Back with me again, readers, how are you? As I promised before, I will start to share you guys about my adventure in Europe. And the first country I visit outside France waaaaas ……. Netherlands!!! Long before I had my residence permit, I said to myself that I will travel around Europe, visit new places, meet new people, try all the public transport, etc. Please do not blame me with all the cockiness, I was just extremely excited. Sooo, a day after I got my residence permit, I started my adventure.
My consideration in choosing Netherlands was because I have some friends there. They study in Erasmus University, Rotterdam. I went there for 4 days, November 3 to November 7. For my trip there, I took the Eurolines bus from my city, Lille. When I bought the bus ticket, I was a bit confused about the picking point. In the bus website, the pick-up point was between the Lille Europe train station and Crowne Plaza Hotel, but when I checked using the google map thingy, I saw no sign for Eurolines pick-up point. Not any single sign. So I contacted my Korean friend, Doyun, and fortunately she was able to accompany me there, and voila, I saw it with my own eyes that there was no sign of Eurolines bus there. No wonder I got so confuse. My departure should be at 16.30 but wow, the bus arrived 15 minutes before and left 5 minutes before the schedule. The bus driver was so friendly and funny. He made several jokes during the trip. One and a half hour later, the bus stopped at Brussels, Belgium. We had 45 minutes to wandering around or getting some food. Some of the passengers got of at Brussels and only few of them continuing to Rotterdam.
At 21.00, I finally arrived at Rotterdam grand central station. Surprisingly, it was only me who got off there. The remaining passengers were going to Amsterdam. So after waiting for about 20 minutes, my friend Ahmad and Dewisya finally picked me up there. I spent my first night in Dewisya’s apartment. Dewisya lived with 3 Indonesian girls. They all study in the Erasmus University.
The next day, I went to Erasmus University and guess what, I joined their class. Well, not the whole class, just the first 90 minutes, and after that, while waiting for my friends finishing their class, I did a quick tour around the university. In the afternoon, me and Dewisya went to have some lunch in the downtown. I ate the kapsalon, it was slices of chicken combined with French fries and some salads. After that, we went to the city hall, world trade center and cubic house. I also met my friends Ira and Metta from my home university. The good thing in Rotterdam (or even the whole Netherlands) was the existence of Indonesian restaurant everywhere, maybe it was because not only the Dutch ever occupied Indonesia for almost 3.5 century, but also the expansion of Indonesian students to Netherlands itself. Knowing my lack in Indonesian culinary during my stay in France, my friends took me to an Indonesian restaurant owned by Indonesian couple. For 10 euro I got rice with ayam rica, tumis kacang panjang, and telur balado. It was delicious and worth the price, although in Indonesia, you will have at least ten portions of those food in that price. Well, I spent my second night in Ira and Metta apartment. Their apartment is a bit further, but they have bigger apartment than Dewisya. I even got my own room J
The day after, they took me to Amsterdam!! Yaaay, the train ticket was only 16 euro for two was because one of my friends got the discount card, not baaaad at all. The trip was only 1 hour long. Once we arrived in Amsterdam, we split the group. Me and Nilam went to Sex Museums, and Amsterdam Shopping Street. Actually I wanted to go to Madame Tussaud, but the queue line was so long. In the evening we went to a book store (I forgot the name) which sold the book in very good deal, unfortunately I didn’t buy any of those books. And at night we returned to Rotterdam.
The third day, it was the Idhul Adha day. All the moslems throughout the world celebrate this day by sacrificing four legged animals such as cow, camel, goat, etc. in Rotterdam, since there was a lot of Indonesian people, me and my friends went to the small mosque there and found a lot of Indonesian family there. After doing the pray, we gathered in a one Indonesian house and having the lunch there. Oh how I miss my family at that time..
My last day in Rotterdam was tranquil. I went to a local supermarket to buy some snacks for my next trip to Cologne, Germany. I bought Dutch traditional food, stroopwafel. I was so glad meeting my friends in Rotterdam. The local people there were also so fluent in English. What I didn’t like there is the public transport. It was so expensive. For a single journey could cost us 4 Euro, meanwhile in Lille, the same amount of money can be used to purchase one day ticket. Ckckckckkc k. It was funny how I also miss Lille during my every trip outside France.
Well, that was my trip to Rotterdam and Amsterdam. I will be back very soon to tell my other trips. You have a nice weekend!! Ciaooo
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