I'm in the Netherlands now!
I've been here for about a week. In this time I've gotten to know my way around the city and gotten to know my Engineering flatmates; Joost, Ivo and Ibles. More on them later. Here are the main things I've learned about Delft:
1) Bike riding is everywhere. I was expecting there to be a lot of bikes, but this is something else. They're hardly any cars, and under every railway station there's a huge underground storage facility holding thousands of bikes (think iRobot, except replace advanced AI robots with worn down and weathered bikes). My flatmates tell me that once University starts I'll get to experience "bike rush hour" in the morning. I honestly can't wait to see a large line of stationary bikes with all riders angrily ringing their high pitched bike bells. I purchased my own crappy bike for 65 euro and I'm proud to say that the novelty of calmly riding around town is already wearing off. I'm now as impatient and fast as the locals. I can't wait to drag race an elderly woman in an electric wheel chair.
2) The city is beautiful. The architecture of the buildings and the cobbled walking paths make the whole city center seem like a castle. The beautiful network of canals & bridges running through the city also add to this feeling, and kinda look like a really inefficient moat.
3) Delft is a student town, and that means there's a big nightlife here. I went to a small festival yesterday in the city center and I noticed two main things: 1) all locals look like they belong in the cast of "Greece" the musical - a lot of them have leather jackets and have slicked back hair, and 2) Beer throwing is a thing. At festivals most people will drink 90% of their beer and then throw the plastic cup and the other 10% of beer all the way to the mosh pit. It literally rains beer.
4) The university is amazing! I've toured the whole area and the facilities are top notch - much better than UNSW. I've also had a look at my flatmates thesis projects so I could get a gauge of the quality of work that will be expected of me. I think I'm going to be really challenged here. Dis gon be tuf.
5) Winkel is Dutch for Store :)
Monday, August 21, 2017
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Day 6 Austria
I woke up at 9am so I could frantically get my stuff together to check out on time. I met up with Kumaran (the Irish dude) right afterwards and we decided to check out the city together.
Begin Interesting backstory:
Before I got wasted last night, I decided to book a bus all the way to Amsterdam. Coincidentally the Irish dude was catching the same bus all the way to Brussels.
End of Interesting backstory:
I took a tour around the castle and city center. It's a really beautiful tiny city. There were little kidlings playing Pokemon Go trying to catch a legendary Pokemon by the castle. It reminded me a lot of when I was traveling around Europe with my family as a kid with my face glued to a black and white gameboy. No regrets.
Munich was the first stop out of many towards the Netherlands. We managed to make a few friends on the bus and we all decided to grab beers at a beer garden and eat kebabs at a neighboring stall. The lack of rain made my experience of Munich this time round a whole lot more pleasant.
While I was on my 12 hour bus ride to the Netherlands I had some time to reflect on what I had learned traveling through Germany and Almost Germany.
1) If you want to order the big 1L beer glass, do not call it a "stein". They don't know what that means. Instead order "Une Mass"
2) Starbucks has free WiFi
3) WC stands for bathroom
There were some other things I learned, but those were the main ones.
Begin Interesting backstory:
Before I got wasted last night, I decided to book a bus all the way to Amsterdam. Coincidentally the Irish dude was catching the same bus all the way to Brussels.
End of Interesting backstory:
I took a tour around the castle and city center. It's a really beautiful tiny city. There were little kidlings playing Pokemon Go trying to catch a legendary Pokemon by the castle. It reminded me a lot of when I was traveling around Europe with my family as a kid with my face glued to a black and white gameboy. No regrets.
Munich was the first stop out of many towards the Netherlands. We managed to make a few friends on the bus and we all decided to grab beers at a beer garden and eat kebabs at a neighboring stall. The lack of rain made my experience of Munich this time round a whole lot more pleasant.
While I was on my 12 hour bus ride to the Netherlands I had some time to reflect on what I had learned traveling through Germany and Almost Germany.
1) If you want to order the big 1L beer glass, do not call it a "stein". They don't know what that means. Instead order "Une Mass"
2) Starbucks has free WiFi
3) WC stands for bathroom
There were some other things I learned, but those were the main ones.
Saturday, August 12, 2017
Day 5 Austria
I arrived in Salzburg in the late afternoon and made my way directly to my 30 euro / night hostel called "Muffin". Rather than catch public transport, I decided to waddle my way through the city center. My first impression of Austria is that it's very similar to Germany (my lasting impression is that it's very similar to Germany). When I arrived at my hostel I was initially very pessimistic about my socializing opportunities because I saw lot's of people in their 50's waddling around. I later found out that there was a classic music festival over the weekend which was filling up every form of accommodation - hence the expensive hostel and the presence of old people.
However, I was lucky enough that I managed to run into an Irish guy and Austrian girl while I was making dinner in the kitchen. They were active hikers in their early 20's that had just finished hiking independently around the Austrian Alps. I didn't have the equipment, time or organizational skills to do a hike in the alps this trip, so I decided to live the experience through their descriptive story telling.
We all had the intention of going out to the city center to grab a few beers, but we all got distracted playing ping pong and drinking beers at the hostel instead.
By around 4:30am, I stumbled drunk into my 4 bedroom hostel trying desperately not to wake my 50 y/o Chinese woman and Indian male roommates up.
However, I was lucky enough that I managed to run into an Irish guy and Austrian girl while I was making dinner in the kitchen. They were active hikers in their early 20's that had just finished hiking independently around the Austrian Alps. I didn't have the equipment, time or organizational skills to do a hike in the alps this trip, so I decided to live the experience through their descriptive story telling.
We all had the intention of going out to the city center to grab a few beers, but we all got distracted playing ping pong and drinking beers at the hostel instead.
By around 4:30am, I stumbled drunk into my 4 bedroom hostel trying desperately not to wake my 50 y/o Chinese woman and Indian male roommates up.
Day 4 Germany
Munich is big, like really big, like so big it makes Los
Angles looks still massive, but only kind of massive. In fact, because Germany
is so well interconnected by roads and train lines, it’s not uncommon to find
people who work in Munich, but live in an adjacent city. Johns Uncle is one of
those people, and he gave me a lift to Munich at 6am for free. I arrived at 7am
and proceeded to walk around the city for a solid 11 hours before I could meet
up with my Austrian friend after she finished work.
Walking around Munich was interesting, but exhausting. It started to rain quite heavily at 12:00 so my walk around “English Park” was cut short. It also meant I couldn’t enjoy Munich’s famous beer gardens as much since I had to sip on my beer undercover and not in the garden. On the Brightside though, I spent a large chunk of time in the University and state library which was kinda cool! The bottom of Munich’s University featured a small museum where anyone could learn about how the University of Munich tried to stop the Nazi’s. If I remember correctly, the “white rose” was a small resistance movement started in 1942 which opposed many Nazi-esk things, including the invasion of Russia. But I think shortly after small group of academics got started releasing their pamphlets, they got shut down by the “Gestapo” and assassinated.
Walking around Munich was interesting, but exhausting. It started to rain quite heavily at 12:00 so my walk around “English Park” was cut short. It also meant I couldn’t enjoy Munich’s famous beer gardens as much since I had to sip on my beer undercover and not in the garden. On the Brightside though, I spent a large chunk of time in the University and state library which was kinda cool! The bottom of Munich’s University featured a small museum where anyone could learn about how the University of Munich tried to stop the Nazi’s. If I remember correctly, the “white rose” was a small resistance movement started in 1942 which opposed many Nazi-esk things, including the invasion of Russia. But I think shortly after small group of academics got started releasing their pamphlets, they got shut down by the “Gestapo” and assassinated.
I met my friend, Anita at a beer garden at 6:00. I was sore,
tired and full of way too many pretzels, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying
a lovely German dinner and stein. We had planned to do a Beer garden pub crawl
around Munich, but after some misadventures with bike riding in the rain, I put
in the towel and begged for an easy night of Game of Thrones and hot chocolate.
I got my wish.
Gutten bye Germany. Next stop, Austria!
Gutten bye Germany. Next stop, Austria!
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Day 3 Germany
Today I learned that Augsberg is famous for having the largest prostitution per resident ratio in Germany. :)
John had work today so this was my chance to borrow a bicycle and explore the city on my own. In an expected turn of events, breakfast had been prepared for us - it was a traditional German breakfast including; bratwurst, pretzel and heffeweizen. Absolutely delicious. I'm sure having alcohol super early in the morning 2 days in a row didn't help my lingering jetlag.
There wasn't much to do in the town, but I proceeded to do the lost tourist march to find all the major attractions anyway. There were a few cool statues and some overpriced museums. In the midst of it all I got to meet with a homeless man who is informally known as the "King of Augsburg". I took a shameless selfie with him and was on my way. On the way back I stopped by the University to check out their facilities. My lasting impression is "meh, is aiight I guess".
By late afternoon I retreated back to Johns mums home to cocoon myself in the comforts fast WiFi and free food. Once recovered I went for a 2 to 3 hour hike around the giant park next to the house. It was fantastich!
In the evening John and I went to a brewery to try a lot of local beers. It was a good end to a good trip :)
Next stop, Munich!
John had work today so this was my chance to borrow a bicycle and explore the city on my own. In an expected turn of events, breakfast had been prepared for us - it was a traditional German breakfast including; bratwurst, pretzel and heffeweizen. Absolutely delicious. I'm sure having alcohol super early in the morning 2 days in a row didn't help my lingering jetlag.
There wasn't much to do in the town, but I proceeded to do the lost tourist march to find all the major attractions anyway. There were a few cool statues and some overpriced museums. In the midst of it all I got to meet with a homeless man who is informally known as the "King of Augsburg". I took a shameless selfie with him and was on my way. On the way back I stopped by the University to check out their facilities. My lasting impression is "meh, is aiight I guess".
By late afternoon I retreated back to Johns mums home to cocoon myself in the comforts fast WiFi and free food. Once recovered I went for a 2 to 3 hour hike around the giant park next to the house. It was fantastich!
In the evening John and I went to a brewery to try a lot of local beers. It was a good end to a good trip :)
Next stop, Munich!
Day 2 Germany
We woke up at the crack of 7am to go on a long hike. I had breakfast with the family, including Johns grandmother and uncle. At some point I joked that I planned on using "schnapps" to hydrate myself during the hike instead of water now that I'm in Bavaria. Sadly, the grandmother, who knows literally no English (that's right, none) latched onto the word "schnapps" and assumed I wanted some with breakfast. In the most aggressive act of hospitality she poured me a full shot of 60% APV schnapps that was in the cupboard next to me. I gestured that John wanted some too, and we began what would become a great day of tipsy hiking.
We drove 2 hours south to a hiking track called Höllen Thalklamm (Hell Valley). It's a trail that goes up and around the mountains that separate Germany from Austria - Trump would be proud. We packed 6 beers for the trip and 1 bottle of water - we could refill the water bottle at anytime from the stream that we were hiking along. There was a restaurant at the top where I enjoyed SpecKnödel (kinda like a bacon dumpling) & sour kraut. The meal was perfect and it reinforced my strongly held view that Germany has the best food in Europe.
We arrived back home instantly using a teleporter (the Germans call it the "autobahn"). We reached a max speed of 180 km/hr... how fucking crazy is that!? A wonderful traditional meal had been prepared for us, and an additional guest called Roxanna (a relative of Johns from Romania) had joined us for dinner. Everyone's proficiency level in English was very different; the grandmother at the bottom and Roxanna at the top, so we had to take turns switching between English and German, with poor John acting as a UN translator the whole time.
I wanted to end the night with a bang by going to a pub to drink a few more steins, but God decided to become my own personal bouncer and made it piss down with rain. Instead we watched War Dogs and went to bed. Great day all up.
We drove 2 hours south to a hiking track called Höllen Thalklamm (Hell Valley). It's a trail that goes up and around the mountains that separate Germany from Austria - Trump would be proud. We packed 6 beers for the trip and 1 bottle of water - we could refill the water bottle at anytime from the stream that we were hiking along. There was a restaurant at the top where I enjoyed SpecKnödel (kinda like a bacon dumpling) & sour kraut. The meal was perfect and it reinforced my strongly held view that Germany has the best food in Europe.
We arrived back home instantly using a teleporter (the Germans call it the "autobahn"). We reached a max speed of 180 km/hr... how fucking crazy is that!? A wonderful traditional meal had been prepared for us, and an additional guest called Roxanna (a relative of Johns from Romania) had joined us for dinner. Everyone's proficiency level in English was very different; the grandmother at the bottom and Roxanna at the top, so we had to take turns switching between English and German, with poor John acting as a UN translator the whole time.
I wanted to end the night with a bang by going to a pub to drink a few more steins, but God decided to become my own personal bouncer and made it piss down with rain. Instead we watched War Dogs and went to bed. Great day all up.
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
Day 1 Germany
This small collection of posts will be about my trip around Germany before I begin my new life in the Netherlands.
But first, some housekeeping: I've spent the last 7 months in Sydney working at Smart Sparrow. Before flying to Europe Kaz and I visited my parents in KL. After almost a week, Kaz and I split ways and I headed to London for Laura's wedding. On the 7th, free from family commitments, I made my way to Luton Airport to fly to Munich.
Once I arrived in Munich, Johannes (who I call John because I'm a dumb English speaker) picked me up and drove us both to Augsburg. We got lost a few times but made it there in the end. I put far too much pressure on John to go to a pub before we arrived at his parents place. He reluctantly accepted and we both powered down a well anticipated and unearned stein and Hefeweizen. No food in either of our stomach's got us both a tad tipsy, so I figured the only way to sober up was to accept Johns offer to drive his manual car all the way home. Spoiler: We didn't die, but I did stall the car in the wrong lane a few times. I guess its fortunate for me it was only a 2 minute drive in a safe and empty neighborhood.
When we arrived we found out Johns mum had stayed up till midnight just to greet me. John said its because an Australian arriving is "big news"; I think it's because she wanted to make sure she wasn't housing a psychopath. Either way, she was very hospitable and lovely.
But first, some housekeeping: I've spent the last 7 months in Sydney working at Smart Sparrow. Before flying to Europe Kaz and I visited my parents in KL. After almost a week, Kaz and I split ways and I headed to London for Laura's wedding. On the 7th, free from family commitments, I made my way to Luton Airport to fly to Munich.
Once I arrived in Munich, Johannes (who I call John because I'm a dumb English speaker) picked me up and drove us both to Augsburg. We got lost a few times but made it there in the end. I put far too much pressure on John to go to a pub before we arrived at his parents place. He reluctantly accepted and we both powered down a well anticipated and unearned stein and Hefeweizen. No food in either of our stomach's got us both a tad tipsy, so I figured the only way to sober up was to accept Johns offer to drive his manual car all the way home. Spoiler: We didn't die, but I did stall the car in the wrong lane a few times. I guess its fortunate for me it was only a 2 minute drive in a safe and empty neighborhood.
When we arrived we found out Johns mum had stayed up till midnight just to greet me. John said its because an Australian arriving is "big news"; I think it's because she wanted to make sure she wasn't housing a psychopath. Either way, she was very hospitable and lovely.
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