playing in the kitchen.

100/ You are used to people bumping into you abruptly on the street, yet never saying sorry

This makes it sound rude, but I don't think that's the case.  It's true that there's not a lot of eye contact on the street with people you don't know but I agree with how my Dutch friend put it...Dutch people don't initiate conversations and interactions with people they don't know, but they're very receptive and friendly to it should somebody else start. 

A couple of others I feel necessary to add...

1) The condiment of choice is mayonnaise

2) The stairs are all so narrow, tiny and steep

Seriously though, I don't understand how the country with the tallest people in the world has such tiny stairs.  I often fear for my life when I'm trying to climb down them.

These are just some casual observations that I have notices throughout my time here.  Some took some getting used to but I'm sure I'll probably miss them when I go home!

Minglish

I would like to share a new word with you: "Minglish."  A British friend of mine has defined it as losing the ability to speak normal English  and, instead, speaking "Minglish = mingle of international languages/accents vaguely equating to English."  That may not be the exact same definition as Urban Dictionary provides, but you get the idea...
The majority of the exchange students here are not native English speakers and, although they speak no Dutch, have come to the Netherlands to improve their English.  Now, don't get me wrong, they're all great at English, considering it's their 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. language, however, it isn't their native tongue.  The other native English speakers and I have been trying to describe this strange phenomenon that has been happening to us where, while everybody else's English is improving, ours is deproving (which, not surprisingly, I don't think is actually a word either) and morphing into some hybrid of US English, British English, Australian English and some sort of English as second language.  We're saying things that don't actually make sense to us, or phrasing them in ways we would never would before.  We started speaking slower in a more rudimentary way, kind of like we're talking to somebody who is not native to the language, but even less clear.  We find ourselves searching for words in our head, like we can't think of them in English (but it's not like we have another language that they'd be coming to mind in). 
I thought I would have a bit of an advantage in some of my classes here because I am native to the language in which they're taught, but all of these people seem so good at English and can easily transition in and out of their native languages.  And here I am struggling to make sense in my one.
I realize this doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and I also realize that I'm not doing a very good job of explaining myself, but that's my whole point! I no longer know what I'm talking about!  But I'm serious, ask a native English speaker who's spent some time here and they'll say the same.  I have been picking up some Dutch words and phrases that started to come to mind when we were in England, like that would be any help!
 I'm all sorts of confused.
But, I swear I'm not crazy.

London!

Last weekend was the last weekend in a long, but short; fun, but exhausting succession of weeks where we traveled three weekends in a row and were gone from home more than we were here.  We went to London and it was a beautiful weekend when the sun was out and the flowers were blooming.  We took a walking tour and saw the changing of the guards outside of Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Wellington Arch, the London Eye, Shakespeare's Globe Theater, the London Bridge, the Tower Bridge and the countdown clock until the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. There was also a boat tour that we took through the city that showed us a lot of the key sights. We also went to Camden Town which was bustling with an outdoor market that was bustling and had all sorts of cool things for sale.
Compared to the previous two weekends it was, once again, a really awesome but different kind of cool.  It's been difficult to rate the last three cities because they're all unique.  Edinburgh had the cool, quaint, old, castlely city thing going for it.  Berlin had the alternative scene and recent history deal.  London was a modern city that had a lot of cool royal parts to it.  They were all awesome, but in their own way.
There were only three of us that went to London so it was fun exploring with a small group the whole time.  It's notorious for being one of the most expensive cities in Europe but we managed to find the absolutely cheapest hostels, cooked our own meals and took advantage of all of the free things to do in the city.  Since we've gotten more practice, we've learned to be more efficient travelers and spend a lot less money.
 We went into the National Gallery, which was a really cool museum but, to me, seemed like it had a borderline excessive amount of religious imagery.  Of course, so much of history is closely tied to religion, so I suppose that's understandable.  The part I liked most about the gallery though was seeing the portraits of Erasmus and Pope Julius II.  I didn't know who these two figures were until a few weeks ago when I started a research paper for my Roman history class where I'm analyzing the writings of Erasmus about the pope as well as Julius II's duel roles as the "Warrior Pope" and a pope aiming to make huge interior renovations within Rome.  I know, it sounds terribly fascinating.  Anyway, the portraits of these two figures that always come up when you look them up were both hanging on the wall of the gallery!  Pretty exciting stuff, because, as a history major, I see so many famous portraits of people and places in books and online, but I finally got to see some in person, which was something I was looking forward to when traveling.

Shakespeare's Globe  Theater                                

Wellington Arch

 

They're going to play sand volleyball in front of this at the Olympic Games.

On the way to the changing of the guard, in front of Buckingham Palace.  I'll admit, I'm not positive where the scruffy dog fits in to the whole thing...

Big Ben, with the London Eye in the background.

One of my personal favorite spots!  I tried to make it through the wall but there seemed to be some technical difficulties. At that point, I had no choice but to flush myself down the toilet to get into the Ministry of Magic.  If that last sentence didn't make sense to you, I'm sorry.  If it did, then I'd assume that my choice to try to flush myself down a toilet seems perfectly rational to you. :)

Westminster Abbey (where the royal wedding was last year)

Berlin

Well, don't worry, I found the wall in Berlin. Of course, visiting Berlin, it is impossible to miss the wall that has affected so much of Berlin's very recent history.  Here's a picture from the East Side Gallery that was painted in 1990 after the wall was first knocked down and refreshed in 2009, 20 years later.

This stretch went on for about 2 km and was painted by artists from all over the world. 

The thing about Berlin as compared to Edinburgh, or even the cities I have visited in the Netherlands, is that it's really cool, but in a different sort of way.  There is so much recent history that has affected the city and, while there are some awesome buildings, it's not the type of place that you just wander around and think about how pretty it is.  Rather, there are an infinite number of museums, landmarks and monuments dedicated to the history of WWII and the Cold War.  There is still a noticeable difference between the infrastructure of East and West Berlin because of the divide in the mid-1900s.

Here's one of my favorite places we went.  It's called the Berliner Dom and was built in the 1400s.  A huge part of the church and the crypt within it was destroyed by Allied powers during WWII and was rebuilt in recent decades.  It's beautiful inside and you can go all of the way to the top and get a great view of the city.

This is the field where the Berlin Love Parade used to be held.

  Here's a picture of the Holocaust Memorial or the "Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe."  It's hard to see from the picture but it goes on for a really long time.  The towers are all different heights and the ground continuously slopes up and down.  Apparently the artist never fully explained what the meaning behind all of it is but in his only interview said that the point is to make you feel disoriented.

This is Checkpoint Charlie, which is where people had to cross to get in and out of the American sector of Berlin after WWII.  There was a really cool museum there which talked about the history of the wall and showed a lot of ways in which people attempted to escape past the wall.

Here's Charlottenburg Palace, a little ways on the outskirts of the city.

The German history museum was a massive museum that gave the history of Germany's entire existence.  It's a lengthy museum but my attention was rekindled when I stumbled across this good looking lady...

Her name is Bertha Eichoff.    Now, I realize that's not exactly how you spell my last name, but it caught my attention, and my name is German.  We could be related, who knows?  Do you see the family resemblance? 

I'm really glad that we got to go to Berlin and we actually had a decent amount of time to spend in the city.  The perk of overnight buses is that get you where you want to go without wasting valuable daylight hours.  Of course, spending two out of four nights on a bus can be a bit exhausting, but when you're traveling on a budget and are restricted by the whole school thing, it's not too shabby at all.

Kilts and Haggis

Heading off to Edinburgh, Scotland was a big step for me.  It signified my first big step of branching out beyond the Netherlands.  I made it to Europe and toured around my country of residence, but this was the first time that I’ve traveled around beyond the borders.  The choice of Edinburgh as our first destination just kind of happened because a friend mentioned that she found low-priced tickets out of Bremen, Germany on a cheap little airline called Ryanair that went into Edinburgh.  We said, “Hmm, Scotland, right?  Sure, that’ll do!” and off we went.  Granted, we did have to get on a bus at 2:00am into Germany to fly out of Bremen at 7:00 am, but it was completely worth it when we showed up in Edinburgh at 10:30 in the morning.  The first thing I notice was all of the hill.  Now, the Netherlands is a notoriously very flat country where the majority of it is not only flat but under sea level.  I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed varying landscape until I was reintroduced to the hills.  Here’s a picture of a giant hill called Arthur’s Seat that overlooks the whole city…  

If you look in the very center, you can see the castle that sits in the center of the city.

Here's a view of the castle in the middle of the city.  It was huge and we got to tour around inside of it. 

We also toured around a bunch of these underground cellar type things that were built into a bridge's underground structure.  People used to live and work down there and they're considered the most haunted places in town now.  After the legal uses of the cellars were done, people started hiding dead bodies in them to sell to the medical school in town.  They're not used for anything currently, except for ghosts' bedrooms.

 Come to find out, there are people in Scotland who really do wear kilts.  Some people where them when they're playing their bagpipes, but there were also people just walking around or going out who wear them.  A Scottish guy we talked to said that they guys who don't wear kilts to prom in high school are the weird ones.  

 I also had to try haggis while we were in Scotland.  It's some sort of sausage made of unidentified parts of animals and traditionally cooked in the stomach of an animal.  I'm not sure why that sounded like a good idea but I figured I was obligated to try the spicy treat.  Now I don't ever have to do it again.

Another really awesome thing about the trip is that we went to the Elephant House Cafe which is supposedly the "birthplace of Harry Potter!"  J.K. Rowling used to write in the cafe as she looked out over the castle and a primary school that served as her inspiration for Hogwarts.  I'm not ashamed to say that I took some pictures in the bathroom there to document the occasion...

Talk about a small world!  When hanging out with some people we met in the city, I ran into a girl who also goes to Central.  I guess there was another girl who lived in the same building who goes to CMU as well and they're both studying abroad in Edinburgh for the weekend. It's was random to be so far away from home and running into somebody that I have connections to.

 One thing that I noticed about Scotland, as compared to the Netherlands, is that there are a lot more familiar name brands of products there.  I've gotten used to going into the store and not recognizing most of the brands of food that I was buying and then I went to Scotland and saw Aunt Jemima syrup and Heinz Ketchup.  They do drive on the opposite side of the road there, but it was a new acclimation process where I had to get used to most of the conversations I was overhearing being in a language I actually understood.  I surprised myself when I kept wanting to use Dutch phrases when interacting with people, instead of the English ones.  That's really saying something, considering how I don't really speak Dutch and all.

Overall, Edinburgh was an absolutely fantastic trip.  It set the bar really high for the rest of my travel.  I had a weird moment last week when I was worried that we started out too strong and that the other places we visited would pale in comparison.  Then I had to hit myself on the head and remind myself that I was going to Berlin, which is one of the most famous and popular cities in the world.  Of course I was going to love it there too!

Oh the Places You Will Go

So I’ve been in Europe over a month and a half so far and I still sometimes have to remind myself that I am in fact here.  I made it one of my main goals when I came here to take advantage of as many opportunities as possible and to travel as many places throughout Europe that I can manage.  Luckily, there are a couple of other girls in my house, from Canada, who seem to have made the same commitment.  A lot of the European kids think we’re crazy with all of the stuff that we’re planning/ have planned, but I don’t think they get it. They get to live here their whole lives and can therefore travel whenever.  We have come so far and paid so much to be here that we are taking advantage of every extra bit of time that we have to travel somewhere cool.

Within a week we booked tickets to Edinburgh, Scotland; Berlin, Germany; London, England; Paris, France/somewhere in Spain TBD; and the Czech Republic.  Plans are also in place to look into going to Rome or somewhere else in that region.  We know it’s crazy, but how can we not do it?  We took our first trip this weekend to Edinburgh for three and a half days, and, while I’d love to talk about it now, I’m leaving in a few minutes, after being home for three days, to go to Berlin.  There’ll be posts on those two places early next week.  I’ve had to really commit myself to not procrastinating and getting stuff done early and during the week, but I’m not about to miss out on the chances of a lifetime.

That being said, it doesn’t seem like I’m really living real life right now.  I mean, who gets to say “Oh, I’m just going to Scotland for the weekend, no big deal.”  But it is a big deal; I’m going to Scotland for the weekend!!! I have to say, I loved Scotland so much and don’t know how any other trip can top it.  Then I have to stop and remind myself that all of these places that we’re going are sure to be awesome.  To think I was only planning to come to Europe for a couple of weeks during the summer.  It’s funny, but when we were in Edinburgh, we kept referring to Groningen, the Netherlands as our home.  It’s such a great place to live.  I don’t think it’s much of a tourist destination, but it makes an awesome home.  There aren’t a bunch of tourist attractions like in other cities, Amsterdam for example, but it’s such a quaint little city. (Although that might be an oxymoron)  Here’s a look at a couple of pictures from yesterday here…

There are going to be blogs and pictures soon to come about the past few weekends, but to give you a taste of what’s to come, think kilts, haggis, and castles.   (And whatever Berlin might have in store for us)  I hear there’s a wall there.