I’m sitting in the train station in Roosendaal, The Netherlands waiting for my Sneltrain (Fast train) to Brussels, Belgium. There are two types of trains. You’ve got your Sneltrain, which is my personal favorite which has very few stops between your origin and destination and your Stoptrain which stops everywhere. Kind of like a subway.
I’m starting to run into less and less English speakers, and no one speaks English to start with. In Amsterdam, and less in Breda I would be greeted in English now and then. Here I have to say something, or stand there with a stupid look on my face before we can get down to serious buying of food and tickets.
I’m learning a lot of words, but not enough to really help. I recognize words now, though, when people are speaking and on signs. It took some time before my mind associated the things I was reading with the things I was hearing.
I escaped work pretty early this morning so I’m getting an early start. It’s only 11:45am and Brussels isn’t far away. So, I’ll have the better part of the day and the night in Brussels, which I think will be enough. I will try to see if I can get a train ticket to Paris for late tonight and preferably sleep on the train instead of getting a room. Although two or three hours might not be enough sleep 🙂
My hope is that I might be able to do Paris in a day or two and still make it to Germany I really want to go to Germany. I know that one or two days in Paris isn’t nearly enough but it will be enough time to see the major sites and walk around the city for a while. I enjoyed how much I got to know Amsterdam but I really do want to see many places so I know where I’d like to come back to 🙂
Today my adventure really begins. Up until today most things were somewhat planned out. I had plane tickets, places to sleep. I had to fend for myself a bit on getting around but it wasn’t too bad. With the language barrier getting worse it’s exciting, and a little scary. So far everyone was at least willing to speak English to me. I don’t expect that as much in Brussels and I hear the French can be real assholes about it. In the worst case I can play my panic card and buy a plane ticket to London 🙂
The train should arrive in a moment so I’m off. Talk to you tonight, from Brussels, or perhaps France!
The good part about you choosing Germany is that pretty much everyone can speak English. They don’t like to unless they have to, because they get shy about making mistakes, but almost everyone can speak it. I had no troubles getting around. Strasse is street, Schloss is castle… um.. Bier is beer. Biergarten is where you want to hang out. WC is the bathroom (Wassecloset or something like that, can’t remember). The train station is the bahnhof. the hauptbahnhof or hofbahnhof or something lik ethat is the central train station. The ICE train is the really fast one that doesn’t make a lot of stops. Munich is GORGEOUS. Schloss Neuschwanstein is gorgeous, if you are into palaces. I was locked on post (puked in a trash can and got busted by my 1st Sergeant) when everyone went to Heidelberg, but I heard the castle there is amazing. If you don’t make it to Germany this time go ’round, you can always come back! 😀