My first day in Delft! Omg DAMN COLD! The weather forecasts are pretty much a fluke. Just a week before they reported that the temperature was 2-7 degC. But that very day, it was -10 degC! Crazily cold. Anyway it was really first day to remember. The weather, the many 30kg+++ luggage, and the long arduous walk in the snowy place. One word describes it all - miserable! Haha. Oh well I guess that was part of the package. Lol.
Anyway, the weather remained awfully cold for the next 4 weeks, till 2 weeks ago, when some pretty nice happened. One evening, I look out of my window and this is what I saw...
The next morning, when I woke up I saw this!
It's amazing how fast the snow cleared up! Just one night and all the white is gone. Anyway, that's just one of the many amazing things that happened in Delft.
Alright, so what exactly does Delft look like?
These are perhaps the most prominent buildings in Delft. The one on the left is the Cityhall and the one on the right is the old church, and they're all situated in the central square. In winter, you can just imagine the place to be like an ulu street in Joo Chiat. Super quiet and lonely streets with barely any buzz. But just last weekend, winter sort of officially ended and suddenly, Delft central came to life!
There's a flea market in the central square every Thursday and Saturday. All the streets are filled with endless vendors selling everything from food to clothes and electronics! (Think Pasar Malam) Really cool! And there's this seafood stall that I loved! They sell lots of different seafood , raw or cooked (see below). But there is one thing that stands out - THE fried mussels! Omg just thinking about it make my mouth water. It's super fresh and pretty decently priced, at 3.50 Euros for a gigantic portion of it. I would definitely buy a portion of it whenever I pass by. A definite must-try when you come to Delft.
Oh and there is also something distinctively European - Raw Herring! This is what it looks like. I know, you can just imagine the raw fishy taste and smell. But trust me, it's not that bad. In fact, I kinda liked it. It tasted pretty good to me! =)
Anyway, yummy seafood aside, there are also other specialties that Delft have to offer. There is a cheese store (left) in town that's pretty good as well. The chilli cheese is damn shiok. Not that spicy, but has the nice chilli flavour - a nice consolation away from home.
Oh and not forgetting, there's the famous Delft Pottery (right) - the distinct blue and white porcelains that we commonly associate to the Chinese, is actually from here! That's something I learnt here too! Lol.
And there are a few funky buildings that I kinda liked:
The cinema on the left and public library on the right. Nothing really special about this town, but it's definitely very livable. A good place to retire actually! =)
Anyway, I'm done with Delft city centre. Now back home. This is my room!
Of course, this is the neater state of it at the start of my stay. Now it's much messier and too embarrassing to post so I shall give that a miss. Anyway, it's really nice - spacious, warm (good heater) and just plain comfortable. The only complains I have is that the shower is not in the room, and there's no white light - it's all warm light. =( It makes me sleepy.
Next up, school. TU Delft campus is beautiful! =)
The left is the entrance to my faculty - Applied Sciences. Actually it isn't really my school, coz Chem Eng is housed in another building. But most of my classes are here. And the right is the signboard for my school (which makes navigation so much easier) with the EE, Math and CS building in the backdrop. Anyway, school's not that near my place, so I have to cycle to school. Speaking of cycling, Delft is big on bicycles! Almost everyone has a bicycle and there are special lanes everywhere in Delft for bicycles! I bet there are more bicycles than cars around! And this is my trusty blue bike. Got it for 80 Euros, which was quite a bargain actually!
I can't cycle the Dutch bicycle. Yes you heard it right. There are Dutch bicycles. There are 2 main differences - they are awfully tall and there are no handbrakes! You have to back cycle to slow it down! It's really counter-intuitive, so I would give that a miss as well, lest I become a permanent road hazard. Lol.
Having stayed in Delft for exactly a month, thinking back, I really wondered where did I find the courage to do so many thing's I have done? It's actually pretty scary to move overseas for extended period of time, away from you family and friends that you're so familiar with. But it's really something that I have grown to accept and take it in my stride. Since entering university, I traveled so much that I'm kinda getting numb to this kind of fear.
Anyway, fears aside, I'm really enjoying the lifestyle here. It's really miles away from back home (in every sense of it). It's pretty hard to describe it, but I feel that life here is more balanced. In Singapore, we just study all day and yeps, that's about it. Over here, I have to learn to be independent - wash my own clothes, cook my own food, etc. These are things that my mum and maid do on a daily basis and I really salute them for that. It's no easy feat at all! Speaking of cooking, this is my first attempt at cooking a meal for 4!
I'm actually pleasantly surprised that the meal turned out fine! I guess all the nights watching the Asian Food Channel did help somehow. Haha. But yea, this is something that I would never have to do or even learn how to do back home. And I'm proud that I did it. =)
Anyway, cooking is definitely essential here, coz having a meal outside will easily set you back by 20 Euros at least! Cooking will cost only 3-4 Euros for a good and sumptuous meal. So you do the math and decide which is better if you're gonna stay for half a year. But that's not to say I cook every single meal. Some days are plain lazy days and I just simply prefer to have someone prepare the meal for me. For such days, there's IKEA! Haha.
IKEA provides perhaps, the cheapest and most tasty meal out! Really yummy and awfully filling food for under 10 Euros =O. So yeps, I have pretty much covered most aspects of my life here in Delft. So that's about it for this post! I have travelled quite a bit during this month in Delft - Den Haag, Rotterdam, Eindhoven, Tromso, Stockholm. I shall post more when I find more time for it! =D
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