Dutch version

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The train is always a bit of traveling ...

Even though public transport is well organized in the Benelux, a train journey from Ghent to Tilburg takes a few hours. That's how my 2018 ended and my 2019 started with a trip to friends in Tilburg. Even though I love the city of Ghent, I was very curious how our northern neighbors celebrate "old and new" and what the cultural differences are. That's how we call the 'old year' celebrate and our northern neighbors celebrate this moment 'old and new'.

I not only looked forward to the train but also to this entire journey ...

After a few minutes the train to Antwerp was already there ...

After a little hour I was in Antwerp-central ...

Traveling by train is also having patience ...

Even though I had looked at the timetable again on the website of the NMBS, I had apparently just missed the connection and I had to wait an hour for the next connection to Rozendaal. Because friends from the Netherlands already informed me that train traffic in the Netherlands would stop completely after 8 pm, I fortunately had already set my alarm clock early enough so that I would not get stuck at any Dutch station. Because this would of course have given a damper on the first moments of 2019.

After a few cigarettes and a small walk at the Antwerp Central station, the train was in ...

Train sets from my birth year ...

To my greatest surprise, a train arrived that I did not recognize at all, apparently the NMBS still had a train from my birth year. The dark red monster came thrown into the station with an overwhelming sound and also the scratchy metal sounds when the train stopped, I took some suspicion on this train. The cheerful female train inspector reassured me and said that this was actually the train to Rozendaal and not to the train to a bygone past. Apparently this was also a slow train and so I stopped in every drop between Antwerp and Rozendaal. And after 45 minutes I finally arrived in Rozendaal.

The Dutch trains are still a lot better than the Belgian trains ...

After the train ride on a sample of last century, the Dutch train was of a completely different level. Not only were those of a later year also the train was provided with free wifi internet connection. Spontaneously came to me the question why can not this on the Belgian trains. Not only the comfort was a lot more attractive and also the sound of the electric motor was much quieter than the old diesel engine of the previous train I was on.

After 4 hours of traveling I finally arrived in Tilburg ...

The Netherlands the cycling country par excellence ...

Because it is obvious that during my stay in Tilburg I can not miss a bike in the country of the bicycle. My friends had arranged a bicycle of "OV fiets nl". And it must be said this was quite a good bike. And this rental service proved to be not that expensive. When I started my bike ride on the "OV fiets" the holiday feeling really came up and I became more and more immersed in Dutch customs.

The 'ov bicycle' brought me safely to my destination, although according to me this was full automatically ...

A visit to the famous coffee shop could not be missed ...

Of course, a visit to the most famous 'coffee shops' in the Netherlands could not be missed during my visit to Tilburg. I, too, were welcome as foreigners and the female servant behind the glass window wished me a nice stay ...

Just like a 'warzone'

Even though I had heard a lot about the fireworks during 'old and new' and I had already been celebrating this a couple of times in Amsterdam, I was very impressed with what I saw. Already from my arrival in Tilburg the arrows flew into the air. And when we cycled to a befriended couple to continue the festivities there, the sky was full of color and the streets filled with smoke. And I should have thought about bringing earplugs. And was there still a lot of fire to see in the streets.

Fortunately, we all had some money left to put on some fireworks ...

At 12...

At 12 pm the party really broke loose, spontaneously everybody went out on the street to wish each other a prosperous year. And I was overwhelmed by the openness and generosity that was shared with each other. The drinks and handshakes were easily shared with each other. And I was provided with a quantity of oliebollen.

This was quite a nice gang ... until next 'old and new'