Blog 10.12 - A bumbling tourist who doesn't quite understand how to act like a proper tourist

Blog 10.12 - A bumbling tourist who doesn't quite understand how to act like a proper tourist

An old church in Hoorn. Looks very imposing.

Hallo allemaal. It turns out that I'm horrible at being a tourist. Every day, I struggle with finding things to do in my free time. This is not a problem I expected would come up. I could just cycle back to our accommodations, sit around and waste the day away, just like I could at home. That doesn't sound like a good time, does it?

What then, should I be doing instead? We've had a few excursions with the class, Bataviastad last week, West Fries Museum just today and De Boet Garden centre tomorrow. But after all of that is done, I'm left clueless. I'd love to go on day trips to places like Enkhousen or Amsterdam, after school or work (especially work) it feels too late to leave town... So I'm stuck here. I've had a few walks around Hoorn, (which is a wonderful town, don't get me wrong) but I suspect it might get old after a while. And it's probably not the best use of my time here.

And now we get to the crux of the issue. With my limited time here, I feel like I'm obligated to constantly be doing something, anything at all... And I always seem to find reasons not to do that thing right now, or more commonly, I have no idea what to do. Then I start feeling guilty about not doing much. Repeat the same process next day. This is an issue.

What have I been doing then?

A comfy little hole in the wall.

Last blog I was promising myself a trip to Amsteram! As it turns out, my lack of endurance and the weather had other ideas. On Saturday, both I and Gustav were too exshausted from the past week's activities to head out anywhere, let alone the biggest city in the country. Come Sunday, there was a veritable deluge of rain along with winds up to 80km/h(!), so we elected not to visit Amsterdam that day either... Probably should have visited anyway, in retrospect. We shouldn't let the weather dictate all of our activities, who knows if we'll even get another calm and sunny day before the 21st.

We did go out around the town on Sunday, we ate at a burger place appropriately called "Burgers". It was a delightful little place, I love the "hole in the wall" kind of establishments that dot the streets of Hoorn. The town was pretty quiet so late in the evening, but no less gorgeous. Lots of christmas lights and things. Very picturesque. I wish I'd taken a photo.

The stores of Hoorn, or something.

Nerds for a nerd...
This will never stop being funny to me.

I have been doing a bit of walking around town on my time off, visiting stores and whatnot. I found a bookstore with quite the sizable selection of English literature, as well as a cafeteria. All in the same room, very interesting.

On the same street, I also happened across a small store packed to the brim with sweets! They even had a section for American imports, so naturally I got two boxes of Nerds.

Today, in lieu of anything better to do, I went on another walk. I picked up a christmas present from the aforementioned bookstore for my little sister, I found a 20th anniversary edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets! These came out a couple of years ago I think, one could probably still find one searching for it online, but it's fun to discover this kind of rare stuff on store shelves. Sure it's not the Philosopher's Stone or anything, but she already has all the books in finnish anyway. I'm already a proud owner of the whole set of books in PROPER QUEEN'S ENGLISH, but if I wasn't I would've bought the thing for myself.

On a professional level, I found the customer service experience at the bookstore... Different. I wouldn't say it was bad, every country has its own customs and customers expect different things. I assume one would have to approach a salesperson for them to offer their assistance, because i felt largely ignored while shopping. The chap on the till was delightful though, very proficient in small talk, the Dutch are. Something to learn from, I think.

Kerkerbuurt after dark.
I find the silly names very appealing.

The day was topped of by me burning the roof of my mouth with some classic American fast food not available back home. Domino's pizza game is strong. If I'm not experiencing Dutch culture, I should at least experience something I can't in Finland, however mundane it might be.
...I bet next I'll find out they've got a Domino's back in Helsinki or something.

- Insufferable Potterhead & existentialist, Tuomo