Katerina Blogs: Train Pac Man

I have been living in Netherlands for almost 8 months now and so far I have only heard rumors of how the train sys tem works. Of course, I have been using the trains to move around. It’s the Netherlands! You use either your bike or a train (or both if you travel with your bike)!

Anyway, I have been hearing people say ‘Oh trains are a mess, sometimes even worse than Belgium, if that’s possible!’ and so on. But call it luck, I had never experienced any difficulties.

Until now! Lately I started traveling more often, mainly in rush hours. In just a few days, trains were delayed; signal systems failed, and basically the whole transportation system froze.

As my knowledge of Dutch is still at a very, very basic level, if not non existent, you’re probably wondering how I’ve survived so far. Well, it’s half poor knowledge, half instinct.

For example when I hear an announcement first of all I silently express my appreciation to the speaker as they announce everything at a slow pace. Secondly, I try to spot words that I already know of such as ‘spoor’, my destination, of course and ‘gezellig’ that unfortunately is not often mentioned in train announcements. Thirdly, I look around to track reactions. If my fellow passengers jump off their seats and get off the train, I simply follow. My rule is: ‘Do as the local does’.

This sophisticated strategy has worked so far. And then the exciting part starts! When you get to your destination you can play the ’train pac man’ game with fellow travelers that shared the same starting point with you. Which route was faster? How many trains did you change? How many possible ways are availabe to reach Den Haag for example? Well, if you got there through Groningen, I can tell you, you just lost the ’train pac man’ game!

[Katerina Petropoulou (25) studies Business Communication and Digital Media at Tilburg University and blogs for Univers.]