Let's face it: I'm in way over my head with this whole university thing. For some reason I decided to become an Honours student, conduct research on perceptual dialectology in South Asia and become an editor of an academic journal. Mistakes were made. Because on top of that, I'm still a runner, a damaged granddaughter and a blogger who is hopelessly behind on her content. It's been a hectic year, with little time to share...
I've always been obsessed with stories. Even as a small kid, I used to read them, make them up, write them. And at some point, I decided to share my stories with the world, on this blog. That's how I got the idea that maybe, just maybe, if I told stories of my travels, I could show people how beautiful our planet is. Maybe I'd inspire some people to take better care of our world....
It was my dad's idea. It's always my dad's idea. As soon as we stay somewhere for more than three days, he wants to rent bicycles. He can't help it. It's in his Dutch DNA. So if it's anyone's fault, it's my own. I should've said "no" after what happened in Laos. But I didn't. When my dad came up with the idea to rent mountain bikes in Bratislava, I said "yes" loud and clear....
I've often talked about how much I like trains. They're great. But there's another mode of transportation that I like just as much, yet rarely get to enjoy: the boat. 2019 has been a good year for boat trips so far though. In February, I went to Dordrecht by boat and on a sunny day in April, I boarded a boat that would take me from Vienna to Bratislava. Things got even better when I...
I think I convinced at least a few people in my life in 2015 when I said that I'd had a great time in Vienna. A visit to the Austrian capital was part of the curriculum of the teacher training program I was attending at the time. As the years went by, however, cracks appeared in my carefully constructed lie. I admitted that, okay, not the entire field trip had been fun. And okay, I...
A lynch mob gathered outside the Gevangenpoort, The Hague's prison, on August 20, 1672. Inside the prison are the brothers De Witt. Johan, grand pensionary of the Dutch Republic, was rushed over to the prison to help his brother Cornelis, who was suspected of treason against the Stadtholder and was subjected to torture sessions in the basement of the Gevangenpoort. The angry mob outside on the streets of the Hague was calling for the brothers'...
I never understood the concept of hate following. Actively dedicating part of your time to looking at content you don't enjoy seemed the most pointless thing ever to me. Besides, with a climate crisis, Brexit and Trump's possible impeachment on our hands, I like to keep my social media feeds a bit more light-hearted and positive than our current reality is. Hate follows do not fit those criteria. So picture my surprise when March rolled...
Half an eternity ago, I was in the process of throwing my goals for 2019 out of the window. It was January, the nights were long, the days were short and I was bored out of my mind. Everything I wrote down was either not exciting enough, or was bound to happen anyway, regardless of how hard I'd work. Then Ella from Ella Was Here came to the rescue and challenged me to visit a...
A long long time ago, in January, I finally visited Paris for the first time. Ever since then, I've tried to put my experiences in the French capital into words. But sometimes things are difficult to explain. Especially if you're trying to explain something in your second language. Although I've written blog post upon blog post about my travels, I often feel like I don't get my point across as clearly as I would like....
Growing up in Europe, I heard a lot of stories about Paris. About how romantic the city is, how the architecture will blow your mind, how lovely the culture is. All those stories fit the cliches perfectly (except for the story about a high school friend running away during a field trip - love that story). But I'm not a fan of cliches. Paris is a lot more than the decor for a perfect and...
Support Me on Ko-fi