Being a massively forgetful/clumsy/daft person, I have often had to rely on the kindness of strangers. This has the potential to be slightly intimidating in a foreign country but, in all honesty, during my time in the Netherlands my faith in people has been constantly reaffirmed by the kind deeds of the Dutch.

First I’m going to give an unexpected shout out to the unknown person who found/possibly stole my purse (wallet) a couple of weeks ago. During a shopping trip to Aldi (living the high life) I mislaid my wallet with all my bank cards, photos, student ID, weird train tickets from trips taken years ago etc. After retracing my steps to no avail, I was just about to cancel all my cards when the police turned up at my door to deliver my purse. Talk about amazing service! So either some lovely soul found it after the money had been taken and left it in at the doorstep of the Dukenburg police station, or whoever took the money (only like 15 euros) still cared enough to leave the purse in a safe place where it could get returned to me and made no attempt to use my bankcard.  All in all, a good deal for me.

And there was the infamous trip to Maastricht for Carnival where not once but twice the kindness of Dutch people helped me out. After a long day of partying in the freezing cold me and a friend were waiting in a train station for the last bus to Nijmegen when an announcement was made on the loudspeaker that the last train had been cancelled. We asked a girl (weird side note: she was dressed in a bee costume) who was leaving the station to translate the announcement for us. When she told us that the last train was cancelled we freaked out a bit as we were stranded for a few hours in the freezing cold until the next train in the morning. Without a moment of hesitation, the girl invited us to hangout in her apartment for the few hours. Where she made us soup and gave us insider tips on what to do on our next visit to Maastricht.

On the same trip to Maastricht I also stupidly lost my phone during participating in an overly enthusiastic conga-line. I presumed it was lost to the night but when I got home the next day I had Facebook message from a random guy from Maastricht who had found my name and managed to track me down. He asked for my address so he could post it back and refused all my offers to send some money to him to cover postage. The next day my phone turned up in fast delivery post with a lovely note saying that he hoped I enjoyed the rest of my time in the Netherlands.

So here’s to the Dutch, saving me from massive failures since 2013!

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