About Germany from Holland

Before continuing, the photos from Velbert I didn't upload:

Awesome danger sign

Sunglasses ftw!

Miriam and me! We both choose friends after the looks

Trying to look pretty. We managed quite well, didn't we?

Sorry for the distraction. Back to the point.

And I thought Spanish girls were bad. They were just the warming up. 

The British guys with condom suits who I at first found very amusing, had somehow managed to multiply themselves during the evening and when I was going to bed at one o'clock, they had reached a number of twelve condom suited individs, each one louder than the other. Result: Drunk shouting, laughing and singing at most unappropriate times of the night. 

I took the case in my own hands and walked out to really set them straight. They didn't even hear me. After some minutes, one of them started to apologise, closed the door to the common room and continued at the same desibel. 

Thanks to them, I was not in the mood of getting up early and being enthusiastic, but I woke up around 8 when my roommates left. I had breakfast (one of the better hostel varieties that I've tried), and managed to drag my yawning, sleepy self out in the streets. 

Because Düsseldorf is Germany's fashion capital – as you can see on Königsallee where the big brands have shops one after another; Gucci, Swarowski, Armani – I walked around in my least fashionable clothes, laughing at furclad madames and business men with crocodile skin shoes on their way to their pedicure (oh, yes. I saw at least five men getting their hands done during my walk). 

Snobby area

Prices in a random window. Almost like in H&M. (Click on the photo to make it bigger).

Düsseldorf was not as exciting as I had hoped. I took a walk down to the old city center, Altstadt, and all the way back along the Rhein. The most interesting thing that happened was that Linda called from Ryfylke to ask my about my writing skills. She would know that already after having me working there for a year, but it is not everyday that someone wins writing competition (technically no one did this time either, it was only second place...). That was fun, it's been a while since we talked.

Yay, market!

Ivy

Boat on the Rhein 

Art ^3

Chess anyone?

Nie wieder Krieg

Strange constructions. The front building is designed by the architect of the Guggenheim museum in Barcelona. 

I only spent 1,5 hours seeing what there was to see, so I went to the supermarket on my way back to have some food while I watched the missed episodes of Danish X-factor on the net. Spent some hours being drowsy.

I decided I HAD to get more out of my visit there, so I went out again, hunting down Deichmann- stores. 

What a miracle. 

If nothing gets you in the mood, go to buy shoes. 

I spent almost an hour looking at and trying shoes, and ended up with another a bit more reasonable than the others, pair to only 10 euros. 

Heaven!

One pair of shoes and a 1€ book - a short story by Gabriel Garcia Márquez in German. Wise choice. If I am to learn it, I could just as well do it the hard way. 

A lot more windowshopping and a walk across the river (on a bridge) to look at the other side - which turned out to be more interesting from far away. 

Grassing birds. In Germany the cows fly

The wrong side

Houses. 

Benches 

Same houses at a distance. The sky was awesome at this moment, but my camera didn't see it...

Back at the hostel, Cecilia, my multilingual roommate and dinner-partner, and me decided to cook, and went to the supermarket. 

Dish of the day: Wholegrain pasta with red pesto and a kind of salty, German minisausage. And parmesan on top. Gooood. 

We had fun talking with some guys, mr. Japan and mr. Australia and later mr. Germany, and had a really nice evening talking and laughing and having a beer or two. 

I fell asleep before I hit the wonderful, big pillow. 

And woke up again to noisy, drunk F****** loud, respectless Britons two hours later. 

I can't believe grown ups can not understand such a simple concept as whispering. I suppose their brain capacity is limited to being able to talk and move at the same time. 

My ambitiousness is as always at it's top level, and I had put the alarm on at 06.15 to go running. Funny enough, I could bare drag myself out of the bed to the shower 40 minutes later. 

I came to the bus station at 08.45. Bus departure to Rotterdam 09.00. Real bus departure to Rotterdam: 10.00.

It didn't help talking to the drivers. I wanted to know when we would be in Rotterdam, because obviously we couldn't make it in time. They didn't speak English, and my knowledge to Slavic languages is rather limited, so he just pointed at the schedule. I don't think he checked the time even once during the trip. 

I slept and listened to music and read all the way.

Half an hour too late, the bus rolled in to the station in Rotterdam. 

Timo had lessons until eight in the evening, poor guy, so he had arranged with his dad to get me. 

There was one smiling Dutch man with a tandem bike waiting there. 

"Julie?"

New best friend.

Awesome!

Two people on a bike with a 378 kg suitcase through the sunny streets of Rotterdam. 

Good start. The best was that nobody even bothered looking at this strange phenomenon. The weather in Holland has been absolutely delightful. Around 15 degrees and sunshine - the most spring I've had so far. 

Windmills, birds, canals, flowers. 

We arrived twenty minutes later at a nice house in the outskirts of Rotterdam (or call it a suburb, if you like). I met Daphne, Timo's younger sister, and then Timo's dad and me went running. 9 km with their cute dog, talking a lot. 

The whole family is overwhelmingly friendly and welcoming, and the food is delicious. And they all speak English very well. 

Timo arrived at 8 in the evening. What joy to see him again! 

Thank you again, Lions Club Sauda, for sending me to that wonderful exchange camp. 

You might wonder why I take so long to update. I now have both wireless and cable internet as much as I want, but to make my life a bit harder, my computer decided not to cooperate with me. 

as you can see, I already had written the blog, but I had to put it to another computer with a better working attitude than mine to post it.