Worldly Chatter

Shopping at IKEA can be a lot of fun! I have always enjoyed walking the store and imagining my perfect living room or bedroom set while picking up all sorts of accessories for my current furniture setting. This time it was different! For a wedding gift my father gave us some money to do with as we saw fit. To Ikea we went to finally do something about our living room! No more dreaming honey, this was t he real deal! After two trips we had accessories and two pieces of furniture; a stand with five drawers for our microwave and a laptop desk for my notebook. The third and final trip was by far the most expensive and fun! We picked out a TV stand, two bookcases and you guessed it, more accessories! You cannot have five new pieces of furniture without the proper homey touches!

So there we were, we picked it all out, paid for it and were loading it into the car when it occurred to Dutchie that her gut feeling was right in the store, this wasn’t going to fit in our little Mazda! It was a kick in the butt is what it was! The TV unit, we knew would fit where we wanted it and when I looked at the size thought without fail it would fit in the car! The book case was the same scenario; it would fit in the home as well as the car. With living in a small, one bedroom apartment on the upper floor of a student house, you think on size and space savers. This furniture was to save us gobs of space and it looks so good it just had to fit in the car!

And it did, it finally did but with some consequences.

I was not going to fit in the car! We are in the IKEA parking lot, in the middle of Amersfoort which is a fifteen minute drive away and we came to the realization it was me or the furniture. So, much to Duchies’ great displeasure, it was the furniture that won out. We wanted this for our home, we paid for it, and by god we were going to get it home! So we finished loading up the car, pushed the driver’s seat up as far as we could but still able to drive and set out to find a way for me to get to Hilversum. I was already starting to find this funny but Dutchie was far from amused. We started out little adventure together and we should finish it together. I agreed but there wasn’t any other way with all we had done in IKEA to make that happen. So, we found a kind employee to tell us where the bus stop was and we were off to search it out. Dutchie walked back to the car after found it and I hopped on the bus when it came. That was at 5:56pm.

I took my bus to a station called Vathorst Amersfoort, that was the end of the line for the route and being a station I assumed I could take a train from there to Hilversum or at the very least take a connecting train to either Weesp or another town I knew I could then connect to get to Hilversum. I check the boards and see that there is a stop train that is on its way to Zwolle but stops at Hilversum! I was going to be home soon! I bought my ticket and waited for the 6:20pm train to arrive. I waited until 6:30pm when another train going to Amsterdam Central was supposed to come but neither came. I saw a sign that mentioned a shuttle bus from this station to another where I can take a bus to towns I had never heard of, I hadn’t heard of the station it mentioned either. I am not from Amersfoort, how in the world would I know any of this! Crap I thought, now what? So I went to the front of the station and waited for this shuttle bus so I could ask the driver how to get to Hilversum.

A regular bus came and so I asked him, how do I get to Hilversum from here. Well, since trains aren’t running here, Central Station maybe? How do I get there? I can take you! So, on another bus I went! Maybe I would get somewhere after all? We drove from stop to stop and I got to see a great deal of this town Amersfoort. It was much bigger than I thought it would be. We actually stopped AT the stop I originally started at and drove PAST IKEA! It was also dug up with construction so the ride wasn’t very appealing on the eye but productive because we made it to central station! The bus driver stopped in front of a row of busses and told me that one of these busses should take me to Hilversum and then pulled it up to let us out. He was such a nice man to me! I get out and run to a driver I see outside a bus, how do I get to Hilversum from here, I asked. By train of course! Now I was thinking, right, that’s what the last train station said! He informed me it was platform 4a and it should be leaving soon. I said my thanks and marveled at how nice Dutch people for a moment before running inside the station!

The ticket I bought was still good even though it was from a different station because if the train had come it would have stopped at central station anyway so I check the board and see the train is scheduled to leave at 7:37pm. I had twenty minutes to wait so I got some coffee and a burger and went to my platform to wait.

Do you remember I mentioned I caught my first bus at 5:56pm about five minutes after Dutchie left for the car? Do you also remember I mentioned that it is a fifteen minute drive from Amersfoort to Hilversum? Well, the train left and it made one stop at Baarn before it hit Hilversum at, are you ready for this, 7:50pm! That is six minutes shy of two hours for a fifteen minute distance by car and all because I wouldn’t fit in the car!

And do you know what is really messed up? While Dutchie was feeling real bad about all this and quite pissed off about all this, I was laughing nearly the entire journey home! I really thought this was all rather funny, especially when we drove past my point of origin! It was just too bazaar for anything else but laughter in my mind!
When I finally walked in the door, Dutchie had already started setting up some of our new stuff, particularly stuff for the bathroom and so I just opened a Heineken and we put all the furniture together and set up until midnight!

I am still laughing about my journey from IKEA in Amersfoort!

Worldly Chatter, IKEA Amersfoort, Furniture shopping, Traveling in Holland

Absolute madness! That is what I have to say about my morning in Amsterdam. I had to go to the consulate to an affidavit of my single status in America. I need this so I can marry Dutchie, as you know. So, I take the 8:22 train this morning from Hilversum to Amsterdam Central and get there around 9:00. According to the site, I can take the 2, 5, 16 or 24 tram to get there. After going to two different money exchange places and an ATM on Damrak I saw the number 2 come in so I took that. I wanted to be there around 9:30 – 9:45 so I can actually get this done because the hours to do anything are from 8:30-11:30am.
I hop on, stamp my strippenkaart and take a seat. I go ALL the way to the end of the line! There wasn’t one stop for Museumplein throughout the whole ride! I get on the tram heading back and get off at Leidseplein knowing that Museumplein is nearby. This on its own has killed nearly 35 minutes of my morning mind you and I still had to head in the general direction of the consulate. I go that way and find myself at a money exchange place. I ask where to go and he tells me I have to continue to go straight and head towards the Museums but it would be easier if I waited for the 5 tram, it will stop right in front. I head towards the tram stop but see that only the 7 and 10 tram are coming this direction, it is now 10:30. I know I have an hour to figure this out so I have a smoke and wait, and wait and wait. Only the 7 and 10 trams have stopped here. Therefore, I head up again; following the kind mans directions and find myself between the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. Now, I know what you are thinking, this means I am close right! Museums mean Museumplein, your finding it girl!

That’s what you think!

I stop at one of those little souvenir stands that sells Van Gogh t-shirts and other such stuff and ask the woman tending it as to where I am to go, I know I have to be close after all. She states to go right and past the field, the Museum Park, and then right diagonally. All right, let’s do this! I go, looking for the consulate, I walk past the field and head right after that. I am starting to freak out here. I am not seeing it. I have now circled Van Gogh 3 times! I bump into some men who are cleaning and working in the park. They ask me what is wrong so I tell them I am lost; I need to get to the consulate. He tells me I am headed in the right direction, just keep taking this road all the way down and on the left will be the consulate. This calms me some. Only some mind you. It is pouring buckets here and I didn’t bring the umbrella. I go and do this where I end up on a street I have never seen before and further freak. I am actually now crying I am freaking so bad! Not only have I circled Van Gogh 3 times but I have also ended up on Leidseplein 4 times and have circled the entire length of the Rijksmuseum twice, circled the park 3 times I believe and have now found myself on a street I don’t know where is and still have not found the consulate! I walk up the street the kind workers said I was supposed to be on and look up and down for the consulate. No, nothing, nada, NIKS!

I walk back down the road and head back to the road I don’t know, there is a payphone there and a tram stop. Now, do you remember the cell phone I bought the other day? I bought twenty-euro worth of minutes with it; I just forgot to add it! So I have no minutes on my phone while I am lost, crying and freaking! I call Dutchie and she informs me there is no point in looking further, its 11:15. Bugger off! I took off work to do this and got nothing done!

I get on the tram and headed back to the station. I grab a sandwich and cappuccino before catching the train back to Hilversum.

You see, dear readers, I have the directional skills of a lamppost! I panic when I am lost despite my best efforts not to. I was supposed to have this done today and now have to go back next week. Dutchie has offered to go with and I feel bad because of it. I should be able to do this darn it all. Take the 2, 5, 16, 24 tram and get on Museumplein where the consulate will be.
American Citizen Services
U.S. Consulate General
Museumplein 19
1071 DJ Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Simple right? Uh huh, right…

American Consulate, Museumplein, Wordly Chatter, Directions, Amsterdam

Well today I had a run in a town called Vreeland and Nederhorst den Berg. These are two small towns, one is a fishing village and the other is a mass of farmland. I am not a girl who grew up with cows, coats and chickens all around me but today when I was delivering mail with a coworker in the van I nearly kicked a chicken because a bunch of them were moving about the front door! Yet my day ended with the cows sleeping alongside the road and goats eating while we drove to the next house. It started with the little village and these roads; tiny crazy loopy roads. Vreeland is a village in the province of Utrecht. It sits on a river and has farm land surrounding it. According to Wiki the village has 1600 inhabitants. This is a well to do area and the cars and homes are rather large in some areas. It is also a very old village. It received city rights in 1265 so you can imagine how this place was designed. The roads are curvy and strange and are very narrow in most places. While I was delivering my mail today I came across a maze of streets! I had one street where others went into it… but behind this street were streets that twisted into each other, some no more than a few homes in it while others were long enough to cover two blocks worth and wrapped around other streets! I admit right here and right now that the one thing I cannot stand about this country are its roads! I miss the grid system and I do not know how to get my brain to wrap around this twisty maze like streets that I just do not understand! I have a map of the place I am to ride through, it has most of the names on it and I think I can do this right. Well for one thing, half way through my run, my bike got a flat so I walked a good chunk of it, another thing was that despite having a map I couldn’t understand where one road ended, and another began. Where one road was when according to the map as I was reading it, the street I was on should have been something else!
With all the things I love about this country and am excited to learn about, their roads leave much to be desired! I am trying to follow it, make sense of the maze I have found myself in for the third day now and I still get frustrated, stand their irritated and feel lost and alone. For example, Koeidijlaan is a street I do not understand. You have street A going —— and Koeidijklaan runs south of street A. But! And this is an interesting but. I ran out of house numbers for the mail I still had. I went through the whole street and couldn’t find it. Where are these houses? I will tell you where they are; they are the next street over! It runs off street A just as the first one but the next street over where to my brain should be an entirely different street name! How do you get used to where streets are if they follow no pattern?
When I was done with Vreeland my coworker picked me up with the company van and we headed to Nederhorst den Berg. These are roads that are so long with houses so spaced that it’s ridiculous to ask any cyclist to run it so we head down the roads and drive the mail house to house. Cows, goats, chickens and farmland as far as my eye can see! It’s a good thing I took my allergy pills! I have never been so close to farmland before in my life! Cows in abundance! Absolutely beautiful, like right out of a painting it was that beautiful and picturesque. We would drive a few minutes before we found the next house and then we had to drive 5 kilometers to get to the next street. My day was long and tiring; beautiful but aggravating. I really do like my job it’s just these runs that we have to do that get me so flustered! I simply cannot get the layout of these towns! Chaos, just chaos to my brain!

Vreeland, Netherlands, Dutch Roads, worldly chatter, Nederland, Nederhorst den Berg

Oh how I love Google and the things you can do on it! Today I had my first delivery! I have been sorting for the past two weeks now and today there was nothing to sort so we all have to deliver. Into our not so little yellow vans we went with our boxes of mail and bicycles to truck it all throughout the town we were going to. Two others and I to one part of Bussum, a town next to Hilversum, I have never been to Bussum. I know nothing of Bussum other than it is a really old town, a really small old town.
Now our postcodes are different from those of America. For example, I used to live at zip code 06810 in CT, now I live in 1211ND. See the difference? I had to get used to it myself. So, when we sort we go by number first, 1211, 1212, 1214 and so on. Then we sort that particular postcode into letters and after that we sort it down to streets and further still into odds and evens, house numbers. We write it all down, rubber band it together according to street and odd or even and stick it in the box. Once we get to the town we get to our destination and set up shop with our mail and bikes. The bikes are really heavy durable bikes designed to carry the weight. On the front of the bike there is a metal rack for the box as well as one in the back. We have our maps and scatter throughout Bussum. Now apparently I got an easy route because it was my first time out. Now look at the map and all those streets. That is the route I had! I did one side, met back at the van to pick up my second load and did the second half of the map.
Now do me a favor and look at the map again. The streets are not like American roads. You know the block form that, say, New York or CT has. These are different. They go anywhere and some roads even change names in route! I had N’Gravelandseweg where it changes to N’Hilversumseweg and N’Gravelandseweg makes a right! I have roads that when faced with an intersection of any kind, instead of the road continuing across the way it goes over to the next block over to continue and the road across the way is something completely different!
I can accept change, really, I think I can. I am in a new country, new language and customs and get on pretty well. Yet when it comes to Dutch roads, I can get so lost! I actually got lost in that mess for a full half hour! I was going in circles before I finally got to a road I was familiar with and made my way back to the van! I was on a road that wasn’t on my map! The roads ended here and continued there and turned into a completely different direction! I am definitely a girl who is used to straight lines and a clear direction of where a street starts and stops! I like the block format in America. I can’t help it!
How I know that this country is super old and some of these towns are over three hundred years old in design so things are one way, narrow and strange. Bussum is nothing but one ways it seems! I was going with traffic one way and then against it another. There are cars parked on the side of the road everywhere and car traffic and cycling traffic is trying to squeeze by! I tell you this much. My first experience delivering was at times hellish and scary! I got lost and had a few close calls with cars because my America butt is not used to cycling with such narrow roads just yet! I made it through however without falling down and only once did I lose the box of mail to the ground my feet stood on! Not too shabby! Now I imagine you are giggling at all this but if you haven’t driven on Dutch (or European) roads, you simply do not understand how crowded it can get here! And if you aren’t used to it and quick, it can be a scary place for anyone on two wheels!

Cycling in the Netherlands, mail delivery, worldy chatter, Dutch Roads