On Sunday afternoon, I put on my walking shoes and packed my bags for Rotterdam (which is only a short train ride away). Having never been to Rotterdam, I knew only superficial details like the fact that it's the largest port in Europe and whose population is known for shunning deodorant. In Rotterdam's defense, however, I did notice a concerted advertising effort to post deodorant ads at bus stops. Way to go. On the way to Rotterdam, I enjoyed a nice little "kroket" at the Holland Spoor train station in The Hague. These tasty morsels can be found in automat vending [View Full Entry]

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Dordrecht and Einhoven, Holland - July 9, 10 We left at 11am on a train for Dordrecht, Holland. It was about a 3-hour train ride, and we had to transfer in Antwerp. Tony came with us…and of course we had too much fun on our train ride! It consisted of listening to music, transferring files from one computer to another, and the obligatory dancing on the train! In Antwerp we stopped for waffles covered in chocolate and whipped cream. They were INCREDIBLE!!! They were so rich that we only finished one between the three of us! We arrived in Dordrecht just [View Full Entry]

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Gisteravond ben ik veilig en wel thuis in Moordrecht aangekomen. Na een lange reis via Dubai en Duitsland. Het is vreemd, maar goed om weer thuis te zijn! Sommigen van jullie hebben het van de week mee gekregen, anderen niet, maar ik ben inderdaad behoorlijk ziek geweest in de laatste week...Ik ben inmiddels weer aan het op knappen, dus maak je maar geen zorgen meer. De vorige keer dat ik wat schreef op deze blog voelde ik me uitstekend, kon niet beter! Maar nog op de avond van dezelfde dag begon ik me heel erg moe en grieperig te voelen. Ik [View Full Entry]

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Last weekend when Julia came to visit, we ventured north of the pier in Scheveningen in search of the beachclubs of yore. A coworker told me that Billabongs is a cool club, but I couldn't settle on the perfect music, so we kept walking until we landed at a nice little place with decent furniture on which to rest our weary butts. I can't recall the name of this place, but there was a large party going on inside and some kids were setting up a volleyball net nearby. The biggest draw of this place was the BBQ pit in the [View Full Entry]

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Ik ben nou aan het einde van mijn derde jaar in de opleiding Maritiem Officier, met deze opleiding wordt ik opgeleidt tot stuurman en machinist aan boord van een koopvaardij schip (handelsvaar). Om deze opleiding af te ronden moet ik nu een heel jaar stagevaren. Mijn stage ga ik varen bij de rederij Feederlines. Waarschijnlijk ga ik me stage in vier gedeeltes van ongeveer 3 maanden doen, waarbij ik steeds op een ander schip terecht kom. Als eerste schip ga ik op de Veersediep zij vaart van de middellandse zee naar de baltic. 22 juli vertrek ik als het goed is, [View Full Entry]

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As the title maybe suggests today was a rather relaxing day spent sitting in the park. Erik had told us all of this free event taking place in a city park not too far from the house so we all set off with high hopes. It was actually quiet a long way from the house and as it turned out the massive free event was cool... if you were six. It was an event for kids see, some of it was quiet exciting though, i did enjoy the man wearing a bird cage on his head making bird calls. During our [View Full Entry]

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On Friday, Julia and I walked up the Scheveningen beach toward the pier and beach clubs. Scattered like brightly colored toys on the sunseted horizon, windsurfers and kitesurfers appeared in full force. Funny thing is that on Saturday at about the same time, there was but one windsurfer. I guess the Dutch prefer to get their water-work done on Fridays. We saw windsurfers in the tens (nearing 20 or so) and probably at least 10 kitesurfers. As we walked up the beach, I spotted a large crowd of people gathered around a gigantic gray object which appeared to be roped-off. At [View Full Entry]

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I woke this morning to glaring sunshine and a dishelved Saar croaking something about windmills. Today we were supposed to go a place where there are still working mills and enjoy the stereotypical Holland. In reality, it was noon and we had all been up till 5:30am and even Saar's dad was hungover. Instead we all had a long lay in and had a day of watching T.V, reading and mooching about Rotterdam until it was time to go and have dinner at the last relative's house, Saar dad Michael. Me and Stu were both every excited about tasting Micheal's cooking [View Full Entry]

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... I enjoy all of these things and therefore when all three came along in one day i was more than happy. Our destination of the day was The Hague, it's about 30 minutes north west of Rotterdam by train and so it was back to the station for us all (Except Erik, he had some work to do). We were going to meet the final piece of the puzzle you might say, Sarojini's Grandmother. The Hague is a very beautiful place, unlike most of the citys in Holland it somehow seems to have remained un-scathed from the bombings during the [View Full Entry]

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Just a short week-end in Delft; super weather and lovely hotel - photos say it all, really! [View Full Entry]

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