Day 1: Haarlem

Ok, where do I start.....

All in all, today was middly.

It's been a loooong day. I had an early flight this morning so I've been up since 3:45. And I didn't even get much sleep before that, it was a Christmas Eve type scenario. I got to the airport fine anyway. I felt like a bit of a tool though walking through the airport with my bike, but everything went pretty well. I had to let the air out of my tyres alright, so thank God I brought my pump!

I arrived in Schiphol no problem. I was kinda hoping I'd make a plane friend but the two seats next to me were empty. Still, I got to look out the window!

I said that once I arrived in Schiphol with my bike in one piece then I'd be fine, but funnily enough that's when things turned bad. When I got outside I couldn't get the valve on my tyre, so I was trying in vain to pump up my tyres for about 5 minutes. Thankfully I finally got it to work. I said then that I better lock up my bike and look for the exit on foot cause I don't want to be holding up people behind me. I found a road marked exit straight away so I headed for that. Suddenly people started beeping at me. It turns out that road was for cars only (and that wouldn't be the only time that happened). I felt like such a cycling n00b.

Anyway, I found my cycle path, and I even found the sign for Haarlem! Things went pretty smoothly for the next 10 minutes until my path came to a junction. The path just ended and I didn't know where to go! I went back on the road again anyway......BEEEEEP!!! Ah no.
I moved onto the footpath (even though I knew that wasn't right). At least pedestrians can't beep at me....

The rain was peppering down gently, which was grand, but when I was about 4km from Haarlem it started bucketing down. It took me just over an hour to get into the city but I spent the next hour and a half actually looking for the hostel! I had the address but the street didn't seem to be on any map and people didn't know where it was. I was so annoyed and wet and sweaty at this stage. I worked my way towards the hostel going on little bits of information.

I was within touching distance of the hostel when I came to a junction. One road was small and quiet but it had a no bikes sign. The other clearly had a bikes sign but it was a dual carriage way. I went for the dual carriage way, but people were really fucking me out of it! I don't know why! It clearly had a bike sign! They weren't even trying to avoid me, they were running me right to the edge. Eventually I had to get off my bike and go through a hedge to get to the first road. I was only about 200m from the hostel at that stage anyway. I was so relieved to finally get there.

I had a shower and a lie down ( I couldn't even sleep. What's wrong with me?!), while it was still lashing outside. After that I felt a lot better. I met my two Czech roommates, Pavel and Petr. They're nice but a bit bland. I was talking to them in the bar for a while. (One of them spilt his drink all over himself. It was secretly hilarious!)

It started to clear up at about 5:30 so I headed into the town centre. It's a nice enough place, and I had a good dinner (lasagne if you hadn't guessed). So, it was a pleasant enough evening.

All in all, it wasn't a great day, but I'm still optimistic for tomorrow. The cycling isn't too bad, it's just the rain that's the killer. A man once said, "Chocolate rain, some stay dry and others feel the pain", well I didn't stay dry and I certainly felt the pain! But this was no chocolate rain, it was the watery kind. As long as it's dry tomorrow, I wont have any complaints.

Peace out for now!

PS. I'm reading! 1984 and it's quite good so far. The series might be over but I'm still getting my Big Brother fix! :D