Blogs from Netherlands, Europe - page 13

Jaap now has a large garden we visited. We also saw the last house Grandpa lived in with his parents before leaving for America. I found out our connection to Jaap. His grandfather (also Jaap) and our great-grandfather (Gerrit) were brothers. It seems all relatives here have a Ton, Gerrit, Case, Marie, etc. We had a Chinese meal in Numansdorp before they drove us back to our hotel. No rice, quite a bit of seafood as well as meat, fruit, veggies served as a buffet which included a wonderful ice cream bar to conclude the meal. He took back roads back, and encountered some closed roads. A 30 minute drive became an hour long, but we did get to see Strijnes, where Grandpa and his no good friend Leonard got caught out on the lighthouse tower ... read more

Well, it has been a month since i've written a blog entry and that is quite surprising. Days are going by so fast! I can't believe I have already been here for a month! Here is a recap of the past few weeks: My second week in Holland I spent at Dutch Orientation Course (DOC) in Boxtel where I met 20 other exchange students from USA, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Taiwan. During this week we had lessons on the Dutch language, and also had plenty of time to bond. We went to a dutch carnival (kermis), Den Bosch, museums, and even visited the Boxtel Rotary club. My roommate during the DOC week was Jillian and by the end, we were crying because we didn't want to leave eachother. Our host family (Marc, Els, Tom, and ... read more

My head twitch to the left simultaneously as my right arm flung in front of my face. I had little control of my body. A faint moan escaped my lips. I heard laughter; it was so loud and had been going on for quite some time. My stomach was cramping and my face was tight. Whilst looking for the culprit the laughter ceased, I looked back toward my sister and her amused face… was that me? Was I laughing? Yes. Her face was so pretty, so smooth. I had to touch her skin. I grasped at her arm feeding off her warmth and touched my cheek to hers. You’re so pretty Rubbing my face against her I felt pure ecstasy, warmth and love. I closed my eyes to ... read more

All good things are coming to an end. So was this terrific trip to Europe. The last few days we spent visiting family and friends. Not that many left. We made a quick trip to Wormer and Jisp, not far away from Amsterdam. Jisp is a tiny, but beautiful little place, ringed by lots of water. It makes a fantastic place to take photos. In Wormer close to Jisp we visited friends. We had not seen them for a long time, that makes it nice to talk about old times over a nice cup of coffee. Pity, some nice people were not there anymore. In Holland places are so close together, we could combine this trip with a visit to Haarlem, where we spent our younger years. Memories came back to you while walking through this ... read more

Boom Festival in my words… ...an alternative reality …Europe’s Goa …a result of the 60s flower power, sort of ‘modernized’ hippies …love all, exclude none …discovering a world of opportunities …unity …peace …creating, sharing, loving …nothing to do, nowhere to go, just be! Boom festival is a gathering of conscious minds. One week of expressing and experiencing the field of consciousness expansion. From Permaculture to trance dancing, from lectures to psychedelics, from Yoga to nutritious food, from natural medicine to meditation. This is Boom in a few words. When entering the Boom ground (in Portugal’s beautiful, deserted, unspoiled mid-land), I had this immediate sense of something special coming up. Having never experienced a transformational festival before, the idea was just to remain open-minded and jump into the experience wi... read more