I’m not made for this…

My friend said when we arrived hotel all wet and shivering. The past nights were quite cold and windy wherever. Glad I thought about wearing layers of clothes rather than wearing one big thick coat. Autumn is here and it’s good that winter is still a bit far away. I don’t like the idea of entering a room warmed up by heater. It gives me a not ‘healthy’ feeling with warm face, and colder feet and hands.

I’m in a train when I wrote this part. I’m sitting by myself in a cubicle of 6 seats. The trip from Schiphol to Eindhoven station will take 1.5 hours. Not that the distance is far but like train, it stops in some stations. This is not my first experience to be in Europe train but definitely my first time traveling by myself. An acquaintance I just met asked me yesterday if I’m familiar with traveling by train in Europe. I appreciated that she showed concern but I always remember what Mama used to remind me that we would always be okay in a new place as long as we can speak. Well, later I also realized that asking is not always as easy as we thought. Because…

My friend and I spent a day in Amsterdam last Saturday. We prepared ourselves very well since Amsterdam is known for pickpockets and scams. I had my sling bag close and we both agreed to stay alert for self and each other. And yes, since we also walked in red light district near the Dam (the heart of Amsterdam) we also experience some not nice things. Some men on the street tried to get our attention, then one guy took frites from our plate when he walked in a bar/restaurant, and a lady stopped us to ask where Centraal Station is. Such a question with a too easy answer that my friend didn’t answer. Okay, we might be target as we might look ‘foreign’ here, especially because I looked very Asian (not Indonesian unluckily, but again like in Manila and even in Ubud, I’m a Filipino).

Anyway, we could only visit one museum in Amsterdam because when we got in the city from Scheveningen, the beach near Den Haag, it's already past 3 o’clock. Museums in Holland close at 5 and on Mondays. It’s fine, we went to a 2-month old museum the Hermitage. An ‘extension’ of a major art museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, containing among its collections those begun by Catherine the Great. The size of the one in Amsterdam is much smaller than of in Russia but even we could not finish all rooms and floors in 2 hours.

So what brought me to the train today is because I hopped cities since I arrived last week. Yesterday I roamed Leiden and since this afternoon I’m in Bergeijk in the south visiting a good friend back in Jakarta. We got in touch the other week that then we decided to meet up. We recalled that we hadn’t met six years now and funny enough we didn’t manage to meet up in Asia where we both live. So it’s really nice that we made it happen today.

I’m ready to roam the small city on bike tomorrow morning. I had tried to pedaling the bike of my friend’s Ma. It has given me a new understanding why people in Netherlands really enjoy cycling. It is super! Or… let’s see tomorrow.

Mon 23:51

Picture of panorama from my train this afternoon.