I ♥ Den Haag
De Binnenhof;
16 October 2005
My little park.
Waidi.
David.
Kasia.
I slept in until noon yesterday, then dashed off to meet Henri, who I met the day before at Centraal, for coffee. We sat on a terrace at September, a café on the Grote Markt, and discussed matters of home, our travels, and ridiculous amounts of French literature. For awhile, he had me racing to keep up, but the endless language misunderstandings kept us laughing non-stop and we planned to get together again later on this week for a repeat. Once alone, I wandered around the city centre for a bit, then got a call from Kasia asking to postpone our plans to get together until this evening, so I decided to take advantage of the weather and grabbed the #17 tram to the end of the line somewhere in the Statenkwartier. I began walking with no real plan in mind other than to take a few photographs and see where the day would lead me. I ended up losing myself in the maze of tiny streets and beautifully little nooks on the (very long) walk back, wondering how it could be that there were so many gorgeous little treasures in this city that I'd never discovered before.
Eventually, I happened upon an empty park hidden between two gorgeous old buildings and let myself in. I sat there for about 15 minutes reading my book, listening to my iPod, and taking in the beautifully scenery around me. This place was the realistic equivalent of the Secret Garden and I couldn't believe my luck. When I'd had enough of the tranquility there, I continued toward the centre a while standing to snap a shot in front of a window I met Waidi, a guy from Paris that's here on a job assignment. He was curious as to what it was I was photographing, so I showed him a few of the pictures that I'd taken, to which he responded that it had never occured to him that some of the things I had seen would make such lovely photographs. I was flattered and asked him if I could make a quick portrait of him, to which he smiled hugely and shyly obliged before I continued on.
After awhile, I reached a tiny square near the Zeeheldenkwartier and noticed how many leaves had fallen from the trees. I stopped to take a few shots and literally ran into David, a 55 year-old Scottish guy that's been living here for all of 10 days. We sat on a bench in the square and talked for over an hour about my studies, his job with the British Army, and his time living just about everywhere in the world. He reccommended a number of cities for me to visit, his favorite being a place called Budva in Serbia-Montenegro, and wrinkled his nose in disapproval when I told him about my illogical and unwavering obsession with London. A true Scottish nationalist. We also talked about prospective locations for my study-abroad next year and he told me that both Buenos Aires and Cape Town (the two cities I have narrowed it down to) are amazing and that he was sure I'd have hoardes of fun in either place. In parting, we exchanged email addresses and I agreed to go out to dinner with him and his wife some night this week. They have a daughter my age studying in the UK and he thought she'd love to sit and chat with me as much as he did.
When I finally reached the centre, the sun was setting and I headed to 't Plein to meet Kasia for a drink. We sat outside at Café Lafayette with steaming cups of espresso and talked about anything and everything for almost two hours. It was our first time ever meeting up with just the two of us and I thought it was a shame we hadn't done so much sooner. When we left the café, we grabbed some quick dinner at a falafel stand near the Grote Markt, then walked on to Silly Symphonies, where we went inside for just one more drink. Silly Symphonies is a lounge bar/nightclub that is, apparently, a great place to go on Thursday nights. We planned to get everyone together the week after exams and go there for a night of dancing. After a half hour or so, I noticed how exhausted I was feeling and decided to head home and rest a bit before Jelle showed up after work. He got here a little before 2:00 with his friend Natalie in tow and the three of us stayed up until 6 this morning drinking ridiculous amounts of wine and talking trash. They ended up staying over all day and this evening we headed back into the city to grab some dinner with Jelle's roommates, then finished off with a drink at Silly's.
These last two days have been the most unexpectedly beautiful of days that I've had in a very long time. I had all but forgotten how great it was just to go exploring in the city or sit and share small talk with a friend you're just getting to know. Funny, though, that after a healthy stint of alone-time, it can also be amazing to find yourself in the company of others for awhile. Something I love about life in Holland is that after three years, it can all still seem so foreign to me and there are moments where I genuinely feel like I am still on one long holiday. Everything stays so new and interesting, even the deepest sense of familiarity always tinged with a bit of lasting intrigue. I wonder if it will always be this way.