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Published: June 10th 2006
I never cease to be amazed at how much happens in just a couple of days when you are traveling. Last time I wrote I was awaiting Mel's arrival in Paris and today I am in the Hague, Netherlands.
Melissa arrived in Paris on the 6th of June and I think I sprinted to her when I saw her to give her a big hug...traveling alone is interesting in its own way, but nothing beats traveling with a good friend!!! We met up in one of Paris's many beautiful little parks and immediately sat down on the closest patch of grass and just talked about everything that had happened to us in the weeks that we were apart.
The tourist crowds are definitely starting to encroach on Europe which made finding accomodations in Paris for the time that I was there a bit tricky--I ended up having to change to three different hostels lugging my way too heavy pack all around Paris...but it was kind of neat to get to stay in 3 different districts of the city.
The last night was my favorite though...I stayed at a hostel in the Montmarte Distrcit. It was just a 10
minute walk from the Sacre Couer and has this really great bohemian feel about it. Melissa and I spent our last day together in the Montmarte district checking out all the different fabric shops (the place is chalk full of them!!!) and having drinks at the cafe where Amelie was filmed on Rue Lepic. We had our last pimiento and queso picnic on the steps of the Sacre Couer overlooking all of Paris at sunset (another spot for the upcoming book 😊).
It was a sad moment when we had to say good-bye...we must have hugged for about 10 minutes (anyone who knows me knows how mushy and cheesy I get at good byes).
The next morning I woke up at 5 am to walk to the Train Station to catch my train to the Netherlands, one of my final destinations. I arrived in Haarlem, a city of about 150,000 people just 20 minutes north of Amsterdam. Oh and you would think by this time after three months of traveling by train, I would have this stuff down, but I ended up getting on the wrong train and went to a city called Utrech. Luckily, there was a
train headed back in the other direction to Haarlem just a few minutes after I arrived---what a dummy!!!
Yesterday I spent the day in a beach town called Zandvoort on the Norwegian Sea...it is hot here in the Netherlands. Last night I took a train from Zandvoort to the Hague where I am currently writing from the desk of my friend Sonja---a girl who I met on the train from Portugal to Hendaya, France back in April. She has invited me to stay for a couple of nights and to be my tour guide of the Hague and Amsterdam. Another thing I never cease to be amazed by----people's generosity!!! She has a great house in the middle of a cute little Dutch neighborhood and I even got a choice of what bedroom I wanted to sleep in. She has been so hospitable, I am beside myself. She just recently moved in to the house and is busy decorating in very creative ways...there is abstract art all over the walls and a brand new garden outside in the works. We have had a lazy morning, I didn't wake up until 10, went for a short run by some very picturesque
Dutch canals and we are getting ready to go see the Hague. Tomorrow we will go to Amsterdam to do some sightseeing and pick up her boyfriend who is arriving from Florence, Italy.
Oh one final note...World cup has started in Germany and the Dutch people are quite proud of their team...there are orange flags EVERYWHERE and signs that say HUP HOLLAND HUP...which is some Dutch cheer for Holland.
Kellog's cereal is giving away mini soccer balls with all of the 32 different countries flags and each country's word for goal in all of their boxes. SOnja bought four boxes last night when we went to the grocery store...its quite the craze here!!!
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Melissa
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copa mundia!!
That's SOO cool you're there while the world cup is going on!!! I wish soccer was big here.... I've been watching most games on the spanish channel, I got up at 6am to watch England play live the other day :) enjoy your last days Sarah and have a safe trip back!!!