Volume 2, Day 34
It was finally time to move on and I packed up quickly and quietly in the morning. By chance, C had an appointment in Rotterdam so we planned to go together in the morning. I didn’t have a particular schedule, but having only one night in Rotterdam and a fairly early bus the next morning, I needed to get there early enough to drop off luggage and explore for the day. I had even specifically booked the hostel closest to the central train station for minimal carrying of luggage. While the easiest way have been to take Leiden Centraal to Rotterdam Centraal, we took a different route that involved three transfers. I don’t know. It was confusing, but there is an app that helps with all the schedules in the Netherlands. The key advantage of going with C together is that I could hold onto the OV card until the last minute, saving me 1 euro in fees for a one time use card. Ultimately, it didn’t really matter.
Rotterdam Centraal is an artistic architectural centerpiece, though come to think of it, most of the train stations I have seen are quite interesting. In the Netherlands, they go for very modern designs and Rotterdam is rife with architectural experimentation. I headed the one block over to my hostel, which happened to be at the entrance of Chinatown and literally owned by the “Chinatown” restaurant next door. The hostel staff were exceptionally friendly and as I was dropping off my stuff, I found out that the one museum I wanted to visit was closed. Its a real shame, especially considering it is considered one of Europe’s finest. While the building is being renovated the masterpieces are all out on loan to dozens of other museums, so I may have already seen some of the works without realizing it. In any case, the woman running the reception counter pulled out a small tourist map of the city and marked a bunch of places that would be interesting to see. Rotterdam is pretty big (the second largest city in the Netherlands) and the various cool districts are sometimes a bit spread out, so without some specific targets in mind, the typical wander blindly strategy is less than optimal.
I headed out to the east through a commercial zone to find the Markthalle, which is a giant hanger with a painted ceiling and a food court. On the way, I noticed a Decathalon and decided to pop in for a minute to have a look. So, the trekking backpacks for sale in Decathalon are much more reasonably priced than the name brand ones sold in specialty shops. I don’t like the idea of putting all that weight on my shoulders, but if the suitcase continues to disintegrate, its a good fallback. I agreed to spend the day thinking about whether or not I want to switch over and return before it closed at 7pm if so. Of course, I also happened to pass a reasonably priced luggage shop and the weekly market had several people also selling luggage. So, Rotterdam is already presenting me with tons of options to replace my suitcase. Ultimately, I bought some more superglue and some tape because it is better for the environment to do my best to repair the suitcase instead of just throwing it away.
The weekly market was impressive, firstly for being on a weekday rather than the weekend and secondly in terms of its scope. I stopped twice to buy food from stalls, a giant stroopwaffle and something called a loempia, which was basically a spring roll. It was a stall selling exactly two items, bought fried and as far as I could tell the only difference was in the shape. As there was also a fairly long line, it was exactly the kind of thing I stop to try. It was fine.
The Markthalle was really cool, but as I looked at the prices of the typical food counters, I was glad I had already sated my hunger because it was a little pricey. Something interesting I noticed is that Rotterdam seems to be having some sort of ethnic utopia where Muslim women are grilling bratwurst, Dutch people are stir-frying in woks, and Chinese people are selling cheeses. Everything is mixed and matched as if it didn’t really matter. Rotterdam is a very international city and I immediately took a liking to it.
There is some very famous architecture also near the Markthalle that I wandered over to take a quick picture of. I headed over to the water afterwards, finding myself at the Maritime Museum. Though I really enjoyed the maritime museums I visited in Japan, I had no desire to pay the ticket to go inside Rotterdam’s. Luckily all the best stuff (I can only assume) is outside and open to the public. A long stretch of the harbor was punctuated by various shipping equipment from various stages in history, not just a collection of old boats in the water, but cranes, train cars, lighthouses and the like.
It was a fairly long and uneventful walk over to the museum quarter where I briefly entertained the idea of visiting the modern art museum. I walked through the park connecting all the museums and returned to the hostel where I made a cup of coffee and worked until it was time to check in. When my energy dipped in the afternoon, I took a quick nap and went down to the lounge to have another coffee and read a book for a bit before heading out again to explore more of the town. While downstairs, I got to chatting with a girl from Hong Kong, who was working (volunteering?) at the hostel and had already lived some years in the Netherlands after originally coming to study art. We shared some views on language and differences between Europe and China. It was a good talk, but I needed to not just hang around all day.
When I went back out, I saw the ultra hip “Witte” district on my circuitous way to Erasmus bridge. I crossed the bridge to an island which most notable was the launching spot of trans-Atlantic cruise ships (i.e. Holland America Line) and cross a small bridge to another island where some old warehouses have been renovated into a fashionable foodie forum. If I lived in Rotterdam, I would probably enjoy going there for some craft beers and whatever artisanal bites are available, but it had no appeal for me right now. I also found the view of the harbor/city skyline to be completely unremarkable despite how much is remarked upon it. I was pretty beat by that point, so I headed back to the hostel, grabbed a tote bag and went to a grocery store to pick up a salad. I also bought some hummus and a baguette.
I ate back in the hostel while some middle aged Chinese women were cooking their separate noodle dinners. I didn’t let on that I spoke Chinese, and neither of them were eager to be sociable. Even when their two other friends came down, there was nearly silence as each person just looked at her own phone. I was somewhat mesmerized by the TV which was playing Rotterdam travel videos (muted with subtitles). It was weird to see fairly slickly produced (even by Instagram standards) videos showing off how cool the city is. I’ll admit Rotterdam is pretty cool, but my eyes nearly fell out of my head I was rolling them so hard. The two guys who are I guess professional travel vloggers and Instagram influencers really annoyed me.
After cleaning up my dinner mess, I laid out on the couch and finished “Player Piano.” The hostel unfortunately did not have a library for a book swap, so I’ll just have to carry it with me a little longer. I wasn’t drinking and though the hostel was comfortable, I was a bit bored. I headed upstairs quite early to shower and play on my computer until it was time to sleep.
| Payback for train tickets and bike rental | 30 |
| Cookie and orange juice | 4.1 |
| Glue and tape | 2.5 |
| Stroopwafel | 1.5 |
| Loempoa | 2.9 |
| Hostel | 167 RMB |
| Dinner (Aldi) | 5 |
| Total: | 525.8 RMB (USD 76.53) |
Running Total: 12427.7 RMB (USD 1808.93)
Daily Average: 365.5 RMB (USD 53.20)