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Maastricht, Netherlands (Christmas eve!)
Earlier, I took a bus
from Liège headed towards the peaceful Holland outskirts in a small city thinly
sandwiched between Belgium and Germany called Maastricht. Extremely tired due
to full-packed walking in the last 24 hours, I decided to take a two-hour
breather as soon as I arrived in my night’s hostel intending to recover and
charge up some energy to properly celebrate Christmas later in the
night. Hence, it was not until 1800H when I decided to leave my costly cage to do a little exploration around the city. But holy crap, I found out that most establishments including the Christmas markets were already
about to close because it's Christmas eve. Food being my top necessity atm and apparently faced with little to no options,
I ended up settling for an expensive meal at a Chinese joint somewhere in the center. Thankfully, it did not
disappoint. Noche buena a la chino was not bad of an idea at all. I had to pair it though with beer to ease the sting of the biting cold while eating alone on such a season. Warmest possible consolation, I would say so. Christmas spent in a far-off place thousands of kilometers
away from home isn't a thing for the weak.
By 1930H, I was practically done with my dinner, leaving so much time to kill. I decided to chill at a bar adjacent to my dinner place where a few people were already having their respective drinks. It was somehow comforting to learn that there were other solo night drifters like myself, not that I really care. Apparently, I was not the only one doing the conveniently dangerous solo gaming. I took the last available seat on the last available table near the heater which seemed fit as a comfort place. I had a nice alone time scrolling upon generic mandatory greetings flooding the facebook timeline. By this time, people were probably already asleep in Ph, thanks to the 7-hour time difference prompting that sudden longing to naturally creep and kick-in. In such a situation, I liked to believe that I could turn the tables, even with the little of what I have, wherever I currently am, in the most general sense. Strong, independent person, we are.
I was more or less in the midst of contemplation and year-end self retrospection when the sad news dropped. I was told that the bar was closing early which meant I had to settle for one last glass and had to leave soon. Disappointed a bit but I very well understood that normal people have families to celebrate such eve with. I spent my remaining table time to plan my next course of action since the night was young. Feeling lazy to hop to another bar, I decided to wander around a bit before ultimately deciding to just return to my accommodation, which brings me right here in the hostel’s bar now letting off some steam and ranting through this piece.
It's a little past 10 now and I am already midway
through my fifth bottle of beer for the day already realizing the need to make an important decision in the next few minutes: to beer or not to beer? The alcohol I consumed from the
previous day still has a good grip of my system but alcohol doing what it does
best, brings up all the unnecessary thoughts there is at an unpleasant time. It occurred to me that today, for the record, might count as the saddest personal Christmas ever. The worse thing is I paid to get here but nothing goes as I hoped, planned, and
imagined things should be. But on a second thought, I think everything's rather okay. Or maybe it’s just something I wanted to believe. Either way, I could
not anymore think straight so I will let the alcohol do the thinking and deciding. Another beer it is!
