Last weekend and this weekend

After the travel break, we all felt fairly tired, pretty sick and very broke, so many of us elected to stay close to home this past weekend. I was still pretty busy though, taking day trips to Amsterdam (Friday) and Delft, Leiden and The Hague on Saturday.

It was my third trip to Amsterdam since I've been here, and I know Baudrillard likes to rag on Disney World as being falsely authentic and a simulacrum and all that fun stuff, but I think Amsterdam is by far the most fantastical place I've ever been. I can't imagine how people lead normal lives here, how they settle into a routine amidst all the overwhelming shit bearing down on them from every direction. My God.

What brought me to the city this time was my Emerson and Beacon buddy Britt Braudo, who is spending a semester in Greece. We met at Free Record Shop in the Amsterdam Centraal train station (Free Record Shop is sooooooo yellow), checked Britt and her friend into their hostel (on canal boat) and walked around the town for a while.

We were there for only about four hours or so--Britt and her friend were quite tired, having flown in from Italy early that morning. We just walked around and checked out some of the sights and I ate this delicious fruit creme tart thing for lunch and it was all good. I won't see her again until the fall, so it was really good to see her!

The next day, I rolled out of bed at 9:30 (in my world, that's early) and caught the 9:56 bus to Venray to connect to a train to The Hague. No one else wanted to come along, so I went with my backpack and a general sense of what I wanted to do. First, I went to Delft, a charmingly beautiful town outside of the Hague. The town was crisscrossed with canals and cobblestone streets and buildings from centuries long gone by. I think this was my first true visit to Holland.

A sprawling outdoor market sold all types of goods, from flowers to breads and cakes to produce and cheese. And stroopwafels! The town was so beautiful. I walked around for almost three hours, trying to soak it all up and notice when my mouth fell agape.

Leiden was next. A city of about 120,000, Leiden had a much different mood than Delft. The city is home to multiple universities and is known as one of the Netherlands' chief college towns, so its residents are much younger. Once again, there were coffeeshops galore! I got quite sleepy, so I bought and ate way too much chocolate from an obnoxiously loud confectionery on one of Leiden's main shopping thoroughfares. I got a great view of the city from the top of some battlement thing (the sign was in Dutch). The city is very old--as old as Delft. I walked all about and got quite lost (I didn't have a map or anything, just my improving-but still-pathetic sense of direction to guide me) and got back to the Hague as the sun began to fade from the sky.

I was in The Hague--my stated destination for the day--for a little less than two hours. The mood here is much more reserved and dignified than Amsterdam, thanks in large part to The Hague's status as the essential capital of the Netherlands (Amsterdam is the official capital, but the Royal Family and most of the government operates here). The city is also an important center for international business. I got a scoop of gelato, put on my iPod and wandered around. The Royal Palace was a new building (19th century), and I could only sneak a peak at it. They were closing the park where you can see the palace when I got there. (But not before I peed in the bushes! Sweet triumph!)

By this point, I was quite ready to go home, and I returned to the train station via the COMPLETE WRONG DIRECTION and caught a train back to Venlo. It was great to have a day out and about by myself where I could be completely impulsive and do as I pleased. My feet hurt like hell at the end of it and I had shin splints the next few days (I shoulda wore sneakers), but I felt recharged. It was a really good day.

In about two hours or so (oh balls, I gosta pack), we're leaving for Prague! The train there is about 14 hours long, and requires a reservation (we have a rail pass, but that doesn't cover reservations). We didn't make a reservation. It costs cash money. We're pretty much planning on acting confounded and hanging out in the dining car. I completely support this plan. We'll get there somehow, some way.

I'll write about Prague before I leave for Munich and Berlin next Thursday! Bye for now.