My visit to Utrecht
End of July 1966 I travelled by train with two heavy suitcases to Utrecht. One contained some borrowed books from the Viennese library. If I would not find anything else to study for my thesis, I had at least some work to do. I had reserved a bed in a dormitory of a student hotel. When I walked through the centre of the town to this hotel, I immediately liked Utrecht: the huge cathedral surrounded by streets along canals with a lot of ancient buildings.
In the hotel, the students who run it, gave me a warm welcome. The boss, Willem, offered immediately to help me carry the suitcases from the station to the hotel. Willem was curious about the purpose of my stay and I told him about my thesis. “Why don´t you go to the department of history, which is around the corner and make an appointment for advice?” So I did. The head of the department received me and showed me some recent books dealing with this period. But he also mentioned that Dutch historians focused more on the independence war from the Habsburg regime. Thus most of the material of my topic would be in Brussels.
How different are the Dutch or Willem?
In the evenings a crowd of students gathered in the bar of the hotel. Drinking beer and talking with people from different nations were a new experience for me. Although I liked the talks in the bar, especially with Willem, I felt that I needed a private room to study. Willem had the kindness to find one in a female student residence.
In the mornings I went to the historical institute taking notes from the books the professor had shown me. Thereafter I had frequently lunch with Willem. He was so different from the boys I knew in Vienna. He took me serious, was interested in what I was doing and we spoke at eye level. But we attracted each other not only on the intellectual level.
One evening, it was my birthday August 16, I invited him to my room in the student residence. He made me laugh a lot with his irony and funny stories about all kinds of topics. I never had met before such a colourful person. We also spoke again about the study. He himself studied sociology, but was disappointed of the curriculum. “Since the study is very dull, I need to do something else, like organizing this hotel!” he said to me with a broad smile. “But, one can also test sociological theories by statistics which is more scientific. I guess I will engage in these studies.” I looked at him with great interest and wanted to know more about it. “You can´t do that”, he said to me, “because you are studying only one case, the peace treaty…” Suddenly somebody knocked very hard on my door. “There is a call for Willem”, a girl shouted very angrily. When Willem took the call I looked at the watch: “ For Heaven´s sake, it is 4.30 am!” Willem returned and laughed: ”At the bar they run out of beer and I have the keys for the storage room. I must go to the hotel!”
The next morning in the kitchen, the girls did not say hello to me. They completely ignored me. Did I break some rule by inviting a boy? Willem rather thought that this behaviour was organized by a girl who had got an eye on him.
At the end of August I had to leave Utrecht. Meeting Willem had confused me very much. Emotionally I considered him as an ideal companion. How different he was from my boyfriend in Vienna who only wanted a housewife. But Willem and I needed to come to know each other better. Our first encounter could have been an illusion. Although the future with Willem was very uncertain, I came to the conclusion to break off with my boyfriend in Vienna. Both, Willem and I, decided that he would visit me in Vienna in the fall and that we could come to know each other better, when I stayed in Brussels.
After an emotional goodbye at the railroad station in Utrecht Willem jumped in the train and escorted me without ticket till the border in Arnhem.
In the evenings a crowd of students gathered in the bar of the hotel. Drinking beer and talking with people from different nations were a new experience for me. Although I liked the talks in the bar, especially with Willem, I felt that I needed a private room to study. Willem had the kindness to find one in a female student residence.
In the mornings I went to the historical institute taking notes from the books the professor had shown me. Thereafter I had frequently lunch with Willem. He was so different from the boys I knew in Vienna. He took me serious, was interested in what I was doing and we spoke at eye level. But we attracted each other not only on the intellectual level.
One evening, it was my birthday August 16, I invited him to my room in the student residence. He made me laugh a lot with his irony and funny stories about all kinds of topics. I never had met before such a colourful person. We also spoke again about the study. He himself studied sociology, but was disappointed of the curriculum. “Since the study is very dull, I need to do something else, like organizing this hotel!” he said to me with a broad smile. “But, one can also test sociological theories by statistics which is more scientific. I guess I will engage in these studies.” I looked at him with great interest and wanted to know more about it. “You can´t do that”, he said to me, “because you are studying only one case, the peace treaty…” Suddenly somebody knocked very hard on my door. “There is a call for Willem”, a girl shouted very angrily. When Willem took the call I looked at the watch: “ For Heaven´s sake, it is 4.30 am!” Willem returned and laughed: ”At the bar they run out of beer and I have the keys for the storage room. I must go to the hotel!”
The next morning in the kitchen, the girls did not say hello to me. They completely ignored me. Did I break some rule by inviting a boy? Willem rather thought that this behaviour was organized by a girl who had got an eye on him.
At the end of August I had to leave Utrecht. Meeting Willem had confused me very much. Emotionally I considered him as an ideal companion. How different he was from my boyfriend in Vienna who only wanted a housewife. But Willem and I needed to come to know each other better. Our first encounter could have been an illusion. Although the future with Willem was very uncertain, I came to the conclusion to break off with my boyfriend in Vienna. Both, Willem and I, decided that he would visit me in Vienna in the fall and that we could come to know each other better, when I stayed in Brussels.
After an emotional goodbye at the railroad station in Utrecht Willem jumped in the train and escorted me without ticket till the border in Arnhem.