Lets get to work!

In a hostel of 55 beds, nearby to 2 beaches, in 25 degree heat, on a Saturday, I'm not quite sure why I didn't anticipate how busy it would be. The list of tasks was seemingly straight forward; change the bedding in all the checked out rooms, take out the recycling and trash, restock the 3 pantries, and refill the toiletry bottles in the rooms, however it turned out to be fairly physical and took the larger part of the day.

feeling very professional with master key and card!

Although I thought I was capable of changing sheets and making a bed, I was still in for a bit of a learning curve. With most of the beds being double, with heavy high quality duvets, and some of the beds being built sort of into room subdivisions (with walls around all 4 sides and just a door leading into them) making changing them practically difficult, and carrying the clean and dirty linen between 3 floors, by the 20th bed I was fairly fatigued.

Delicious food

We had a fabulous lunch break at around midday, with a feast of local bread with spreads, sweet sugar bread, fruit, olives, tomatoes, and drinks. It was a welcome break, and a chance to sit on the terrace and chat.

After lunch we took on one of (in my opinion) the more therapeutic tasks - recycling. Stopping on the way to the bins to observe a huge motorbike group, it was nice to get flatten some huge cardboard boxes, and to drop glass bottles into the bins with satisfactory smashes. The few remaining tasks were finished quickly, with only minor complications (I spilled a fair amount of shower gel all over the bathroom sink and trays in a freshly cleaned bathroom - very sudsy clean-up, and had to work around an elderly lady with only one leg who was moving in following a fight with her husband).

perhaps when its not so hot...

Tonight will be my first experience of the nightwatch, beginning at 11pm, but before worrying about that we decided it was time for a trip to the beach! Using a couple of the hostel's bikes we headed down to Parnassia beach to meet a friend and her pug at the 'dog portion' of the beach. The 30 minute bike ride went fairly quickly, and I was very excited when we arrived at the sand dune banks.

'dog beach'

Despite being fairly crowded (expected for a hot saturday afternoon), all beach-goers were considerate of each other so it was very relaxed - lots of dogs running around to pet too was also a bonus!! Severely missing my own puppy back at home, I was really happy to get some quality dog time with one seriously snugly pug who was hesitant to go in the sea, but was perfectly happy to be buried in sand.

pug love

30 degrees calls for freezing cold sea swim time

mini jellys on the sand

Jurassic pug

We stayed until just before sunset (falling in and out of sleep), chatting about regional Dutch accents and movies, and going in and out of the sea. It was the perfect environment to practice some chilled Dutch speaking, so I wasn't feeling like too much of a lazy beach bum wasting time!

why not bike on the beach?

pug snugs

Getting hungry, we took a leisurely ride back into town in the cooler evening weather, heading for the Oerkap city beach! The Oerkap is a reclaimed abandoned building, directly next to the train tracks and the river, close to the central train station. With sandy outdoor beach style seating, a BBQ, and bar covered in fairy lights, the Oerkap is incredibly charming. They were very accommodating of making a custom vegan pizza, which was incredible - and only 5 euro!

back on the bikes

the Oerkap

perfect pizza 

vegan pizza, with special sauce & mushrooms

fairy lights at the bar

train tracks bridge over the water

We finished all our pizzas, with only crumbs left for little Plume the pug to sniff, and went for one last stop to end the evening - the famous Garrone ice cream parlor! For 10pm at night, I was surprised at the length of the queue, but it was well worth it. Looking skeptically at all of the containers I was unprepared for such a long list (of almost 10 flavours!) of vegan-friendly options when I reached the front of the line. The combination of blood orange and melon was perfect, and a nice way to end the day.

two people, one bike

ice cream queue

blood orange and melon

We arrived back at the hostel in time for a quick shower before I filled in the paperwork to begin the night shift. A saturday night, and with my roomie out in the town, it should prove interesting... updates will follow! Tot dan!