Dealing With It

I love a good deal. I come from the type of family that proudly tells recipients what percentage their gift was on sale. My flight to Thailand? $300. Why? Malaysia Air. Sorry mom. It was solidly one of the more uncomfortable long haul flights I've been on. My light and TV weren't working and even though it was morning in Amsterdam, they turned off the lights so we could get accustomed to Bangkok time. Meh.

My second flight went better until the landing. We landed so violently everyone screamed and assumed brace position (a first for me.) a man I'd not talked to grabbed my hand. It was over quickly but right after the pilot kept repeating "sorry, sorry, sorry" over the intercom. The rest of the trip I was simply in awe of the public transportation system. How can Bangkok's trains be so nice? (My cousins might need to do a case study here.) Plus, everyone politely stands to the sides in little lines, and let's everyone off before entering. What a novel idea.

Even better than the trains, though, has been the food. I ended up eating the exact same meal every day because it was so tasty... Though it doesn't photograph particularly well. For so long I resisted being that person who took pictures of food... But I succumbed and then didn't even do a very good job. If you're ever in Bangkok, head to "Inter" and get the red curry duck. It is heaven for less than $3.

 

 

 

Tip Toe Through the Tulips

My last few days in the Netherlands I still had yet to complete a very important task-- take a picture with a windmill. When we were living in Scotland each of us were given a task for the future- one sibling needs to find a beach we could never find and the other needs to eat a fish called whale. I needed to find a windmill in Holland.

Success (consider the gauntlet thrown you two.)

I spent my last full day seeing said windmill and touring the massive tulip garden an hour south of Amsterdam. While in the line, waiting for the bus, I started talking to a really nice Brazilian mother/son duo and spent the day with them. It was the perfect temperature, the flowers were gorgeous, and we even got to take a bike ride. Flowers are the best thing to photograph. They don't move, and they're beautiful.

 

 

Fit for the King

Every country's schools has a selling point- their students are the hardest workers, have come the farthest, or are the smartest. The Dutch (constantly) told me their students were the happiest. I had an incredibly busy and rewarding time in Dutch schools. I'll spare you the full rundown, but I'm guessing that at least a bit of the reason those students are so happy is because they seem to never actually be in class. They're out in the field, in crazy open classrooms that actually seem to work, or on vacation. My biggest surprise was how early and intensely the Dutch track their students. They make the roughly equal decision of what type of college to attend (if at all) and what their major will be at age 12. With some students, this might work. With a few of the arts high school students I talked to, it was fantastic. However, I also have talked to a few students who this really hurt. Still, if I was to send my children to school in a country of my choice I think it would be the Netherlands.

I was very thankful my research there was so fruitful, in part because it was an incredibly expensive portion of my journey. When I first looked up hostels a bed in a 24 room dorm was over $60. Why? Well, in accordance with my nack of going to countries during festivals I managed to end up in Amsterdam during the biggest day of them all, King's Day. It's basically a day of day drinking expensive beer, dancing poorly and hanging out in large crowds while wearing orange. Instead, I opted to hang out in the empty apartment I had a room in and use my day cooking and watching Netfix. Before you think I skipped the excitement entirely, I did go out Kings Night. My airbnb host showed up at my door at about 6 informing me that he was taking me out with his friends. The friends never did appear, but after I convinced him that hanging out on the street would be much better than going to a dance club, I had a great time. Dutch sounds hilarious when being sung and there were many free concerts that I could go to to enjoy. After finding out you could return glasses for 1 euro I took some time to collect glasses, until my host got a bit annoyed. (I made 16 euro in maybe 10 minutes.) Altogether, a nice night.

 

 

One Last Time!

Would my adventures in Europe have really been complete it if I hadn't embarked on a long, weird bus journey? Yes. But, I did anyway. A tight budget makes for better blogs. (I originally had a train ticket that never arrived in the mail, they told me my only option was to repurchase the ticket... But I will not reward bad behavior.) My bus trips from Kraków to Amsterdam did not disappoint. I did the first journey of 5 hours with a large group of young nuns.

The second leg of my journey (from Prague to Brussels) was very long, and rather boring. That is until we had a stop at about 2 am. Since everyone was getting off, and I was in the front row, I tried to get out the front door. There was some language spoken a few times until I was almost out the door and the bus stewardess came from behind me and pulled me back inside saying, "Ma'am! You have to go out the back!" Slightly embarrassing, since the entire bus and bus rest area watched this happen, at least it woke me up.

After a rather long delay in Luxembourg (which bumps me up to 24 hours there in my lifetime, so new country!) we arrived in Brussels. As everyone got into their cars and drove away, I realized I didn't know where I was. I hoped on a train I managed to find and huddled with some tea until check-in.

Brussels left me a bit cold (literally and figuratively.) Some people love it, but I had recently been spoiled with my European Golden Triangle. But, they did have a stunning square. I spent my two days there walking around, prepping for Amsterdam and clucking to myself about how outrageous the prices were.

My 1 o'clock bus to Amsterdam was 30 minutes away by metro, so I naturally gave myself an hour and a half. I had bought my ticket ahead of time so I could just buzz right through. But, when I went to scan my ticket it didn't work. I couldn't figure out how to get in the door. I figured my ticket must have expired so stood in line for 15 minutes to get a new one. That one didn't work. Luckily, a nice man showed me how (there's a machine about a foot away with no sign on it that you use for single use tickets.) However, the machine was broken. I stood in another line, and finally had to have someone manually let me through.

No problem. This is why I give myself time. However, with my second transfer the doors on both sides of the train opened. I got off the closer side, and it was the wrong side. There are no directions (at least in English) or explanations. Brussels was the second worst country for English I've found-- after Malaysia. I had no option to get to the other line, only to go to an exit. I exited, had to go to street level to find an entrance and... Well long story short, I missed my bus and had to buy a train ticket. But, with that I finally made it to Amsterdam.

 

Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy

-Polish Idiom for "Not my problem"...or more literally, "Not my circus, not my monkey." (I just liked that.)

When I meet most people I will generally ask them three questions:

1.Do you like your job?

2. What are your realistic and unrealistic dream jobs?

3. What's your favorite city that surprised you?

I have had 4 or 5 people tell me Kraków... So I decided to take a look before heading west.

I completely agree,

Kraków has just about everything going for it.

Here are my Top 5 Reasons

1. It's an overnight train away from Prague (which I liked very much) and Budapest (which I loved.)

 

2. It's relatively undiscovered. This means there are less people enjoying all the stunning architecture and it's incredibly cheap. The free walking tours are fabulous.

Source:wsllpaper.com

3. The museums are great, There's a booming art scene, both with street art and contemporary. Schindler's Factory was also very worthwhile.

4. There are interesting, incredibly depressing, but worthwhile side trips.

5. It's an easy city to visit! It's very walkable, (and did I mention inexpensive?) I stayed in an amazing hostel in an 8 bed dorm that had full breakfasts, and great dinners included! All for $16. Plus, the Poles are masters of English. I didn't come across a single person who wasn't able to communicate with me (most fluently.)

Source: sumfinity.com

I know Jaipur, Agra and New Delhi are the real "Golden Triangle" but I'd highly recommend a different one, "Prague, Kraków, & Budapest."

 

 

 

*I lost most of my Kraków pictures due to a memory card error