banana-travel

exams comming up

2010-12-22T08:14:00.000-08:00

Oh man I'm so glad we have interpol and all, tracing dangerous persons accused of crimes like mass murder, terrorism, human smuggling, drug trafficking and having sex without a condom.

Just saying.

As you may have noticed I haven't been around for a while, with exams coming up I really had to start studying. And so I haven't traveld back and forth between The Netherlands and Belgium. But that doesn't mean I have nothing to tell you.

The Dutch railways experienced severe problems last winter, especially with failing switches and certain train components. This summer they worked hard (and got a lot of money) to fix these problems. Switches where equipped with heaters to withstand the cold and the components where replaced. Money well spend you'd think. Well, think again.

Massive massive delays after the first snow showed up in the last part of november. The whole randstad region (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht & The Hague) was inaccessible. The Dutch railways advise to commuters was to minimalize train traveling for a couple of days. Now with the second wave of snow not only the Dutch (and Belgian) railways are struck. International flights have also encountered massive delays. The airport of Zaventem (near Brussels) reported it was running out of anti-freeze used to remove ice from airplanes. London, Heatrow is still operating at reduced efficiency, although most snow is now gone. Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris is expecting new snow in the afternoon. Schiphol airport is in the process of returning back to normal flight schedules, although flights to the other mayor airports in Europe still may be canceled.

On the other hand we're going to have a white christmas according to meteorologists. Something we in the Netherlands always hope for, but not always seem to get. Remaining snow from earlier plus new snow in the coming 48 hours equals white christmas, can't wait!

I'm going back to my books now,
hope you had a nice read.

w

moar delays

2010-11-29T15:58:00.000-08:00

Hi guys & galls,

Yesterday I was making my way back to Leuven heavily packed because I was carrying a lot of clothes and it was also freezing cold. Not the ideal traveling conditions but eh, could be worse right? Well, it got worse, when I arrived in Roosendaal it soon became apparent that the international train to Brussels was cancelled and the next train would have an hour delay. all in all a delay of 2 hours. Because of these delays i missed a special connection for students making my tripp even longer.
all in all I had planned to be in Leuven at 10 o'clock in the evening, unfortunately i arrived in my appartement at about half past midnight. Overslept my class today, thank you railway.

bye bye
banana

STRIKE!!

2010-11-22T16:25:00.000-08:00

Newsflash!

Railroad personel is on strike here in Belgium. One major labour union is fed up with safety issues on belgium railroads. It was decided by labour union ASTB that a full pause in proper functioning of the railroads is exactly what they needed. What they are really trying to accomplish with these acts of terror is unclear to me. It would seem that the public support is needed in order to achieve greater general awareness on the subject. But frankly I don't think these actions are going to do any good.
Another, smaller labour union dislikes the CEO's decision to outsource cleaning operations to a private enterprise. The sociallist labour union fears that, because of this decision, colleagues who suffered major injury will need to be fired instead of replaced to workstations they can still handle (like cleaning).
I am so happy I do not have to use the train until friday, for hopefully these matters will be dealt with.

Thanks for reading,
Banana

2010-11-18T13:54:00.000-08:00

Okay you guys I know this has nothing to do with travel but I stumbled on this sport on the internets and it just looks so absurd. it's called Sepak Takraw and it's basically footvolley (volleyball with the foot) on an badminton field. Of course it's origin is in south-east asia, which is more or less the only place this game is played.
LINK! to youtube

yours truly,
Banana

Smoking

2010-11-17T19:58:00.000-08:00

In belgium people are allowed to smoke anywhere in the train station, waiting rooms, the platforms, walkways and sometimes even in the toilets. But as soon as one enters a train, smoking is striktly forbidden. What's up with that? i'd rather sit next to a smoker as opposed to a stinking drunk hobo.

Is it the same in your country?

regards,
Banana

last weekend's journey

2010-11-17T06:17:00.000-08:00

So I promised you guys my thoughts on traveling in Belgium an The Netherlands. As an example I'm going to tell you about my journey last weekend. I had planned to go from 's-Hertogenbosch (a region capital in The Netherlands) to Leuven (kinda same sized city) by train. If you live near these city's you'll know about the terrible weather conditions, otherwise the news!
First problems first, the Dutch railway in all its wisdom decided to update some track on my planned route. As there was no way for me to go around it, I was going to need to take the bus instead of the train. Which would delay me with 30 minutes. But because of the heavy rain, the Belgium railway couldn't keep their trains going on time. So more delays were to be expected. Finally, when I was just getting ready to walk to the station a friend of mine texted me saying some idiot threw himself in front of a train at my station.
FML, even more delay. Luckily I had the possibility of taking the car, which is more expensive and terribly bad for the environment, but eh. I had a nice 1.5 hour drive and arrived all fresh and merry in Leuven (traveling by train really is different)

Hope you enjoyed,
Banana

Hello world

2010-11-17T05:45:00.000-08:00

In my blog I'll moslty comment on Belgium and Dutch public transport. Mainly because I travel a lot and wanted to share with you guys the endless pleasures of said public transport systems. Engrish isn't my first language so i hope you guys/galls won't go crazy batshit with every typo.

I'm going to try and update at least once every two days. Hope you're going to like it as much as me. (I kinda like writing)

Bye for now,
Banana