After Liverpool I caught the train and then bus to York for a couple of days sightseeing and hope for some sunny English weather . The town was still busy with tourists marching about (me included) but it still had a nice vibe about it with some really interesting buskers and street performers with a variety of different instruments rather than the usual suspects belting out Beatles and Oasis covers . Walking around the old walls,shambles and York Minster was a nice way to spend a day and I was joined by a aussie couchsurfer who was on his way back to study in Norway .
The next day went back to London to see if my Russian visa had been processed which it had , happy days . I booked my ticket for the dutch flyer service to Holland that night and was on the boat on the Wednesday The night before heading off my lovely cousins put on a feast with English roast and my favourite pub food toad in the hole which was great way to say goodbye and get stuffed doing so. The train left Liverpool station at 0600 which meant I had to catch a night bus and the tube to get there on time but made it with a good 15 minutes to spare and we sped off towards the coast making a couple of changes along the way before reaching Harwich
The ferry was spacious and even had free wifi so the time passed quickly and we were in Hook of Holland in no time . I had befriended a Canadian girl on the boat and we were both going towards Amsterdam , she had a job but didn't have a work permit yet but this didn't bother her or Dutch customs to much and she was going house hunting that weekend . We went our separate ways at the central station and I searched out the number 9 tram to my CS hosts house which was a 10 minute ride and made it after getting "a little bit " lost and found there was another Canadian girl surfing as well. That evening we had solid vegaterian meal and then listened to and exchanged music and in the morning she was off to Spain if my memory serves me correctly . The next couple of days were spent wondering around the canals and visiting Anne Franks house,the Hermatiage and the central library is really amazing which includes a piano in the foyer that anyone can use ! . The seedy side of Amsterdam is a 10 minute walk from the central train station and as a tourist attraction the novelty wares off after a few minutes . The redlight district isn't dirty or dangerous by any means but I wondered if the locals wanted their city to be most famous(arguably) for its live sex shows and drug cafes rather than its museums and architecture . My host wasn't to keen on it but it didn't bother the locals to much only the crime element was the only concern for most .
Holland is easily the most progress country that I have visited to and made in some ways maybe to progressive with prostitution and such(IMO). Cycle lanes stretch from city centres into the countryside and are all clearly sign posted and in some or the larger city's you can find official hitch hiking spots marked with by thumbs up signs . It was from here that I was going to hitch down to the Zeeland province and within 40 minutes I had a ride . My ride was going kite surfing on one of the lake created by the massive dyke system they use to keep Zeeland above water...you know what I mean . 10 minutes later I was picked up by a middle aged woman who dropped me off 6km out of Middleburg in front of a cafe with large windmill a and New Zealand flag . I walked in to investergate and it turned out that the owner was flying out to New Zealand the next day to finish off his project in New Plymouth . He was going to built a similar operation in NZ and increase the amount of dutch windmills in NZ twofold (Foxton is the only other place I know of anyway) and was kind enough to drop me in town were I meet my host in a bar in town who was hanging with some friends .
One the thing I noticed in Holland that wasn't progressive was the weather , it either rained or poured everyday I was there bar one. The afternoon I arrived in Middleburg the weather was fine and we met up in a bar for a couple of hours before we headed back to her house which as it turns out is a old school . Holland has a anti-squatting system and disused government buildings like schools are added to the affordable housing scheme so the buildings don't fall into disrepair while the government try's to figure out what to do with them . So with this programme I had a whole gym to myself to..yay Holland .
That evening we meet up with my hosts friends for more drinks and some clubing, the can't recall the name of the club we went to but thats probably a good thing . The DJ played the worst set ever but I don't think the locals were too bothered as it was the only club open at this time and it was jam packed...mostly with 18 year old boys
The next few days were spent dodging rain drops and exploring Middelburg and Zeeland on the excellent Dutch cycle lanes and hanging out with my hosts and their friends listening to music ,drinking Belgium beer and checking out the Zeeland summer festival which had some cool art displays as well as free concerts
The day I hitched out from Zeeland to Belgium the weather decided to play nice for once even if the cars passing by didn't . My host Yuri dropped me off at a petrol station on the main road out of Zeeland heading east towards Belgium and Germany . Perhaps Antwerp sign was to ambitious or luck was not on my side but I waited for 2 hours before another traveller turned up with a map and we adjusted our sights and sign for Bergen op Zoom and within a couple of minutes were we were on our way !
Bring on Belgium !
Here some snaps along with others from York ,Amsterdam and Zeeland
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