Epic Weekends - A necessity.

I am in dire need of a cheering up, thus figured this was the perfect time to remind myself of one of the more special weekends ever. It happened just last week, too. So I'm up to date as can be ;)

The week before it did end in a disastrous exam on Friday, so I was already glad it was over.

The sun was shining (which caused everyone around me to be in the best of moods already) - and I started off my adventure by going to Nieuwegein. Koen had promised me a slideshow of Nepal - pictures, and it sure wasn't a disappointment. I've got travel-itchiness already, I can't wait for Nepal, even though there's still Cuba first.

Also, his kid is awesome. Like, foreals. And anybody who knows me understands how high that praise is, seeing my 'normal' view on children.

I continued through to Den Haag, and arrived at my destination - Elly's place.

Happiness all around, cause I feel right at home there. :)

Saturday, our tourist day.

After braiding up our hair the wrong side up, we set off to Delft.

The day had already started out fine, but when people in the train were cheerfully chatty, we knew that it was going to be special.

(Shot by El (: )

It was a market day, which gave it an even more cosy atmosphere.

We visited the New and Old Church, saw the blue Heart of Delft and I even spotted the secret door through which William the Silent left Delft for secret meetings and the "final escape".

(Epic secret door!)

(Tsk. Shame on you if you have to look up who he is.)

We continued this travelling to Utrecht, Holland's centre, physically and.. figuratively?

Almost all trains end up at its station, and it is a internation hub (especially on a Saturday).

Again, a chatty Polish girl who studied in Utrecht and was heading to Rotterdam interrupted our own trails of thought.

First, we were distracted by some Turkish/Dutch kids who were playing in a playground and were wide-eyed at the sight of some adult (me, mainly.. ) trying out their swings and games. They begged us to stay and play a little, and Elly and I certainly enjoyed it almost as much as they did.

There was an open day at the Wood Mill- De Ster in Utrecht, and I had kept it a secret that that was the plan. It was well -visited, and it was definitely cool to feel the wind pushing and pulling as we stood near the Mill's sails.

Afterwards we walked over to the Dom Tower, through the central Station. The Church was built to be the center at the intersection of four other churches, built in the form of a cross at the heart of.. Holland's centre.

I also remembered (just in time, I might add) what tour I had given in Utrecht, and I sort of skimmed through a summary and showed her the remains of the old Roman's castellum walls.

(Built roughly 210 AD)

Our last stop that day was Amsterdam.

I'd known that by the end of the day I'd be too tired to actually think of anything remotely interesting to say, and thought that a cliché of a highlight-cruise might do the trick..

It would have, also, but we stepped into the wrong cruise. (Isn't that hilarious?)

Instead, ours was a hop-on-and-off taxi, which dropped us off at the Rijksmuseum.

We walked back to our starting point. Which did kind of force us to do some sigh-seeing. (I wasn't too bothered.)

We'd been torn about whether to take our cruise whilst it was still light, because as I had read, by night it also had it's specific charms.

Thus, when we arrived at our starting point just in time for the last cruise to depart, it became clear that it was fate doing all the (awesome) talking. And we hopped on again. This time for our actual cruise. :)

After dinner (which was good and a lot), we made our way back to Den Haag.

The next day, Outrun CF had been scheduled.

I think we did a rather good job, Djuna collected about 3600€ all in all.

It was good seeing everybody again.

It was good just walking along the beach (lots of sailboats to watch).

Elly and I ended up having Kibbeling, walking up the Pier,

nosing in all kinds of souvenir shops.

And last, but definitely not least: On our way home, we passed a Japanese restaurant I'd looked up: We had BUBBLE TEA!

Lychee Bubble Tea, moreover.

I've been wanting to try that in forever.

And that was definitely NOT what I'd been expecting.

But it was all good.

I can definitely advice everyone to go ahead and try it. :)

Xx

The Gypsy

Ps: I'm missing some pictures I'm pretty sure were taken by El's camera.

Might upload those later. Check back in a couple of days ;)