I have admitted that I could need a very good night sleep to my hostess Tamara, so when she had to leave to her work at an internet provider, she left me sleeping in.
I woke up around noon and was really relieved. Today I didn’t need to pack my backpack again, and rush to say goodbye and worry about getting to the next place-to-stay. It truly is something to get used to if I am going to do this for a long run – and then in way more foreign places too!
Somehow this has become a mental preparation week to imagine how it will be every day from now on. Everything is still familiar, but the daily move is very new for my body and me.
Tamara left a little note and some money so I would make it through the day in town. After a shower I could get myself some breakfast at the train station, before going into town.
After this breakfast and a free coffee (I still have a bunch of free coffee coupons which I got sponsored from this train conductor on my very first day) I walked through the old center of ‘s Hertogenbosch and found the public library where I used the Internet for an hour.
‘s Hertogenbosch city isn’t only a clean and old city, but what I remember most is that around 2pm in the afternoon EVERY terrace was full with elderly people! That really startled me to see the grey hairs everywhere, drinking coffee and chatting together all afternoon long.
Being old in The Netherlands isn’t that bad at all!
Around 4.30pm I was back in Tamara’s room and she came back from work not much later. After she refreshed herself we got back into town -again- to eat at the St. Janneke’s Snackbar, where the working lady got so excited of my appearance – ‘the guy from TV!!!’ – that we got free ice cream!
By the way, we ate a ‘little supper’, which in this region means a super portion of fried potatoes covered with mayonnaise, curry and onions – and has a frikandel hidden under it all. I know that foreigner might run away from his, but this is typical Dutch fast food.
After this simple but easy dinner we got back to Tamara’s room again and watched some favorite tv-shows on the telly: Ally McBeal followed by Sex In The City and some vague English comedies. I think somewhere at that time I must have fallen asleep on the sleeping couch, dreaming about the following days where I’d cross the Belgium border…
