Honestly, if it weren't for my goofy layout, you would probably have no idea I'm still in Europe at all. I write so little about what I'm actually doing here - I keep chiding myself for this, but do nothing about it. Well, I will attempt to tell you about an actual day, and if nothing else prove to you and myself how deficient I am at narrative that I will never feel compelled to attempt it again.

So... yesterday I got up at 6:30 - which, for me, is quite a feat. Especially considering Inconsiderate Dutch Girl continued to blast her music and laugh manaically well into the early morning hours. Really cannot stand her. She makes me miss dorm life. (Although honestly, many things make me miss dorm life.) I might have asked her to quiet down, except a) we have an agreement about weekend noise and b) I'm a wuss.

So 6:30 am. Walked to Centraal station and bought a blueberry muffin (€1!) and a Spa blauw [water] at Albert Heijn ToGo. Purchased a €20,50 train ticket to Wijchen, way the hell east near the German border. And found my train. (See, really, I can't make this interesting.) Sat in a compartment with a badass-looking young man blasting his walkman. What was he listening to? "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Deep Blue Something. Not even kidding you.

Meant to read Persuasion; found scenery far too distracting. Realized away from the Randstad everyone has a petting zoo in their backyard. Not really farms, no: small fenced-off areas with animals that look like dikdiks and small ostriches. It was a little surreal.

Stopped in Den Bosch first. Or s' Hertogenbosch properly, but I have no hope of ever pronouncing that properly. Really beautiful city - some of the cleaner canals I've seen, with lovely weeping willows all over the place. Like Utrecht, it's a wasteland on a Sunday morning. Wandered around the city center, Markt square, some small parks. There is an extraordinary cathedral there which I could not get decent pictures of because the Dutch have a habit of building densely around major attractions, and everywhere in general; this is annoying to me. I understand the Netherlands is the most densely populated country in the world (really), but still. Give a cathedral some space.

Retraced my steps back to the station and took a stoptrein to Wijchen. Cute little city with a functioning windmill there as you enter it - actually the first I've seen up close. Also there's the Kasteel Wijchen, a smallish castle I could actually imagine living in, again with houses and businesses crowding in on it. I did manage to get some satisfying pictures of it, however.

The real reason for coming to Wijchen, and taking this trip at all, was to see The Hours again, I admit. It was brought back to two theaters in the country again this weekend, and I could not turn down the opportunity. Guy at the box office had a little fun with my non-Dutch-speaking self, which I always feel is their right. The theater is set up like a dinner theater, with tables and lamps. Each table has a button on it, which you press for service and refreshments. Very, very strange.

I have seen this movie four times in theater now, more than any other, and five times altogether. It has by now so many memories for me, apart from how fabulous it obviously is in itself. I snickered at so many inappropriate times during the movie, for these memories: "Oh, let's just have buckets of pudding!" and for how we tend to over-dramaticise our favorite lines: "THERE IS NO SUCH OBLIGATION!" is actually stated much more calmly; and my favorite, oh my favorite, when Nelly is boasting to Lottie and sees Virginia coming, how we make it into "And I said madam, I - mmmbluledopummm" and it's only "And I said madam, I - mm." This is so unbearably funny to me I am cracking myself up, but only two people will understand, so enough of that.

I am learning to see the movie as a movie, not always in comparison to the (in my opinion far superior) book - although now the book always makes me want to see the movie, the movie makes me want to read the book. The main thing that bothered me on this viewing - well, after reading nearly half of Virginia's published letters and diaries, it feels to me not at all authentic. She was never completely denied London society as the movie makes it seem; obviously she wished to attend parties with greater frequency, but she was always quite social. And though I probably develop a skewed idea, since she wrote very few letters and diary entries while "mad," I get the sense that she was at that time much more stable than they portray her. Anyway while I still think Nicole Kidman absolutely lost herself in that role, I'm not sure she actually lost herself in Virginia. This time more than anything I was struck by Julianne Moore and Miranda Richardson (who, by the way, might have done a good Virginia); and I still want to marry my idea of Leonard, and Stephen Dillane's interpretation does nothing to diminish that. :)

I should have known better than to watch that movie at noon and expect to go on with a day. I wanted to sob, but could not; I wanted to be alone, but could not. That freaking movie... is too true. And I haven't yet worked out everything it does to me.

But you still have to face the hours; so on with the day I went. Back to the station to take my train back along an alternate route, stopping in Nijmegen. Much more lively town. More castles and glorious buildings impossible to photograph. Beautiful parks, some water in there somewhere... I'm ashamed to say I really was not into it. I took some pictures to enjoy later, but I couldn't properly appreciate it then.

Back to the station. Intended to stop next in Arnhem, the city I still feel is my favorite in this country, and I have much more of it to explore. Sitting on the train to Arnhem waiting for it to pull away from the station, someone came over the loudspeaker and said something in Dutch; I didn't understand, but everyone got off the train and I followed them to another platform heading to Den Bosch, so assumed we had to reroute. With two trains worth of people on one, there were no seats remaining, and people smelled like beer, and it was hot and gross... Such is public transportation. Still I love it, for some reason.

Back in Den Bosch, still not in a terribly upbeat or adventurous mood. Saw there was an Intercity direct to Utrecht. Got on without really thinking over my options. Seems sort of a waste - but I was tired of walking and tired of people, and longed for the comfort of my solitary flat.

I sat across from a middle-aged man on the train. Exhausted, I closed my eyes and for most of the journey fell in and out of a light sleep. Once I opened my eyes and the man was drinking out of a Spa blauw water bottle; in my groggy state I thought, didn't I leave my water on the table there? Could he be drinking my water? No, I probably put it in my bookbag. But upon returning home, I had no water bottle. Dude actually stole my water. Creepshow.

Back at Utrecht Centraal. Wandered around indecisively for an embarrassing length of time wondering what I might be in the mood to eat. Settled on this fast food "Chinese" place - really in no way resembled Chinese food, but I suppose if we can have our perverse interpretation, the Dutch can, too. I ate probably the weirdest hodgepodge of a sandwich I've ever seen. Scrambled eggs with carrots, zucchini and bean sprouts so dry I took them for onions, with something most closely resembling barbecue sauce, on a sesame seed bun. Really gross, yet quite enjoyable. I will probably have it again.

Walked towards my flat. It was such a lovely day, and at 7 with plenty of it remaining, I decided to settle down on a park bench and read Persuasion. This I did without disruption until it started to rain; walked home and finally finished this much-neglected (by me) (in that I've been "reading" it for over two months) wonderful book. Read VW's letters in bed for a while, and fell asleep, shamefully, before midnight.

Why is daily narrative such a chore for me? The fact is on reflection I prefer to have it to remember than my self-obsessed philosophical ramblings. Well, balance is always something to strive for.