Gone Travlin' - Blog


End of Another Week

Sunday, September 25, 2005

How does anything actually get done around here? We have been here now for over one week and haven't even got to the other side of the city! We think that today might be the day to get out and see Big Ben and go up the London Eye. That's the plan anyway... London is 'non-stop' it's all about getting down to the pub anyday of the week needless to say we have been out having a blast. Maarty has a job now, and worked most of the end of last week but next week is the first full week - not looking forward to it! We will be moving into our new flat tomorrow, it's really modern and has a very nice large backyard - will put photos up soon.




posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,



Raining

Thursday, September 15, 2005

We both feel like its not going to take long to feel like we’re in the way though so jobs and a place of our own will be top of the list. But before anything we had to get our bank account stuff sorted, and that was way on the other side of the city. It was however very easy, only having to change once on the metro. When we emerged from the depths we were meet with full on rain, we expected for rain with all the roomers and all but it was sunny when we got onto the metro! Anyway finding the bank was a mission but we got there in the end. We arrive to find that there is a whole floor for New Zealanders and Ausies that dealt with opening of accounts. What a huge myth it is that the UK banks are hard to deal with! It was so easy, we had our main accounts sorted within minutes and got savings accounts at the same time. There aren’t any fees over here which is odd, not a single one. Sure if you go into debt without approval they will charge, but for the rest you can have as many accounts open as you want and it wont cost you a been, not even for eftpos transactions. Anyway after we left the bank we wanted to find some lunch but it was raining so hard that we decided to head back to Lesley’s and get something from the supermarket. This sort of worked, we got off the underground and walked out of the station, when Sarah said that Lesley had said that there was a huge mall up the road and that it would nice to find it. We walked over to the bus stop and just as we did a bus pulled up, we had a feeling that it was going in the right direction but to be honest we had no idea with the idea that we had day passes for the public transport so it didn’t matter anyway. It did go to the mall but we found out later that it was pure luck as they don’t go that way to often. The mall was huge but we are broke so it wasn’t to fun to hang out in but it did have essentials that we needed. We bought pillows and I got a Simcard for my cell phone. Felling like we had actually achieved enough for the day we headed home to start the enormous task of sitting in front of the computer and sifting through millions of situations vacants’ as well as trying to decide where we want to live. This is an ongoing process we started with looking for somewhere to live emailing several people so now it’s just a waiting game for the next steep…

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,



Home…

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

What a feeling to be at the end of the journey. Now it’s onto getting jobs and settling into a city that dwarfs Auckland and is the most expensive in the world! First off the Chunnel experience is strangely wonderful, I was really pleased to hear that we were only under ground for twenty minutes. The train itself was a little disappointing from a comfort point but man was it fast, well at lest on the French side. Before the Chunnel we were travelling over 300km/h but on this side we slowed to under 100km/h. We arrived into Waterloo to find a massive station bigger than anything we have seen anywhere in Europe, It was huge but nice that everything was in English for the first time in months. We caught the underground to meet up with Lesley who we will be living with in her flat until we sort out other arrangements. We arrived to the flat close to 7pm and meet the flaties, there are 8 people living here but it’s not a squash at all. For dinner we had the infamous Kebab, that I think that I should have got shares in the company for the price I paid although to be honest it was really good one. We were a little overwhelmed by it all so it was an early night, hopeing to launch into it nice and early in the morning…

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,



Back to Amsterdam and Den Haag

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Getting up nice and early we headed to the station to catch the 8.30 to Amsterdam and then change to Den Haag hopefully getting in at 5pm. The train was just an IC and I thought it would be a slow train but actually it was travelling at 200km/h for most of the way, but it was an uncomfortable train. One good thing though is that it had power for my laptop so I sat most of the way organising our book. We got into Amsterdam right on time, and we headed out and to the souvenir shops as we wanted to get a few things before we left for Den Haag. The train tip Den Haag was on the usual double story train and took about an hour and then we got a tram to Ties’. It was closer to 5.45 by the time that we got in and Ties had gone to work so it was just us for a couple of hours – thank god she had given us a key for the house so we just hung out in the living room watching TV and had Bami from the local supermarket for dinner. Ties got in at 9.30 and after a coffee and stories we watched the soccer for a while before going to bed.

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 am, ,



Hangover again!

Monday, September 12, 2005

Oh dear… Well the Vodka shots (free throughout the pub crawl) were a little stronger this time, the glasses a little bigger and us a little wearier. Needless to say, I got drunk a lot quicker than I realised, and ended up having to have Maarten take me back to the hostel after just the third bar. We got up at 9.30 in time for breakfast, before returning to bed. Maarty got up again an hour or so later and left me sleeping – I finally woke up at 1pm, feeling terrible. I don’t think I have ever had such a bad hangover!! But we were in Berlin again, and only for one day, so I forced myself to get up and face the world. We headed out and got a kebab from the place we got them from last time, and yes they were as cheap and good as we remembered. My stomach a little more settled (slightly) we headed off in to town to see if we could buy me a jersey – Maarty got a warm one in Sweden, and I don’t have much warm clothing with me – and it’s starting to get cold. We couldn’t find any shopping malls or much else though, so we headed back to see the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament), as it wasn’t open last time we were here. There was a huge queue though, (it is free entrance… and the national election is this weekend) so didn’t go in. After an hour or 2 of looking around we headed back to the hostel for an interesting but cheap buffet meal, and then to bed for our last night of paid accommodation!

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,



On to Hamburg – hang on, how about Berlin?

Sunday, September 11, 2005

The train to Hamburg was at 11.45 but we had to check out from the stupid hostel by no later than 9am, that gave us a good two and a half our wait. After playing on the internet and getting some breakfast we headed for the platform still having three quarters of an hour wait ahead of us… in true Scandinavian way the train was late and when it did leave the station it stopped and went back into the station for yet another little wait for no reason that we could see. Thankfully though the Scandinavian trains are exceptionally comfortable and all have power points for the laptop, which helps pass the time. The train ride went very fast helped by the 45 min ferry ride across the sea between Denmark and Germany and we were just about to arrive into the station when an announcement come over the speakers to tell us that we would arrive at Hamburg central station in a few minutes but then went onto say that the connecting train to Berlin was leaving from platform 8 just 15 mins after our arrival. At this we both looked at each other with smiles that said to each other that it was a possibility. We had just spent 6 hours travelling but wouldn’t it be magic to finish the trip in the city we had started. The train pulled up and we rushed off and went to find out how long it would take to get to Berlin if in fact we did go, it wasn’t hard to find someone and they said it would take 90 mins as it was on an ICE – the German fast trains. It was like it was meant to be, and we quickly made up our minds and jumped onto the train it was that easy! There was nothing in Hamburg that we really wanted to see and this was the last chance to be impulsive for a while! The ICE train looked on the outside as if it was any other fast train but inside we were greeted by the nicest train we have ever been on - it was amazing, and very comfortable. The trip took about two hours as we needed to go to Ostbanhof on the opposite side of Berlin to what we arrived in, but still on the same train. At Ostbanhof we had to change to the S bahn and it was about this stage that all the memories came flowing back. We now had so much experience compared to way back then but it was also nice to know where to go and how to get to the hostel. We wanted to stay at the Generator again, - to complete the circle and we were also curious to know if it was as good as we remembered. Only problem was that it was getting on to 7.30 by the time we got there and we were both worried about what we would do if they didn’t have rooms available. We basically ran into the hostel and found a small group of people that were trying to get a room and the lady was saying something that sounded to us like it wasn’t looking good. But thankfully it was for another day and there was plenty of room for us. We started talking to the lady about our travels and that we had started in Berlin and stayed there just two and a half months ago. She was fascinated by what we had done and were going to do as she was planning a trip to New Zealand and had been on the internet earlier in the day. We talked while we filled out our forms and paid the bill which she gave us a discount and two free drinks at the bar! We went to our room to get rid of our bags and freshen up before heading to the bar for our drink. The bar was just how I left it, with Berliner on tap and the same cheap prices, so we settled in and sat there reflecting on our trip. We had only been sitting for a couple of minutes when an Aussie voice from behind said ‘you keen for a pub crawl?’ we turned to see a young guy walking towards us with a familiar bottle of vodka, getting two glasses out and pouring us a one each. We both weren’t too keen but we played with the idea and then he said that they had changed it a little and the pubs were different. At this we decided that it would be nice, and why not we didn’t have anything else to do (we didn’t really have to be convinced too hard though!). The rest is a blur but I know that we meet a lot of nice people but we never made it to the last bars and that we taxied home…






posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,



Copenhagen

Saturday, September 10, 2005

After getting up at 8am, having breakfast and cleaning our room (you have to do your own in the Swedish HI hotels – they reckon it’s so they can keep prices down) we headed to the train station to get back to Copenhagen. We arrived at about 12pm, and headed to the same tourist office that we went to last time… and unfortunately got the same prick of a guy. When he asked what we were looking for I said that we normally pay around €60, and he laughed and said ‘that dog aint gonna bark’ and that they didn’t have anything under €120. How incredibly rude – it didn’t say anywhere that it was a hotel booking service only, it just said ‘accommodation’. Never mind, he gave us a map with some hostels marked on it, and told us to go walking… We headed to one that we knew was only a few months old. When we first got there we were told that there was no space (there are 1072 beds there!) and that he didn’t know if any other hostels had space either. Disappointed we started to turn away, when he said to wait a second while he checked the emails for cancellations, and discovered that there were beds after all. Yay! Anyway, we got up to our room and what a weird place that was! Apart from the 2 single beds that we claimed, the beds were folded up against the wall. The only other furniture in the room was 2 tiny desks (attached to the wall) with 2 little stools each. It was very barren, and like the rest of the hostel, was completely devoid of any character. It was, however, a bed for the night that was safe and clean, which is all that we really ask.

Strangely, it was only 1pm or so by this stage so we decided to go out. I almost felt like I had jet lag or that we had crossed a time zone or something. We don’t usually arrive in cities so early in the day (and we had just spent 4 days sleeping in very late!). We decided to go out to the Little Mermaid Statue, as this is the only thing I really knew about Copenhagen – Hans Christian Anderson lived there and there are statues around of him and his characters.
Anyway, we began our walk, accidentally walking in a circle at one stage due to us looking too much at what we were seeing, rather than where we were going, and ended up finding that there were a whole lot of Navy Frigates lined up at the port along the way, with an open day. With Maarten being so interested in every sort of boat there is, and of course being a boy (so therefore being interested in war ships!) we got in the long queue to wait our turn. Once on the boat it was actually quite interesting – I was amazed how clean everything was! Not a speck of dust anywhere, not a single scratch on the paintwork. Anyway, we got on 3 different kinds of war boats (all of which we think were nuclear), all kind of the same but different, as they say. We then headed off again, towards the Little Mermaid Statue… and when we finally found it we were shocked to see how tiny it is! We’re used to seeing statues 20 metres high etc… this one was the size of a real person! Maarty was a little disappointed, as we had walked for quite some time – I was just glad that we had come across the Navy display as it made the trip feel a little more worth it.

After hanging out at the hostel for a couple of hours we headed back out into the expensive world that is Copenhagen, to find some dinner, eventually settling for KFC after not being able to find a supermarket! It also had the added benefit of being right beside the town square which had a free concert about to start. We stayed for a while, before deciding that the band wasn’t worth listening to, and went back to the hostel with the intention of returning later on, as there where three bands playing and presumably the later ones where the better ones. We came back all wrapped up warm, but this band wasn’t any better and there was enough teeny boppers to sink a ship, so we went back to get some sleep. By this time our dorm had filled up, and we were greeted by 4 other people getting back at the same time as us. We all got ourselves sorted and ready for bed. We had just finished getting ready when just outside our window was a flash of light and a very loud bang! For some unknown reason there was a fireworks display right outside our window. We’re not even sure if it was for the public or not as no one on the street seemed to be paying much attention, and it was all pretty random and didn’t seem to be choreographed in any way but they were quite big and went for a wee while, and it was a lovely way to end the day.





posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,



Still here

Friday, September 09, 2005

I think that we are hiding from the world here! We got up around 11 and had a very relaxed breakfast. Although today we were determined to get out and really do something – just as soon as we had lunch! It was about 12.30 as we walked out the door with the goal of going right to the far edge of the city as there was a shopping mall there. Not really for the shopping mall but more for a wooden horse, sounds weird but the ‘Swedish’ souvenir is horses and the hostel had some really funky ones that unfortunately weren’t for sale but they had told us where to get them… We set off just after lunch and walked to the train station to find out that we had just missed a train and there wasn’t one for over an hour. Not wanting to stick around for that long we went to the bus stop and caught a bus that nicely got us the whole way there directly. The shopping mall was huge and it seemed like a daunting task finding a little horse but we found the store that we had been told about and marched in. It was a kind of Freedom/warehouse but with very nice furniture. We walked around for a bit and then found out that there was a customer information kiosk. Long story short they didn’t have any horses and hadn’t for a while – gutted. All was not lost though as I really needed a jersey because it really is getting cooler in the evenings and Sarah wanted to see if there were any other horses on offer. I got a very nice jersey and Sarah settled for three wooden horses that we can paint up ourselves when we get to London. It was a three quarter of an hour bus ride back to the hostel and it went painfully slowly – we are so used to zipping around on trains that busses just hurt! It was basically dinner time as we got back and we had decided that we would use all our food that was left in the fridge rather than have to throw it out and there was plenty to eat. After dinner we got all our stuff together for our trip to Copenhagen early in the morning.

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,



Out and About

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Getting up a little earlier than the last few days we headed into the main city. It’s a lovely sea side city with a nice water front – not quite as good as Wellington but nice all the same. There was a cruse ship in the harbour and we are guessing it was full to the top with Americans as you can here them a mile away. We started with the Tourist Beuro to find out what were the ‘must do’s’ but for the fist time we were meet with a blank look and finally a ‘oh well I guess this is a nice place to go’… Not quite what we expected and so we left and just walked around the centre of the city. There was a lovely castle on the top of a small hill but gave nice views of the harbour and that cruse ship. From there we walked down what we guessed to be the main shopping street but all the shops are the same ones that we have been into a million times so we left quickly in the direction of the waterfront. We had only been in the city for around two hours but we both just felt like getting back to the hostel, were both not to sure if it’s because we are both stuffed or not but all the cities seem to be merging into one. Throughout Italy we had so many different experiences in the one country and then again in the lower part of France but from Spain to Sweden there defiantly isn’t as much variety and the cities just merge into one. We got a bus back to the hostel, which is wonderful as it stops right at the door of the hostel, and we went straight to the kitchen to heat up leftovers from last nights dinner. I can’t even begin to tell you how happy we both are in our little ‘haven’, we can cook our own food, we can sit in the lounge, or just hang out in the bedroom. After our late lunch we just hung out and played a little more Memory before a massive dinner of bacon cabonara at which time we decided that we were having such a good time that we would book another night. After dinner we simply just went to our room and watched Dogma, one on my all time favourites, before we went to sleep.





posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,



Nothing - and loving it!

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Today was definitely all about nothing. Although we had to get up for breakfast at 9am we went straight back to bed afterwards and getting up at midday. There was a supermarket not far from the hostel so we went in search of lunch. I had been craving a steak sandwich for a while so I decided that I would hunt out a good bit of steak regardless of the cost. We were pleasantly surprised by the prices, with most stuff being cheaper than what we would pay in New Zealand. Getting carried away we bought way more than what we needed for lunch and bought dinner as well – we would have spaghetti bolognaise. How nice it is to buy and cook your own food, I was actually excited about cooking dinner. Anyway we cooked up our steak sandwiches, and had a very nice lunch before making our way to the library with hot drinks in hand. After playing a couple of games of Memory and laying about for a bit we both started feeling lazy and would you believe it, if I said that as soon as we made the decision to go out for a walk that the heavens opened up and it started pissing down!! Thank god for that. Needless to say out came the Memory and on with the jug. It didn’t rain for long and we did end up going for a walk around the block – it’s a long block, and luckily walking back past the supermarket to grab a couple of extra things for our coming feast. Dinner went off with out a hitch, we had hot fresh bread with a fresh salad and spaghetti bolognaise. But as we were sitting there eating our dinner we started talking about why we would leave such a nice place to stay and it wouldn’t really make much difference if we stayed on for another night. They had plenty of room so we did book and headed up to our room to watch a DVD – What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, before getting a well deserved early night sleep.




posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,



Journey to Denmark – I mean Sweden…

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

For some reason I thought that we didn’t have to get up early today and when the alarm went off I dismissed it and promptly went back to sleep. For those of you who know me this is really quite odd, I’m really not the person to sleeping passed an alarm clock. Luckily for me it was on Sarah’s side of the bed and she kept an eye on the time, only getting up half an hour later than it was set. We had breakfast at the hotel and slowly made the two minute journey over to the station. Our train looked to be a midget, the entire train only taking the space of one carriage on the poster that displays the day’s trains and where they stop on the platform – you have to love German rail! It also didn’t look to have a dinner carriage but thanks to Germany this didn’t mean that we went hungry, I just went to one of the many places in the station to get food and within minutes I had sandwiches, beer, lollies and water. Our train arrived and yes it certainly was a teeny tiny little thing but very modern and comfortable. The ride was around 3 hours until we got to the ferry, then a one hour crossing to Denmark with another two hour ride on the other side up to Copenhagen.
The InterIslander people could really learn a lot from the Scandiline people (the boat that we went on). For a ride that is less than 1 hour, there are at least 4 different restaurants, duty free shopping (which, okay, going between the Nth and Sth Islands you couldn’t exactly do), several different seating environments, plus more. Very, very nice.
We arrived in good sprits after a nice crossing and easy train ride, but after the first hour this disappeared. There was no possibility of accommodation anywhere in Copenhagen t or the surrounding suburbs, the last room available being a 3 star hotel and that only had one family room left at €300 for the night. We found out there was a doctor’s conference on for a couple of days, taking up all extra beds. Unfortunately there is only one way in and one way out of Copenhagen – being the way we came. Not too keen on this we decided to gamble and head across the water to Malmo. It was a 45 minute ride and we had to wait an hour for a train that was meant to go every 15 minutes, I think that we must have caught them on a bad day as it was bedlam and when the train did actually arrive there were twice as many people to seats, so the isles were crammed with people. But we were very thankful to be on a train out of Copenhagen and hopefully to a bed. We arrived an hour later and were shocked to realise that we had crossed our second border for the day and were now in Sweden! To make things even more interesting this was our third currency for the day… We walked into the Tourist information centre and were given the same story of woe that we got in Copenhagen. But at this time we got a good lady and she spent a good hour helping us sort out something. We had two possibilities; one was to take an overnight boat back to Germany, getting in at 10am or go further up the country and stay in a hostel. Not sure what to do we um-ed and ah-ed for a minute and then saw the other lady of the store closing the door and not letting anyone else in. This was like the final straw - we had now been trying to get accommodation now for over four hours. We figured that we needed to make sure that we had a bed for the night, as this was our last chance and I really didn’t want to sleep in the station. Thank god we got the lady that we did as she was so patient and willing - she finally got a hostel on the phone with rooms available and was only another 45 minutes up the line. We gladly took the room and ran for the train as it was leaving in 4 minutes. This train thankfully left on time and as we sat there we tried to work out how to get to the hostel. The train that we got was an express so unfortunately we raced past our stop like a speeding bullet. This was ok though as the main station was only 3mins up the line and we could just jump onto the next train coming back in the direction we had just come from. Apparently trains are not the main form of transport in Scandinavia though, so we did have to wait for a bit but eventually we got a train that thank-god did stop at ‘Ramlosa’ – this was the station we wanted, and we walked the 500 metres to the hostel finally walking in the door at 7.45pm. We had arrived in Copenhagen at 2pm so it had taken 5 and a half hours to get a bed, that’s definitely a record. Thank God we didn’t know that reception actually closes at 8, and that we had made it by just 15 minutes! The extra stress would have been awful! But what an amazing hostel to arrive in, especially after such an ordeal. Definitely the best hostel so far, in fact better than almost all the hotels! It has full kitchen facilities, a TV room with library, free laundry facilities and the rooms are amazing.. Even more good news was that there was a supermarket around the corner that was still open, so we could go and get dinner and then prepare it in the kitchen. That is exactly what we did, but not realising just how much of a kitchen that we got, we bought pre-made dinners from the supermarket but by this stage it was getting onto 9pm so we didn’t have a energy to make a nice dinner – that would have to wait till tomorrow…

posted by Maarty @ 6:36 pm, ,



It’s getting colder

Monday, September 05, 2005

Before getting to Holland I had been unwell for the first time of the trip and felt in need of a good relax and that’s exactly what we got. Teis is lovely and has been an exceptional hostess for our time in Scheveningen. We left early around 8.30, catching a tram to the central station and from there catching a train to Amsterdam, from Amsterdam to Osnabruck and then Osnabruck to Hamburg, finally getting in at 4.30pm. We quickly found a hotel and made our way there. The room was clean and tidy but quite old – not the best not the worst and we rested for a bit and then made our way into the city. It’s a lovely city with nice parks and lakes, lots of runners were running around the smaller lake. We walked for about an hour to a spot that the tourist lady had said was really good and there was a show of lights. We got there an hour before it started and so we waited… For the first time in a very long time it started to get cold - and colder still. It was bloody freezing buy the time the show started, here we were, sitting in the middle with really good seats in our T-shirts and shorts surrounded by people snug in their blankets and warm clothing. The show however was really nice and lasted half an hour, getting us back at home around 10.30 in time for a good sleep before heading to Copenhagen in the morning..

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,



Random Photos - will update when we can...


















posted by Maarty @ 6:37 am, ,



Sunday with Ties

Sunday, September 04, 2005

We really didn’t get up to much today, just lazing around the house with Ties - It was really nice. At around 3pm Sarah and I went for a walk to the pier and had a look around for a while before jumping on a tram, heading back to Teis’s for dinner. She had made a very nice roast with silver beat, potatoes and salad. It was really good to get a decent, home cooked meal before we leave for Hamburg early in the morning.

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,



Ahh, the Dutch…

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Getting up at the crack of Afternoon, we headed off to the train station and on to Rotterdam. Our Eurail Passes have saved us so much money over the last couple of months. We were able to use them to go to Rotterdam, which otherwise would have cost us €4.50 each, each way. That’s nearly $40 NZ! It wouldn’t be realistic without the passes. Anyway, the train to Rotterdam only took 20 minutes or so, and the first thing Maarty saw when we got off was another of the ‘food in the wall’ places, so off he goes with his €1, to get a fried sausage thing… he thought it was going to be chicken and corn, which he would have loved, but no! Even though the name sounded a bit like the English equivalent of Chicken and Corn, it was not… it was, in his words, kinda stupid mushed up meat with no particular flavour. Fortunately he eats pretty much anything these days, so scoffed it down anyway.
We didn’t know what to expect from Rotterdam, other that that it had a river and was in Holland. Arriving we walked out of the station and were greeted by practically nothing, other than a map that seemed to us to possibly be upside down… which on further investigation, it was. So we turned left, not right like it told us to, and headed for the centre of the city. After visiting a fountain in the middle of a perilously busy roundabout, we found a tourist information centre where we were told that there was a festival down by the water. Excited, we headed in that direction, only to discover that what the Dutch call a festival, we would call a big group of people standing around not doing a hell of a lot. Very odd. It was the weirdest thing to have thousands of people gathered to watch the waterfront, with nothing actually happening on it. It did give me an opportunity to get candyfloss though… yum yum! We waited an hour for something to happen, feeling like dumb tourists, wishing we knew why every one was there, before deciding that it was rather a waste of time and headed back over the bridge. When we were halfway across the bridge, suddenly out of nowhere came 2 military helicopters, flying at high speed toward us. Music started and we saw some of the many boats line up… ‘what’s this’ we thought? We then saw the strangest thing… the helicopters were at the head of a parade, consisting of about 4 little military boats and about 10 inflatables, looking like ducklings following their mother. All very strange – this was a big river and the four little boats didn’t male you go WOW they must have a good military. After about 2 minutes the parade was over and the boats dispersed leaving the helicopters. This however was amazing, they were doing all sorts of tricks – as if their commander had said to them why don’t you go out and just show off for a bit… They were almost going upside down, and banking really hard and lots of cool stuff. Eventually, a couple of guys jumped out into the water (which is what Maarty had been saying they should do for a good half hour) for mock rescues. It really was very interesting to see, but as we left we were still wondering what the hell it was all supposed to be about.
After a little shopping we headed back to Ties’ place as we were going to go to Tonte Ville’s to watch the soccer; our first football game! Better learn the rules if we’re going to live in England, I suppose. We both sat there fascinated at how slow the game moved, by half time there had only been one goal scored… In the end there were about 10 other people there, many of whom spoke fantastic English, so we had a blast. We even got to see a video from home, as family friend Theo had recently sent them a video of something he had made for a local TV channel (we think) called Holland Overtures (or something). Strange video but nice to see Birdlings Flat, anyway! What an awesome evening!

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,



Slowing down

Friday, September 02, 2005

Today was a very lazy day. We feel that at this stage it’s nice just to hang out and slow it down ‘recharging’ before heading towards Copenhagen in a few days time. We went for a walk and bought food to make dinner for Ties, which was strange as we hadn’t made dinner for anyone in a long time and couldn’t decided just what to by at the supermarket. We settled on chicken Cabonara and although it tasted very different to what we would make at home it was nice enough. After dinner Sarah and I went for a walk down the pier before an early night.

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,



Den Haag – Schaveninger

Thursday, September 01, 2005

We set out this morning to find our way to my Aunt’s house. I had spoken to Ties (my Aunt) yesterday and she not only wanted to have a coffee or lunch but for us to stay for the night as well. It took us a while to get ourselves organised after a rather late night walking the streets of Amsterdam so it wasn’t until 11am that we finally left the hotel and caught a tram to the station. The conductor on the tram was the rudest person that we have encountered on our travels yet. We boarded the tram with our tickets as per normal only to be yelled to from the little booth that he was at that we just take our packs off as we were annoying a lot of people and that he wanted to see our tickets. This was just a joke because we had already organised ourselves to be right out of the way and the tram was only a few stops away from the station and everyone on the tram had luggage as well, but to take our bags off meant that they had to be in the isle, go figure. Anyway there were a few tears from Sarah as he was just way over the top but it was only a 5min ride to the station where we quickly got something to eat and moved off to platform 13a to catch the 12.13 to Den Haag. It was a small train journey but in a very nice train and once there it was very easy to find out where we needed to go as the Dutch are the most helpful and generous people yet – by far. Suddenly standing in front of Ties’ door I rang the bell with butterflies in my tummy, but sure enough we were greeted with open arms and how nice it was to finally meet the person I had seen in so many photos. I can only explain it just like as if I had walked into one of Oma’s and Opa’s photos, instantly recognising the house and it’s lovely court yard. Ties is such the generous hostess and had already organised for a gathering later in the day after she got home from work at 9, but in the meantime giving us a key so that we could come and go as we please. After Ties had left for work we headed out to see what Scheveningen had to offer, finding a beach that could easily be Brighton in Christchurch – In fact Holland in general is very similar to NZ, with a massive pier and heaps of restaurants and food shacks. It was lovely to walk down the beach and easy to imagine that we were home again, with even the voices in the back ground often being English.
Getting close to 9 we arrived back at the house and had just sat down when there was a knock at the window and we found a older lady peering in with a grin on her face. The weirdest thing about being here is that every one is so friendly and happy to meet us but I haven’t the foggiest who they are or how they are related to me… I opened the door and after a hug and kiss we started to talk, finding out that it was one of Oma’s sisters, Tonte Ville. We sat down with coffee and Ties arrived home and set the outside area up for a few guests. It was a lovely night; I meet three of Oma’s four sisters and one cousin, finally getting off to bed around 12.30.

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,