A tip of the week for expat bloggers: it does help if you’re actually in the country in order to write about it. This “summer” (as in late June to late September, as opposed to June-July-August), I’ve been on twelve different flights and visited eight different airports in five different countries and have probably been in the Netherlands for about four weeks.

On my travels, I managed to visit my home country (Australia), the home of my ancestors (England, although I suppose I’m technically of Scottish heritage, but they got on the boat in England), and the home of my in-laws’ ancestors (Germany). I have a lot of time for each country — where else could I be in a department store at 9pm on a Saturday night buying shoes?

The only thing I have to say about Melbourne in winter is that it’s colder than I remembered. However, Manchester in summer was just as cold. I also never thought I’d get so excited about English food, but I had the best curry ever in the Curry Mile. Walking into a convenience store and having a choice of so many Cadbury’s varieties could explain why Australia and the UK are among the most obese countries in the world.

I was also excited about the food in Dresden. It’s amazing that a quality main, dessert and a half litre of water can be had for about €15. That would set you back at least €25 in Eindhoven. Many slices and breadgoods were sampled, along with East German icecream covered in chocolate to disguise the flavour. Apart from food, palaces, rebuilt churches and huge shopping centres are the order of the day.

One morning I saw a group of people drinking beer at the station. So far, pretty normal for Germany. Except a) it was 9am b) the beer was in glasses c) they were at a bakery. Just one of those things being true is not quite right. However, a country where an advertising slogan of the local bakery is along the lines of “living without cake is possible, but not sensible” is always going to be in my good books.

In the meantime, I’ve managed to see a few of the Eindhoven events I mentioned. During the culture open day I saw Leon van der Zanden (a local cabaretier) perform for free (his shows sell out immediately, however a colleague went last week and was unimpressed, so I think I got the better deal), went on a backstage tour of the Parktheater, and visited the library for the first time. It was a good way to get a sampling of the upcoming cultural season. Eindhoven Trots 2009 was won by the lichtviaduct near the High Tech Campus, which would require a car to see, so I have no idea if it’s worthy or not. Finally, the Tunafestival was hit and miss: the acoustics in the main tent were appalling, however watching groups of musicians walking the streets performing incomprehensible Spanish music was much better and one of the stranger things I’ve seen in Eindhoven.

On top of that, I also neglected to mention Flux, a new art festival in mid-September, amongst other events. It appears that Eindhoven has a lot more going on in the autumn that I previously thought. It’s a good time to stay put for a month or two.

In Europe, there’s not much in the way of physically delineated borders anymore. Usually just a sign. However, between the Netherlands and Belgium, there’s no need for one in order to know where you are, because it’s immediately obvious when the red-brick, neatly arranged houses disappear and the view becomes hilly, with a mish-mash of housing styles, including space around the houses. I noticed a hill in Wallonia somewhere with different-sized houses placed higgledy-piggledy all over it. And there are no roadworks or construction equipment every kilometre or so.

This was my first time in Wallonia, except I didn’t stay very long, as my destination was Luxembourg. I was aware that Luxembourg was a very small place from a school project I once did on population and density. Apart from that, I didn’t know much else. Given the size though, I figured 48 hours was enough time to explore the capital. Even Lonely Planet recommends a two-day itinerary. But I was wrong. There are a lot of steps to go up and down to get anywhere.

Luxembourg has a long history, dating back over a thousand years. However, the history of culture is relatively short. The Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art has a small section dedicated to Luxembourgish art, however it only dates back to the early-mid 1800s. Given the population is about half a million, it’s actually quite impressive.

What it lacks in culture though is made up for in practicality. The inhabitants have taken advantage of their geographical location, especially with their language policy. There are still the remains of fortresses and walls built to protect the city from numerous attacks, which are open for exploration.

The language situation in Luxembourg is curious. They have their own language, however they are also fluent in French and German, and most speak English as well. The difference to other “multilingual” countries is that in Luxembourg, it’s not split on geography — it’s situation-based. French is used in everyday activity, so decades-old schoolgirl French got another rare outing. Only the conductor on the train on the way home spoke to me in Luxembourgish.

In the free press on my first day there, there was a story about the strengthening of Luxembourgish. About 80% of residents use the language every day, and it is beginning to be used more in shops. It also noted that more than 50% of immigrants (about a third of the population, mostly from Portugal and Italy) are also learning and using Luxembourgish. But how on earth do they learn it when most activities are undertaken in French? The press is mostly in French and German — even the Zeitung vum Lëtzebuerger Vollek is in German, despite the Luxembourgish title and date header. There is Luxembourgish TV and radio, but I couldn’t pick it up in my hotel room.

That about a third of the population are immigrants is also impressive — the Luxembourgish strike me as very tolerant and welcoming. The May Day celebrations at Neumünster Cathedral were subtitled “fête du travail, des cultures et du dialogue” (holiday of work, cultures and dialogue) and included a multicultural food tent (à la the Night Market in Melbourne). There is also a service to help immigrants settle by providing information and interpreting services.

The Luxembourgish motto, “Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sinn” (We want to remain what we are), sums up the country quite well. It’s a country that’s very aware of itself and its place in Europe. Just when you thought the Netherlands was small, Luxembourg is even smaller, and with a lot more geographical character per square kilometre.

One thing I must do more often is read the paper. There are a lot of interesting things going on, but I seem to find out about them afterwards. As a result, I now have a trial subscription to nrc.next, and am quite enjoying being able to read the paper over breakfast, not to mention on a lazy Sunday. One recent event I discovered only at the last minute was the recent European Mobility Week [en] (Week van de Vooruitgang).

Many cities around Europe participate in the week, the purpose of which is to promote sustainable transport. The theme for 2008 was “Clean Air for All!” (“Schone lucht voor iedereen”). The highlight is the final day of the week, where many cities have a “In town without my car!” day (autovrijedag). This year more than 20 cities in the Netherlands participated (NOS.nl [nl]), including Amsterdam [nl] and Eindhoven.

Amsterdam put on a lot of activities on the autovrijedag, such as attempting to make the world’s longest hopscotch, lots of street theatre, and trying out the new extreme sport whiken (it seems to be a Dutch invention, and I’m not sure if the English verb “whiking” exists yet, so I’ll have to stick with the Dutch verb). A whike [en] is a recumbent bike with a sail on it, which allows you to travel up to 50 km/h.

During the week there were also nationwide activities. There was an election for Mr and Mrs Bus [nl]: the best bus drivers in the Netherlands. And on the Monday, there was a Ride to Work (Fiets naar je werk) day. This seemed a little strange, as a large amount of people ride to work in the Netherlands, and my theory is if you don’t do it already, then it’s not possible. My guess is that in Melbourne there are a lot more people who could ride but don’t, so a Ride to Work day is more special. On a related note, this Thursday is the Nationale Filevrije Dag [nl], where people are encouraged to travel to work earlier or later or work from home or use an alternative transport mode in order to reduce traffic jams.

I have always heard about these days through work emails in Melbourne, but the uni here doesn’t seem to promote external activities much. Hence the need to read the paper more (and yet another reason to learn Dutch, I guess).

Birthdays here have a habit on going on for ages. I usually start the celebrations the day before (as technically I was born the day before my real birthday in this time zone), and then by the time you have a party and take some pie to work, it’s a good month later. Today was the pie occasion, so finally it’s over for another year. My partner is also here at the moment, so he got to experience the joy that is bringing-pie-to-work. Verdict? I don’t think he was entirely impressed.

This year I managed to travel ~1300 kms on my birthday, so that made it a strange day. I had decided to spend a long weekend in Norway this year as part of my summer holiday, as I couldn’t quite face going south with all the Dutchies. As it turned out, a lot of them had headed north. (“Mama, mama, kijk maar! Kijk!” is not what you want to hear waiting for a ferry in Oslo. It’s annoying enough in the Netherlands.) I thought I’d go somewhere new but familiar, so Scandinavia it was. At least I could make menus and signs out, although spoken Norwegian is so different from spoken Swedish that I didn’t dare try to speak Norwegian as it would have come out very Swedishy. So on my birthday, I was on a night train from Bergen to Oslo, then a plane from Oslo to Amsterdam, and finally a train to Eindhoven.

We seem to get a lot of holiday bonuses here, so this trip very easily made use of my summer bonus. $40 for a pizza and a coke? $5 for a bottle of water from 7/11? It makes eating out in the Netherlands look affordable. But the scenery was wonderful. They have hills. It’s been so long since I’ve seen a hill. It’s great to be able to jump on a cheap 2-hour flight (especially when it’s delayed and you arrive in a strange city at midnight … great fun … not) and visit a completely different country.

In May I visited an old friend in Hasselt, Belgium. Hasselt lies directly south of Eindhoven, with a straight line distance of ~60km. It sounds all so simple. Here is how I travelled to Hasselt on a Saturday:

1. Caught a train at Eindhoven in the direction of Maastricht (currently ~60km away).
2. Alighted in Sittard 45 minutes later, due to trackworks between Sittard and Maastricht (~40km away, so some progress made).
3. Got on a bus for the rest of the trip to Maastricht. This added about 10-15 minutes to my trip (now ~25km away). By the time I asked information where the Hasselt bus left from and found the stop, I was 40 minutes early for the bus. Sat for a while.
4. Hopped on a bus towards Genk (the bus doesn’t run all the way to Hasselt on the weekend). This took the scenic route through Flanders — we passed a sign pointing to Genk and actually turned the other way. Arrived in Genk 50 minutes later (~12km away — how on earth does it take 50 minutes to cover 12kms?!??!?).
5. I then had to be collected and taken by car to Hasselt. We detoured to the uni in Diepenbeek on the way, so that wasn’t a direct route either.

So after a good 3.5 hours, I was finally at my destination. It’s times like this one really needs a car and a licence. Public transport across the border is not easy to find. Oh, and after all that, Hasselt was good: good chocolate, lots and lots of space (unlike this side of the border), and good food.

So Europe appears to have a) gotten cold and b) gone Christmas mad.

Last week was Sinterklaas in the Netherlands. This is a bigger celebration than Christmas here, in terms of presents. The story goes that Sinterklaas arrives from Spain in November on a boat to prepare for handing out presents on December 5th/6th. Naughty children are threatened with the prospect of being taken back to Spain — we can’t work out how this is a punishment. He is accompanied by helpers known as Zwarte Pieten. Each Zwarte Piet has a speciality. I am still trying to find out how one gets to be Hoofdpiet — do they sit an exam, or do they just get staged promotion every year, or what? I was tartly told by one Dutchie that it is not real. Anyway, on Wednesday everyone left work early to go home to celebrate. My Dutch class was moved to 4pm so our teacher could go home early, but we spent most of the class eating amandelstaaf. One of my colleagues bought me a chocolate letter, which are usually left for children by Zwarte Pieten, purely because I wouldn’t stop asking why there were chocolate letters for sale everywhere. On Wednesday night some of my Dutch class managed to find a restaurant that was open and had a dinner out instead of celebrating Sinterklaas.

I spent last weekend in northern Germany, raiding the Christmas markets. The Lübeck markets were extremely cool — the main market was huge, almost every stall holder at the historic market in the Marienkirchhof was dressed in medieval clothes (I was disappointed that there were one or two stalls not getting into the spirit of it), and the two artists’ markets at the St. Petri Kirche and the Heiligen-Geist-Hospital were really gorgeous (and expensive) and well worth the €2 entry. I didn’t have any Glühwein (I don’t really like wine) but I had a hot chocolate and “acquired” my Lübecker Weihnachtsmarkt 2007 mug.

Today I bought a tiny tiny Christmas tree (not even 15cm high — I spent more on the decorations than the tree) and some poinsettias (one of which is bigger than the tree) to go with the trinkets I picked up in Germany. The Eindhoven Winterstad also opened this weekend and apparently for the first time includes a Christmas market (although reviews on the website so far are uncomplimentary) — that’s on the list for next weekend.

[Jan 2008: I'm transferring some posts from a discontinued blog. Since I wrote this, I've discovered the Leonidas shop in Eindhoven (even the locals don't know where it is).]

Due to Thursday being a public holiday and Friday being a forced day off for the university, I decided to take the opportunity to travel somewhere for two days. I thought I might head down to Belgium and have a look around Antwerp.

Antwerp isn’t that far from Eindhoven (straight line distance is 77kms), however the train line is not direct. Firstly you have to head to the west and then connect with an Amsterdam-Brussels service at Dordrecht or Roosendaal. It takes 2 hours at a minimum.

After I arrived at Antwerp station, I went nextdoor to the zoo. I’m positive there was a kangaroo shape on the signposts — I followed the signposts for a while and just ended up going in circles. (I’ve since discovered there is a sister zoo elsewhere where there are kangaroos. Still doesn’t explain what the kangaroo shape was for.) It was one of the more expensive activities I’ve done on my travels (excluding going to the football) but it was a handy way of killing a few hours before I could check in to my hotel.

Later on Friday, I went down to the diamond district. This was disappointing — a bit dingy.

I booked my hotel through hotels.nl. I thought it would be OK, which it was. However I got a room at the very back of the hotel and it was appallingly noisy outside the entire night. I was in bed for 12 hours and I think I only got 6 hours’ sleep. So Saturday I was fairly sleepy. I’ve found a couple of other hotels I might try next time.

On Saturday I wandered around the old part of the city. I followed a city walk and saw lots of old houses. In the afternoon I went to the Plantin-Moretus Museum. It is an original printing factory that was one of the printing centres of Europe in the 16th century. They kept very good archives, so there are copies of books they printed, the original printing pressses, and cabinets full of type. I was planning to go to the Fashion Museum (as Antwerp is apparently a fashion capital) but I think this was a better choice.

Belgium is supposed to be famous for its food. On Friday night I had the best lasagne — it even had ham and mushrooms. On Saturday I had a capricciosa pizza, which was nice enough, but I was too tired to finish it. Both meals (with a Coke) cost me around €11.

I also brought back some chocolates: 100g of mixed pralines from G. Bastin, an Antwerp chocolatier, and a 200g bag of mixed pralines from Leonidas, a Belgian chain. The Bastin ones were very, very good.

I found Belgium slightly strange. It’s the first time I’ve been to a country that has the same currency and language (to an extent) as another country I’ve been to. The only clue that I’d crossed a border was that signs are duplicated in French and flags had changed colour. There’s still plenty more to do in Antwerp — I didn’t go inside the cathedral for one and the art museums in ‘t Zuid are supposed to be good.