Before finishing the year I wanted to do one last quick trip, to meet a friend of mine. I expected it to be the last trip, but no. Right now I am on another trip and writing about this one.
Where did we go?
We went to Eindhoven, which is close to the southern border of the Netherlands and Germany. Maria is living in Spain, so we decided that both of us have to get somewhere to make it fair. We decided on Eindhoven. Luckily, it was luckily possible for me to come by car. It was also good due to the fact that with Blablacar, a ride sharing website, I was able to receive some money back, so the ride was overall not extremely expensive.
Arriving
I was planning to arrive a day earlier, so I have it more relaxed and in general more time in the city, luckily the host was fine with it. The ride was a bit long, but I had a woman with me, who was telling me a lot about her life and we had some deep conversations while driving to near the border, it’s where she needed to go.
So the ride was quite nice, but after I dropped her I was getting more and more tired, still it worked out well. I parked in front of the apartment complex and found the host. Blazej was our host, a guy from Slovakia who owns the most bikes out of every person I was getting to know so far. More than 10 bikes!
From the second one we got along super well, we functioned quite similarly and that was very refreshing and adding to this, his couch was amazing. It was also in general helpful, because I was receiving a key, which was helpful after Marias arrival the next day. Like that we were able to drop her stuff at the apartment and due to her long flight some time to relax was also good.
We had our own room and everything was quite nice.
Arrival of Maria
When Maria arrived, I picked her up from the airport. It was stressful in order to get free parking because someone was blocking the road a bit, but in the end everything worked. It was nice seeing her again and spending some time together. We went out to the supermarket and got some stuff, so we were able to do some cooking and eating, while chilling a bit.
This day was actually more a day to chill, which was actually great for me because I was super tired. We did some more food so when Blazej is coming home, he wouldn’t need to cook something, he was happy about it.
We three were spending the rest of the day together, having good conversations and getting to know each other. It was a great atmosphere with some chill music in the background. He was telling us what we could see in Eindhoven and explained something about the city.
Second day
We went out to explore the city. We were using bikes from Blazej and went into the city. It was not far away, so that was perfect, just 15 min by bike. It was more enjoyable when comparing it to finding parking spots with the car, or walking.
We were meeting a guy from Armenia who is living in my hometown Hamburg. We were exploring the city a bit together and that was quite nice. He was interesting and nice to have around. He knew the city a bit better and had ideas of what to see. Maria and I were planning to just do something without any research.
All of us three went together to the main church of the city and it was very interesting. Besides the fact that it was a beautiful church, there were bones exposed, the bones were found there. It was perfect for some good pictures!
Exploring at night with Blazej
We wanted to spend some more time with Blazej. Plan was to find some place to go swimming, for some ice bathing. It was cool that both of them were down for it. We went to the outside of Hertogenbosch and found a nice lake while looking at the map. When we arrived, the park was pitch black and had no light at all.
Still we went there and it was raining a lot, typical for the region at this time of the year. We went in the water and wow it was cold, very cold! It was nice at the end, quite refreshing and we were ready to explore Hertogenbosch after.
Hertogenbosch
The city is known for its heritage of the famous painter Hieronymus Bosch, from whom I heard first that day, but his paintings are known. Also some artwork is found everywhere in the city.
Also Vincent Van Goth was there for some time, if I understood that correctly, at least you can find in one museum some originals.
Nevermind, so we were finding a parking spot with a few centimeters to the front and back space, it luckily worked out well. The city was, honestly speaking, a really beautiful city at night. During the day I haven’t seen it, but wow it’s very nice. The buildings in combination with the light were great.
There were buildings with channels of water floating underneath, I haven’t seen it like there before. Very interesting. I enjoyed walking around a lot. There were some party sections and then sections for people to just have an enjoyable night out with their partner or friends or family. The balance was nice and even though there were not many people living, the streets were filled with a bunch of people, who all seemed to be happy.
Going to Germany
It was a weekend trip only, but a good one. Maria was flying away from Dusseldorf, a city in Germany. We decided to stay one more night in Germany and found a host in Duisburg. Duisburg is basically a city where you are not planning to visit, but we did it anyway.
We had a host in a good location, he was very open and very friendly. He was talking a lot and I was so tired that talking was a bit too much for me, when being honest.
His apartment is made for hosting, so many rooms designed for guests and you could feel that special vibe, which was in the air of this apartment.
We were going out to eat with him to get to know him better. He for sure is a great person and has the heart on the right side 100%, but still I was not vibing perfectly with him. The food was good, but way too small, sadly. So I was getting two pizzas in another shop later on, after receiving the key. At the end of the day we were also doing a podcast with him which was interesting and also we were able to paint something on his wall, which was great.
Landschaftspark Duisburg Nord
Duisburg doesn’t have a lot to offer, but they have the Landschaftspark. An Industrial factory, which is not in use anymore. You can just walk around there and explore the old factory. The entrance is for free and I will write for sure about this in my own article. It was something I didn’t expect seeing, but it was for sure worth it!
We both enjoyed it and it was nice not exploring it by myself. In general spending time with Maria was great, even though we had many discussions, at the end I believe that both liked the short trip.
Going back home
After staying the night and having a lack of sleep, we drove very early to the airport. It was for me a bit too early, because I would drive from then on back to home.
We said goodbye to each other and I was picking up two women in a city on the way to Hamburg. We again talked a lot and had deep conversations. It was great to have that, because otherwise I would have fallen asleep for sure and that wouldn’t have been that much fun.
What’s up next?
I will write about actually two trips in one, going to Trier for a weekend and also going to Cologne for the Karneval beginning. I feel like it’s not needed to write for each one article.
