Trains, plains, and automobiles

At first that was a typo, but then I realized that it was sort of correct -- I didn't ride any planes but I did see some plains... I think.

Anyway, this past weekend I went to go visit my relatives and the saints in Vlaardingen. My relatives came to Holland to visit me... but in the end I had to visit them too because I live in such a random/kind of remote place. There also isn't that much to do here, by my estimation, aside from randomly bike around.

I don't have the energy to write a detailed blog, but we went on a tour to a couple of cities in Belgium for Saturday, which was nice. I'm planning to go again but it was a nice preview and I learned some history, so when I go again I can be more "local" and less tourist-ey, which is usually what I prefer.


Favourite jumping picture on my camera XD, in Antwerp

In the morning we went to the meeting which was very sweet. A sister who I had met in Poland years ago did the translation for me. I don't think she actually remembers me from Poland (we were in the same house but we didn't talk much) but I remembered her name and vaguely remembered her face. Haha... anyway, group picture:

We caught the train in the afternoon and split ways at Rotterdam -- aunt + cousins went to Schiphol (airport) and I went to Enschede. I got back to the station around 6 pm, and then tottered around on my bicycle to get home (I had a rather heavy backpack, since it had a duvet and some sheets in it), my laptop and my purse. No crashing or anything, although I did walk my bike across the intersection and probably looked ridiculous.

After I got home, I unpacked a bit quickly and then checked to see what kind of groceries I might pick up for this next week. Went to the store with a shopping bag that I now realize is puny, bought some stuff, came home and realized that I should take a picture of my bike, so I did:

Once I got home I saw that there was also a request to see the bike, so ta-dah! Unfortunately that back thing supposedly takes a max of 15kg... I'd like to let someone ride on it, lol. Then again, I can barely take the extra weight of a backpack; I don't know what I'd do with a person.

Also, biking with hardly any weight (no backpack, no laptop) feels great. 

Oh yeah... automobiles. Everyone drives standard so well here, it makes me want to practice.