I don't have too much detailed information about this trip, because it was 2 years ago. I will write down as much as I remember, as much as the pictures help me to remember. I also luckily wrote a post to my private blog, so I have some fresh memories written down there.
This trip had its beginning in my head. I was so overwhelmed by school, and I felt I needed to get away. I was even considering changing my school, but it could have been too troublesome. So it suddenly hit me. I needed to go somewhere abroad! I hadn't really gone anywhere special before. I had only been to Finland, Sweden and Latvia. I turned 18 a few months before, so I wanted to take a good advantage of my new privileges. With whom? When? Why the Netherlands? The trip was with my friend Agnes. By that time I was 18, and she was 16, so I was her ''mom''. This adventure started on 11th and ended on 22nd of April. I don't really know why or how did we choose the NL. It was quite a random pick. I have always adored the idea of this country. Absolutely marvelous architecture, infamous red light district, fascinating tulip fields, wine and cheese (although I'm not a fan of them, but it just sounds romantic), and of course, the canals! The NL surely has more to offer, but these are the reasons people tend to go there. Oh, and for the drugs, too, because some soft drugs are legal there. Amsterdam, the capital of the NL, is known as the drug capital in Europe. Without further ado, I didn't care about that. About roadtrip and accommodation. Our trip had to be as cheap as possible. If I remember correctly then my budget was about 300 euros. It had to include e-ve-ry-thing, and by everything I mean from the ride and accommodation to food and souvenirs. This all started with me writing to a group in Facebook called ''Estonians in the NL'' where I asked if anyone is going to the NL from Estonia by a car. We had some dates in our minds, especially me, I wanted it to be on my school holidays, but eventually things didn't work out like this. But I'm not even sad. I am actually sad about the fact how scrupulous I was. I was rarely absent from school. Should have done that more, because I had the opportunity, yet I never really (ab)used it. Okay, now back to the main topic here. Eventually I found a man, who is driving between Tartu and London because of his work. He often transports some stuff people need and asks a little price for that. This time he agreed to transport two young ladies from A(Tartu) to B(Utrecht). I think we paid 40 euros for that car ride. It took a little bit more than 2 days. We stayed one night in Poland in a cheap hostel. 15 euros per face. In the NL we didn't stay in fancy hotels nor even not-so-fancy hostels, but on the couches of the local people. We did couchsurfing*. Couchsurfing is a very thankworthy opportunity. There are locals who are ready to offer their beds, couches or mattresses for a person on the road, who is trying to stay on a budget. Usually they don't ask anything from the guest, but I just think it is proper to maybe bring a souvenir from your country as a gift, or something like that. Many of them just want to hear your stories, something about your life. They want to share experiences and opinions. That's how it works. I remember I was reaaaally skeptical about couchsurfing, because I thought: ''Why the hell should anyone want a stranger to stay at their place... for free?'' What could I say, classical reticent Estonian thoughts. We originally found hosts from various cities such as: Utrecht, Wageningen, Zeist, Almere. But, damn, we were missing Amsterdam. Things seemed to work out nicely, because an Estonian offered to stay at his place in Amsterdam finally. So we chose to visit Utrecht, Wageningen and Amsterdam. We had our ride there, we had our places to stay. Looked like a perfect get-away adventure for us! Spoiler alerts: This is a rollercoaster from the beginning until the very end. I am going to post some ridiculous photos. The quality of these photos is probably quite bad, they were made using Agnes's phone.
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