Getting to Ommen

Okay, so, some blogs ago I wrote about my trip from Amsterdam airport to Ommen. But should you be concerned about us getting from Ommen railway station to the Olde Vechte Foundation _ yes, that was our final destination and the road to it was so long, you can’t just imagine.

So we saw the sign and the screen was showing “Ommen” with those big letters and we got off the train. You could say, that “it’s been a long time coming down this road” and we were just exhausted from all the walking and waiting and stuff like that. We just wanted to get to this Olde Vechte, go into our room and sleep.Or maybe first eat and then sleep and rest…

One advice from me to all the people travelling in other places _ get all the information you can get about that place and try to memorize every little detail about that place, because who knows what you’ll need and, of course, you should be prepared for everything anytime. There’s always a way out of every situation, they say, and maybe there is, but some precautions haven’t killed anybody.

Well, to tell you the truth, I had studied all the maps and routes of Ommen and I knew exactly how to get to the Olde Vechte Foundation houses, but the thing is, whenever I say something, no one believes it or I don’t know what’s happening, they just ignore it and do it in their way. So, that’s what happened then, too. We got off the train, followed people on the platform and then to the street. Well, there were not many people, if you want to know the truth.

It was raining. It wasn’t raining cats and dogs, but it was raining pretty bad. With our baggage we went to the bicycle parking near the railway station, where we saw two people standing there and we asked them how to get to Olde Vechte. They seemed to not know this particular place exactly and then we showed them the map and I remember they gave us the right direction. So we thanked them and went on. We thought about catching a taxi too, but there was nothing on the roads. We just had to walk, and, personally, I was really glad about it. Firstly, I just really love walking, especially on such roads that are in the Netherlands _ they are just straight, with no uphills or downhills, so you just walk and don’t get tired at all. Secondly, it was a new place, it was evening, it was calm, nice, quiet, and what would be a better time than this to see the town. 

And so we were walking somewhere we didn’t even know. We walked to the main road and went on the left. There were houses and a petrol station and a hotel called “Hampshire”… Then we got somewhere more lit and there was a woman and we asked her where to go to reach Olde Vechte Foundation and showed the map and she told us to go straight and then left. I sort of thought, that it wasn’t right, because in the maps I have memorized by heart, it was on the right side of the main road from the railway station. Well, I didn’t have much of a choice, but to believe her. So we went to the left.

We walked some pavements, then went somewhere near the embankment of the river Vechte. Then things changed step by step around. It got darker, there were more and more trees, than houses, the roads got narrower… and even a little child would understand, that we were walking in the wrong direction. We were kind of cold and our bags were wet already and we were in the middle of nowhere. And there, in the more lit place, we hardly saw anyone outside, and here _ nobody was here. Oh, I remember a girl and  a boy just rode bicycles in front of us and when they saw us they just rushed their bikes through, they just ignored us. Perhaps, that’s what they should have done, as we were total strangers to them and who knew what we wanted. But, boy, we knew what exactly we wanted. This was funny. I could just stop there on the road and laugh so loudly, that they would hear me in Olde Vechte, I guarantee you.

Then a miracle happened! We saw a car coming towards us, we were waving, but it didn’t stop. Then another came and another and so on, but they just drove away without even asking why we were waving. Let’s be honest, we were just some girls with baggage on us _ we were some casual tourists, you could say.

Then we saw a black car coming towards us and one of the girls just decided to stay on the road and so that the car would stop as it would have nowhere else to go. So that happened. She was right. And we were happy. But when she walked to the window to ask the man where we were or how we cold get into the town, the driver just pushed the gas pedal and drove away, too. This was hilarious, you should have been there to understand why we laughed so long after this. We just couldn’t stop laughing. It was a great moment. She couldn’t bear any more walking, her feet hurt and she was wet and cold and didn’t even know where she was. The only way was to go all the way back to where we went left. And so we did. It was so unusual for us that it was only about 7 o’clock in the evening and you would think that no one lived in that town.

I can say, that we lost one and a half an hour in just wandering the streets of Ommen, trying to find a way to Olde Vechte Foundation. That’s what we got for not believing me, I thought. But what could have I done? Just go on the right direction by myself? Well, maybe I should have. But then I wouldn’t have had some memories to laugh about.

Finally, we took the road I was talking about _ we went to the right! And as we walked some metres, we saw a sign "Olde Vechte" and we were relieved, I guess, that we had arrived at last! We walked through some pathway and saw a house and there was some guy in front of it smoking cigarette. This whole situation somehow reminded me of some kind of mafia meeting _ we were some mafia members with suitcases approaching an old house and this guy with cigarette was from another mafia meeting us.

Well, that was it. We made it. We were there in Olde Vechte all exhausted and stuff, but glad that we finally were there.

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