The Hague, Scheveningen, Rotterdam

A friend of mine came to visit me to the Netherlands for four days and as she was never in this country I planned a lot of trips for this weekend. As this would be my last chance to travel before I leave Maastricht for some time, I also wanted to visit some cities I have never been to.

Kate flew with Wizzair from Prague, so I was supposed to wait at her at the train station in Eindhoven at 8 a.m. Well, I set up only one alarm clock and switch it off subconsciously, so I woke up at half past 7 and realized that I had fallen asleep. I managed to catch a train from Maastricht at 8, so I got to Eindhoven just one hour later than planned. Kate was waiting for me already. We bought some breakfast at a nearby supermarket and then got on the train and spent slept for a while. Were we arrived at 11 a.m. to The Hague and our trip was about to begin.

The Hague

When we got off the train, it was slightly raining but stopped after a few minutes and slowly the sun was coming out of the clouds. According to the weather forecast it was supposed to be partly clouded that day. Better than any day in the last 2 weeks in Maastricht. I had only a vague idea what is worth seeing in the city, so we just walked there and there. The city was busy only in the shopping areas, but otherwise it was quiet which was a bit unexpected. The atmosphere there was nice and newly built up houses were not disturbing the old ones, like the city kept its look. Even newly built up skyscrapers near the train station are nicely composed into the overall view. We wanted to see the sea which meant walking about 3kms to Scheveningen. I should have printed this map for tourists, it would be very helpful, but my map in GPS was enough.

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Labels: Czech people, Eindhoven, Historical place, Pretty Girls, Rotterdam, Sightseening, Train, Weather

First trip behind the borders – Lanaken in Belgium

It's sunny Saturday, ideal time for some bike trip to explore the neighbourhood of Maastricht after our first week at SBE at Maastricht University. The one of the closest Belgian town to Maastricht is Lanaken, so let's ride there.

I've been in Maastricht for almost 3 weeks now, but I have a bike only for a week. I wanted to use the first free Saturday with sunny weather for a trip. I convinced my fellow Czech student Zuzka to come with me. Bára had to do some stuff for school, but she said that we should stop by on our way back. Great idea, bike trip and then dinner together when we could discuss our first week at Maastricht University. I was not sure which direction to take, so why not to the nort-west to Belgium? I was curious if I could spot some difference there.

We met at 2 p.m. at my place and with a simple map in hand, we started out first bike trip. Biking in the Netherlands is fun and easy. Traffic is made for that, cyclist have enough space. No the case of Belgium. First difference spotted. But on the other hand the only other thing that signalized that we crossed the border was the sign. Later on the buildings we different too. In Maastricht and general in the Netherlands the architecture of regular houses is very similar and simple with mostly dark colours used. The suburbs of Lanaken were on the other hand were full of large houses and each of them was different to the others. Like as rich people would live there, a bit more similar to the Czech Republic but there you cannot see any trees close by.

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Labels: Beer, Belgium, Bike, Czech people, Erasmus, Sightseening, Weather

Period 4 at Maastricht University – summary

In February I started my second semester at Maastricht University. The difference to the previous time spent there was, that I was no longer an Erasmus exchange student, but I got accepted as regular master student into studyprogramme called Infonomics.

The fact, that I changed my student status didn't change much in the reality. As I described before nobody at SBE makes difference between exchange and regular master students. You have the same workload and duties. Therefore it was just another period, new courses and new people. I decided to go for Infonomics master programme. Even thought there were only 4 students who started this programme in September, I didn't have any course with them this time. But I met my new fellow Infonomics masters – we were 4 again. We had ICT, Innovation and Economic performance course together as this one is a compulsory for our programme. For the elective course I was the only Infonomics student who decided to enrol in Information Economics the rest 7 students went for IT project management. I am glad that I decided that way, finally I got was I was missing – a bit of math again. Well, I was really excited about the new period. Even if the student status change is basically only some paperwork it meant a lot to me. Especially because about a year ago, it didn't come to my mind that I would ever become a regular master student abroad. Isn't it awesome?

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Labels: Infonomics, MSc, Salsa, Study, University, Weather

The best Carnival? In Maastricht!

Carnival - special event when people dress up into funny and colourful costumes, drink and have fun. Exactly this happens in Maastricht every year and as I am here, I could not miss it. I experienced something incredibly cool and atmosphere in the whole city was just fabulous.

I was never a big fan of Carnival as I never had a reason to be. Maastricht is famous for holding up to the tradition so the only thing you can do to avoid Carnival is to get out of the city. Not my case. I was curious what it's gonna be. As I reported in November in article The beginning of the Carneval season, the Carnival in Maastricht changes the city. Really. And it was just a small introduction in November compared to current event. Preparations took several days – shops with big show windows put wooden boards for protection, different stuff coloured green-yellow-red decorated in the whole city. But what you could not see were the preparations made by the people – they created costumes, masks and carnival vehicles. I invited a friend who is now for exchange in Brussels to see it and she came with 5 other friends which was awesome. Happiness is real when shared So let's have fun!

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Labels: Celebration, festival, Historical place, music, Pub, Sightseening, Weather

End of sunny weather – rain attacks

Weather changed. Last few weeks, we had almost summer – warm, no clouds, no wind. Quite an exception for Netherlands, but not any more. Rainy and windy autumn has arrived.

I was really lucky (and everybody here in Maastricht) that the mother nature was so kind to us until now. For about 3 weeks, I could enjoy sun and ride a bike every day without getting wet. I made some bike trips around Maastricht but not to another cities, which I now regret a bit. Today, for the first time, I had to ride my bike in the rain. It's not pleasant, as my fingers and ears are freezing and then I sit in wet clothes in a cold room for several hours. As autumn is there, also wind gets stronger, which makes riding the bike really difficult. Combination of cold, wind and rain is exactly what I dislike.

Somebody told me, that the rain here is usually very strong and short. Well, It seems to be true, but I got really unlucky because it rained only in the time I had to ride on my bike to another part of the town. Great. But I do not want to be complaining only about the weather, because I was aware of that before I came here.

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Labels: Bike, Weather