Il mio Overseas a Sydney, Australia (Gen-Lug 2007)... e il mio periodo di Tesi all'Estero a Rotterdam/Utrecht, Olanda (Ott 2007-Mar 2008)!

UTS in NL/1 - The Invasion

Sometimes history repeats. In October an Italian sneaked into The Netherlands and established in Rotterdam after spending a few days in Vlaardingen.
It seemed just a normal visit to the country, but actually he was spying his Dutch friend. The Italian also bribed his friend's girlfriend, and then started to plan everything.
After a few months, in February 2008, the invasion began. A strong German-Italian alliance entered into the country. Germans passed the border with cars while Italians flew and landed in different Dutch airports. It was Friday 7th March 2008.
Germans Nico, Tobi and Timm occupied a restaurant in Rotterdam while Italians Silvia and Simona explored the whole country to make sure that the resistance was set off. The Italian spy Russian-named Iurij was waiting for them at Rotterdam Central station, while the bribed Dutch Britt was kidnapping the Dutch master Zjenja. She brought him in Pizzeria Pavarotti, and suddenly he found out that he was surrounded by all those strangers. He was shocked, and could not say a word for a while.
The Dutchman was under surveillance for the whole night and then brought to a room in Rotterdam from where he could not escape. Eight people would have blocked him. His dreams of a relaxing weekend were already in the bin!

The following morning all the people were already around Rotterdam. The Dutch victim was kind of left alone at the beginning. He was forced to become a guide of the city for all the invaders, and brought them to a meaningless sculpture (which then become a meaningful sculpture for the whole history) before showing them something that left everybody astonished. Are you curious? Sorry for that... it will remain a mystery.

Later on the Dutchman called some help and managed to get his sister and her boyfriend with him. However, in the meantime some troops from France arrived as well. Their position in the conflict was cryptic, but at least at the beginning they were surely together with Germans and Italians. Everybody strolled around Rotterdam before ending for some food at the Cruise Terminal. 

Postato da: DexterH46 a 14:57 | link | commenti (2)
holiday, accomodation, rotterdam, overseas, uts , netherlands

31st October – My Kingdom in Rotterdam

On the very last day in October, the 31st, I moved to a room I found in Rotterdam. Finding a room in Utrecht turned to be nearly impossible, so I had to adapt myself to the idea of becoming a commuter, catching a train from Monday to Thursday to go to Utrecht where the NS Headquarters are.
So here you are my new kingdom. Maybe it is not the best place I have ever lived in, but it is absolutely ok.
I am not paying that much money (well... 150 Euro per month is nothing compared to the average prices!), I am quite close to the station (so I ride my bike for just 5 minutes), I have a supermarket not far and I can even take a tram if I am lazy and don’t want to walk, the stop is just 100 metres from where I live.
My room is quite big. I have got a double bed and two sofas that can easily turned into beds as well. I have also got a small table in my room and a well-equipped desk with a lot of room to store many things. The heating is inside the room and there is internet as well. What can I ask more?!
Here you are some pics of the place, including the kitchen and the corridor... more stuff is coming soon! ;-)

Postato da: DexterH46 a 22:02 | link | commenti
accomodation, rotterdam, netherlands

26th October – “Welcome to Holland”

These are the words pronunciated by Zjenja, my Dutch friend who came to pick me up at Schiphol Airport.

He bought me the train ticket (!) to get to his house (!!) where I would have been his guest for a few days, until I would have found a permanent place to live in. The Australian tale was going on.

In the evening Zjenja brought me to his house where he had prepared a room for me. In the morning I had been caught at Verona Porta Nuova station by the mother of another friend of mine met in Australia, Silvia. Despite she was still down under, she managed to organise a private pick up for me at the station to the airport. Definitely a great way to start this new adventure in The Netherlands. A way to link past, present and future. A way that shows that I’ve met many great people, ladies, gentlemen, Friends with capital F, in my life.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 15:45 | link | commenti
accomodation, journey/flight, netherlands, vlaardingen

15th July – Welcome Back Italy

I said goodbye to Jean quite before midnight, then I took the train to KLIA – Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
A bad surprise for me: Malaysia Airlines was implementing a new system for their check-in, so all the flights were delayed. Mine had a two hours delay, which meant that I would have arrived in Rome too late to catch the first two trains to Pesaro.
I was plenty of time, so I went shopping and bought some duty-free stuff to bring to Italy before che check-in, re-scheduled at 2AM.
On the plane I watched “Reign Over Me”. Yes, the same movie I watched in Sydney. Yes, that day. The only difference was that on the plane I thought back to that day in Sydney. And exactly at the same moment she lost a tear in Sydney, I lost one on the plane. It was an extremely touching moment, and I could not resist.
The flight went on normally for me. At the end I heard someone saying that it had been a bumpy flight for most of the time. Probably my mind was somewhere else since I did not realise anything.
When we were approaching Italy I met a man from Sicily, who spends 6 months in Italy and 6 in Australia, every year. The plane landed, I saw the man going away, then a nice family doing the same, then two nice Aussie girls as well. I did not want to get off the plane. I remained there, patiently, until everyone was out. Then I took my baggage and went down the stairs. I touched the ground, stopped, and said to myself “This is the end”.
I waited for more than a hour for my baggage (welcome back Italy!) then I run outside the airport to catch a train.
It was too late to be in time to see the MotoGP race, so I had to wait three more hours before catching a train from Rome Fiumicino Airport to central Rome, from where I would have caught another one to Pesaro.
In the meantime I found two tickets, I guessed not refundable but anyway still unused, to go from the airport to the city. Two girls either from Austria or Germany were queueing there and were in trouble. I gave them the tickets, without asking anything back, and went away to my platform. Basically they travelled for free.
On the train from the airport to the city some nomads got on the train. I went closer to the baggage area to prevent any theft of my stuff, but they surrounded me. One behind me, one on the front, and a girl on my left, asking me the time. I replied, in English, she asked it again. I replied, showing the watch. She asked it again. I understood something was going wrong, so quickly I pushed her arm away and found out that with the other she was picking up my wallet. I screamed loudly “police police”, but no one came. A nomad told me “be quiet”, but I was very angry. Luckily I discovered the attempt before it was too late, so I could save all my documents. In fact I was travelling without any money... “Roma ladrona” is known worldwide.
When the train stopped I told everything to the only man I could find of Trenitalia, the Italian train service. He told me “you shouldn’t speak to me, you should speak to the management... I have no power, and these situations happen every single day”. Congratulations shitty Trenitalia and shitty Train Police.
After approximately 4 hours on three different trains (I had to change in Foligno as well) I arrived in Falconara, where my brother picked me up and drove me home. I was there, from where everything began nearly 6 months before. “Good luck” turned to “Welcome Back”, and this was the writing on the door of my house. Everything passed so fast.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 14:38 | link | commenti
accomodation, journey/flight

14th July – KL Day Two: The Skytrex Adventure

The alarm rang quite early in the morning.
The time for a quick shower and I run downstairs where the breakfast was served. In fact, after the first night and the first breakfast I decided that, no matter it was more expensive than a hostel, but I would have spent there even the second night. The breakfast was including a lot of food: rice, pasta, cakes, fruit, vegetables, eggs, meat... everything! So I decided I would have had a massive breakfast that would have been enough even for lunch and, partially, for dinner.
Here you can see just some of the food I ate the second morning.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 23:55 | link | commenti
sport, holiday, malaysia, accomodation

12th July – Welcome to KL

After 8 hours on the plane, where I met a guy from Malaysia who was working in Australia, I landed in KL Airport, which actually is so far away from KL (= Kuala Lumpur) that it took me half an hour on a train to get into the Malaysian capital.
Luckily for me, my friend Jean from France was waiting for me at the airport.
Then we went for a hotel in the city. Since we were in Malaysia, everything was cheaper so Jean suggested me a hotel rather than a hostel and I agreed with him, for the first night at least.
We took a cab, then another one, and I finally ended in the Ancasa Hotel near Pasar Seni monorail station.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 22:32 | link | commenti
holiday, malaysia, accomodation, journey/flight

12th July – Goodbye Aussieland

I arrived in Sydney Airport at something past 10PM, took a bus (massive saving once again!) to 62 Redfern Street, had some food offered by Harrison and Emilie and then I went to UTS to sleep.
Yes, my last night in Sydney was a homeless night, but after all the troubles UTS caused to me I deserved a free night accomodation at least!

Postato da: DexterH46 a 19:30 | link | commenti
bureaucracy, sydney, accomodation, uts , journey/flight

8th July – The Redfern Church

The last Sunday in Sydney and Australia corresponded to the last time I went to the church in Redfern.
This church had often been not so rcrowded. Saying the same concept in other words, let’s say there were not so many people going there. But it had a particular characteristic, it was the church where Australians, white people, were mixed with real Australians, aboriginal people.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 20:55 | link | commenti
holiday, sydney, accomodation

27th June – Farewell BBQ/2 : The participants

My time to say “goodbye” came as well.
On 26th I finished with my exams (...) so I decided to take a farewell party together with my adventure-mate Federica, who was coming back from Uluru on that very day and would have left Sydney again the day after.
I sent a lot of invitations, but unfortunately many of my friends were already travelling (do you remember? The Germans, the Chileans, ...), and a few of them were sick (Chiara, Mala, ...) or had already other plans (like an Aussie girl who will come to Bologna Uni in September, unluckily I couldn’t meet her).
Even Eva was missing. She told me she would have been back for the end of June, but then she probably changed her plans, and when I texted her to invite her, she replied she was in Darwin, which means 3-4 hours away on a plane. That was the last chance for us to meet, and I really believed in it, but actually I had to accept a different reality a further time, and, believe me, it had been very sad... I wanted to say “goodbye” to her by person, even with the boyfriend next to her, but I couldn’t :-(
Luckily someone was still in Sydney and could come.
My Italian friend Silvia from Verona was among them, and she brought two friends of her from her own city in Italy. We had a chat at the BBQ and promised to meet each other again once travelling up north in the East Coast.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 13:37 | link | commenti
holiday, party, sydney, accomodation

27th June – Farewell BBQ/1: Invitation

On Wednesday evening I will have a BBQ at my place, to say goodbye to all the nice people I met in OZ.
Many of them will not be here because they are already travelling around OZ, anyway if you are in Sydney you cannot miss!
There will be people from my groups in all my subjects, some of my flatmates and some Internationals as well.
Unfortunately I am a poor student and my scholarship does not cover food and drinks for many people, so I kindly ask you to bring your own food and drinks (even because I do not know your preferences) .
Anyway some meat and some drinks will be provided (ok, I will not touch the beers in my fridge until Wednesday! :D ). We will provide the fire as well, don't worry, it will be lighted up at around 5, so you can start to come from 6.00 onward knowing that we'll never be in time!If it rains we'll find a solution as well, don't worry...
My house is in Redfern, the address is 62 Redfern St, Redfern 2016.
From Central station is very easy: get out in Chalmers Street and walk along Chalmers Street for 2 blocks (2 traffic lights) until you cross Redfern Street. Turn left and after 20 metres you are arrived. My doorbell is number 6, but if I am not in my room you can also ring one of the following: 1,3,8,9,10 (or my phone).
I attach a map to ease you on your way... so please do not send me hundred texts, and remember that the excuse "I could not find the place" is not allowed as well!:P
It will be the last opportunity to see many (if not all) of you here in Australia, and I really care about it.
So I look forward to see you there, and feel free to bring other people!See you on Wednesday!!!
Cheers,
Iurij

MAP:
The red/purple line goes from Railway Square to my place (for those who don't know where the Chalmers exit is)
The light blue line goes from the Chalmers St. exit to my place (for those who don't know where the Railway Square exit is)
The blue line goes from UTS to my place (for those who will still be studying in the Tower and don't know where Central Station exits are)

Postato da: DexterH46 a 17:46 | link | commenti
holiday, party, sydney, accomodation