No, I have not been eaten by the Dutch underworld. I'm just bad at updating. I've had company. There was very little time to update while mom was here, and then Robert came along. He showed up on Tuesday afternoon, and we all went to the Hague for the evening. The day was quite lovely, and we got back to Leiden and wanted food. Mom wanted to sleep. Unfortunately, Robert and I waited a bit too long to get out, and all the kitchens were closed. So we wandered up and down the Niewe Rijn, the main canal near me. And there was performance "art." They had blocked off the canal and there were women (mostly, I think) dressed in great fluffy white cupcake looking dresses, and men in suits freaking out, and some guy in a mask who fell into the canal. And a guy paddling a bed down the canal. It was nuts, but quite a bit of fun. The streets were packed with people too, and they loved it.
Robert and I also made a pilgrimage to the beach. It was amazingly windy, but absolutely gorgeous. I have never been so cold on a beach, but it was worth it. You walk over these beautiful, grassy dunes, and there's the sea, green-ish grey, blue sky, white sands, and all over colorful wind surfing parachutes. Just gorgeous. We played in the tide pools and splashed a bit in the water, but mostly we walked up and down the windy beaches, or we sat in a little shelter to hide from the wind and the blowing sand. The sand was really rather brutal. My legs were nicely exfoliated. I think I still have sand in my hair. :-)
I've spent the past few days just sort of hanging around my new town with my old friend. I haven't seen Robert in over a year, and it was nice to get back into the swing of the friendship, and really nice to see how he's changed. Made it clear how much I've changed. (And in some ways how I still need to change.) We went on a nifty loop tour of the city and discovered some really awesome stuff like a fort (with a statue of a large tube of tooth paste, for some reason) and another windmill (my city has two that I know of.) It's good to have him so close again.
I also managed to find a bike. Bikes are extremely important here, but they're also extremely expensive. Robert and I had looked at a very rickety one with a flat tire and a broken basket for 95 Euro. Dat is niet leuk. But we found a tiny little used bike shop and repair down by the Moorish Gate (which used to be called the Gallows Gate, because it led to the hanging fields. Leuk.) The guy was really nice, and even spoke to me in Dutch before switching to English. I told him I wanted a decent bike with foot brakes that would go and stop. And he found me a great little dinky bike with non-flat tires, a working light, foot brakes, and a really nifty kick stand for 60 Euro. It didn't have a seat, but he found one for me for no extra charge, which I thought was rather something of him. He was very kind and very open, and he told me to come back today to test the bike out. He spent yesterday fixing it up and cleaning it, and getting it ready for me, and he called when it was ready. And I liked it.
I think I'm going to call it Roxanna. I don't know why. The name just came to me as I was walking down the street and I thought "Roxanna is a great name for a bike." She is blue. I don't have a lock for her yet and if you leave your bike unlocked it simply WILL get stolen here, so she's living in my kitchen. Which is...cozy.
Robert left me around noon-ish today, and so I just sort of bummed around. I went to the market and played, and got my bike all nice, and posted pictures. I spent my evening with Keith, my British neighbor. He made some pretty rockin seafood (market day, you see) including oysters, and we sat out on his terrace and talked to the people in the cafe. And then we ate raspberries and cream and talked about Terry Pratchett. Haha, so much fun having an amazingly eccentric neighbor.
Tomorrow will be my first full day here alone (unless you count Roxanna.) And I plan on sleeping in. A lot. But I'm sure I'll find something to blog about. :-)
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