The last time I took a long trip in Europe, I met a guy who, if I recall correctly, claimed to be from the Frisian Islands. Or maybe he was from near there. I really can't remember, but it got in my head that I needed at some point to visit the Frisian Islands. Which is where I am right now. The Frisian Islands are more or less in the northernmost part of the Netherlands, and Maastricht (where I woke up) was in more or less the southernmost. So there was a long journey ahead.
I woke up yesterday morning feeling pretty bad. I had gone to sleep too late, had had probably one too many from the Take One bar, and these German teenagers in my room got up early and were loud, and generally unlikeable. I can't really blame them, and I needed to get up early, but still. I had yet another mediocre breakfast, and wasn't interested in getting another piece of not-that-good bread and not-that-good coffee and not-that-good cheese down.
I stopped at a market. I had run out of toothpaste, my toothbrush was completely smashed (and thus semi-useless), I had no soap (the previous day I had stolen shampoo from the German guys and used it as soap). So I bought these things. Except I bought conditioner by mistake instead of shampoo and had to return it. Reminded me of the time freshman year of college where I did the same thing, and couldn't figure out for a month why my hair was so soft, yet still so greasy.
When I was on the Laugavegurinn hike, a Dutch man suggested several places for me to visit in the Netherlands. Without even considering his credibility, I let him draw me a map of those places and put it on my itinerary to visit them. That's how I ended up in Maastricht. The next place on his list was 's-Hertogenbosch (also recommended to me by a friend of mine in response to a facebook requests for interesting places to visit in the Netherlands). It's another old medieval city, home of Hieronymous Bosch, the painter that I'm sure you all know and love.
I walked from the train station to the market (which is pretty big -- from some paintings I saw in the museum, it looks like it has been used continuously since the middle ages). I bought some fried fish with a chili sauce and three cream puffs for lunch. Here's a picture that I stole from wikipedia of the square and a picture I took of the delicious fish I ate for lunch:
As any good tourist would, I then walked to the biggest church in town, St. John's cathedral, and sat through a bit of the service. When the guy came around with the money basket, I got up quickly.
Then I went to the Noordbrabants Museum (I skipped the Bosch museum because I was told that everything there was a replica). The art from Hertogen Bosch was kind of "eh" but was interesting insofar as it showed what the town looked like back in the day. There were other things that I liked there, but I am not going to bore myself now by listing them.
Got on the train again, and mostly slept for the 2-3 hour journey to Den Helder, the northernmost town on the Dutch mainland before the islands. When I got off the train, it was raining, and I feared it would continue to rain the next day, when I had planned to go on a long bike ride. While waiting for the bus from the train station to the ferry, I spoke to a Dutch couple who live in Texel (the island I went to) and a German girl who was living in Texel for the purpose of running sky diving trips. I asked her if there was an airport in Texel and she said that yes, there was.
The ferry ride was short, maybe 25 minutes, foggy the whole way.
The bus ride from the ferry to the hostel (another Stayokay hostel) was short, maybe 20 minutes, foggy and rainy the whole way.
I checked into my room, and although none of the other 3 beds were occupied at the time, I could see from the clothing on the beds that I would be sharing the room with a family. I was not pleased.
I rented a bike, paid the extra 3 euro to get one with gears (after my poor performance on the fixed gear in Helsinki). The guy at the front desk (Australian) told me that while Den Burg (the town I am staying in) had restaurants, the better place for bars was De Koog was the place where the young people hang out. He also told me that the reason I am having trouble meeting people at the Stayokay hostels is that they are too nice. And that the better scenes are at the ones with bedbugs.
I got on the bike, and rode the 6.5 kilometers to De Koog, past sheep grazing, horses, fields of various growing crops. Very pretty, quiet, peaceful.
Parked my bike and had dinner at Bodega 59. Service was a little disappointing (I felt ignored), but the lamb I had (from Texel lambs!) and potatoes were really good. Not seeing anything particularly lively going on in town, I rode back (I had worried that I couldn't figure out how to turn on the light on the bike -- to my surprise and relief it turns on automatically).
When I got back to the hostel, the Australian guy at the desk told me that, when I reported that De Koog wasn't so lively, I had gone there was too early, and mostly people don't start heading out until 11 or 12. He suggested that I ride out there again. I was not going to do this. But he suggested a bar in Den Burg, The Slock, which was actually really good. Actually met and spoke to some friendly Dutch people, including an older guy from town, a butcher, who kept apologizing for not being able to speak English.
The German family with whom I shared the room was not happy when I returned and attempted to brush my teeth before going to bed.
Fiery Furnaces -- Bow Wow
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