A completely unrelated picture to the first half of this post, but an amazing one. Camille and I on the ferry from Breskens to Vlissingen in rough seas.
And next in my endless procession of bus trips across western Europe: the great Östersund reunion! Though it's been nearly a year since all the friends from that Erasmus exchange semester went our own ways from Sweden, we managed to pull off a weekend together in Münster, Germany. 10 of us, 36 hours, too much to say and too little time.
It's just five hours from Middelburg to Münster by train, an easy trip. On the left: logistics of moving people around the city and exploring! There's a huge student population, but otherwise it's a pretty unremarkable city. (and alas, the cheese comes from Munster in France, without the umlauts)
The largest ever Östersund reunion! In the back from left to right: Lena, Max, myself, Camille, Frida, Émilie, Raja, Laurens, and on the floor Keke and Hannah. A classic party, just like the old times.
A giant German breakfast of course, with plenty of bread and a table much too small.
Exploring downtown and eating some student slop; they know what we like in this city!
After the party we took some chill time on Sunday night before a long overnight bus trip- I joined Camille and Émilie on their way back to Rennes. They spent almost the same time travelling to the reunion as they did at the actual party... dedication eh! I think I'm at six overnight bus trips so far this year, six too many. When you're young!
Then began a quiet week in Rennes. I don't have a whole lot of pictures, since I wasn't doing much! It was my autumn break; and in France they still had classes, so I was running around the city and exploring all day. Cooking, baking, sleeping in, reading a lot. And observing the chaos from a distance: there were some protests and riots the previous weekend, but I can confirm to you that the city is still standing.
Collage seen at the pool; all across the city we saw similar ones. In paper and not spraypaint! Translation: "The RN (extreme right wing party in France) hates the whole world, the whole world hates the RN." And some pretty good latte art with aesthetic pumpkins.
On Saturday night we caught a bus to Brugge in Belgium, a stone's throw from Middelburg! After so many times visiting Rennes, at last it's Camille's turn to see Zeeland. Of course we spent the day in Belgium, being serious tourists:
Waffles, coffee, chocolate, selfies down by the canal. Featuring my signature blue hat, which has seen too much sweat and too little soap.
The trick is that you can get free samples in every chocolate shop if you walk around and look interested! We didn't do the canal tour but we did explore plenty of backstreets.
While it was technically an exam week for me, I didn't have any since in the fourth year they bury us in portfolios and projects instead. And now it was Camille's autumn break, so we were free for the whole week to drink coffee and wander the narrow streets of M'burg.
The old haunts: Expresszo, Het Koffiepand, Luuks Brood. Middelburg might not have many big sights but we do our cozy cafés and bakeries well!
\Kuiperspoort, Damplein, the many old houses, alleys, and squares that I've discovered here. It's a good time of year to explore: not to cold, no tourists except us, pretty fall colors.
Naturally we ate good food: I explained the whole idea of Albert Heijn (the quintessential Dutch supermarket) and how that store sort of runs this country. We both did a little schoolwork as well: searching for masters programs in Germany for myself, some very complex project work for Camille that even I struggle to understand. No escape from the studies, just a backseat this week.
And of course the Zeeland classic, a bike tour! The weather really is on our side for the end of October! We went up north to Oranjezon for a picnic (and a quick dip in the sea, but it's getting cold already!) And now that the sun is setting so early, a lovely orange, red, and golden ride back.
We visited the bee farm and got free ice cream! (since I happen to know one of the workers there, hehehe!) And the paths here are quite reminiscent of Denmark...
At the end of the week it was Halloween, and we we joined the housemates in dressing up as... a swarm of eight fairies! A chaotic evening as you can imagine and a late night, but it was the most fun I've had on Halloween for years. And though there's sadly no pictures of it, I made wild rice soup for the house, the perfect autumn food. They really went crazy for it!
Behold the fairies, and Schutters Middelburg. "A bar with some pretty lights and a dance floor, Middelburg calls that a club." Don't be fooled, it's still a small town and everyone still goes to bed early. The Halloween decorations really carry the place!
On our last day, we went up to Amsterdam to see the city, the complete opposite of Middelburg in many respects. We had a ton of time to kill; but things on a Sunday night tend to close early, especially museums and cafés, the backbone of my plans. So we walked around some lovely canals for a bit, saw KattenKabinet, the museum of cat art, and ate stroopwafels. Camille had another night bus back to Paris, and then Rennes, leaving from Rotterdam, so we said our goodbyes there. And now it's November! The weeks really disappear when traveling. At least for now I can promise: no more big trips until Christmas!
No visit to Amsterdam is complete without FEBO: the walk-in fried snack vending machine!
