Treinen door Nederland!

Last Sunday I toured Holland! Well, I went to about five cities in one day. Beau, Pascale, Maartje and Fiona had bought "dagkaarten" a while back at a reduced price, that expired in January. A dagkaart allows you unlimited travel around the country during one day- whereas normally how much you pay is determined how far you travel. They made a plan of which cities they wanted to see, and invited me along! So I too bought an dagkaart, for about twenty-three euros.

At 7:30 bright and early Sunday morning, I biked to Beau's and from there we all cycled to Rodenrijs (the nearest metrostration). From then on until about ten o'clock at night, we traveled and explored different cities! We first went to a city called Roosendaal, but being that it was Sunday morning, the streets were empty and everything was closed. So shortly after arriving there we hopped back on the train!

Breda was our next stop, which I must admit was my favorite city of what we saw that day. It was still a bit early in the day so most everything was closed, but luckily we found a cute little coffee shop! And no, not the coffee shop that first comes to mind in regards to the Netherlands. We ordered gourmet lattes and talked about our plan for the day. Breda, like Deventer/Delft, has the same small-town feeling, but is still a city. I would really like to go back someday and look around more! To the right is Fiona, Beau, Pascale and I posed in front of a gorgeous church in Breda!

Most of the day was spent either walking around or sitting in the train- both were equally entertaining! I was trying so hard to understand what the other girls were talking about, by listening for words I recognized (in Dutch of course). Many times I thought I had a pretty good understanding of what they were discussing, only to end up being very wrong once I asked a question relating to what I thought was the subject! Oops. Most of the time it was pretty funny, because I was so far off! Well, I'll keep trying of course!

Den Bosch was next, which was a very nice shopping city! Prettier than Rotterdam, and in my opinion better shopping! We all had things we wanted to buy (needed attire for the New Years Party), so we went in and out of basically every shoe and clothing store. Beau and I wanted a glittery top, Pascale wanted to find very specific Vans, and Fiona and I wanted shoes. In the end, none of us bought any of those. We literally shopped for hoouuurrrs. Of course it was a blast though! My feet are still a bit sore from all of the walking.

Lastly was Utrecht! I had been to Utrecht before, but only in the train station. It's very nice! We were there in the evening, so it was already dark outside. The store lights and leftover christmas decorations throughout the main shopping street really gave it an...almost elegant feeling. It was so funny, if we ever have to use the bathroom in general while out and about, the easiest place is normally a McDonalds (doesn't cost too much, maybe 25 cents). So Maartje, Beau and I went to use the bathroom, Beau went first and couldn't get out! The lock was stuck, and after many attempts from Maartje and I to open the door, Maartje had to go ask a worker for help! Luckily Beau finally got it open, but by that time a man and a women had already come in to help. Talk about awkward! Plus, we weren't even customers or anything.

We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant below that street, kind of on the canal. We had hours to kill, so we ate slowly, just talking and gossiping. Afterwards, we figured we might as well head home because all the shops had closed, and there wasn't much else we could do. Plus, it was dark and cold so sightseeing wouldn't be that much fun!

It was such a fun day, one I'll never forget! So many inside jokes and memories made. It's so cool that here one could literally travel all around the country in a day! Anyways, it was a great way to spend one of the last days of 2012. Time is really flying by.

-Molly