Liebt Gunther

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Good Bye Old Neighborhood

During my stay here, in the Netherlands, my sisters have moved to a bigger appartment in Santiago, in Providencia with Tobalaba, with 4 rooms and 125 square meters. Ah, I'm going to miss my old 20-square-meter-appartment, but mostly my old neighborhood in the center of Santiago, in Portugal with Diagonal Paraguay. I wrote a poem about it:


Each time I come by
At the end of the day
The drifters say hi
Show me the money, they say.

Strange women appear
When there is no sun
With a manly voice they appeal
Would you like to have some fun?

Oh, the drifters drunk and drugged, the rats, the smell,
The trasvesty's compliment when it's very late.
A girl almost got killed in that alley, people tell.
Was that a girl, or was it an ape?

Amsterdam, the "Sin City"

I waited a long time for good weather conditions to go to Amsterdam by bicycle, but it just kept raining and windy. In the midtime, I succesfully managed to cook manjar (or dulce de leche: milk candy). Oh, and also I bought a pair of wooden shoes in Den Haag.


But I got bored, and besides, the weather is too unpredictable, so I decided to go on Saturday 15 anyway. If there is rain or wind, bad luck. So I woke up at 6:00 AM, had breakfast, prepared a bag with lunch and elevenses for the way, and went out.

I don't have any map with detailed bicycle roads, so I tought the best idea was to try to follow the main highway.

Going out of Delft. So far, everything going right.

The problem is that the bicycle road got separated from the highway in a complete diferent and independent direction, and the signs available were incomplete due to multiple roads constructions, so I just looked at the sun to get orientation and headed torwards northeast. You can imagine how many times I ended in a nowere-ending road, having to go back about 500 meters to find the right way.

The Netherlands is a highly populated land, with more than 400 habitants per square kilometer, so I saw houses and buildings almost all the way.

Wow, a green spot!

I had the wind against me, but it was insignicant... at the begining. It got increased gradually, so when I was close to the Schiphol airport, next to the Westeinderplassen lake, the wind was a big problem. The constant effort to maintain a certain speed for several hours, combined with the fact that my breakfast was "economic", and that I hadn't had lunch yet, began to make some effect on my body and I began to feel weird at 2:30 PM. So at about 3:00 PM I decided to stop, sit, and have lunch. When I saw my hand shivering as I hold a glas, I realised that I needed more energy; after lunch and some rest, I was ready to continue.

To enter Amsterdam, I had to cross this very big forest.

Since I had no map of Amsterdam, I tried to reach the city center following my instincts, were I could buy one. Then, suddenly, I saw this: (the Rijkmuseum)

Cool, I've just found a place to sleep for the Koninginnedag (That's right, there is no place left in the hostels for that day).

I bought a map clode to this place: Leidseplein.

Ah, damned camera. If you look carefully, maybe you can see Poseidon among the people.

What is this? A castle? A palace? No, it's just the mall.

Sorry Martin, I didn't see the red square, but I did found some evidence about it.

The cetral station.

At about 10:00 PM, when I decided to return to Delft, it began to rain (there was no wind anymore). Due to it, I was not able to take pictures of my return travel. This time, since there was no sun in the sky, I had no reference orientation, but fortunatelly I could find better signs that guided me by another return path (after some hours looking for them). Still, I had problems close to Den Haag, when I was dunked to the bones, because there were no signs pointing the way to Delft (it's a small town). When I arrived at my apartment, the wake-up-alarm of my mobile phone rang: it was 6:00 AM (almost 24 hours on the bicycle!).

Finally, the path I followed looks something like this, without counting all the wrong ways I followed and the turns while being lost. I'm not sure about the route, since during important portions of the way I was not sure where the hell I was. The going-path is in blue, and the return-path in green:

Travel tickets for Europe: ready.

OK, I've bought the tickets. This is the idea:


On April 30 I'll go to Amsterdam for the Koninginendag (birthday of the Queen). Then, since the hole week will be holidays, I'll go to Edimburg, Belfast, London and Warsaw, flying by EasyJet.

Then, after my last exam, I'll travel freely by train using a Eurail pass between July 8th and 28th. I'll most likely travell every day, sleep in the train, and return periodically to Delft for food.



However, I think I'll also go to Amsterdam one of these days by bicycle.