Dogodivščine na nizki zemlji

Remember how highly I've always praised Dutch public transport, or at least trains? Well, I still like trains. They are tidy and quite comfortable, they are fast and as far as I'm concerned until a month ago they were also punctual. My opinion has changed though since I have to use them almost every day to get to work at the embassy in the Hague.

If you'd asked me what I thought about the NS (Dutch train company) about a month or two ago, I would've probably been quite happy about it. I never really complained about the trains here like so many other people, I had never had problems with them like so many other people seemed to have, I simply loved them. I still do, mind you, because I really think they make a great means of public transport. In the past couple of weeks, I had to change my opinion in certain extent though.

You know those free newspapers that you get at train stations … well, in one of the newspapers from a month ago, there was an article about three Dutch students who went travelling around the Netherlands to prove to grumpy people that train connections were just fine and that there was simply nothing to complain about. Having travelled around the Netherlands for a day, they reported it happened just once that a train had delay but that they were still able to catch the next connection they needed in order to travel continuously. Though the experiment was probably not 'correct' or appropriate from a statistical point of view, I thought it was interesting to read about it. Even more so, at the time I even agreed that some people in fact complained way too much. Funny. It was the following day that things started to go wrong. Just one day after having read that and having agreed with those three yahoos. Since that day most of the trains I wanted to take were delayed or cancelled. Needless to say, the newspapers of the following couple of days featured a chain of reaction letters to the article of many outrageous commuters. So I had to reconsider everything: When you have to use public transport every day to get to work, it does start to get on your nerves. Book or no book.

So, it was the following day that my train from the Lammenschans station was delayed which made me miss my connection.
Then the other day, there were no trains around Utrecht because the control tower burned down.
Then one day, there were major delays due to aanrijding. In most cases, so I've been told, an 'aanrijding' (collision/crash) means a collision with a person, which means somebody committed suicide by throwing themselves in front of a train. Of course, it can also be some other kind of collision. Usually you get to know what it actually was from the news the following day. Anyway, we discussed this way of commiting suicide with housemates and - I mean no disrespect but - we all agreed it's pretty selfish. I mean, do you know how many people you put in an awkward position if you do that? Come on, seriously. Ok, I get it, you want some attention, but this way you only cause annoyance, and that is a negative kind of attention, if you ask me.
And then the other day, there was another aanrijding, but this time an incoming train hit the train that stood at the station, so there were again no trains in my direction. I still remember very well what a chaos there was at the station. I arrived at the Leiden central station and ran to get the connecting train but the whole area around that platform was closed off with that police tape and there were paramedics, firemen and policemen and the whole square in front of the station was closed off so we had to walk all around to get to the centre.

I could write novels on train travelling just in and around Leiden, let alone the whole country of even Europe. :)

But let me share yet another train experience. After reading this, you'll wish you never had to use public transport in winter Holland. :) Despite its geographical position in Europe, the Netherlands seem not to be able to cope with too much snow. At least not in the province of Holland, obviously. It's been snowing for a week now and most of the country has to deal with traffic jams, delayed flights and trains or no flights and trains whatsoever. Although I was quite aware of the situation, I really wanted to go to the Slovenian mass in the Hague today. Keeping in mind all potential problems I could come across, I decided to leave home early, and with early I mean really early. For the record, the mass was at 5 pm and the Hague is 15 minutes by train (you do have to get to and from the station, so all in all ...). Yep, I left home at 3.30. And don't you laugh at me. Hahaha.
Anyhow, I walked through the snow-covered streets to the Lammenschans station only to find out there weren't any trains (the website didn't say anything about there being no trains today). After having realised that, I went to catch a bus to the central station. Once at the central station, I was right in time to catch a train to the Hague Hollands Spoor from 3.04. Yep, the train had 50 minutes delay and it came in right when I reached the platform. So, that went smooth. Upon arriving at the Hollands Spoor station, I was told there were no trams or at least not in the direction I wanted to go, so a very kind man advised me to take another tram that I could find just around the corner. Great! Well, there was a tram stop right around the corner and there were already crowds of people waiting but after half an hour of waiting, there was still no tram. Since I've gotten used to waiting on buses, trams and trains, I never leave home without a book or something to read. Still, after having read quite some chapters, I couldn't stand still any longer. I'm not a very patient person. Besides, it was really cold, so I started looking for another solution. At that point, I saw a bus coming in. I had no idea which bus I would have to take since I always knew it was tram number 17 that I needed, but it said Rijswijk on the bus and that was the place I needed, so on I jumped and hoped I was heading the right direction. The bus was so packed I couldn't see the signs, but at some point, the majority had left the bus so I could catch a glimpse of the map only to figure out just in time that it was at that very stop that I needed to get out. Smooth! Thanks to the city map that stood close to the stop, I could tell I was in fact in the right area and that I'd still have to walk a bit. And look at the time, I still had 10 minutes. Yay! Plenty of time, hahahaha. So off I went.

Flanked with little houses on the left and huge trees of a park on the right, the street I needed to take was as from a fairytale. By that time, it had already gotten dark and the lights from the warm houses where families were busy making dinner were the only signs of life. It could have been a very romantic stroll, had I not had to hurry.

To wrap up this dramatic story and let the Aristotelian catharsis do its job, let me tell you that I did make it to the church in time. The church bell chimed the fifth time as I rang the bell of the house where the mass took place. My feet had melted down by the time I arrived because they almost froze when I stood waiting for that no-show tram. A lot of people simply didn't come and frankly speaking, who would blame them?! But there were a couple of us, diehards, hahaha.
I then spoke to a friend who didn't make it. I said: Would you believe me if I told you that it took me almost two hours to get here? Whereupon he reacted: From Leiden? Are you being serious? You might as well have walked. Or biked, I added. Of course, I couldn't agree more.

The way home was a piece of cake, hahaha. I asked some people if they could at least give me a ride to the station. The train came on time, took me to Leiden where I got the connection to Lammenschans. I was home in less than an hour. As I walked along the white streets, everything was so quiet and peaceful and I couldn't but smile at yet another crazy public transport adventure.

One early November morning I set out to the south of the country, to the province of Noord-Brabant (North Brabant), to a small place called Best. Though I believe the west is the best, this time the best place was in the south. :)
The reason why I decided to venture on such a long journey - the distance was also THE reason why none of the housemates joind me, next to the reason that some of them had to work - anyway, the reason was the open day at an archeological site where my housemate Ron has been working for the past three months.
It's not that I'm suddenly all into history and archeology. Not at all. I just thought a day away would do me good. Besides, I wanted to make a full report of the site for my archeological sister.



My housemates warned me that the trip there takes rather long. Also, I checked the train website and it was in fact supposed to take me more than two hours. But also that didn't sound that long to me. I simply stocked myself with books and had huge plans how I was going to study on the train. In the end, the trip passed so quickly I was only able to read a couple of pages. You have to keep in mind that you have to change trains, read free train newspapers to keep updated and look out the window to observe how and if the south differs from our Randstad (a horseshoe-shaped conurbation of big cities - Rotterdam, Den Haag, Leiden, Amsterdam, Utrecht).

So the trip went well. I was there in no time.

Then I expected bad weather. According to weather forecast and my housemate it was supposed to be pouring rain. Besides, Ron sent me a message the night before suggesting I should take some spare shoes or even boots with me because the site was very muddy. That was a very smart gesture! I would have never thought of that myself. So I packed spare trainers - I have no boots or sturdy walking shoes here and to be honest I was to lazy to go buy some rubber boots the next day - and even some spare clothes. You never know with them archeologists, hahaha.

But again, the weather turned out just fine. Even more so. When I finally arrived to the site, it was sunny and warm and I so much enjoyed being outside in the fresh air all afternoon long.
Still, the site was in fact very muddy so extra shoes came in very handy. I think I was the only one not wearing boots or any kind of other rubber shoes. That was one of the first things I noticed when I arrived at the site.






When I arrived at the site, I called Ron to meet him but he seemed to be working at some other location so he suggested I joined the 'official' guided tour of the site. Every hour another tour started. I arrived just in time for the next one.













We gathered in one of those temporary sheds and first listened to the 'boss' of the excavation site how he explained a bit about the site as a whole and gave some general information.
Then, still in the shed, an archeologist-botanist explained how she found burnt barley seeds, which helped her define what people ate at that time. She also said that she had never before found such a big amount of seeds. Then she added that luckily the people in the past also burnt their food once in a while, so the seeds did not decay but kept their shape instead, which is great for us to be able to recognize them. Good that she explained that because I thought that everything organic simply rotted away and became a part of the soil, but apparently it didn't.















We were then 'handed over' to another archeologist who took us around and showed us actual finds on the site. He was a very funny and charming guy and I liked the way he explained things because I could actually understand what he was saying. And with that I don't mean I didn't understand his Dutch but that the archeological stuff actually made sense they why he said it. Anyway ...

This first thing he showed us was a huge pit that probably was a water pit since even now, when they left if open for a while, water had gathered and stayed there. By the way, this was also the place where they had found most of pottery on the site.
How did they define that it was man-made and not natural, you will probably ask. I did too. As I always do. Well, they look at the shape - that in this case was not natural at all - and how the colours of the layers differ. Later, Ron explained to me once again, well yeah, mostly we just look for colours, hahaha.



So, in the photo you can see how the layers decline from the outside to the inside. Now, you shouldn't mistake that small quadrant for the pit. No, no, no. That's just how archeologists work. They hadn't dug up everything, just three quadrants so you can get a three-dimensional image of the pit. The pit was much bigger.








The next stop was at the site where they found traces of two farmhouses. Again, they looked for difference in colour. Where there once was a hole for a pole, the colour was different. You have to imagine: first there was a hole and a pole, then the pole rotted away and the soil/sand filled that hole. And so they marked down where the soil differed from the rest of the soil (that is, where the holes were) and when they collected and connected all those points, they could come up with this reconstruction - this is how the farmhouse probably looked like.









However, I said there were two of them. Actually, there were three but they had already filled up the third one by the time of the open day.
Anyway, the second farmhouse (in the photo behind the first one, the one with small poles to indicate where the original poles must have been) probably came around 200 years after the first one but - the funniest thing - was situated next to the first one and exactly in the same direction (west-east) as the first one. Pretty cool, huh? :)
That would mean that the people back then knew there once had existed a farmhouse in that place. Or was this just sheer coincidence? Hm ... Besides, both farmhouses showed some similarities in the style of building, our witty tour guy explained.






After about an hour, we were done with the official tour. Then Ron took over. :) He took me to the parts of the site where he worked and showed me the latest finds that he and his team had found - another farmhouse and some kind of storage space/building where grain was probably kept. Go, Ronnie!


(By the way, it was exactly at this very hole that he said that his job was to look for colours, hahaha.)














The open day activities were well-organized and it was an interesting experience. I really enjoyed myself. And as I've said before, it was a lovely day.

This still-life with a wheelbarrow witnesses of the calming effect this site had on me. Hahahaha! I've been reading to many books on landscape painting. Oh no, wait, I should be doing that. I'm supposed to write my thesis on it. :)

Besides, a wheelbarrow is yet another word that Ron asked me to teach him in Slovene. This time it wasn't at an abnormal hour. If you haven't heard about this before: It was already a while ago. One morning at 8 am when I came to the kitchen after having just got up - and not yet woken up - that Ron asked me how we say a mole in Slovenian. Go figure! This story always makes me laugh.


This is how our Slovenian lessons began. Samokolnica (wheelbarrow) is just one of most random words he wants me to teach him. Štiharica (spade) is one of them particular words, hahaha.



So, for the end, a still-life with a samokolnica and my one and only personal tour guide with a štiharica. Lovely!

As windmills are in fact the sightseeing thing of the Netherlands, I took Irena to see the other place in Holland that is rich with them - Kinderdijk.








The place is quite close to Rotterdam. You can even take a watertaxi to Rotterdam from here. In fact, I remember I once did take one with a friend that visited me that distant year of 2007.











Many people have problems understanding how certain Dutch areas can lie under sea level and not get flooded and how water is directed into higher-lying canals.
Well, Kinderdijk is a perfect place to see it in real.
From the dyke where the road is you can see the big river Rhine on the one side and the lower-lying area of Kinderdijk mills on the other side. As you walk down the dyke towards the mills, you pass these two turbines that take the water up to the Rhine River. In the past, that was the job of the windmills and such turbines where inside the mills.










The day was amazing so a photo session was inevitable.

The reason I'm opening this post with a photo of a factory is the aroma of cacao that wafts towards you the moment you step out of the train at Zaandam Koog in order to go sightseeing around the famous windmills at Zaanse Schans.
Mmmmmmm ... The air was filled with a delicious smell of cacao and I got completely overwhelmed. I kept sniffing it in, not seeming to get enough of it. That scent, it was like a drug to me. Wonderful addiction!




The aroma of cacao accompanied us all the way to the mills on the other side of the river. On the way I noticed a great bar. Exactly like the one I'm going to open myself one day. I can imagine they make profit just from people stopping in their bar to sit down and enjoy the scent of yummy chocolate.



































The area of Zaanse Schans is almost that of a fairy tale. You can take a stroll along the canal flanked by small green houses with green backyards with flowers. One of them used to house the first Albert Heijn shop (Albert Heijn is nowadays one of the biggest supermarket chain in the Netherlands. Besides, the guy is said to have invented the bar code.)


























The sight of the windmills along the river is charming.

























I once again performed my tour guide skills quite well as you can see on my explaining expression. :)

Another sunny day, another wonderful destination. Delft - my second most beautiful town in Holland.
With its romantic canals, lively markets, narrow streets, it evokes the feeling of coziness and warmth.






















Our trip began as usual at the Leiden Central Station. I love trains. Back home, I never used them because in the valley I come from there aren't any and because in general train infrastructure in Slovenia isn't that good. So I'll definitely miss this aspect of Dutch life. Travelling by train is quick and comfortable, though it costs a lot. And despite many people complaining about the NS company, I really think they do their work well.



I guess what I like about train stations is, just for the same reason that I like hotel lobbies and airports, that hustle and bustle of people coming and go, meeting and saying goodbye, reading, listening to music, eating. All this activity, it just impresses me, that's all. Besides, there are free newspapers every morning, so the journey goes by even quicker.








Back to the main story.
Upon arriving to Delft, we were greeted by this lady with a pitcher standing at a table. It's a sculpure made after the Vermeer's painting Milkmaid. I had to take a picture of Irena next to it because I once bought her a puzzle with this motif which I don't think she's finished yet.














We took a stroll along the canals and learnt about the Dutch painting tradition on the way. There are such cubes with information on Dutch painters all around the town that you can rotate.
















We also did some shopping and took photos of the famous Delft blue - china and porcelain painted in blue in the Chinese tradition.

That day, the town centre was even more crowded than normal because there was a flea market. In the Netherlands, flea markets are extremely popular. You have to be aware of one difference though. You have 'rich' flea markets where people sell precious things for huge sums of money and you have 'cheap' flea markets where people sell things that they simply want to get rid of and make some money on the side. The latter are usually organized by the local church or are held on the Queen's Day (Koninginnedag) on the last April's day. That one in Delft was of the former sort so I took just a quick look.







Eventually, we had to eat something and I once again failed to persuade my visitor to try a herring (Dutch

(sandwich with salmon).
















We ended up in a small park close to the place where the famous Willem van Oranje had been assassinated. We sat down on a couch-like bench of stone, covered with splinters of Delft blue and recorded that the sisters Čušin were there!