I started my half-year journey from Finland late August. When my plane landed in the Schipol airport I was immediately overwhelmed. Everything was so big people were everywhere, and I understood nothing about the language! I then took a couple of deep breaths and headed to my train. After struggling with my suitcases the whole journey I finally made it to my student apartment. After dropping off my belongings, I searched for a grocery store and headed out in the sun.
For the next few weeks I was blessed with amazing weather and I had the opportunity to get to know the most famous beach in the whole country: Scheveningen. It felt like I was not in the Netherlands at all, +25 degrees everyday and just sunbathing on the beach. But of course, reality hit when I had to start school.
My school of choice was De Haagse Hogeschool, or the Hague University of Applied Sciences. I thought schools back in Finland are huge, but this was on a whole new level. One of the buildings alone had 7 floors and so many classrooms. I believe that the number of students is around 26000 and they come from all around the world. THUAS offers many international courses and studies so I had quite a good selection of courses to choose from.
But enough about the school. Since I didn’t have that much courses, I had a lot of free time. Usually it was filled with just walking around the city centre, shopping or doing day-trips around the country with friends. Of course, being outside opportunities started to decrease when autumn started to arrive. Many people may know about the Dutch weather, and unfortunately everything you might have heard is true. Especially in The Hague, the closeness of the sea made the weather so windy and rainy that sometimes an umbrella wasn’t even an option. We still tried to make the most of it: sitting in a pretty cafe or a small wine bar on a rainy evening was the best.
The location of The Netherlands is perfect for someone who wants to travel the Europe. We had a long weekend in Ireland, and it was awesome, I highly recommend! I have also traveled to Brussels, Belgium and it would also have been easy to go to Paris or some parts of the Germany. Public transportation here is really good. The train system is not that cheap, but it is still fairly good and usually reliable. You can take the train pretty much anywhere.
Our favourite free-time activity with my friends was doing day-trips or going for a glass of wine late in the evening. Here in The Hague there are a few spots with bars and terraces that are open all year around. They offer fairly priced drinks, music and nice people. That is for sure something that I will miss from here!
And lastly, if you are considering doing your exchange in the Netherlands, which i hardly recommend, one thing you have to do is to get a bike. There is nothing more Dutch than driving everywhere with your bike and you’ll blend in perfectly!
For now it will be hard to say goodbye. But I’m starting to get bored of the constant rain and would love to change it to some snow!
So, tot ziens!
(All the photos in this photos are my own and taken by me)
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