We’re in the Netherlands! (Rotterdam is a bit weird)

It’s the first day in a brand-new country! We’ve unlocked the Netherlands Yesterday’s travel day from Brussels to Rotterdam was nice and uneventful (just as we like it) so we can skip that day. Literally the only thing I did this afternoon was go to the shops and buy some pasta for dinner and chat to some people in the hostel kitchen. I met 2 girls last night who were really nice, Regina (from Sydney) and Louise (from Paris). I was hoping to be able to spend today with either or both of them, but our plans didn’t end up lining up. Louise spend the day doing what I wanted to do tomorrow, and Regina was planning on going to the beach since it would be warm (not my flavour). So we ate dinner together and chatted, and I got to help Louise plan her next trip with her friends (loved it). But unfortunately that’s really all we had time for, I haven’t seen Regina again and Louise left in the morning for Amsterdam.

I planned to start my day relatively slowly, I knew there wasn’t any point getting out and about early, the streets would be empty before the afternoon anyway. I have been trying to reconstruct my brain’s morning routine to Euro summer version, which means waking up at like 9:30am-10am at the earliest. I woke up at 9 (pretty much sunrise) and remembered it was Michael’s birthday today (happy birthday my dude). I spent a some time in bed making a little collage to put on Instagram for him, it feels weird to not be home. Not that birthdays are a big deal in the family (like, at all), but up until now it hasn’t really been feeling like I’ve been missing out on anything. I guess this is the first thing I feel like I’ve missed. Even if it’s really not that big of a deal. It just reminds me everyone’s life continues as normal, even though it feels like mine is on standstill whilst I’m just galivanting around.

This hostel, though it’s not that social, does have the benefit of being in a great location, close to both the train station and the city centre, as well as free coffee until 11am. And though I don’t rely on caffeine to feel awake, I’ve genuinely missed my iced lattes, and coffee here is a good €6 so that’s not happening. I made it downstairs into the kitchen at like 10:55am, perfect timing really. Just exquisite.

I didn’t really have solid plans for the day, I knew I would spend today in the city, but my expectations were relatively low, mostly because the brief amounts of Rotterdam I saw yesterday didn’t inspire much motivation to explore. It seems like a very normal, familiar city to me. Mostly because it was greatly destroyed during the War, so most of the architecture is quite modern, and with their trams it does remind me of Melbourne (maybe a bit cleaner).

I have 2 full days here though, so it feels wrong to not spend at least one of them exploring the city itself. I started off my day by walking from the hostel through what seemed like a shopping district. Mostly big department stores, although I noticed that even with these chains, there wasn’t a shopping centre, still just street-facing shops, which I really liked. None of these places really made me actually want to go in, it was just the H&M, Zara, Primark kind of stores, nothing too unique. Until… I took a little detour (a wrong turn) and found myself down a quieter street before happening upon a Think Twice (completely by accident, I don’t know how I ended up there). Ok fine… maybe it was on purpose. I’m just in love with those shops. They’re the perfect combination of curated things that you’re probably going to love, without the €70 price tag of most vintage stores. And by surprise to absolutely no one, I think I was there almost 2 hours. This Think Twice especially just slapped today. I only ended up buying one item, which is just peak, incredible levels of self-control on display there. It's a really cute button-down denim blouse thing, I think it’s supposed to be quite snug but it’s a US 14 so on me it’s nice and boxy. It’s got the cutest little embroidered flowers on both sides, just absolutely gorgeous, stunning, perfect for me. Bought immediately. There were also a couple ‘almosts’, but having extremely limited luggage space is a wonderful motivator to be selective with purchases.

Eventually I left Think Twice a bit sheepishly, I was supposed to be exploring a city, instead I spend 2 hours in a franchise op shop. Oops. I decided to make it up to myself and visit the Markethall, which (if I had unlimited spending money for food purposes) I would’ve gone absolutely mental here. This place was hands-down the best food market I’ve ever visited, and I have been to a decent few. I hadn’t really eaten today as well so all the different foods were really torturing my bank account. And they had every. Single. Type. Of. Food. Possible. And for an Aussie girl who is severely missing the good quality Perth dumplings I’m spoilt with, I was practically drooling. They had hot pots, ramen, gyros, dumplings, ice cream, desserts, drinks, sandwiches, curries, literally everything. The hall itself was also huge, and in a really interesting building. Overall I’m not the biggest fan of Rotterdam architecture, however I will say, this building slays. The shape from the outside was kind of random, and inside it so colourful and bright, perfect for a market. I spent a little while wondering around, figuring out a way I could justify spending €15 on fried wantons, but unfortunately the (sane) reasons never came, and I had to leave before doing some serious monetary damage.

I had to leave that place asap, the smell of all that divine food was too much for my self-control. Next up on my self-guided walking tour were the famed cube houses of Rotterdam. It was only a 5 minute walk away, and it was just as bizarre as I was expecting. I also had zero clue they were actually homes, I thought they were just sculptures for display purposes, but they’re fully functioning apartments, with people living in them and everything. Imagine bringing a date back to your house and it’s literally a yellow and white upside down cube house, and you probably would have to take them through a bunch of tourists to get there. The only good thing about Rotterdam not being a very touristy city, is that even when I went to see the houses in the mid afternoon, when you would expect crowds at the most visited attraction of the city, it was me and about 10 other people walking around, so that was nice.

I didn’t quite understand the fascination with cubism architecture, it seemed a bit impractical to me, but the photos of the houses with the bright blue sky did look amazing, so I guess they served their purpose for today’s gallery. Where the houses are located serves as a bypass to access the Old Harbour area, which was a lovely spot to hang out for a sec and munch on some crackers and hummus. The boats of the harbour itself were very pretty, but it was the overall vibe that really did it for me. People next door to me having a little picnic, a couple doing a boat tour from the pier, and a bunch of cafes and restaurants portside. Seeing everyone out and about enjoying the weather was lovely to be apart of, everyone was in a great mood.

After a while I decided that was enough time in the sun, and wandered back through the city, taking a different routes and just going wherever looked interesting. I almost actually laughed out loud when I realised what I had just come across was urban surfing. AGAIN. What is it with Europeans and needing to surf so badly they build a whole ass artificial wave production. Rotterdam made it into more of a spectacle than Munich did, too. Smart move, they’re making money out of it. They’ve got cafes right next to the ‘pool’, so you can eat with a view of people trying to surf. I say trying, the surfers in Munich were much more competent, but this was still entertaining. I hung out for a second, mostly just bemused that this whole thing was such a thing.

Honestly by this point in the day it was approaching 6pm and I was so tired, especially after being in the sun for the entire day, it was also really warm. I’m honestly surprised I’d spent this long out, knowing my incredible heat tolerance. Turns out where I’d ended up was only a 20 minute walk from the hostel, so I went back via the supermarket to buy a little salad for dinner, and discovered that the Dutch people are actually genius. You can buy single serve tubs of ice cream from the shops for like €1 or €2. They had a lemon meringue flavour and I have never bought something faster in my life. I also grabbed some olives, cause why not, and with my treats in hand, I was looking forward to nothing more than chilling out for a bit under the air con and having some food.

I’m not sure what my plans are tomorrow, I can either do a town day trip or visit some windmills, but haven’t made up my mind yet, so we’ll play it by ear.

Currently MIA,

Lauren x