Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows – Part 1

The past few days have been busier than expected. Since we supposedly had a week off I thought I’d be bored stiff and be scrounging around for something to keep me occupised. It has, in fact, been the opposite.

As I mentioned in the last post, on Sunday we went to a museum: Museum Het Valkhof. I was acutally quite looking forward to this but unfortunately it was just another boring museum. I did quite enjoy looking round the exhibits located downstairs though in the Vrede van Nijmegen (Piece of Nijmegen) section. I especially enjoyed the portion made up of white walls where children have been allowed to draw different things associated with Nijmegen. It was even possible to see one of these young artists at work!

I also previously mentioned that I learned a little something about Dutch art during our induction lectures (ie child = nice family photo; dog = brothel). I was able to put some of this high-brow analysis into action whilst in the Valkhof and I stumbled upon this puzzling picture:

It contains both children and a dog. What does this mean?! I’m not sure I want to know.

Moving swiftly on, on the upper floor – amongst all the olden age bling and tombstones – there were telescopes which you could use to look out across the city. I thought that was quite a nice idea since a lot of the museum was pretty much to do with Nijmegen.

Terhi scoping out the city

Perhaps now is the time that I should stop with all this museum talk, otherwise you may feel as though you were actually there. We left at lunchtime and went in search of food appropriate to such a period in time. This was more difficult than you would think because it seems as though everything shuts down on a Sunday. It’s a strange feeling, walking around the empty streets because it’s not like this is a small town in southern France, it’s a city! The main street, despite no shops being open, was very busy indeed. There was a Medieval festival going on – the Gebroeders van Limburg Festival – so there were people dressed up, market stalls selling armour and weapons, sheep and geese plastered around and general merriment. There was also the relaxing sound of guitars turned up to 11 blasting out from the rock festival taking place in a distant square. Due to the rain, we decided to head home instead. Cycling in the rain, by the way, is no mean feat. And when there’s wind involved, it’s a deadly combination. During a rainstorm (and I think there will be a lot of them) I don’t think I should apply any effort to my make-up, hair or the bottom half of my outfit again. Rain coats are not invincible as I had originally thought. Damn you, Paddington Bear, you lied to me!

A nice shot of Nijmegen during a short respite from the rain (I have climbed that tower – just saying)

In the evening there was some eating, some drinking and some partying. YOLO.

Monday was a pretty chilled day (you’ll get that joke in a minute). I mainly stayed home and did some admin and writing, but I did go to town for a couple of hours with Rach and we had some delicious ice cream (now you get it).
I think I needed that day just to let my mind catch up with my body.

Tuesday afternoon I met up with Caitlin, Terhi and Suvi for lunch on campus, and then later we (minus Suvi) went shopping for food so that we could make dinner together. Caroline, Terhi’s Sweedish flatmate who is on exchange from Gothenburg University (such a cool name!), joined us too. We made a pretty scrumptious pasta if I do say so myself. Then for dessert, Terhi pulled out the big guns: Finnish choclate. Well, by the time we were done, it definitely was FINNISHed!…oh dear, I’m ashamed of that one.

Pre-drinks for a party at Piecken soon ensued and too much wine was had by all. When I say all, I mean me. It’s the first time I’ve been drunk since we’ve been here and we only went to the party for about 20 minutes in the end! Pre-drinks were much more fun and we also had to get up early the next day to go to Amsterdam. That wine didn’t seem like such a good idea in the morning.

I suppose you’re expecting me to write about Amsterdam now, aren’t you? Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you but I shall write about that and the rest of my week in a separate post – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows stylee.

Groetjes!