Hopkins!

First of July, 10mins to 11pm.

Today was the buffer day, to just be familiar with the city and its ways.

I woke up late, the exhaustion from yesterday and the travel to get here was growing up on me.

And so, half asleep, I went out for a walk, with one objective - get an ethernet cable. I ended up with a stroll for 2 hours outside, from one side to another, taking random turns and walking like a headless chicken among the super neat buildings and fancy cars in parking lots on a Sunday morning when most people were legit off the streets. 

Reached the mall, to a store called 'Maqt', oh that place was beautiful! A very homely, food store. From small tomatoes to big apples, from tap water to expensive liquor. Got myself a pack of apples, and the lady at the counter gave me directions to the store to get the ethernet cable.

The directions she gave were on one side, but the citric acid from the tasty apple made me go otherwise. So now am walking on some random street staring at tall buildings pf fancy architecture, and eventually circled to the 'CoolBlue' store and got the ethernet cable. I was excited to get back to the apartment and video call at home. 

After some rest, it was time for getting the bike!! The Bike Boys, as they call them, were waiting at the VU central square, inside the university, this massive cycle stand and some mechanical tinkering supplies. Soon, I got the bike- a black 'step-through' cycle with a heavy lock and met with some fellow students onto the Jansen hotel, where they were staying. We had met yesterday at the party.

Riding the cycle in this city really makes you feel like you belong to the city. The lanes merge into the roads and break off from them fast, there are signals for the cars and the pedestrians and the bikes, and with clear skies and a cool weather, 'touristing' around on the bike is fun!

In fact, I was so overwhelmed, I just wandered around for 2.5 hours, without any map or anything, to beautiful streets and passed by large museums. Why did I not wait and visit them, you ask? I kept those for a later time, I was not ready to stop riding the bike!

Among the many eating places along the street, one was Vogeltje SnackCorner, it looked vegetarian-friendly and my stomach was grumbling. I got a falafel wrap, and orange juice, and spent most of the time thinking why the man at the counter kept staring at me with a smirk, perhaps I wasn't eating it the right way or something :P It was good, though.

The biking continued for a while more and I gradually made it back to the room, only to soon get a message from Ramya asking if I would meet her and another at 'Swagat- the Indian restaurant' for dinner! Now, it's not that I hadn't already searched for Indian restaurants at this place, but day2 is too early for an Indian restaurant at a foreign place, don't you think? I went there anyway (another chance to bike yay!) 

The time with them was fun! The order- biryani and mix vegetable curry and chicken tikka.

I passed the Olympic stadium and the medical centrum on the way back, and now my legs are breaking with all the overwhelming biking and walking.

Today was a very good day. Chill. I feel more confident here, overall.
Oh, and a thing for you to remember. My bike is called Hopkins (random suggestion from a friend). On all future mentions of Hopkins, please don't think of it as a clerk with a typewriter. Okay sorry, am done now :P

Am excited for tomorrow - first day of college, and to observe the weekday face of this place!

Welcome to VU!

Saturday, 9:29pm. It is bright and sunny outside.

I just came back to my room. Here, at the on-campus accommodation of the VU. 

The room has no fan or AC, just a huge window, looking at a giant tree, and beyond it a quiet street and brick-walled apartments of other students. I am sharing this apartment with 4 others- whose names I do not remember, but they seem to be fun people! I came back early from the welcoming party, the others are yet to come back.

Today was a very long day. The flight from Mumbai to Amsterdam was literally chasing the sunrise, at least that's what it looked like in the entertainment screen. Though it was a night flight, I could barely sleep and got some good pictures out of the window, instead. 

Light.

The flight started descending as Germany arrived, it was beautiful and right out of a SimCity game. The symmetric layout of roads and fancy circular elevated outgrowths from the main roadways, sharp houses and everything about it said it was printed out by a computer. We arrived at Frankfurt. 

At the security check, I forgot to put the metal pen (a friend had gifted it to me) into the bag and instead kept it in my pocket as I walked through the detector. AND THAT WAS IT. 

Three guards gathered around me, asking me to open the pen and tell them what it is, then they read the name of the pen and asked me where it is from. It was hilarious. With a layover of 3hrs before the next flight, I had a tough decision, between observing social animals live their complex behaviour of holding caffeine solutions in paper cups and eating thaipla. The rest is global warming.

I slept better in the next flight, and soon, Amsterdam was under the plane- vast stretches of facebook-game-like-farming outside the city, and boats and sails in the middle of the city parts. My seat-mates were grumpy, but the flight duration was short. And I set foot into Schipol Airport! 

The first person I met from VU was Alan, who would help me reach the De Boelelaan. Got myself a Lebara (pronounced Lebada) sim card and quickly rushed out with him and another student, to meet Eva - she had been in all the communication emails from VU, and slowly I started to understand the handwork and process that goes behind conducting such a programme. In the taxi were 3 more students, and we broke into a conversation, but I was really only interested in looking around at the city.

Such a beautiful city! Organised, clean and disciplined. That was my first impression of it. Cars, cycles, trams, buses, taxi and rail. Buildings that are contemporary in that they take cues from the olden and add a touch of the modern to it. Some, very modern too, fancy but yet had something very European about them, and some very traditionally boxy. A very peaceful place. 

Touchdown

We got our keys to the room which was not too far away. A humble abode, two bathrooms one kitchen, two laundry sets and one apartment door to share with 5 people. 

Took me a while to unpack and set things up (still very messy to be honest), and I am so dumb, I searched everywhere and tried everything and disturbed my apartment mates to help me with the phone simcard tray hole, when the answer was right on the soft board - pins. 

A nap for 62seconds and it was already 5:45pm. 

We were out on the streets, 12 of us, made it to the assembly point for the students to have a short walk in the city and go to the Hotel Jansen (where half of the students are staying) for the welcome party. We were 10minutes too late. The group had left. So we just mapped it and started walking. Turns out, it was a very fun walk indeed. Travelling by any means is one thing, and walking its streets is another. Some turns later, we walked past a beautiful lake with overlooking houses and some boating, cyclers whistling through the road adjacent, painted maroon in colour. 

Hotel Jansen was the gathering place. Eva, Jan, Alan, all the VU supervisors were there and the students also came. Burgers and fries and alcohol and coca-cola. It was a time for us to make conversations. The first and top three questions were: “ Hi! Your name? Where are you from? What courses are you doing here?” 

It's a good crowd, from my eye at least. Judging anybody or anything right now is too early. 

This year is the largest summer school capacity for the university, at 200 odd.

It got boring after a while, and I guessed meeting them would be more fun once classes start and outing plans take shape. And plus the city was provoking me to go out and explore it. I glanced at the watch, 8:30pm. Decided to walk back to the room. From the sunlight and everything, it felt like 4pm. The sirens of the road-crossing after you press the button is haunting, especially when you’re the only one crossing. Saturday night, was holiday night for people, and all stores were closed by now. Which meant my dreams of having good wifi in the room now are postponed for tomorrow.

I call it a day for to-day. It is 10:43 now, and it feels like the Sun just set.

Welcome to VU. 

Lets Start!

Hi there!
With 10minutes to board the first flight, from Bombay to Frankfurt, its the perfect time to start a blog!
I am off to Amsterdam for a summer-school at Vrije University, and some fun travel in and around ;)

For the next 29 days, I will be posting here every day (hopefully), and I shall try to do justice to the travel and keep you entertained.


P.S. My Visa only arrived two days back.

Follow the blog to get updates.

Boarding time. Catch you on the flip-side!

Customary airport photo.