Travelling through summer 2015

This page is going to be dedicated to the best and the longest summer ever.After graduating from high school, with the bestest mark for maths I could ever imagine, the longest summer ever started. It feels that I made it sound like something boring that is taking very long. That is not exactly what I meant. This summer is and was the best, most awesome, longest but passing to fast summer ever. Until now I must say, you never know what the future brings. Oh and I'm a blonde, 18 year old girl from the Netherlands. Nice to meet you!♬♪

[inter-summer]

9-7 & 10-7 Two totally different worlds.

At 12:30 we were picked up by a van for the 1,5 hour drive to Auschwitz. As we were dressed for summer-like weather (hot pants again) we were surprised by the rain and were sort of obliged to buy a rain coat. It must’ve looked pretty funny since my pants probably disappeared underneath the rain coat. The whole trip to Auschwitz I and II was very impressive again (I had been there before). It’s so hard to imagine what the people in that have been going through. The things they show you there, the things that people did to other people is inhuman. I can’t understand how soldiers and other men with authority were able to act in a certain way. The whole thing also makes you realize the bad conditions people in other countries may live in, even now.

After the impressive, interesting and tiring trip we were glad to be back at the hostel again.

We got ourselves some cheap-ass MacDonald’s 🍟 (in Poland everything is super cheap) and joined the guys with some card games. They decided to not go clubbing since they had to leave the next morning pretty early (sadly) and we didn’t really feel like it either. We decided to get some alcohol for the night and played drinking games into the early hours. Some of us ended up in each other’s beds again and were sort of lucky that the American girl came back late. However they got even more frustrated this night than the last one and started screaming this time. Everyone hurried back to his own bed and it felt like primary school trips all over again.. The next morning Nadia and I woke up early too to say the guys and girls goodbye. It felt like we lost some very good friends although we had known them for only 2 days. We just hoped we would at least see them 1 time again in Budapest. After some goodbye kisses we were left with  only the American girls in one big room.. how awkward. 💋💋

When we woke up again (11:30) the girls were still there (we hoped they would be gone by then) so we decided to face the awkwardness, got ourselves some breakfast and changed into comfy, sightseeing clothes. We left the hostel at lunch time so we headed directly to a restaurant for some sandwiches and salad. Afterwards we visited the castle where we sat for maybe half an hour on the ground watching people and having good conversations. It was such a nice view from there also;

Later we also did a walk through the Jewish quarter where we sat and watched people again (we were kind of tired). We walked through the nice gallery were they sell hundreds of the same souvenirs and headed back to the hostel for a nap and some wifi. We had the most delicious dinner that night at a cool restaurant on the side of the main square and went to bed early, our alarm clocks set on 5:30 am for our third travelling day. 💤

[inter-summer]

8-7 Rain, inter-luck and inter-friends.

Our second travelling day, destination; Krakow, Poland. It was sad to leave Sonja, Klemens and their lovely kids but we were really looking forward to the rest of our trip. They have been such great hosts, they welcomed us with open arms and we are thankful that they weren’t even annoyed by us coming home early in the morning. We managed to leave the apartment in time so we didn’t really have to hurry for our train. Our inter-luck was with us that day and we were there 20 minutes before the train would leave. This gave me some time to find a letterbox for the postcard I wanted to send my grandma (leaving Nadia at the platform with all our luggage and the worries for me to come back in time).

~We weren’t the only backpackers in here~

The train journey started of well, we first had to go to Warshau to change trains there for Krakow. But 15 minutes before we should have arrived in Warshau we noticed that something was wrong. We checked our Google Maps (which miraculously worked with only gps (I told you the inter-luck was with us)) and found out we were at least half an hour away from Warshau. Tiny bit of panicking here. Then suddenly a conductor stopped by and started talking very fast in which was probably Polish. Apparently everything about us showed that we didn’t understand a word of what she was saying because the man behind her started taking over. He was Polish but had lived in Canada for a few years so he managed to speak English pretty good. He told us that we were never going to make it in time to Warshau to get on the train to Krakow but that there was another option; we could leave this train at the next station (a station with only 2 platforms in a tiny village) because the train to Krakow would come by there as well. So that turned out to be the only option if we didn’t want to spend the night in Warshau. And our inter-luck was with us. Again. I told you ;). Everything happened in the exact same way as the man had told us.

We were so happy to arrive safely in Krakow. We were very well aware of the fact the only a small amount of the Polish people are able to speak English which makes it very hard to look for help when there are problems. But we arrived perfectly in time in Krakow and found the hostel easily since I had been there before.

~Our first sight of Krakow~

Our entrance at the hostel couldn’t have been better. After checking in we immediately met our room mates. We were in a dorm with 12 beds and one of the 5 English guys in there introduced us to the room, his friends, dinner and the barkeeper. He arranged some food for us and made us feel at home. We immediately felt that this was special. These new guys we met were so friendly and them and Andrew (the barkeeper) obliged us to join the pub crawl that night. We had never done such a thing and felt that is was the right thing to do although we were a bit tired. And it was the right thing to do it turned out! 👌

It started of with free unlimited shots and playing ‘ring of fire’ (which is what we call ‘kingsen’ in Holland). It was a great way to get to know the boys and get drunk. Then we went out for the first pub where we got another free welcome shot and beer to play beerpong. 🍺🍸 Hamish was gone within a minute because he met a girl (who turned out to be the lovely Annie). We continued our games and left for the next pub. I had some nice chats with Sachin and Josh and Nadia was hanging out with Paul and Sam. The last club promised free drinks for girls but that wasn’t like you would expect it. I promised Josh to get a drink for him as well but I couldn’t even get one for myself without having to wait 20 minutes. Everyone was complaing and I gave up. I didn’t want to leave my good company for some stupid drinks. Half of the group had suddenly decided to leave so we headed back to the hostel as well. After some chatting again some of us ended up in each others beds. We didn’t know yet though that there were 2 new girls from the US in our room that got pretty annoyed by people sleeping together which was sort of awkward. 🏨🏩🏨

The next morning started off a bit awkward since we didn’t want to be pushy and weren’t sure whether the boys liked hanging out with us. Apparently they did and we found Annie in Hamish’s bed there too. We were a nice hungover couple all together just hanging out in our beds before Nadia and I were heading off for our day trip to Auschwitz.

[inter-summer]

7-7 Where was our inter-luck?

So many more things we wanted to do and see in Berlin and we planned to do quite a lot of them in this day. The actual plan was; don’t sleep in later than 10 maybe, visit the Holocaust Museum, visit the Kunsthalle, have dinner with Klemens and Sonja, going clubbing at night again and somewhere in between arrange the food (lunch and snacks) for the next (travelling-)day. This was not exactly what we have been doing though.

The first mistake was to leave the apartment at 12 o’clock which wasn’t a very convenient time to enter a museum since we would probably not be the only ones. And that was what it turned out to be. We arrived at the Holocaust Memorial and searched for the museum-entrance. Which wasn’t that challenging since there was a huge queue. We thought that waiting in the heat of the day in 35 degrees for probably an hour wouldn’t be a very exciting idea so we decided to skip this part. Luckily the Kunsthalle was nearby and we were looking forward to putting our knowledge of art history into practice and watch some modern art in a cooled building. After a sweaty walk over the Unter den Linden we were very disappointed to find the Kunsthalle closed.. It was completely closed that day. And for what reason; an exhibition was being installed. Only one f*ing exhibition made the museum close for a week or so?! I don’t really understand from the financial point of view either. But we really were disappointed that both of our plans for the day didn’t really work out as expected. 

Some days before we had seen some advertisement for a homosexual exhibition in the Berlin Historic Museum and we decided to go there since we were really into museums that day. Surprisingly the exhibition was free and very interesting after all.

After we had some lunch we remembered something from a Dutch travelling tv show. Once they had visited a building which had been abandoned for a long time but was now filled with galleries from unknown artists but with awesome stuff inside. So we figured out how to get there and were excited with our new plan. When we arrived there though the building really seemed to look a bit abandoned. As we thought that this was as it was meant to be we walked around trying to look for an entrance. 2 guys were hanging out there and we approached them to ask them about it. And again we were disappointed.. The guys told us that the building had been closed 5 years ago. It didn’t function for anything anymore. We photographed the building as a funny memory and we strolled through the nearby streets. When we saw 2 cosy benches in a tiny park we decided it was time for a nap again.

The nap did us some good but afterwards we had to hurry for the supermarket to make ourselves some lunch for the other day and be in time for dinner with Klemens and Sonja. As we are super fast we managed to be way to early at the apartment and even had time to freshen up a bit.

Dinner was great. It was so nice to talk for like 2 ours with a young couple like that. They told us everything about their years in college and about major life decisions. It was very interesting and helpful to hear how they managed things. Also the food was very good, I must say.

Then, just before we wanted to leave the apartment for the night out, the weather changed . Again. Thunderstorm and rain. Again. Since the other night had been great we were of course not going to let us be influenced by it. A friend of Sonja had recommended us a very nice club, ón the Spree, again on the east side of the city. So we went the same way as the other night and looked for the club which we eventually found. We walked to the entrance when the security suddenly stopped us; we had to show them our ID’s to prove we were 18 years old. The two guys looked at them and then looked at each other and said something about our nationality. Then within a second they had apparently decided that we would only be allowed to enter when we were 21 years old. This was total bullshit. We knew beforehand that they weren’t very keen on foreigners but we had not expected this. And just when we thought our inter-luck had really let us down that day I heard a group of boys talking Dutch. Since we were desperate to find a nice place to go I randomly asked them where they were going. They told us they didn’t know what the place was called but we could definitely join them. The place turned out to be Cassiopeia. Which was all great but later a bit awkward when I found out they were 24 and almost done with their study in the city where I am going to study next month. They still needed us to get into the club though so we managed to not be very awkward. And actually we stayed with them for the rest of the night which was very nice. We just danced with them and drank beer all night and headed home when subway was working again and the sun was rising. Another day well spent.. sortof. 💋 ⚡

[inter-summer]

6-7 Doing sightseeing the Dutch way.

After last night we slept in until 12 or so before we went for a guided bike tour at 3 o'clock. We decided to do a bike tour since Berlin turned out to be such a big city with so many things to see, such a big history we knew very little of and many interesting things spread out over the city. The bike tour was in Dutch which made it sort of easier but you should be aware that I’m often not very fond of meeting Dutch people when I’m travelling. Dutch people are so loud, rude and annoying sometimes (although I am probably one of them too).

However the tour was super interesting and actually taught us many things we should have known before (in my opinion). The Berlin Wall, the Brandenburger Tor, the Berliner Dom, the Holocaust Memorial and of course the Reichstag. Although it may seem a bit boring, I think bike tours are the best ways to get to know a city in a short amount of time and also remember directions faster. Furthermore, it actually teaches you something about the standard sightseeing thing you would otherwise only take pictures of.

~You should notice the half-naked guy dancing in the grass.~

The bike tour was fun but tiring and afterwards we went for the cheapest pizza ever in a very cute and tiny Italian restaurant we randomly came across. The dinner was good and on our way back we were lucky to walk into some more subway-station-music. When we got back to the apartment we had a nice chat with Sonja again, decided to get some rest and left the clubbing to another night. 🌙

[inter-summer]

5-7 Random didgeridoos.

Our first day in Berlin had started. It was Sunday and many people told us Sundays are the best days in Berlin. Everyone is out to have fun with their families and friends and there are loads of cultural and artie things going on. I should note that the temperature was incredibly high that day. It was probably one of the warmest days in German history as it was in Holland that day. The temperature gauge told us it was 38 degrees but in the city between all the buildings cars and people I would say it was even 5 degrees more. The weather wouldn't stop us though because Sonja recommended us something that turned out to be the most awesome part of Berlin, in our opinion.

She sent us to the eastern part of Berlin which wasn't yet developed like the rest and used to be the poorer part of the city. Therefore there had been all possibilities for artists and other creative, open-minded people. The place was just awesome.

After a journey with the U-bahn of 40 minutes we walked over the bridge and entered a whole different world. There was this huge empty complex which looked abandoned but had been changed into a place for graffiti artists and creative minds. We started our walk around and were immediately approached by a 20 year old Brazilian guy Daniel who wanted to show us around. He worked at a place called Cassiopeia and he was just heading there. It was just an old complex turned into a nice terrace with loads of other things to see as well. we said goodbye and walked around by ourselves. Every bit of the buildings there was covered by graffiti, even inside the toilet buildings. later we bumped into a random flee market which looked very cute.

And we walked into even more crazy things. A fitness room, a place where antique furniture was sold, a vegan Indian food truck that was called Holy Cow and a place where some women where making and selling handmade lingerie.

The heat made us desperate for lunch and some rest in the shadow though. But apparently even in big cities like Berlin supermarkets are closed on Sundays. We eventually found a little shop with crappy baguettes but luckily also some cold drinks. Afterwards we decided to see the East Side Gallery. I think that we never found it though since we never saw the famous graffiti. We did find a part of the wall but I think the high temperatures made us lack the effort to look further for the Gallery. That is when we ended up in the James-Simon-park with a great view on the Berliner Dom and the Spree and the perfect opportunity for our afternoon nap.

We planned to have some salad for dinner so we didn't have to spend any money on restaurants. It turned out to be quite a challenge since the supermarkets were closed. But after some educated guessing we concluded that the supermarket at the Hauptbahnhof would at least be open and we were so glad to find out that we were right. During our dinner we decided to spend the night at Suicide Circus, a club recommended by some of our friends. But then the weather turned. After a steamy hot day suddenly the rain came streaming down and thunder struck. We wouldn't let our plans be influenced by the weather so we went out in our hot pants and hurried for the subway. When we arrived at Suicide’s nearest station we noticed that we were way to early to enter any club at all. So we were left with an abandoned bench at the station and our alcohol. Until we heard some music and other things going on at the other side of the station. We followed our ears and were glad we did because we found some entertainment for what turned out to be at least half an hour. This is what we came across;

A didgeridoo, some jerry-cans and a microphone were enough for us and many others to enjoy ourselves during the streaming rain. Everyone was either drinking beer, smoking weed or dancing to the music which created a very nice ambiance. After maybe 45 minutes we headed to Suicide which turned out to be a very good looking, cute and alternative club, judged by its looks. The music though was rather boring and a bit disappointing. However we met some nice English guys which who we talked to for the rest of the night and we even managed to dance with the terrible music. 

The trip back to the apartment was a whole other story I could bore you with. I can summarize it with 2 Polish girl, 1 wasted foreign guy, long waiting and getting home so early in the morning that the daily public transport was already working. I can only say; it was a day well spent in Berlin ★

[inter-summer]

4-7 The day we had been looking forward to all year.

Finally the day arrived. After a late night at Cees’ party we met at the central station in Leiden to leave our parents behind with tears streaming down their faces, and ready to undergo our first test of adulthood. Okay this may be a bit exaggerated but my mum actually wept a tear and it was quite challenging sometimes I must admit.

So we left with a train to Schiphol to get on another train to Deventer where we had to take a bus to Bad Bentheim. Our inter-luck made the day we wanted to leave be the exact same day of all public transport problems in Holland, only to find out later that that day was also finding place in Germany. Although the weather was extraordinary hot in both Holland and Germany we were lucky to be in a bus with fantastic AC. 

~Nadia actually thought it was a bit too cold inside and worried about her very bad cough. ~

But then the crappy trainlife started. In Bad Bentheim the only thing we had to do was get on the train to Berlin which wasn't that hard. We entered the train got to our seats which were miraculously next to one of the few windows and we tried to sleep off our tiny hangover from the night before. Until it got very busy near the window. Many people were trying to catch a bit of fresh air because apparently the AC was broken and half an hour later the train stopped. 15 minutes.. 30 minutes.. 1 hour and 20 minutes of waiting. And suddenly we heard some German talking through the station from which we couldn't really understand much, except that it was concerning our train. Luckily there was this very nice and cute and interesting German girl who spoke some English and informed us on everything for the rest of the day. Indeed the AC was the problem and another train was coming our way and arriving in an hour. After one hour of looking for cold drinks and hanging out at the small station together with 50 other people for the same train, the other so much smaller train arrived. I don’t understand how they planned to fit the same amount of steaming hot people in an even smaller train, but hey, they tried. So we were lucky and got into the train but then our inter-luck dumped us and we were doomed to sit on the floor, packed like animals, without AC again, actually next to a dog and screaming children. For 3 hours. We had some good company though, the German girl, who updated us on everything and we survived. It was only our first day and we decided we weren't going to be staggered by this.

After the terribly warm journey our friendship was tested already. We were both a sweaty, stinky piece of crap, we wanted a shower very bad and still had to smile and go on together haha.

We arrived at Berlin Hauptbahnhof where we were to meet Klemens. In Berlin we were lucky to have the possibility to stay with some of my grandparents’ family; a young couple who just started working after studying in Berlin, with two small children living in an outer part of the city. This meant good breakfast, no money spent on hostels, veryveryvery nice and helpful hosts and locals information. Klemens hired an electric car to pick us up from the station (normally they only use the public transport which is very good in Berlin). With the car we got some fresh air from driving and we arrived pretty fast at their flat. From the outside it looked rather small and we had to climb 12 stairs to get there but when the door opened we where surprised by what we found behind it. The apartment they lived in was so cool. The building itself was pretty old which you could see in the two single windows instead of one double and there was a creaking wooden floor. The interior fitted perfectly with the architecture. It was very minimalistic and with the high ceilings the apartment looked probably 3 times bigger than it actually was. Okay enough on the apartment.

Both Klemens and Sonja gave us all freedom to do what we want but recommended us loads of things anyway. since we were dead tired and sweaty and gross and pretty much done with everything they just send us to a nice street for a good dinner, they got us a map of the city and the subway and lent us their public transport tickets. After walking in the wrong direction for like 3 times we found the subway (later it turned out there was one soo much closer) and we had some good huge burgers with fries at a nice café. After that we decided to head back asap and get some rest for the next day.

When we arrived again at the apartment we finally met Sonja with who we had been emailing for some months now. She was even nicer than we expected and had some good talk after she recommended us some things for the next day.

The journey really started now and we were very excited. :)

[inter-summer]

The travelling life for at least a month.

This page is going to be dedicated to the best and the longest summer ever.

After graduating from high school with the bestest mark for maths I could ever imagine the longest summer ever started. It feels that I made it sound like something boring that is taking very long. That is not exactly what I meant. This summer is and was the best, most awesome, longest but passing to fast summer ever. Until now I must say, you never know what the future brings.

The travelling part started 4th of July, the morning after receiving my VWO diploma. Me and my lovely freundin and partner in crime Nadia left for a two-week-interrailtrip through Europe. We were doing Berlin, Krakow, Budapest and Prague after which we both had to hurry home if we wanted our clothes to be fresh again for the journey. On 21st August me and my parents and brother left for Morocco which is were I am now. I decided I was obliged to myself to make this kind of blog. Pictures can’t tell the whole story and reading this back years later will probably be lovely :) I must say my inter-friend Tabby inspired me to this as well since she has this lovely cute blog about her trip. (http://www.europeansummer2015.blogspot.com/)

~We were extremely happy with our well deserved diploma and also extremely warm since we had been sitting in a hot 38 degrees for 3 hours.~

xx I