Day 14: A New View

Sunday, September 4: Maastricht, Netherlands

Looking out the window of my new room, I hearing the chirping of small birds, ringing of church bells and the gentle sound of rain. I smell eggs and pancakes cooking in some other neighboring home. I feel a cool breeze through the open window pane. Its a rainy Sunday morning in Maastricht, the perfect day to officially open this blog and regale my experiences thus far in Europe.

So I have gotten off to a slovenly start with this blog. I arrived in Netherlands nearly two weeks ago! That is hard to believe! After a longer-than-anticipated trip, I was happy to finally reach Maastricht - the city I will call home for the next four months. Although my arrival did not happen as anticipated, it is surely memorable. Now I will begin to tell what promises to be an interesting next four months, full of excitement and new ways of thinking. I hope you enjoy this journey with me....your comments are very much appreciated!


Sunday, August 21, 2011 and Monday August 22, 2011 - Journey to Netherlands

Sunday was the big day - my departure for the Netherlands! After a long day of packing, saying goodbyes and enjoying my last few hours in the states, Nishant drove me to the airport for my 9.15pm flight to London. When we arrived, we were informed that the flight was a bit delayed, so we took a seat at the bar and split a drink until it was time for me to pass through security. After a hard goodbye, I passed through the security gates and began what would be a much longer than anticipated journey to Maastricht.

Arriving at the gate after navigating the Atlanta airport, I soon found out that my flight was delayed until 10pm due to bad weather. It was fueling in Charlotte and scheduled to fly to Atlanta as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the weather did not soon improve, and the flight was soon changed to a midnight delay! They issued us food vouchers after I had already bought myself dinner at McDonalds - the only place still open in the concourse food court. I took care of some business and made some final goodbye calls while I tried to wait patiently for my flight. Finally, at 1.30am on Monday morning, we boarded the plane and took off about 1.45am!

I quickly found a good movie that I wanted to watch on the flight menu and munched on my fake Indian food dinner (a hard transition after a summer of  real Indian food!). The movie ended about 3.30am and I resorted to taking a nap, which lasted about 4 hours until the pilot came over the intercom informing us of updates. They served breakfast and the flight landed safely about 8.30am American time....1.30pm London time!

I had to wake up real quick as we disembarked the plane and were ushered to flight connections to rearrange missed flights due to the delay. I stood in line for some time, but managed to change my flight to an evening ride to Amsterdam Schipol airport. I had originally planned to fly into Dusseldorf, Germany, but was glad to be flying into the familiar Schipol airport and take Dutch trains down to Maastricht.

Upon landing in Amsterdam, I retrieved my luggage and loaded it on a trolley - all four bags! This was the part of the journey that made me so nervous...navigating the airports and train stations with all this baggage. Luckily, the train ride to Maastricht only called for one transfer, which was conveniently on the other side of the same platform! After arriving in Netherlands and getting my new Dutch phone card to work, I made some calls in an attempt to arrange my arrival in Maastricht so that I could enter the house in the evening since I would be arriving so late. I could not get ahold of the landlord or my roommate by the time I reached Maastricht on the train, so I ended up having to stay in a hotel for the night.

Outside the Maastricht train station at midnight, I saw a few options ahead of me. The Grand Hotel stood right in front of the train station in all its glory....and costliness. As I did not desire to fork over all of the cash packed neatly in my bags, I asked the train conductor, who was waiting nearby,  where I could find affordable, safe accommodation for the night. He recommended the Botel - a hotel on a boat on the Maas (Meuse) river that runs through Maastricht. This sounded like an interesting option, so I headed for the taxi stand and found a cab to take me there.

The driver was quite nice and we made friendly conversation as I drove to first the StayOkay hostel (which he suggested might be cheaper) and next to the Botel (which ended up being the best option at 33 euros). I met the Botel manager who gave me the key to my room and helped me carry my four large, precarious bags down the steep steps of the boat into the cabin area. I entered my room, a double room with bunk beds, a sink, small closet, and minitature bathroom including a toilet and shower with no door! I arranged my suitcases so that I could move around in the small space and found what I need for the night. Exhausted from the long trip and jetlag, I quickly showered, called Nishant, and went to bed.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - Traveling to Slovenia

The next morning, I fully intended to wake  up at 9am, call my landlord, and arrange to get into the house a few hours before my departure for Slovenia. Again, things did not go as planned, since I overslept until 11am! When I woke, I quickly dressed, checked out of my room, and had a taxi called to drive me and my cumbersome luggage to my new place across town. A short taxi ride later, we pulled onto Onder de Kerk. At first the driver and I had difficulty finding the house, but we soon saw my landlord walking toward us.

Pooters (pronounced Poe-ters in Dutch) is the housing company that leases several student houses in the Maastricht/Wyck area. I had arranged my accommodation through www.kamernet.nl, but was also in contact with Pooters for logistical matters. Since Johanna had left me house keys in the room inside the house, I had Pooters let me in. The landlord showed me around the place and helped me carry my (heavy) luggage all the way up to the third floor of the house to my room. I thanked him for helping me and began to unpack my things when he left.

With just three hours before I was to leave for Slovenia, I hurriedly unpacked my suitcases and began to repack a bag for Slovenia. After a short time, one of my new roommates, Romy came home and we introduced ourselves to each other. She was very nice and pointed some things out to me in the house. I soon got back to work unpacking. After a bit, I noticed my stomach was growling, since I hadn't eaten in about 24 hours, so I walked over to the shops nearby and bought a small lunch and some snacks for the trip.

Back at the house, I ate, finished packing and briefly met Sophie - another Dutch roommate of mine. She was very friendly and eager to help me. I told her about my trip and when I would be back and left the house for my journey to Slovenia. After a long day of traveling already, I was not looking forward to more planes, trains and buses, but I  knew it would pay off when I arrived.

The Randwyck train station was supposed to be about 15 minutes walking from the house, so I left at 2:40pm to catch my 3:08pm train. As a newcomer to Maastricht, I did not quite know the walking directions to the station, even though the landlord and Sophie had given me some rough ones. I began walking in the direction of the station, and once stopped at a gas station for further instructions. I began to worry, since it was nearing 3pm and I was still a ways from the station. I sped up my pace (which was difficult with the large, heavy bag I was toting) and made it to the station just in time to board the train....without a ticket!

Maastricht Centraal Station is less than 2 minutes down the railroad track, on my way to Venlo - a border city where I  would take the shuttle to Weeze, Germany. I got off quickly at Maastricht and purchased my ticket to Venlo at the ticket counter. I made it back on the train just in time, and took off for an hour's journey to Venlo. Arriving in Venlo, I had to consult Nishant who graciously checked my e-mail for me to confirm the name of the shuttle service that would be picking me up. I had gotten confused and was waiting near their taxi stand, when the shuttle stop was really on the other side of the train station. Just before five, when the shuttle was to depart, I found the driver and boarded. I was the only passenger, and enjoyed a peaceful ride to Germany.

Arriving at the familiar Weeze airport, I hurried inside to board my Ryanair flight to Trieste, Italy. I waited a short time to board, and slept a bit on the hour-and-a-half flight south. When I arrived in Italy at about 9:30pm, I was immediately greeted by Saso and Mateja - one of my best friends from Tilburg! I had promised Mateja upon leaving Tilburg that the next time I journeyed to Europe, my first stop would be to visit her in Slovenia...now this promise was coming true!

We chattered as we walked to the car, where Mateja had a yummy sandwich, water and M&Ms awaiting me. With my wacky eating schedule, I was thankful for her kindness and enjoyed the dinner. We had a difficult time maneuvering our way back to Slovenia. The Italians do not do a very good job of labeling the way in which to exit their country. Two and a half hours later, we arrived at their familiar home in Slovenska Bistrica. Saso and Mateja helped me make my bed in the den upstairs and I was introduced to their new kitten, Napoleon!

Glad to have made it to my final destination, I showered and quickly went to bed. I was glad my traveling whirlwind was over for some time now, and looking forward to the week ahead in Slovenia!