Thursday, May 27, 2010

Flippin' Maastricht

Hallo!

As Daniel has informed you Dear Readers, I have been in Maastricht for the past couple of days, spending some time with the BF as I like to call him. He also goes by Philip (one L, Dan), Flip, Flipdawg, etc. He is a good guy. He is studying in Maastricht, teaching english to really adorable Dutch children.

So let's rewind back to how I got there... Its a lovely Tuesday evening in Paris, the sun is setting, and a beautiful shade of violet fills the sky, the smell of coffee and cigarettes fills the air. Dan and I are sitting in a quaint little cafe with free Wifi, trying desperately to get ahold of Hannah. But to no avail. However, Phil is online, and we start chatting. I let him in on the situation, and say I've seen Paris before and we have nowhere to sleep, so I'm thinking I'll just roam around Paris at night (which is the best anyway), and then get on a train in the morning to go somewhere else. Then I'm looking at the train schedule, and I leave for Maastricht at 7AM and get there by 10AM the next day. So why not? And now you know.

So my past couple of days have been spent meeting some great people and exploring the city of Maastricht, in the Netherlands. My favorite thing about the city was the bikes. There are probably 3 bikes to every car in that city. I absolutely LOVE biking, so it was pretty amazing. Phil and the rest of the students in his program were all given bikes at the beginning of their stay, so I rode side-sattle style on the back, breathing in the scenery and enjoying the ride every time. Its really amazing how the entire city caters to the biker more than the car driver. Bikes have their own lanes on main roads and highways, with parking lots filled literally with hundreds and hundreds of bikes.







I stayed in the dorms of Maastricht University, along with the other students in Phil's program. We had some great times. I even sat in on a class on Wednesday! Pretty interesting, they discussed some of the major differences between the education systems in Europe versus America. They also talked about their various experiences, as they are all assigned to different schools throughout the city.

Ah, but the bikes were the best. That, and the people. The people in Holland are among the best people in the world, in my opinion. I think its safe to say I could live there. In fact, I could live in almost any of the cities we've visited. Maybe one day I will be so lucky!

2 comments:

  1. Great past few days in Amsterdam, i'm talkin' excellente! Also great were those flippin' days in Maastricht. The best times I have had in Europe thusfar, but why wouldn't they be when I'm hanging with ol' Josdawg/Myrtle/Thunderlust/the girl I call girlfriend. The bikes cannot be beat, not at all. Most of all, I LOVE YOU!

    -Phil (sorry I used your email address)

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