EUROPE PART TWO: THE NETHERLANDS
after paris i flew to amsterdam. i'd been here many years ago. but
this time i wasn't staying in amsterdam. i headed straight to the
train ticket office. on my way i saw a woman who looked like my friend
alyssa. the lookalike had short cropped hair like alyssa did when she
came back from russia. i stopped and stared and then realized it could
not be her and walked on. (alyssa why are you invading my trip?) so
anyways, i went and bought train tickets for breda. i have never been
to breda before. i was going there to see my pen friend rianne. rianne
and i have been pen friends for about 14 years. she's been a trusted
friend for years and yet this was the first time i had ever met her. when i reached breda i was early. rianne and ed had to work that day. so while i was waiting for them i walked around the town a little. i walked past this coffee shop called "purple rain" i didn't even realize at first that it was named after that prince song/movie. when i walked past it i remembered in the netherlands coffee house means something very different. (it's a place you can buy and consume certain drugs.) after wandering around a little i went back to the train station and sat down to read some j.d. salinger while i waited for rianne and ed to show up. |
once they showed up we decided to go out to an italian place for dinner
the food was delicious but there was one strange thing. you didn't
automatically get water. you had to order bottled water and after they
gave you your bottles they put a pitcher of water on the table. but they
wouldn't do that unless you ordered something to drink. odd.
after dinner we went to an irish pub. we sat around at a table and talked. they told me about different clubs or places that used to exist in breda but closed for one reason or another. after awhile we went to the house they had bought. it was really nice. the houses here are all connected. no space between them.(at least the one's i saw.) but their neighborhood seemed nice. and they had built a nice little garden in there backyard. we stayed up talking a little longer and then went to sleep. |
the next morning when i came downstairs bad news awaited me. rianne
told me there had been a bad earthquake in taiwan. i of course was
really worried about all my friends in taiwan. and i spent most of that
day trying not to imagine the worst. after eating breakfast rianne and i took the train into town. we walked around and rianne showed me certain shopping districts and this old church where they have art exhibitions. as well as old buildings standing empty and mostly unused because the army owns them and does very little with them. she also showed me some public art and had me try some traditional liquorice candy made with less sugar. i'm not a big liquorice person but it tasted good as far as liquorice goes. it was a nice leisurely day and we stopped by this little street market and bought organic snacks. i had a yummy apple fritter with cinnamon. in the late afternoon we went back to the house. |
back at the house rianne showed me
photo albums she had put together of her and ed's trips to ireland. and a photo album of her and ed's life together.this wasreally nice. it had picture of them as children and of the friends that were important to them and then their life together.it was really sweet and it made me feel special to see my picture in there with rianne's best friends.:) after dinner we watched the news (bbc and cnn) for information on the earthquake. i was amused because the newscasters couldn't pronounce most of the chinese names. but otherwise the news was pretty useless. i mean they would say they were in taipei but wouldn't show a map of the city to help us figure out where some of these disasters were taking place. after the news ed suggested i use their computer to check my email and see if i had news from taiwan. so i did that. most of my messages were from before the earthquake. there was one from my parents after the earthquake saying "thank god you left taiwan!". but none from any of my friends in taiwan.
the next day i took a train back to amsterdam and a plane from there to germany. europe part three home |