: Netherlands, February 2-6, 2012

My mom, her boyfriend Hans, and me, went to the Netherlands for a few days.

Thursday, February 2nd

There isn't too much to say about Thursday, really. We arrived at Schiphol sometime around 21:30, I think, got our stuff, and met up with Aldert, one of mom's cousins. He had to go get the car and told us to wait inside, and that he'd come back inside to get us when he was at the pick-up point, or whatever it's called. Instead, we went outside, walked over to where he might park, and waited. Which in itself wasn't such a bad idea, as he did show up there. But... Damn, it was cold. Or, the actual temperature wasn't so bad, but the wind was just... Freezing.

Well, anyway. Aldert showed up with the car, we drove to Alkmaar, and he dropped us off at his brother, Ronald's, place. It was already rather late, but we still stayed up a bit, talking to Ronald and Yvonne, and their son Myron. Aldert also stayed for a bit. 

We eventually went to bed. All three of us had to share a room, me in a single bed, mom and Hans in a huge blow-up bed. I have to admit, when I first heard that we had to share a room, I wasn't too happy about it. But, it was all right.

Friday, February 3rd

When we arrived on Thursday, it was cold, but no snow anywhere. At least not that I could see. When I woke up on Friday it was snowing heavily. More than what they're used to in the Netherlands, according to everyone I've talked to. Compared to what we get in Norway, it wasn't much, but this wasn't Norway.

Ronald had planned a walk in the dunes today. I wasn't looking too much forward to that, as we had gone for a walk in the dunes when we were there in September as well, and walking in the sand was a bit too much for me. But because of the snow, the walk was pretty nice this time. We also walked in a completely different part of the dunes, so it's hard to say what it would've been like with no snow, but still. I wasn't half dead when we were finished.

Snow-covered sand-dunes.

When we finished our walk, we went to a small restaurant nearby to eat some pea soup. It was good.

Pea-soup; Very good. Whatever that meat is; Not so good

Didn't do much for the rest of that day. I went up to bed shortly after we returned, as I was extremely tired, for some reason. I hadn't really planned to either, I was just going up to our room to check something on my laptop, and just sort of fell halfway asleep. Mom wasn't too happy about that, tried making a big deal of it, saying it was impolite not to come back down and tell everyone that I was going to bed for a bit. Maybe it was, but... Eh.

Came back down to dinner. Had some kind of traditional Dutch meal called hutspot. It's not that different from what we in Norway know as lapskaus, to be honest. Either way, it was very good. After dinner Myron, Hans and I went to the store to buy some stroopwafel-icecream for dessert. Stroopwafels are delicious, icecream is delicious, and stroopwafel-icecream... Is double-delicious!

I went back to bed not too long after that. Was still dead tired, even though I had a Monster. Made sure I told everyone this time. =P

Saturday, February 4th

Was woken up very early by an SMS from Chess, saying I had used 80% of my monthly quota of data-traffic when outside Norway. When we landed, I got an SMS saying that I could use no more than 80NOK a day, which was equal to 50MB, and that I'd get an SMS when that quota was used. As far as I had calculated, I was nowhere near that amount, and particularly not that early in the morning.

So I started checking things out, and it turns out the SMS I got when we landed wasn't even from Chess. Why the hell I got that SMS I have no idea. The actual price was 19NOK per MB, with a monthly limit of just under 500NOK, which is way too expensive. If I had known that was the actual price, I wouldn't have used my mobile net. Oh well. At least I didn't use it anymore after that.

Spent Saturday with Aldert, mostly at his place, but also went out to buy some typical dutch food to bring home, like stroopwafels and hagelslag. Unfortunately, we didn't plan ahead, and forgot to take out enough money before we went to the store. For some reason, Dutch stores doesn't take VISA. Who knows why, but it's damn inconvenient. Fortunately, Aldert's wife, Josée, came to the rescue and paid for us.

After we were finished in the store, we went to eat some herring. Apparently also typical Dutch? I don't know, tasted very similar to Norwegian herring, except for the pickles on the side. Either way, it's not something I'd pay to eat. Wasn't bad, but just... Not my thing.

Later we ate dinner at Aldert's. Something called nasi, which was basically some sort of rice and chicken thing with peanut putter sauce. I remember being very skeptical to the peanut butter sauce when we visited back in September, but it's actually very good. Weird, but very good.

Mom and Aldert, at Aldert's place.

After dinner we went back to Ronald's place for his birthday party. I have to say, Dutch customs for birthdays (and other similar occasions) is a bit weird to a Norwegian. Basically, everyone congratulate each other. Whenever someone new arrived at the party, they went around shaking everyone's hand (and did the kisses-on-the-cheeks thing), and congratulated them. Here in Norway, we really just congratulate the one actually having the birthday. The only time where people congratulate everyone, is when someone has been born, I think? Only thing I can think of.

I once again went to bed rather early. No wonder, as I was woken up so early by that damn SMS. 

Sunday, February 5th 

Got to sleep in a bit on Sunday. After breakfast, we didn't really do much other than sit around and talk, and get ready for Aldert and Josée's 25-year anniversary party.

At about 4pm, I think, we went into Alkmaar and arrived at the party. It was quite nice, despite the fact that I couldn't really understand much. Fortunately, Myron and Imara, Aldert's oldest daughter, sat down and spoke English with me for a while. It was rather nice. The only problem was that it was slightly cramped where we were, which made the noise-level a bit much for me. It's not that I can't handle the volume, it's just that with that much talking going on around me, I'm almost unable to focus on what the person I'm talking to is saying. Even if everyone else is speaking a language I can't really understand yet.

After a while we went into the dining room and sat down for dinner. I sat at the end of the table.

Left to right: Hans, Mom, Hans (oldest brother of moms cousins), Yvonne (Hans' wife).

Right to left: Ronald, Yvonne, Imara, Mirgina (the daughter of the oldest sister of moms cousins), Wesley (Hans' son), and Michelle (Wesley's girlfriend).

These are the best pictures I got of the people at the table. =P

In front of us, as we sat down, were a menu, with three appetizers and three main courses. I went with tomato soup for appetizer and chicken sate for the main course. The tomato soup was really good and spicy, probably the best tomato soup I've had. The chicken sate was also very good, although I think we ate almost the same thing at Aldert's place when we visited in September. It was basically chicken-pieces on sticks, with a "vinegar-marinated" salad and peanut butter sauce. Sounds weird, but it was really delicious.

I went more or less straight to bed after we got back from the party. Or rather, I went straight up to our room and changed back to regular clothes, and stayed there, in the silence, until I went to sleep. My head, and my ears, were really tired from all the background noise at the party. 

Monday, February 6th 

Once again got to sleep in for a while. Then had to pack after breakfast. Left Ronald's place at around 3pm, I think? Ronald drove us to Abcoude, to moms brother, Lex. He had invited us to dinner before we went back home. 

Ronald on the left, Lex on the right.

Had something called boerenkool-stamppot, which is some sort of fancy version of sausages and mashed potatoes. The mash consisted of potatoes, boerenkool and bacon, and was very nice. The sausage was delicious, very different from what we're used to here in Norway.

Also got to say hello to Saskai, Lex' wife, and their children, my cousins, Daan, Floor and Jeroen, before we had to leave for the airport. The oldest child, Charlotte, is on some kind of trip around the world or something? I think she's in Australia atm.

Got very disappointed when we got to the airport. Checking in and going through security went rather fast, despite the guy in front of us who had lost his luggage or something like that. But when we got past security, we ended up in some kind of really small area with no real stores, just a tiny tax-free kiosk consisting of just a couple of shelves, and some sort of cafe. Not the same place we were at in June and September. Huge disappointment, as I had planned to buy a couple of things there. Oh well. 

Future plans 

Mom and I have been talking about sending me to my great aunt's place for three-four weeks, hopefully later this year, so she can teach me the Dutch language properly. She lives alone in a place called Exloo, and she used to teach immigrants Dutch, so it will hopefully be a lot more effective than any of the trips down there so far.

We haven't talked to her about it yet, though. I'm first gonna speak with Nav and such, see if they have any objections to it, for any reason. I don't want to risk losing my money by going to the Netherlands for so long. I don't think it will be a big problem, though, as long as I keep working on my health while I'm there. But we'll see.


I'm pretty sure I have forgotten to mention quite a lot. But I forgot to write stuff down every day, as I had planned to, so... Yeah. =P

Also; Yay, a post with pictures. =P