After a few days camping out at my father’s house, I’m FINALLY back in Groningen. A few weeks ago I made an appointment with friends to come over to their house in Utrecht and I would be back in Groningen late in the evening. At least that was the plan.

After my father’s birthday, I planned to go home by train. My brother had to go to work and got me to the railway station. There I just missed the 7:32am train. So I had to wait for the 7:46 train. I bought my ticket and got on the train. Then a conductor checked my ticket and informed me that mine wasn’t valid before 9am. I had the choice to get out at the next station or to pay a €35 fine. I chose for the first option, meaning I had to wait for the 8:13am train using my newly bought ticket. I was just in time at the Central Station in Groningen. There were 15 minutes left to get to my first appointment of that day, so I decided to walk there.

The idea was to take a bus to my appartment in one of the suburban boroughs. At 10am I waited at the bus stop. Where there were buses everywhere an hour earlier, there were none at 10am: bus drivers were on strike. That left me with two options: walk home (taking an hour) or walk back to the railway station (15 mins) to get the train to Utrecht. I chose for the latter, meaning I couldn’t bring half my stuff with me, but there seemed no other option.

In Utrecht the buses didn’t strike, so I stayed there for the remainder of the day. At 7pm I got back to the station to take the train back to Groningen. There was only one problem: I still wouldn’t be able to get back to my apartment, since there were no buses. The idea of walking over an hour at 11pm wasn’t very appealing to me, so I called my dad to inform him I would come back to his place.

At 11:45pm I was back at the place where I started: the railway station near my father’s village and he picked me up. Because he would celebrate his birthday the day after, I stayed that day. There was no point travelling up and down again.

Yesterday I asked my brother to bring me home, the bus drivers are still on strike. I don’t think I plan trips that require the use of public transport in the near future.

Posted under Daily Life