OCEANS AWAY

Back from the beach

Filed under Travel

I’m back home from a 4-day trip with the family to our favorite island in the North Sea. As always, it was windy and cold at times, but also gloriously sunny and and warm. We’ve come to Texel ever since I was born; my parents came even before that. Every visit is a bit like stepping out onto your back patio for a break from daily life, only there’s a beach and the ocean and all the things you really miss about your back patio. It’s like coming home, is what I’m saying. I know this island better than my home town. There’s no adventure, no new discoveries, no stress – only a comforting familiarity and nostalgia.

And so there’s really nothing too exciting to report. As always, we spent a good amount of time cycling around the island, walking along the beach, eating good food, browsing tiny shops, and envying the locals for the quality of life they no doubt enjoy. The rough North Sea and the funky weather it brings with it, the gorgeous, never-ending white beaches, the pine forests, the sheep, the bicycles… It has a relaxing effect on you that can’t be matched by any high-end massage or whatever else a person might do to forget their ailments.

To close, a valuable lesson learned on my trip home: do not change trains twice in Amsterdam’s two largest train stations the very same day their soccer club, Ajax Amsterdam, wins the national title. In fact, do not attempt to go anywhere near Amsterdam on such a day! Unless, of course, you enjoy masses of rowdy soccer fans pushing through crowded train stations, shouting fight chants at the top of their lungs in a language you don’t quite understand, beer spilled all over you and your iPod on the train, and battalions of handsome policemen and security personnel towering tall in front of the “Departures” screen you so desperately need to check for your connecting train. Although I guess if you have anything towering in front of something you’re trying really hard to catch a glimpse of, it may as well be a handsome policeman. And if you must find yourself in the midst of crazy soccer fans, they may as well be Dutch soccer fans – who are, like everything else in this country, inexplicably friendly and open and good-humored.

Back to student life and the blog entries that come with it tomorrow!