Hague

Note to self: Trying to make time stop is remarkably hard to do.

Hello everyone! I write to you as a man who is treasuring every minute of time left in this continent. Each second is precious. But moving on, let me tell you about last night. I did one of my famed grociery store dinners, which consisted of two apples, half a loaf of bread, a thing of hummus, a cup of yoghurt, and of course a chocolate bar- all for 4.60 Euro!! After dining in the park, I left feeling very full and satisfied. Back at the hostel I met my room mates, who included four guys from Barcelona, a guy from Brazil, and Kyle, a guy from Louisiana. I had a nice time chatting with him, and it turned out that he had been to Israel on this trip as well! However, he did it at the beginning of his trip, so he was just making his way West across Europe.

This morning after getting up and taking a shower with a fluctuating temperature, I grabbed my awesomely free breakfast and headed to the train station. My first stop was Haarlem, a small town 15 minutes outside of Amsterdam, where I walked around, soaking up the laid-back atmosphere and carless air. In Haarlem, as in every other place in the Netherlands, bikes are the main transportation, and as such they dominate the road and sidewalks. It's actually quite terrifying, because if you find yourself in a bike lane, you are in serious danger of bodily harm, and that is not exaggeration. If you are lucky, the homicidal biker headed towards you will give you a half second's notice of the impending collision by ringing his ironically pleasant-sounding bell. In the Netherlands, you look both ways before crossing the street, and you look both ways TWICE before crossing the bike lane. It is similar everywhere else in Europe, but since there aren't as many bikers, it isn't as dangerous.

After grabbing a relaxing cappucino I went on a free tour of the Corrie ten Boomhuis. The Boom family was part of the Dutch resistance during WWII and secretly hosted six Jews in a hidden area of their house until the whole family was arrested and sent to concentration camps, where all of them except a daughtor, Corrie, died. When she returned, she dedicated her life to spreading the Gospel and the concept of forgiveness after she learned to forgive the very same guard in the SS who killed her sister. The story was amazing, and I want to read her book- The Hiding Place.

I then got a train to The Hague, which is where all the national Dutch government is, although Amsterdam is the capitol. I didn't have a good map, but I still enjoyed exploring the very commercial city, with its gleaming skyline of very modern architecture. The government is housed in a very old, castlelike building surrounded by a moat. However, as cool as that was, the highlight was seeing the International Court of Justice, which is where all of the modern dictators, genocidal maniacs, and other bigtime criminals have their trials. I really was amazed just seeing the building that is always referenced in the news and where such important decisions are made. Also, there is just something about seeing a place where the UN flag flies that gives it a monumental proportion.

After some more strolling through the city, I decided to take some time to do one of my favorite activities- nap in the park. However, this park was somewhat different, since there was a big fenced in area filled with deer. Very random, but it was nice to watch this pocket of wilderness in the city.

Well, that's it for the Netherlands, tomorrow I will head back to Belgium, where I was all the way back in mid June! I won't, however, go back to Brussels, but rather I will go to Antwerp and then Bruges on Thursday for a small town tour of the country. I hope that I can pack as much Euro-ness as possible into these last couple days before I go back! Thanks for reading.