A Friday Afternoon in Maastricht

Every town in the Netherlands has what they call 'market day', where traditional market is held in front of the city's town hall. In Maastricht, market days fall on Wednesday and Friday. 

Fitri loves the market, while I --mostly buy my groceries in Albert Heijn or Aldi--- have never gone there. So when she told she loves spending time buying fresh ingredients at the market, I asked if I could come with her. Fitri said yes, and we later set up the date on Friday. Fitri doesn't have classes on Friday and I could really use a short break from my thesis.

The market is full with fresh ingredients including fresh beautiful flowers. The sellers there are nice and friendly, I enjoyed our little chat with them. 

Afterward, I met Cumaziye and Denitsa at a cafe in front of Selexyz bookstore. We were laughing all the time. It was a Friday well-spent.

Maastricht Carnaval

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Easter is coming and Maastricht --once was a Catholic city in Holland-- was throwing the city's famous carnival last Sunday.

I picked up Agnes near Centraal Station at 2. She was coming from Utrecht because partly because I invited her to stay at my place, partly because she heard that Maastricht Carnaval is of course...one of the biggest and famous in Holland. 

From what I heard, Maastricht is not the only city throwing a Carnaval before Easter. There are several other Catholic cities in Holland throwing similar pre-Easter Carnaval. But Maastricht is the great one, people from all over the Netherlands mostly opt to go see Maastricht's other than the one in Neijmegen or Arnhem.

We was walking toward St. Servaas when I heard someone calling. It was Mone, he was with Rio and Billy. Later in the afternoon, we were joined by Kenneth, Brian and Steve. 

After standing for hours, we all agreed to have a drink in a bar & eateries around St. Servaas. Being Indonesian, most of us went for Chocomel (noted by the waitress with a roll in her eyes...), while Brian and Kenneth went for beer.

We had a good time there, it was already dawn when we stepped out from the bar.

Vijvardale 10

I consider myself lucky to get a room in Vijvardale 10. The place was an old building bought by the university and turned into a student dorm. 

So the place is a bit used but it has an elevator, and I am lucky enough to live in one of the nicest floor, 2nd floor room 102. 

Located a little far from the Centruum and might be the only one in the building who cannot ride a bike, I now depend a lot on Bus number 10 and 51.

Good thing there is a nice Albert Heijn around 10 minutes walk from where I live.

Another good thing is I now have fellow Indonesians living in the same building as I do...Mone, Billy, Diena and ka Wulan. Sweet!

Student Flat Experience

When I first arrived in Maastricht, my cousin's close friend Batty picked me up at Schipol and took me to Brouwersweg 100, the address of Maastricht University guesthouse where everything is nice and decorated in Ikea-esque manner.

However, I have to share bathrooms and 2 toilets down the hall with like 10 other people and the cleanliness of the toilet after 5 PM became a serious issue for me. Not to mention I got an unfriendly roommate from Singapore who likes cooking but hates cleaning and whose side of bed was so messy it hurts my eyes.

Well I do can be very high-maintenance when it comes to cleanliness. That's when I decided to find another room in different part of the city that I like, Centraal Station area. In a short notice --and in the middle of a busy week-- I got a room in Heugemerweg. Fourth floor with no elevator, and another shared toilet and kitchen. It's like an apartment but with no living room and no television. I lived with fellow students from Korea, Spain, Serbia and two girls from Milan. One of them is a lesbian with a shy Dutch girlfriend. Both of them have high cheekbones and cool pixie haircut. Stylish!

But one my roommates (I'm not sure which one) also has a serious hygiene issue. When one day I came to a smelly toilet and turned out someone was not doing his/her flush properly...well, that's when I decided to get a room a bit far from the Centruum with my own toilet and my own bathroom,Vijvardale 10.

On my last day,  while waiting for the guesthouse car to arrived, I went to Bonnefanten Museum, the one and only art museum in Maastricht with a very nice gift shop and cafe.

A Saturday Spent in Den Haag

This time I went with Cumaziye. During our class Halloween party Cumaziye and I talked about our separate plan to go see other cities in Holland. And so there we went on a nice Saturday morning when the air was clear and the sky was blue. Lucky for us because a good weather is a rare in a November.    

I have been to Den Haag before, with a bunch of Indonesian students from Maastricht during Ied-Dul Fitr day. I only went for a chance to eat a proper Indonesian food that I have been missing my arrival in the Netherlands. At the time we went straight to Wassenaar, the area where Indonesian Embassy located. We only stopped in two places during that trip, one is Den Haag Centraal and the second one is Utrecht Centraal aka. spoor station.

Fortunately during this trip I had more chance to see Den Haag, exploring the Plein, and ate at V&D cafe'. V&D is a department store similar to Metro. As Cumaziye is also likes walking around, we were exploring the city with our foot. Without taking a bus or a tram at all.

DEN HAAG FACTS: Den Haag is famous for its Madurodam - a mini version of Holland || Amsterdam is the capital of Netherlands but Den Haag is the residence of Dutch King and former Queens as well as the centre of Dutch parliament and government || Home to 150 international institutions including foreign embassies, the Hague holds reputation as the International City and is known as 'Judicial Capital of the World' ||  Almost each cities in Europe has 'City Centrum' or a city center where shopping area, government building and church can be found within walking distant, in Den Haag this city centruum is in the Plein area || Every year in Den Haag, Indonesians from all over the Netherlands and even Belgium have the opportunity to visit Tong Tong Fair, the largest and famous Indonesian food bazaar in the Netherlands.  

A Day Trip to KZM - Karlsruhe

The best part of living in the Netherland is we can always go to the neighboring countries without our passport. And the best part of living in Maastricht is we can always go to Germany in an hour and Belgium in twenty minutes.  

Maybe that's why MA Media Culture class has an annual day trip to Karlsruhe, Germany, to visit the famous Media Arts Museum, KZM or Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe. It is one of the largest and important media art museum in Germany.

It takes around 4 hours from Maastricht to Karlsruhe. So we were told to be in front of Maastricht Central Station around 5.30 AM, where the university has prepared a bus big enough for the entire MA Media Culture. Good thing the bus has large seats that comfortable enough for us to take such a long journey. Not a good thing was the person I have chosen to sit next with.