Day 5 - solitary serenity
so, my timetable got screwed over by the EBS when they cancelled one of my classes. As such, I couldn't do Brugges on Wednesday as planned. But I still decided to force an extra day of travel. This meant that I'd only be able to leave Amsterdam after 1900h on Monday to Belgium so that the Eurail Pass woul count towards the next day. Ben and Fangkai left in the morning and I went on to find things to do.
Something that I was told would be really interesting was the country side tour. I saw it on a brochure before and it cost 40Euros. That's abt 80 SGD for 4 1/2 hours. I managed to convince myself that it'd be worth it so I tried to get the ticket from the tourist office. Somehow, the ticket was actually only 25Euros and it was sold out. Me being me, i decided to go straight to the tour operator abt 1km away to squeeze out a space for me. Guess what? GOT IT!
This 4 1/2 hour tour basically comprised trips to some other villages which, though touristy and sometimes reconstructed purely for that reason, was absolutely beautiful. In some way, I'd consider this the true highlight of the entire 5 days. To a certain extent, it was nice to just walk around on my own, but yeah, as I say, it's just to a certain extent. I really wished this other Singaporean was with me to see these amazing sights...
Windmills and more windmills!!
...in Marken and Volendam by the lake side...
The above was originally an ox-bow waterform which had links with both the North Sea and another freshwater inlet. The connection with the former meant that it was subject to tides and uncontrollable water levels, so they finally dammed it to get some control. But this also meant that the water from the freshwater inlet would only cause the levels to rise. As such, when the water rises, they channel water out from the lake, causing the saltwater to get more and more diluted. According to calculations, this lake, which is about 1400 sq.km will become a fully freshwater lake within 30 years. This completely changes the livelihood of the people. 10 years ago, you could easily see 100 fishing boats, but when we arrived, there were less than 10 at the docks. This is more a documentation of what I learnt, so if you're getting bored with this, do skip it. =)
Other parts of the tour, which was actually quite borin', was the tour to the clog and cheese factories. It was more a touristy thing than anythin' else.
Well, I got back at 1430h and had another 5 hours to burn before getting on my train, so i went walking the shopping streets myself. Bought 4 books on sale at this English bookstore (they're so difficult to find!) and then stumbled upon a store selling Diesel jeans between 20% and 80% discount. WOOHOO! got a pair for just 50Euros, which originally sells for 150Euros. The best part was that this shop was just beside the Diesel outlet. Got to know some Dutch girl as well, whose dad worked as a researcher in Singapore before, so that was kinda random too.
The most exciting portion of the day was the train trip back to Belgium. Apaprently we needed to validate oour ticket before getting on the train. I was already in Belgium and almost at my stop when this asshole of a trian conductor decided to give me major problems by taking my ticket away from me and demanding that I pay him 12.50 Euros to get it validated on the train. Of course I wouldn't agree cos the previous train conductor on the way up didn't have any problems with that. It's partly my fault too but his manner just irked me.
This argument ding-dong-ed for quite a while and the most irritating thing was that he had my ticket in hand and refused to return it. I was truly on the verge of killing the gay motherfucker. That's the thing with the Belgians that I could tell. They don't seem to like Asians very much. I caught on that this 12.5 Euros wasn't an authorised thing so I asked his name. His reply? "My name, my name. You shut up your big mouth." At that point, I decided to pull back a little cos his defensiveness revealed a bit of weakness. As it was, we went to Brussels Midi station and I got it validated for free. I was late to Leuven by abt an hour. Apparently Ben faced the same problem and they had to evade the train conductors for a good distance. In fact, he missed his train to germany, wasting a full Eurail trip worth 92SGD.
Maybe it's just me, but I had a reflection on this. When people have low power, they do whatever they can to flaunt that little bit of authority when they can, especially when others seem helpless. It was tempting at many junctures to tell him that I'm definitely educated enough to not want such trouble when I'm travelling, but that would be sinking to his level. I confess that I had such bad thoughts among others (e.g. getting the ticket confiscated, but getting his name and then proceed to make sure he gets sacked for being immensely rude) then but i've since driven them outta my mind.
I just needed a night of rest... Antwerp the next day, and in the next entry...
Something that I was told would be really interesting was the country side tour. I saw it on a brochure before and it cost 40Euros. That's abt 80 SGD for 4 1/2 hours. I managed to convince myself that it'd be worth it so I tried to get the ticket from the tourist office. Somehow, the ticket was actually only 25Euros and it was sold out. Me being me, i decided to go straight to the tour operator abt 1km away to squeeze out a space for me. Guess what? GOT IT!
This 4 1/2 hour tour basically comprised trips to some other villages which, though touristy and sometimes reconstructed purely for that reason, was absolutely beautiful. In some way, I'd consider this the true highlight of the entire 5 days. To a certain extent, it was nice to just walk around on my own, but yeah, as I say, it's just to a certain extent. I really wished this other Singaporean was with me to see these amazing sights...
Windmills and more windmills!!
...in Marken and Volendam by the lake side...
The above was originally an ox-bow waterform which had links with both the North Sea and another freshwater inlet. The connection with the former meant that it was subject to tides and uncontrollable water levels, so they finally dammed it to get some control. But this also meant that the water from the freshwater inlet would only cause the levels to rise. As such, when the water rises, they channel water out from the lake, causing the saltwater to get more and more diluted. According to calculations, this lake, which is about 1400 sq.km will become a fully freshwater lake within 30 years. This completely changes the livelihood of the people. 10 years ago, you could easily see 100 fishing boats, but when we arrived, there were less than 10 at the docks. This is more a documentation of what I learnt, so if you're getting bored with this, do skip it. =)Other parts of the tour, which was actually quite borin', was the tour to the clog and cheese factories. It was more a touristy thing than anythin' else.
Well, I got back at 1430h and had another 5 hours to burn before getting on my train, so i went walking the shopping streets myself. Bought 4 books on sale at this English bookstore (they're so difficult to find!) and then stumbled upon a store selling Diesel jeans between 20% and 80% discount. WOOHOO! got a pair for just 50Euros, which originally sells for 150Euros. The best part was that this shop was just beside the Diesel outlet. Got to know some Dutch girl as well, whose dad worked as a researcher in Singapore before, so that was kinda random too.The most exciting portion of the day was the train trip back to Belgium. Apaprently we needed to validate oour ticket before getting on the train. I was already in Belgium and almost at my stop when this asshole of a trian conductor decided to give me major problems by taking my ticket away from me and demanding that I pay him 12.50 Euros to get it validated on the train. Of course I wouldn't agree cos the previous train conductor on the way up didn't have any problems with that. It's partly my fault too but his manner just irked me.
This argument ding-dong-ed for quite a while and the most irritating thing was that he had my ticket in hand and refused to return it. I was truly on the verge of killing the gay motherfucker. That's the thing with the Belgians that I could tell. They don't seem to like Asians very much. I caught on that this 12.5 Euros wasn't an authorised thing so I asked his name. His reply? "My name, my name. You shut up your big mouth." At that point, I decided to pull back a little cos his defensiveness revealed a bit of weakness. As it was, we went to Brussels Midi station and I got it validated for free. I was late to Leuven by abt an hour. Apparently Ben faced the same problem and they had to evade the train conductors for a good distance. In fact, he missed his train to germany, wasting a full Eurail trip worth 92SGD.
Maybe it's just me, but I had a reflection on this. When people have low power, they do whatever they can to flaunt that little bit of authority when they can, especially when others seem helpless. It was tempting at many junctures to tell him that I'm definitely educated enough to not want such trouble when I'm travelling, but that would be sinking to his level. I confess that I had such bad thoughts among others (e.g. getting the ticket confiscated, but getting his name and then proceed to make sure he gets sacked for being immensely rude) then but i've since driven them outta my mind.
I just needed a night of rest... Antwerp the next day, and in the next entry...
posted by azrael at 2:24 AM
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