the nachttrein

a few years ago: the dutch train company started a nachtrein/nighttrain route that goes in a circle from den haag to leiden to amsterdam to utrecht to rotterdam to den haag. nice for people taking an early flight out of amsterdam. or for students who like to party late into the night. but if you start in den haag it takes a couple hours to go full circle to rotterdam, though they are relatively close to each other. anyway...

yesterday. leiden.
sinterklaas party with my dispuut. great fun, have new warm socks and candles for the house. headed home at 11:ish.
got to the leiden central train station just four minutes after a train left for den haag. had to wait for the next one, at 11:52. quickly checked with a passing trainstation worker if he knew if i would have a connecting train in den haag to zoetermeer. he said yes, one at 12:25, the last one for the night. ok, good. no worries.
waited for my train, realized two minutes before it arrived that i didn't have a ticket...oops. no time now though. didn't matter...no one checked.
bought a ticket immediately in den haag. decided to get a hot chocolate while i waited for the train. hotchocolate in one hand, newspaper in the other, headed to the usual spoor/platform where the stoptrain to utrecht leaves from; it would stop in little towns, including zoetermeer, on the way.
four ticket controllers stood there blocking the entrance. one offered to hold my hotchocolate while i fished my ticket out of my bag. nice man. joked about taking a quick coffee break, started to walk away with my chocolate. the others joked about him being such a gentleman. smiles all around, i laughed back, despite the predictability of each joke. stamped my ticket without really looking at it. i kept fishing for my ticket discount card. you get a fine if you don't show it with your discounted ticket. the man didn't need to see my discountcard, he was an old gullible man, he said. i smiled and said ok. walked away. they all laughed, "she just said ok! haha! you are old!"
got in the train, briefly checking the sign over the door. yup, train to utrecht. sat down, opened my paper, drank my hot chocolate.
somewhere in the back of my head i noted that the train was taking longer than usual to get to zoetermeer. and no stops in between. odd.
back to the newspaper... interesting article. no idea any more about what...
suddenly heard "leiden. station, leiden."
what???
quickly asked the girl across the aisle where we were.
leiden.
fuck.
this is the nachttrein.
i should have read the sign more closely.

i have a cold. i sound like i have been smoking nonstop for days. and i am tired. more than usual.
poor me.

bought sinterklaas presents today. while walking around the shopping area, we ran into two little zwarte pieten (really two white kids painted black...why dont they just dress up little black kids? save on paint?). a funny sight. cute.

we shopped for a washmachine and a tv today. kinda made me feel married.

currently wearing my new, comfy, soft, warm, extra long sweat pants that i got on a special sale cause some nice dumbass labeled it wrong but you get the price on the tag. i think it makes the pants feel extra comfy.

more wedding planning stuff today. well, this whole week.
only 27 days of this left! then the actual day will arrive and go by so fast we will wonder what all the planning was for... ah well. it will be good.