Prologue...

At last, the lion is in the streets...

...ok, so here I am, sitting in my dormitory in Zeist, the suburb of Utrecht. I am completely exhausted - this day was more difficult than I expected, but it's only my fault :)

I've left my homeland on a saturday evening with a vision of next 15 hours spent happily in train or at some what-the-hell-its-name-is station in Germany. I was equiped with a heavily loaded suitcase (43kgs - not joking, the freediving weights are a bit inconvenient travel companion...), large bag and a backpack. The train was surprisingly delayed, but one gets used to it.




Thank god I had made it to Frankfurt overnight, and thank him twice, because despite of other and pretty long delay, I succesfully boarded the ICE. Damn fast train, I can tell you.




After the arrival to Utrecht I've noticed first useful Dutch tip - If it's not raining now, it will rain in the next five seconds. As I was standing in front of the zentraal station, I've also realized first thing that I've forget - an umbrella...what a surprise. Nevertheless I've picked up my dorm keys in the Universiteit Museum and received other bag full of pillows, blankets and so on. Also I've been told that my dormitory is situated in a 10km distant suburb. That's life... Therefore I, bedecked with a number of bags in a form of an outstanding christmas tree caught the bus and took of to Zeist. The dormitory is fine, although the first ascent to room in seventh floor with my full equipment was a fight almost to death.

After I've unpacked all my staff, made the bed with these stylish blankets ;) and realized that nobody's present in our room I've decided to visit a pool which was meant to be very close and additionally do some shopping. In this moment, I've discovered useful Dutch tip N°2 - Don't even think of going out without the map. As the countryside is nothing but flat and the suburban streets are all the same, one can get lost very easily - I have always had a right direction, but the distances were just too long to identify the unnamed streets properly, So that I've encountered the pool after approximately an hour.

On the other hand, the pool was very nice and I've enjoyed my time...but the worst was about yet to come. As I've finished my apnea training I've decided to find a market in the neighbourhood - this was really bad idea. Useful Dutch tip N°3 - Don't even think of opened shops or markets on Sunday. I've spent hours walking around Zeist, the highway near Zeist and Zeist-surrounding forests in desperate search for food, encountering nothing but closed malls. With stomach ready to to implode, I walked into the ready2go pizzeria and bought one pretty pricy, just for the redemption for the suffering :). When I've got home, I found out that my little trip lasted (without the pool visit) 5 hours. I've also found my doormates, Andrew and Benjamin, two guys form Curacao. Really easy-going fellows.

Tomorrow will be first lectures, I am really looking forward to it...

And that's it for now... captain's log end.