“Hi, Boss?Yeah, um, I’m going to be a bit late this morning – I’m on an express train to Enkhuizen and it won’t let me off until I get to Hoorn. Yes, I realise that this is the opposite direction to the office, but not sure how long I’ll be…..Oh. Really? An hour North from the office? Riiiight. Ok. See you before lunch.”
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Apparently every December 14th/15th, the train schedules get a complete overhaul. So when a train that looks like yours, leaves the same platform you usually get your train from every morning, at the same time as your usual train, you would think that it's YOUR train. But, it wasn't.
APPARENTLY it's something that every dutch person knows about, inherent information that just gets passed on through the generations, just like when the seasons start, or you know, how to ride a bike.
BUT I wasn't the only one at the office caught out... another girl I had never seen before in my life, hops on the train to Amsterdam, and I look at her and she looks at me, and I said " you thought you were going to Schipol too right?"
and she said "Yeah, what is WITH that? I have a 9 o'clock meeting at Hoofddorp and now I'm late!"
"Hoofddorp? Where do you work?"
"(insert name of my company here)."
"Me too! What area?"
"Finance."
"Building 2, level 2?!"
"Yeah! Funny, I've never seen you there before!"
Glad I wasn't the only one stuck in the same situation. She was nice, from New York, but she had been living in Australia for 6 years.
I arrived at work at 10.30 (when i left my house at 7.45), to see my boss and 2 colleagues, with highly amused faces, as I walked into the room.
All day long I was ridiculed with:
"Oh, that's a nice scarf you're wearing - did you pick it up while you were in Hoorn this morning?"
"I left a visitor's guide for Hoorn on your desk, just in case you are planning a repeat day trip tomorrow."
"What time are you leaving tonight? Need me to print out the train schedule for you, and highlight the most direct train routes for you, or are you planning an overnighter in Hoorn?"
Ha. Ha. Soooo funny. Forever will be known as the crazy Australian girl that went 1 hour in the wrong direction on a train to work. Or just, the crazy Australian girl.
Winter doesn't officially start here til 21st December but it just TURNED on Saturday morning. A beautiful sunny day when you look out the window and then BAM! - cold as ice! Then Saturday night, and Sunday...COLD COLD COLD. Like, my feet are cold in boots. Somebody pass me the gluhwein.
Lucky I got a special, awesome, fantastic survival package in the mail on Saturday consisting of Toobs, Vegemite,Burger rings, Haighs chocolates galore, a Violet Crumble Rasberry bullets, a wool hat, a wool scarf, and Merino wool gloves... SO SPECIAL!! Thanks Pam, Tom, and Andrei! xxxxx
Today??? Minus 2 degrees. All day. No wind, no rain ( Oh! A bonus!) but no snow either.
A great day to be standing at the train station of a F***ing Dutch Village, waiting for a train to take you back to the city... then getting on the UNHEATED train and it stops in the middle of the tracks for 20 minutes, waiting for the confusion to pass because apparently noone that drives a train in this country KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING.
The other day I got on the my train and the driver took us down the wrong tracks, and had to reverse the train, to get on the right ones. 45 minutes later... I was back on track to get to work. Can you imagine?? The driver became absent minded for a minute and thought he was taking us to Belgium or something, instead of the little village/office park outside of Schipol.
Reee-dee-coo-lous. Freaking ridiculous.
So, the weekend that was;
Saturday night, I went to the markets in the Jordaan area with Laura, and we drank Gluwein, and ate ham and saurkraut rolls, and then went to Laura's house where she made more gluhwein, then to a party on my friend Pia's houseboat (which I move into on Wednesday for a week of housesitting!! Yipppeee!! Then back there for 3 weeks in January!), then out with Karl the Irish chef to see a funk/jazz band in Spui, a funky little street in the centre of the city where Laura and I danced the night away til 5 in the morning. Upon the cycle back to my place, I tried to jump the curb on my bike. It didn't work. Bike fall number# 3. I think i hurt my wrist internally.
All Laura could do when she saw me sprawled on the pavement was cover her mouth in shock. I laughed and picked myself up and dusted myself off and kept cycling again. She stood there for about 3 minutes staring after me, and then finally she just repeatedly said "are you ok? no seriously, are you ok? Rani, you know that was never going to work!" She just couldn't believe it didn't hurt that much because she said it looked terrible. I was surprised it didn't hurt as much.
Sunday, we woke up at 1pm, and made our way to some Christmas markets in Westerpark, where we drank more Gluhwein into the evening. Great weekend!
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