August 9, 2010
To clarify:
1. The titles of the posts shouldn't be taken literally as how I'm feeling. They are just song lyrics.
2. My tone over the past week in the Netherlands may have been inadvertently negative. To clarify, while I'm having a lot less fun here by myself than I was in Iceland, Finland, Switzerland and England staying with friends and family, while I don't sleep as well in shared hostel rooms as I do in real beds in bedrooms, and while admittedly I think the Netherlands are, at least superficially, a little on the boring side, I'm actually enjoying myself overall. I'm relaxing during the day, I don't feel as much pressure to accomplish anything big (big hikes, big nights out, etc.), I'm catching up on my reading, and I'm getting a sense of what these places are like. If this last week had been my sole vacation of the year, working extra for a month before and a month after in order to make it possible, I probably would'have been disappointed. Rather, as one slightly less ridiculously amazing week out of a several month trip, I'm not at all concerned.
On to yesterday, and I think I am going to try to keep it relatively short.
I woke up a bit after the Australians, who had already showered and breakfasted when I was staggering out of bed. I was glad to have them as roommate though -- if I had friendly/fun/funny folks like that every night in the hostels, the whole experience would be much better. My waking up a little later had the unfortunate consequence in causing me to miss the 9:30 a.m. bus to the Texel/Den Burg ferry by 5 minutes.
My missing that bus had the fortunate consequence of my meeting a traveling couple from the Canary Islands, a lawyer and his girlfriend (both older than I am! and I am directing this comment to people who say that I either a) am too old or b) make too much money to stay in hostels). The guy started asking me a question about the bus in English, we continued on that way a bit until he didn't understand something I said, so I switched to Spanish, which we continued for the next 4 or so hours. Although my Spanish isn't great, I do enjoy practicing with people who are friendly and patient. Although I must admit, the Canary Island accent/manner of speaking was tough for me to understand and a few times I had to ask him to slow down. Still, he seemed to understand everything I said (in contrast to everything that comes out of my mouth in Icelandic, which seems to sound like utter gibberish to native speakers).
I had been planning on taking the train to Amsterdam and then to Groningen (really out of the way, but I couldn't see another way using trains), but they convinced me (or their plans convinced me) to follow them on the bus to Sneek where they were staying, take the relatively short train ride from there to Gronginen.
This was a good idea -- while I think it ultimately took longer this way, it was pretty cheap, and I didn't have to use one of my 15 travel days on my Eurrail pass. And I had good company for a few hours. And we took the bus along a long causeway (maybe 20-30 km?) that was sort of neat. And pretty. Fortunately for them, where the bus let us off was about 50 meters from the Stayokay hostel where they would be staying. And about a 20 minute walk to the train station. But just so the fact isn't lost in all of this, check out all the different types of transportation I used:
1. Bus from hostel to ferry.
2. Ferry from Texel to Den Burg.
3. Bus from Den Burg to Den Oever.
4. Change buses on the other side of the causeway, bus to Sneek.
5. Train from Sneek to Leeuwarden.
6. Train from Leeuwarden to Groningen.
I arrived in Groningen at around 5 or so, obtained reservations for my train to Copenhagen and then for my train to Paris (nice to have this taken case of, and again, not too expensive). Oh and real quick, Groningen is in Friesland, in North Eastern Netherlands, there is a Frisian dialect that some people speak that is different from Dutch -- I haven't heard anyone speak it yet.
The Friesland Hotel was very easy to find -- as has been everything in Groningen. I think Groningen has been the easiest city to navigate, even more so than smaller places. The hotel is great, super simple, room is big enough, clean, sink in the room (although bathroom is outdoors and shared), location is super central but on a quiet street. I asked the owner/guy at the desk what I should do, and he recommended that I eat at Wagamama (strange suggestion I thought), and told me of how he once lived in the U.S. for many years, an American wife, who is now his American ex wife. He had little bits of paint on his face and clothes, which I thought made him seem more trustworthy.
Wagamama was fine, I had been missing it for years, having really enjoyed it in London back in 2000. Except there was a bee that kept buzzing around my food, and these three really loud guys sitting on a bench nearby that kept screaming, and thus I kept looking over to see what they were screaming about, and then one of them looked at me and asked why I kept looking at him. I drank a 750 mL bottle of sparkling water along with a bowl of soup.
Updated blog at an internet cafe not so far from the hotel (nothing is), although the connection was super slow (it's a miracle that I uploaded all those pictures in the previous entry).
I went out a bit later for a drink and reading Infinite Jest at Belgisch Cafe de Pintelier (to find it required some exploration through town, which was, again, really easy to navigate, clean, pretty, and (as one of my friends informed me about Groningen) people are much more attractive here on average than the rest of the Netherlands). Again, good work Lonely Planet for suggesting a good place to go!
For my first night in a solo hotel in a few days, and a much nicer one than the Hotel Nadia in Amsterdam, I slept well.
I like Groningen (which, if you didn't know -- I didn't -- is pronounced completely ridiculously...the "G"in the beginning is pronounced like almost like a Hebrew "ch" but almost throatier, and the "n"at the end is silent), even though I'm a little bored still.
ABBA -- Another Town, Another Train
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