Stress (Part Two)

Go back and read part one. Now.

I woke up this morning bright and early to check out at 10am. After waking Kate down to the AH for some toothpaste, we went our seperate ways. They wanted to see the Van Gogh, but I wasn't interested in the line. The line for the Heineken Expereince was much shorter. I had some of the freshest beer I've ever had (all while learning of the Heineken history!) and headed North to find my train. By this time it was three and my train wasn't scheduled to leave until nearly five, so I took my time to explore the downtown. Eventually I ran into a huge crowd of people waiting by one of the canals, turns out they were waiting for the soccer team to return home! I watched them go by on their fancy decked out boat and walked to the train station.

That's when the stress started.

At half past four, I found out that I had to take a DIFFERENT train to Rotterdam in order to connect at Brussels. I fretted about for a bit, but finally found the right train. I sat down beside three Egyptians who were traveling, and a couple Dutch guys. We were fifteen minutes out of Amsterdam, almost to the airport Shipol, when the cable broke.

The train system here in the Netherlands has two "rails" if you will. The rail it rides on, and the electrical cable that runs above the train to supply power. There was a loud SNAP followed by a few crashing sounds.

Immediately people dove for the center of the train. The loose cable was being whipped about the train wildly and we had no brakes or electricity. Wonderful. The train eventually slowed to a stop, but we were not allowed to get off. Apparently, the outside of the train was charged with 50,000 volts of train power. I was going to miss my train to Paris. So the Dutchmen, Egyptians and I made friends for a couple hours. When we were finally allowed to remove ourselves from the train, no other trains were going in or out of Shipol. The railway had had to ground the electrical wire because they couldn't get it to shut down. Luckily one of the Dutchmen lived outside Rotterdam and offered to give me a ride.

Mind you, this man had no idea who I was or where I was headed. But, he was awesome enough to give me a ride to Rotterdam Central, offer me advice on what to do with my now wasted train ticket to Paris and ask for absolutley nothing in return. We had a great conversation on the 45 minute car ride to Rotterdam, I learned a lot about Holland. I wish everybody on this planet was as awesome as that man, he deserves way more than he took for his help.

At Rotterdam, I was able to retrieve a refund for my train ticket, but there were no other HiSpeed rails to Paris for the next three days. I opted to take the slow day train to Paris tomorrow. I was (am) stuck in Rotterdam. Now I had to find a place to sleep.

The information booth at the train station was unhelpful, so I ended up asking a police officer (with the same watch as me!) for advice on where to sleep. He had the perfect place for me to go, where I am now. A sharp little hostel (you'll see photos, it's the cubey- yellow place) one train stop away from Rotterdam Central at Rotterdam Blaak.

What is it with the Duch being so nice? I LOVE IT!

Okay, I've been writing for nearly an hour now, and I'm sick of it. Remember to ask me more about it when you talk to me. It's quite the amazing experience to be stranded in a city you've barely heard of with nobody you can call for help. I'm sure I can talk for a while. But my fingers are done typing.

Talk to you in Paris!