On May 9, we had a late start to our day since we left the hotel at around 9:30 a.m. We walked around for 15 minutes to catch the bus and used Enschede’s public transportation for the first time to arrive at the central station. That’s where we met up with our guide, a civil engineer, for a tour of the city center of Enschede. From him, I learned that Enschede is built on a giant hill, and its infrastructure is designed so that water trickles down to Kristalbad, the water reserve we visited on our first day here. He explained that Kristalbad helps prevent the municipality from flooding during heavy rainfall since the sewage system can only hold up to 20 millimeters of water. In some instances, they receive around triple that amount in rainfall, which has caused severe flooding. He also took us to a man-made reservoir that helps with water runoff. (I included a picture of it above)
The tour ended at the market fair, which was perfect for exploring. We wandered around for the next few hours, first going into some stores and then deciding to get food. I tried a variety of Dutch foods, such as mini pancakes, fried fish, and lumpias. Everything was so good, and I am really glad I got to experience the food scene in Enschede. Overall, we had a chill day since the tour was the only scheduled program, but we still managed to explore the city center and even ended up attending Batavierenfeest at the University of Twente in the afternoon.