Sunday, June 22, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Sine wave
Saturday is always an eagerly awaited day, be it in chennai or here in The Netherlands. The reason is obvious and any attempt to throw more light onto it is just a waste of time. This weekend we (that is myself and that IITB chap that I was talk about) decided that we need to go out and explore the country side of Netherlands but then as always I was broke, so the idea of spending the entire weekend out was totally ruled out. The only other option left to us was a nearby archipelago. The plan at first didnt appeal so much to me, but then the sheer enthusiasm displayed by the other fellow actually did the trick and we we set to the distant island. The route was pretty simple and clear, take a bus from the terminus near the city center get down at this place called "louwsborg" we were not particularly sure about the spelling but then it was trivial as it is the only port in the vicinity. On reaching there, take a ferry to the Island. The getting there part went on smoothly with the bus journey taking about 45 minutes most of which I spent reading partly because there were no chicks in the bus and partly because I was in no mood to engage in any sort of conversation with a fellow like Vishal (well that's what he is called, the IITB chap). The ferry ride was interesting and teeming with chicks and let god strike me blind and deaf and castrate me if they were not hot. Well that can be expected, considering their skimpy dresses and the fettish that most of us including myself have for the "gori chamdi". The ride did a hell lot of good for my dampened spirits and I was my cheery self again. We wandered off to the deck, where apart from the chicks, where also the birds seagulls that is :). They followed us all the way to the island. The sight was nothing less than a national geographic exclusive on seagulls with me filling in the spot of the cameraman as is always the case with me. I jump from one spot to another, put myself in all sorts of awkward places, and click n photos of the birds much to the amusement of the chicks :).
After another hour of photo clicking and gaping wide eyed at the scantly clad girls, we finally make it to the island and the sight that greets us there is simply amazing. Miles and miles of fields with not a hint of human inhabitation except, of course, for the road which has become so much of a routine, that it can be easily excluded from the long and ever expanding list of man made things. Well that, you would say is nothing new to a person from India which is regarded primarily as an agricultural country. This however, was unlike anything I had ever seen. Clear blue sky without a trace of clouds and a horizon so sharply defined that it appeared to give meaning to the word line. The sharp contrast between heaven and earth made it impossible, for me atleast, to distance my gaze from it. And as I stood there, transfixed, my "friend" kicked me in the butt and we decided to get a move on. Our initial exhilaration was soon to be shadowed by the enormity of the island and the task of going about it. It was already 12:00 pm and we had just reached the place adn adding to the woes, was the fact that there was not a single means of public transport in the vicinity. The sole road that ran accross the island was totally deserted and it appeared to us that the only way we could get about the island was on foot. Many of our co-passengers had brought their own cycles with them and they immediately started off on it. The others, well all of them walked and we decided to be no exception. We followed the lead, and soon enough we, we discovered an old mud road running parallel to the main road and it was at this moment that we decided to play Columbus. We diverted from the main road and followed the mud trail, stopping every few minutes to take pictures and .....the beauty of the place (damn! not getting the word for it. Please suggest words for it in your comments...well it means something like absorb the beauty of the place). Anyways it so happened that we got lost in it but then we had the long trail and following it would lead us somewhere for sure. We stuck to it like this Vishal guy sticks to me and sure enough, after about an hour, we were in some sort of an European village. Houses, all of them alike as if they were meant to be some sort of huge boxes left on the street,with a large lawn in the front, cobbled streets and of course pure air. Not that Groningen has a lot of pollution, but then it was a sort of a psychological effect I believe but then the air did have a heavy smell of animal urine in it, the kind almost always there in all the villages the only exception being that this one was much stronger probably because it had more of horse urine in it :). Anyways we reach a village and immediately it struck us both, the difference between this village and the villages back home. Moving along, we saw a sort of a choir performing on the road side, there was a chorus, a cello player \../\../ a guitarist and a lot other instruments but the music was gay and we decided not to waste time there. Some distance away and a procession of horse drawn carriages trotted past us and believe me the horses were huge and the first thing that came to my mind was do those girls in the 7X movies really have sex with horses?? I mean if the horses are so huge, then just imagine what a size their 'thing' might be. Anyways I decided against telling this to the friend of mine for fear of starting another conversation. We've been walking for almost an hour and a half now and tiredness begins to grip us. But as is always the case with me, things happen at the nick of the time and it is then, that we spot a shop that rents out cycles. We go in, rent two cycles, which, under ideal conditions, would've cost us 8 Euros. However our lucky star was shining brightly on us, and the owner, probably preoccupied with some feud with his wife, returned us 2 -2euro coins when we gave him a tener, and we pocket it without a hitch.
Once equipped with a cycle, our pace hastened. Was it the cycle or the fact that we saw hordes of women clad only in bikinis coming from the beach that hastened our pace is what I am not too sure about but withing 5 minutes of sitting on the cycle, we reach the beach. The Beach was a let down. Even though the sun was beating down hard, and one could've expected to see women sun bathing, it didnt happen. There seemed to be only two girls there on the beach, mind you they were fucking hot, but then the entire male population on the beach was centered around them. Reminded us of India and we decide not to stick around, for it was no good. We sit in some corner, have our lunch which was composed of bread and chocolate spread and decide to move on. We cycle from one end of the island to the other seeing and feeling the place. It was a great feeling and felt like heaven indeed. At one place, we come across an old bunker, probably of the world war era, fool around there for sometime, and then decide to start the trek back to the harbour. We go back to the cycle shop, return the cycle, smile to ourselves that he didnt realise that he had given us 2 euros extra, and head back to the harbour. It took us about another hour to reach the place and what do we find there, but a cycle rental shop!! we felt like kicking ourselves in the ass for having missed it in the beginning, but then console ourselves by saying that we anyways roamed around the whole of the island. By this time, the cloud have arrived from nowhere and the temperature had dropped suddenly but we had to hardly wait when a small boat arrives and we decide to get back. notice that this is not the same boat that we had come here on in the first place. But since everyone has to buy a return tickets, there was no ticket checking and we got on to the boat. There was some announcement in Dutch which we were obviously not able to follow, and the boat started. I again started to read for obvious reasons, and in the middle simply dozed off. After about another hour, my friend woke me up, for it was time to get off the boat. The boat had reached its destination. Notice that I've said that the boat has reached its destination and not ours, for this was not 'Louwsborg' but some other place by the name of ESTONSTAD. Phatli...hum duno ki phatli...when we asked a fellow passenger (a girl in fact whom my friend had clicked wen she was kissing her boy friend and she probably saw it!) if there was anyhow we could get back to Groningen and she had replied in a plain negative. She said the only way one could get to Groningen was by a car. We had almost given hope, after asking a few more people and receiving the same reply, when who should we se but the boyfriend and the girl in their BMW. They pull up next to us and offer to give us a ride to Louwsborg from where we could get a bus to Groningen and we gladly accept the offer. Luck was on our side today if not on the Dutch side for in the car we got into a conversation about soccer and soon enough, the quarter finals of Euro cup, in which the Dutch(obviously the favourites) were to play against the Russians was being discussed. The guy said "...if the Dutch win today..." and I immediately cut him off by saying "You are a little mistaken, there is no if there, the Dutch ARE going to win." and in my mind I thought, what fun it would be if they loose...just to see the reaction the home people. We talk about more stuff most of which I hardly remember. About half an hour later, we are standing at the Louswerg bus stop waiting for a bus which is to arrive in another hour. That was not much of a problem, I opened my book and started reading it, he put on his ipod and started listening to music. The bus journey was uneventful and its about 8:30 in the evening and I am staring at a city center that is painter orange. People turn put in huge numbers to support their home team, which had been playing like a champion until now. Seeing their enthusiasm, we decide to stay back and watch the match in some pub and you can only imagine what we had stayed back to see and what had turned out. It was infact the first time I was seeing the match in a pub. Usually I watch it in the room on the internet. But something was telling me to watch the match today in the pub, and luckily we did...I know I am not going to get this chance again, so in the end, it was a good decision.
After another hour of photo clicking and gaping wide eyed at the scantly clad girls, we finally make it to the island and the sight that greets us there is simply amazing. Miles and miles of fields with not a hint of human inhabitation except, of course, for the road which has become so much of a routine, that it can be easily excluded from the long and ever expanding list of man made things. Well that, you would say is nothing new to a person from India which is regarded primarily as an agricultural country. This however, was unlike anything I had ever seen. Clear blue sky without a trace of clouds and a horizon so sharply defined that it appeared to give meaning to the word line. The sharp contrast between heaven and earth made it impossible, for me atleast, to distance my gaze from it. And as I stood there, transfixed, my "friend" kicked me in the butt and we decided to get a move on. Our initial exhilaration was soon to be shadowed by the enormity of the island and the task of going about it. It was already 12:00 pm and we had just reached the place adn adding to the woes, was the fact that there was not a single means of public transport in the vicinity. The sole road that ran accross the island was totally deserted and it appeared to us that the only way we could get about the island was on foot. Many of our co-passengers had brought their own cycles with them and they immediately started off on it. The others, well all of them walked and we decided to be no exception. We followed the lead, and soon enough we, we discovered an old mud road running parallel to the main road and it was at this moment that we decided to play Columbus. We diverted from the main road and followed the mud trail, stopping every few minutes to take pictures and .....the beauty of the place (damn! not getting the word for it. Please suggest words for it in your comments...well it means something like absorb the beauty of the place). Anyways it so happened that we got lost in it but then we had the long trail and following it would lead us somewhere for sure. We stuck to it like this Vishal guy sticks to me and sure enough, after about an hour, we were in some sort of an European village. Houses, all of them alike as if they were meant to be some sort of huge boxes left on the street,with a large lawn in the front, cobbled streets and of course pure air. Not that Groningen has a lot of pollution, but then it was a sort of a psychological effect I believe but then the air did have a heavy smell of animal urine in it, the kind almost always there in all the villages the only exception being that this one was much stronger probably because it had more of horse urine in it :). Anyways we reach a village and immediately it struck us both, the difference between this village and the villages back home. Moving along, we saw a sort of a choir performing on the road side, there was a chorus, a cello player \../\../ a guitarist and a lot other instruments but the music was gay and we decided not to waste time there. Some distance away and a procession of horse drawn carriages trotted past us and believe me the horses were huge and the first thing that came to my mind was do those girls in the 7X movies really have sex with horses?? I mean if the horses are so huge, then just imagine what a size their 'thing' might be. Anyways I decided against telling this to the friend of mine for fear of starting another conversation. We've been walking for almost an hour and a half now and tiredness begins to grip us. But as is always the case with me, things happen at the nick of the time and it is then, that we spot a shop that rents out cycles. We go in, rent two cycles, which, under ideal conditions, would've cost us 8 Euros. However our lucky star was shining brightly on us, and the owner, probably preoccupied with some feud with his wife, returned us 2 -2euro coins when we gave him a tener, and we pocket it without a hitch.
Once equipped with a cycle, our pace hastened. Was it the cycle or the fact that we saw hordes of women clad only in bikinis coming from the beach that hastened our pace is what I am not too sure about but withing 5 minutes of sitting on the cycle, we reach the beach. The Beach was a let down. Even though the sun was beating down hard, and one could've expected to see women sun bathing, it didnt happen. There seemed to be only two girls there on the beach, mind you they were fucking hot, but then the entire male population on the beach was centered around them. Reminded us of India and we decide not to stick around, for it was no good. We sit in some corner, have our lunch which was composed of bread and chocolate spread and decide to move on. We cycle from one end of the island to the other seeing and feeling the place. It was a great feeling and felt like heaven indeed. At one place, we come across an old bunker, probably of the world war era, fool around there for sometime, and then decide to start the trek back to the harbour. We go back to the cycle shop, return the cycle, smile to ourselves that he didnt realise that he had given us 2 euros extra, and head back to the harbour. It took us about another hour to reach the place and what do we find there, but a cycle rental shop!! we felt like kicking ourselves in the ass for having missed it in the beginning, but then console ourselves by saying that we anyways roamed around the whole of the island. By this time, the cloud have arrived from nowhere and the temperature had dropped suddenly but we had to hardly wait when a small boat arrives and we decide to get back. notice that this is not the same boat that we had come here on in the first place. But since everyone has to buy a return tickets, there was no ticket checking and we got on to the boat. There was some announcement in Dutch which we were obviously not able to follow, and the boat started. I again started to read for obvious reasons, and in the middle simply dozed off. After about another hour, my friend woke me up, for it was time to get off the boat. The boat had reached its destination. Notice that I've said that the boat has reached its destination and not ours, for this was not 'Louwsborg' but some other place by the name of ESTONSTAD. Phatli...hum duno ki phatli...when we asked a fellow passenger (a girl in fact whom my friend had clicked wen she was kissing her boy friend and she probably saw it!) if there was anyhow we could get back to Groningen and she had replied in a plain negative. She said the only way one could get to Groningen was by a car. We had almost given hope, after asking a few more people and receiving the same reply, when who should we se but the boyfriend and the girl in their BMW. They pull up next to us and offer to give us a ride to Louwsborg from where we could get a bus to Groningen and we gladly accept the offer. Luck was on our side today if not on the Dutch side for in the car we got into a conversation about soccer and soon enough, the quarter finals of Euro cup, in which the Dutch(obviously the favourites) were to play against the Russians was being discussed. The guy said "...if the Dutch win today..." and I immediately cut him off by saying "You are a little mistaken, there is no if there, the Dutch ARE going to win." and in my mind I thought, what fun it would be if they loose...just to see the reaction the home people. We talk about more stuff most of which I hardly remember. About half an hour later, we are standing at the Louswerg bus stop waiting for a bus which is to arrive in another hour. That was not much of a problem, I opened my book and started reading it, he put on his ipod and started listening to music. The bus journey was uneventful and its about 8:30 in the evening and I am staring at a city center that is painter orange. People turn put in huge numbers to support their home team, which had been playing like a champion until now. Seeing their enthusiasm, we decide to stay back and watch the match in some pub and you can only imagine what we had stayed back to see and what had turned out. It was infact the first time I was seeing the match in a pub. Usually I watch it in the room on the internet. But something was telling me to watch the match today in the pub, and luckily we did...I know I am not going to get this chance again, so in the end, it was a good decision.
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