During our time here, I have been able to take advantage of our location in Europe and travel a little bit in the Netherlands. One of the reasons I love Europe is because it is always a lot easier to travel around than through other countries. Every weekend I have been able to either travel up to Kollum to visit family or go to another place in the Netherlands. I think this is a great way for me to understand a little more of the culture in the Netherlands. Each of the places I’ve been to is a little different, and so I am very glad I was able to travel on my own.
Kollum is a little rural village that has around 5,500 people. Amsterdam is a big city that has 780,000, and Nijmegen has 164,000. I was very surprised when I looked up how many people Nijmegen has living here, because it seems equivalent to State College in size. Naturally, because there are such differences in population there are a ton of differences between the people and the places. In Kollum, everyone is very welcoming and seems to know almost everyone. They all wave to each other when passing each other on the streets, and they have close relations with their neighbors. My grandparents had lots of neighbors come over for coffee, and their neighbors invited my siblings and me over to jump on their trampoline whenever we wanted to. In Nijmegen, people don’t really wave to each other, but they are normally very respectful to each other. You see groups of teenagers biking around an laughing together normally, and I’ve seen some younger kids running around later at night so it seems pretty safe. Amsterdam is a whole other world with people never waving to each other, and mostly all in a rush. It is very typical of a big city, with it feeling a lot more dangerous, and with people not being as respectful. We were probably also in the more touristy areas, so it’s possible that is one of the reasons it felt more dangerous.
We also managed to go to Italy for a few days which was so awesome! I have always wanted to go to Italy, and I especially wanted to go this trip since we were close by. We went to Milan and to Rome, and it was so wonderful. I loved seeing the sights, and also trying to understand a little Italian with my Spanish background. The only problems I had with Rome were the public transport system, and the fact that there was just too much to see in just a few days! Going to Italy made me appreciate the public transport system in the Netherlands. Nijmegen in particular has an awesome system! There is wifi on the buses, and trains, and the buses are almost always on time. The system is easy, with the possibility to buy tickets on the bus if you forget your bus pass or don’t have one. In Milan and Rome you have to buy your ticket either in the metro station, or at a newspaper kiosk. However, the nice thing is that the passes we bought were unlimited travel for the days we were there. There was no schedule for the buses though! So we could spend half an hour waiting for the bus and it wouldn’t even show up. It’s very interesting to me that the public transport is so bad in Italy, because lots of people actually use the buses and trains. In the Netherlands, almost everyone bikes everywhere, but they still have a really good public transport system even though it’s not that necessary.
I am really thankful that I had the opportunity through PIRE to be in Europe so as to travel on the weekends, and take advantage of my location. Obviously I am doing work in addition to becoming a world traveler, but it has been fun to mix work with fun. I can’t wait for next week because it will be the 100th anniversary of the 4 days March in Nijmegen, so I will definitely write about that next week!