The Experience of Sam Becker

7/20-7/23 Thursday after work, I rode over to the Maastricht train station to set off on my Journey to Berlin. I packed my jacket, rain shell, toiletries, computer, padlock (a good thing to always have), chargers, three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a jar of peanut butter (a good choice), and my next two meals. The trip took 6.5 hours, 3.5 hours of which was spent on high speed rail. I got to Berlin’s Central Station around 12:15 am and began looking for a place to sleep, as I decided to only book a hostel for two nights to avoid as much cost as possible. I looked for around 45 minutes and finally settled on a set of chairs along a darker, less busy section of the main platform (chairs pictured below). I figured out a way to lay down in a somewhat comfortable manner, put my earplugs in (a must have at all times), and slid my rain shell over my head to block light. I got four hours of relatively uninterrupted sleep, but then more and more trains started to come. Even though I woke...

7/18  Nathalie invited me to a Facebook group called Maastricht Goes Vegan, which hosts weekly cooking workshops. I got to the building, which was a dilapidated, old factory reclaimed by people living in a cooperative (pictured below). The outside was covered with a variety of art and the inside was a maze of art, dwellings, and random objects.  On the menu for the evening was an appetizer of sunflower and flax seed crackers with an olive tapenade, a peanut and sun-dried tomato tapenade, and fresh cucumbers and tomato; a main course of pierogi filled with a sautéed mix of mushrooms, potatoes, onions, and spices, steamed cabbage and apples, and green beans (main course pictured below and pierogi recipe: http://www.cilantroandcitronella.com/vegan-pierogi/); and a dessert of coconut chocolate mousse with gram crackers crumbs.  An eclectic group of about 25 people showed up for the dinner, most of whom, including myself, helped make the dinner and clea...

7/14-7/16:  After exploring Maastricht a bit on Tuesday with Viv, who is taking classes at Maastricht University, I decided that I should not stick around for the weekend because Maastricht does not have many interesting aspects. I quickly planned a trip to Haarlem, where I would be spending one night at an AirBnB for $40, and Amsterdam, where I would be spending one night with Sami, who is interning at a tech startup. I packed some toiletries, my rain shell, a days worth of beans and veggies, and two peanut butter and jelly sanwhiches. I woke up Friday morning at 8:00, did my morning routine, and rode my bike 15 minutes to the train station in Maastricht (bike parking at the station pictured below). The train ride to Haarlem would take 2 hours and 49 minutes.  I got on the train and was a bit frustrated to find that the wifi was not working. When I realized that I was frustrated about this, I had a good internal chuckle  because that wifi that inhabits public ...

7/12 Anticipating an adventure in the evening, I packed dinner, which consisted of beans, bread, carrots, broccoli, some tikka masala sauce. and a beer. After my workout, I rode my bike in a random direction, hoping to find something interesting. I peddled around for a half hour, but I did not find anything other than suburbs and roads (like the streetpic and selfie below).  I stopped to eat eat my dinner and drink my beer at a sunny spot that had two horses (shameless beer advertisement below).  I decided to ride back a different way and as I turned a corner, a lush agricultural landscape popped into existence (pictures below).  I found these potatoes on the farm land :) Going to cook them up soon. Here are some red gooseberries and blackberries I found as I continued my ride :) Later that night, I discovered my pastime of picking fruit and vegetables in urban areas is called urban gleaning.