Feeling clumsy in the Netherlands

The Grote Kerk, Haarlem, Netherlands

“Mmmm to the left to the left, everything you own in a box to the left.”

These Beyonce lyrics may one day save your life. If you come from a left-hand driving country to one that drives on the right, this will be your anthem and constant reminder to look left when crossing the road. I, along with friends, adopted this technique when I was studying in Salamanca, Spain and got a swift reminder to reinstate singing this little number every time I step out the door in Haarlem, Netherlands.
I automatically looked right, stepped out and almost got taken out by a bike. Its rider managing to come to a stop centimeters away from me while yelling something in Dutch which I feel fortunate enough to not yet understand. I had a camera around neck, a massive branding mark that I’m a tourist, and I apologise in English. It feels almost like a rite of passage to nearly get run over by a bike in my first week, but I also feel clumsy stumbling around, knowing practically nothing about my new home.

Look at these super cute streets!
It’s all new. Cycling is most people’s mode of transport with bikes outnumbering people in Amsterdam. Bike extensions such as something that looks like a wheel barrow attached to the front end allows parents to load up their kids for an excursion. In the short time I  have been here, I have seen people eating, texting, transporting their groceries and a couple hand holding while riding bikes. The architecture is monotoned red and brown brick with the occasional accent of colour - the old, traditional houses look edible like they are made out of gingerbread. Looking out my window, houseboats line the Spaarne canal and I pass the time watching boats, kayaks and even paddle boarders traverse the waters.   
I remind myself to hold on to this feeling of newness as already the streets are becoming more familiar and I no longer need to look at a map to find my way around town. Experiencing something for the first time is something that I love about travelling and even though I want to accelerate the process of getting to know my new home and feel less like a clumsy tourist, I shouldn’t, and just enjoy the experience one day at a time.
The Spaarne canal

I will never get back seeing my first windmill and tasting my first stroopwafel - two crisp, thin waffles joint together by a caramel filling. But I’m not a tourist here, I am going to be living here for 10 months and want to become part of this environment and involved in the culture and community - at the very least, at the end of 10 months, I want to be able to apologise in Dutch when making a potentially life threatening cultural blunder.  



Some serious bike bling happening here!
Bike life


Canal life
Location: Haarlem, Netherlands

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Boiling with anticipation to travel again

Image
Today I handed in my notice at the Kaipara Lifestyler. I have bought a round-the-world plane ticket departing late September with my boyfriend - who will be known from here on out as Ryan Gosling, Ry for short, we’re pretty close. Don’t get me wrong – I have, despite my uncertainties, enjoyed my stay in sleepy Dargaville but it’s time for me to move on. The pull of an adventure overseas and doing something different and new everyday is too strong. The rough plan is, and I have no doubt that things will go horribly wrong or incredibly right and we will have to change our route, a week in Rarotonga celebrating my Nana’s 80 th birthday, teaching English in Asia, backpacking through India, a brief stopover in Europe and soaking up the language in South America – one of my lifelong dreams is to be fluent in Spanish – not to mention attending the Football World Cup in Brazil! It’s not my first trip away from the New Zealand nest. When I was 22 I explored USA, Canada, a
Read more

Life without Facebook.

Image
We live in a world where fruit have their own facebook page. You can’t rummage for a ripe lemon without the white “f” with the blue background staring at you - begging, pleading for you to “like” it. Every website now has a range of favicons saying, “like me”, “talk to me”, “watch me”. It seems that every company is now that fat kid picked last for sports practice jumping up and down saying, “pick me, pick me, pick me” to the cool kids. As well as making companies look a bit like your aunty Mildred, it has also revolutionised the way that we communicate with our friends and family. When I say friend, I use the term loosely - it can be anyone from your closest and dearest childhood pal to that dude you met at a that party that one time. Facebook is marketed as a communication tool, a way to keep in touch and keep connected with your “friends”, but how well do we really communicate on facebook? And when does keeping in touch become downright stalking. While travelling
Read more

Cooking Up a Storm.

Image
Sick of eating the same old crap, my friends and I have started up a cooking club if you will. Every week one of us picks a recipe then sends an email around to tell the others what to bring. We cook it together, and eat it together, and it’s a way of trying something a little bit fancy. Since high school Danielle and I would dream of what we were going to eat when we got out of school to get us though the day, so it was only natural that it progressed into our mid 20s.  The first one got off to an interesting start. I choose a delicious and succulent Italian styled stuffed  chicken recipe. It had my mouth watering through out the day.  Well that was until I got a txt from a friend that recently got back into town and wanted to meet up at 5pm. I wasn’t meeting Gavin until 7.30pm so I thought it would be tons of time to have a quick drink, go to the supermarket, buy the ingredients and then get back to my apartment. Nope, no, I thought wrong. I got completely lost in conversation wi
Read more