It’s been four weeks since we arrived, but I’ve never been one to be worried about punctuality –

Here’s a post finally about The Netherlands! ❤

We left New York at 8pm in a rain storm and took off in one of the tiniest international planes I’ve ever taken with the friendly and surprisingly accomodating, Icelandair. Since our stopover was in Reykjavik, the flight was also the shortest international flight I’ve taken. Because instead of flying directly across the Atlantic, as I’ve always done in the past, to layover in London, this time we flew up over the upper part of the globe, over Greenland and the Norwegian Sea, which, apparently because of physics and the shape of the Earth, is shorter and less time spent over the ocean which is (I guess) why it’s ok for them to use a smaller plane? Ignore the fact that that was the world’s longest run on sentence.

When we arrived in Iceland it was super early in the morning and we had a beer for breakfast and admired all of the beautiful hip Icelandic people working in the airport. Apparently every person in Iceland is egregiously hip and attractive.

  
When we finally arrived in Amsterdam, we had to wait for almost an hour and a half for Chris’ guitar to arrive in the “odd shaped luggage” area. While I frantically freaked out that it was lost or broken and also that Josefien had been waiting on us the entire time. After trying to convey the situation in my limited dutch over facebook chat, she finally just said Relaxxxx!  
I finally took a moment to step back and realize that we hadn’t slept in about 30 hours and went so far north we skipped over nighttime and I may have been acting like a crazy person.

Another reason we were worried is also because we had heard of people being berated while going through customs if you only have a one way ticket. (The EU really doesn’t want people to stay here, I’ve found)

We were elated when customs just amounted to walking through a green door or a red door. Do you have anything to declare? No? Then just walk out a green door, Yay!

Josefien and her boyfriend Thomas were waiting for us! They greeted us with smiles and cheek kisses and helped us carry our bags out to the van they borrowed from Josefien’s parents. Here parents own a theatre called the Zeeheldentheater. Apparently they own an awesome big van for various needs. While riding to The Hague from the Schipol airport, Born in the USA came on the radio. Bruce Springsteen seems to follow Chris wherever he goes.

Back in The Hague, we were introduced to Thomas’ amazing house on a cute cozy but bustling pedestrian alley leading to the beautiful beach. This would be our home for the next few weeks! He lives in this old house on Keizerstraat with 4 other guys. It’s exactly what you would imagine a house on the beach occupied by 5 surfer musicians would look like plus a sweet back patio with a BBQ and a pet bunny names Wijffie. Surfboards, musical equipment and bikes line the hallways of the two story house above a home goods store called Blokker. And a fine layer of sand coats every square foot of flooring. There are photos on the walls of past parties and events and it isn’t unusual to see poetry, art, names or comments in various languages graffitied on the walls of the kitchen and bathroom. The only thing more charming than this house is it’s occupants.

  
  
  
  
Josefien and Thomas wasted no time in getting us acquainted with the beach and most importantly Haring! Chris and I had our first taste of the food my Dad has been longing for ever since he left The Hague in the 60s. Haring is basically fresh, raw herring that has been on ice and packed with salt and garnished with onion. The head and bowels have been cut out. But everything else is pretty much in tact. I went the whimpy way and ordered mine on a bun. Chris went full force with the traditional method of raising it above your mouth by the tail and taking chomps that way. Chris was instantly hooked. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of covering my queasiness until Josefien looks at me and said “Libby.. Can you…how do you say… keep it down?” hahaha Minus points for this Dutch Girl.

   
 That night, continuing our streak of no sleep, we went to eat pizza for dinner with Josefine’s whole family, The Noskes. Her sister, Trijntje and mom and dad Yvette & Jan Erik. None of whom I’ve seen in over 15 years! Of course I see where Josefine gets it, they could not have been more charming, welcoming and friendly. They bought dinner for us and I even got to meet Jan Erik’s brother Wouter, who my dad has talked about but I had never gotten to meet. He lives in France but was in town to see his daughter perform at the theater the next day. Apparently “Cabaret” here means something more like a one man play, which made for a lot of confusion at the dinner table that night. 

  They lent us two bikes to use and we finally felt officially Dutch while riding back to our house through the beautiful Scheveningesbos with tall lush green trees with huge leaves shaking and twinkling in the twilight. 

     
When we got back to Keizerstraat, It was 10:30 and we had been awake for nearly 40 hours. So we fell asleep almost instantly. But jet lag works in mysterious ways because I somehow shot out of bed at 5 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I facetimed my mom and watched the sun come up.

Did I also mention there was a full sized disco ball hanging above us? Jet lag makes you feel pretty trippy.