My first 6 months

On walking into the centre of the city earlier this evening, Jeroen asked me how I thought my first 6 months in NL had gone! It gave me an opportunity to reflect, and I must admit a real mixture of emotions - lots of fun and surprises, many days of frustration, feelings of homesickness, boredom, and loneliness, but mostly the feeling that I have definately made the right decision!

As those of you who have lived in foreign lands for a period of time will know, these feelings are all pretty normal (I think!). I have become an expert in filling in my time doing something close to nothing. I feel a lot like the unemployed Hugh Grant character in "About A Boy", where he breaks his day down into small "units" of 1 hour each eg 1 unit used having a shower, getting dressed, having breakfast etc in the morning, 1 unit used at the supermarket, 1 unit checking the internet/email etc........you get the picture!! In a way, it's really just an attempt to give my day some kind of structure ;-) Don't get me wrong, most of the time I am having a ball, and started feeling ok about taking advantage of my "free time in between jobs" at least 3 months ago - about the time when the 15th-something temp agency told me I had no chance of fruitful employment until I could master the mysteries of the beautiful language that is Dutch!!

That brings me to my next point :-) After months of waiting (and a few minor administrative hiccups), I start my language classes on 14 August. Turns out they will be 4 days a week for 5 hours per day - who needs a part time job! Needless to say, I am REALLY looking forward to having something to do and hope that I can find some kindred spirits amongst my classmates. Jeroen's friends are all lovely and I always have fun with them, but it is a bit like I am being forced upon them and it would be nice to make my own friends (harder than you may think!). I am also looking forward to my "blind date" on Friday with Cindy. She is also from Melbourne, is here because she fell in love with a Dutchie, and I met her via an expat website. We have been in regular email contact, and Friday is our first face to face meeting. How funny!

It's strange, since I have been here I have never felt more Australian. I find myself defending the artistic merits of "Neighbours" & "The Flying Doctors", watching "Rex Hunt's Fishing Adventures", and wearing green & gold t-shirts (something I wouldn't be seen dead in back in Melbourne!). Sometimes it's a bit like being some kind of novelty item, but usually it's really nice!

Alli xxx

History made in Nijmegen!

The zomerfeesten (summer fest) started here on Saturday evening and goes all week. It coincides with the famous Nijmegen 4daagse (4 day march), with 49,000 people walking 4 different loops from Tuesday onwards (50, 40, and 30 km loops!!). A bit like an extreme Walk Against Want/Trailwalker. Half of our street has been built up with temporary grandstands, and the city looks totally different with marquees etc everywhere.

We had a relaxed evening on Saturday and Sunday, just wandering the streets and watching music. We had a great evening on Monday when the festival really started - all the streets are closed, there are podiums everywhere, and the population just about doubles in our little city (I think over 1 million people visit the city during the week). We caught the little ferry across the river with some friends to see a crazy German cabaret performer (that's him above!) who was a bit like a reincarnation of Marlene Dietrich, and ended back on board a boat for a techno houseparty and lounging on inflatable sofas on the deck until 3.00am We then walked to the starting point of the walk, where the 50km walkers departed at 4.00am It was so weird - like two worlds colliding. Totally drunk, crazy people at the end of their day cheering on thousands of crazy, amazingly fit people starting their day in the dark. We managed to get ourselves onto television again :-)))

The sad thing is the weather here is soooooo extreme at the moment (65 C was measured at road level on Tuesday!), that 2 people died doing the walk (another 3 almost did!) and the whole walk has been called off for the first time in it's 90 year history! Seems like my first year here will be one of extremes - the most snow, the hottest summer, and now the 4daagse being cancelled! The city was in shock Tuesday night and the partying was a bit subdued. We really only went to see the big fireworks display and were home again by midnight. Some die hard walkers still turned up at the starting point on Wednesday morning 'cause they didn't believe it was over. (PS from Friday 21 July - there are STILL some small groups of walkers making their way down our street this afternoon. They stubbornly walked all of the remaining 3 days anyway!!)

See below for some photos of last year's 4daagse for an idea of what the last day looks like. All the walkers usually finish on Friday by walking down our street, and they all receive gladiolas in recognition of their efforts. Our street even gets renamed Via Gladiola for the day. The ironic thing is that because the walk has now been cancelled the price of gladiolas has dropped dramatically because no one is going to buy them!! The world is strange hey?

Alli xxx

Photos from 2005 4daagse

A day out in Adam

Yesterday Bronwyn & I spent the day as tourists in Amsterdam
:-) I met her bright and early at the station here in Nijmegen (0800!) after she & Maurice arrived back from Morocco. The train trip from here to Amsterdam only takes about 90 minutes.

We spent most of the morning chilling in the Jordaan area. It's an area not really discovered by hoardes of tourists yet, and is a bit like Fitzroy. Groovy cafes, funky retro clothing stores, cats sunning themselves in windows, and not row after row of "coffee shops"! We sipped coffees by the canal, had a lovely lunch (accompanied by the obligatory glasses of rose) and watched the world pass by on their bicycles. VERY relaxing.

After lunch we ventured over to the "other" side of the city to do the proper touristy thing and check out the red light district. It proved a bit difficult to find, mainly due to the crazy street patterns in the city - they are all in half cirlces (due to the canals I think) and just when you think you are going in a straight line in the right direction, you end up back where you started from! But after some friendly directional advice from a local market stall keeper we managed to find it. Hhhhhhhmmmmmm...........not sure if business is slower during the summer months, if most of the "girls" were having a lunch break, or if the window rental fees are just getting too high but most of the windows had their curtains closed. And they all look sooooo bored, sitting there trying to attract customers. I think most people walking past were like us, curious tourists!

Overall, I think we made pretty bad tourists. We didn't visit one gallery or museum, take a canal boat ride, or smoke a joint in a coffee shop. But we definately had a lovely day and felt like we saw enough of the city to get a feel for it.

Alli xxx

Photos (not tulips!) from Amsterdam

Kamperen op Texel

Who would have thought - I've been camping two months in a row here now!! And it looks like we will make it 4 months in a row, with plans to camp at the Lowlands festival next month, and a short camping trip to Luxembourg planned for early September if the weather is still good enough :-)

Jeroen & I made a spur of the moment decison on Friday morning to go to the island of Texel for a long weekend camping vakantie. One advantage of living in such a small country - you can get just about anywhere within 2-3 hours ;-) Texel is the biggest of the islands off the coast of Noord Holland and is easily reached by a 20 minute ferry ride from Den Helder (car and all). I am so proud I didn't get seasick in either direction!

We arrived Friday evening at about 9.00pm and still had enough daylight left to set up camp, drink a few glasses of rose, and wander on the beach. Our campsite was perfect - right in the middle of the dunes and out of sight of everyone! See the photos below for an idea. We were within a 10 minute walk of the touristy village De Koog, and wandering the small streets there amongst loads of cafes, bars, restaurants and "surf" shops made it feel really summery (almost like being in Cairns, but without the palm trees!). Waking up to brilliant sunshine on Saturday was soooooooo nice and was the perfect opportunity to go swimming in the North Sea - never thought I would do that! The water was warmish and the waves big enough to have fun jumping through.

All in all, Texel is a really relaxed little island with not all that much to do but swim, sit in the sun & drink rose, and spot sheep as you drive through the lush green countryside. We had a lovely time and it's certainly different to the Netherlands of Amsterdam that most tourists see. I can highly recommend it :-)))

Alli xxx

Photos from sunny Texel

Heatwave!!!???

It's official - we are in the middle of a heatwave here! Last night's big news story was the weather. We have had over a week now of plus 30C and EVERYONE is complaining about how hot it is. I must admit, even though the temperatures are not really that hot by Oz standards, it is pretty humid, there is no aircon anywhere, and it doesn't seem to get any cooler in the evening. It's been so warm that rail tracks have warped, causing derailments, and we have had "bushfires"! We have been swimming just about every day which has been great - mostly down at the river, where the water is surprisingly clean and there is even a sandy beach. We can cycle there from our place in about 15 minutes, so I think we will go again this arvo when Jeroen is home from work at about 2.30pm

World Cup football fever has dissipated quite a bit here since NL and Australia (and now Duitsland last night) are out. Bronwyn and Maurice were here at our place on Saturday evening for dinner & a few drinks, and we half heartedly watched the football then. They left yesterday for 9 days in Morocco, and when they return will only have another 4 days before they fly back home. I am really going to miss them, it's been so nice having Bronwyn here (that's her & I above in a local bar here in Nijmegen). We will try to make the most of the remaining days with them by going to either Amsterdam or Maastricht for touristy stuff.

Alli xxx