EUROPE PART TWO: THE NETHERLANDS

after paris i flew to amsterdam. i'd been here many years ago. but this time i wasn't staying in amsterdam. i headed straight to the train ticket office. on my way i saw a woman who looked like my friend alyssa. the lookalike had short cropped hair like alyssa did when she came back from russia. i stopped and stared and then realized it could not be her and walked on. (alyssa why are you invading my trip?) so anyways, i went and bought train tickets for breda. i have never been to breda before. i was going there to see my pen friend rianne. rianne and i have been pen friends for about 14 years. she's been a trusted friend for years and yet this was the first time i had ever met her. when i reached breda i was early. rianne and ed had to work that day. so while i was waiting for them i walked around the town a little. i walked past this coffee shop called "purple rain" i didn't even realize at first that it was named after that prince song/movie. when i walked past it i remembered in the netherlands coffee house means something very different. (it's a place you can buy and consume certain drugs.) after wandering around a little i went back to the train station and sat down to read some j.d. salinger while i waited for rianne and ed to show up.

once they showed up we decided to go out to an italian place for dinner the food was delicious but there was one strange thing. you didn't automatically get water. you had to order bottled water and after they gave you your bottles they put a pitcher of water on the table. but they wouldn't do that unless you ordered something to drink. odd. after dinner we went to an irish pub. we sat around at a table and talked. they told me about different clubs or places that used to exist in breda but closed for one reason or another. after awhile we went to the house they had bought. it was really nice. the houses here are all connected. no space between them.(at least the one's i saw.) but their neighborhood seemed nice. and they had built a nice little garden in there backyard. we stayed up talking a little longer and then went to sleep.

the next morning when i came downstairs bad news awaited me. rianne told me there had been a bad earthquake in taiwan. i of course was really worried about all my friends in taiwan. and i spent most of that day trying not to imagine the worst. after eating breakfast rianne and i took the train into town. we walked around and rianne showed me certain shopping districts and this old church where they have art exhibitions. as well as old buildings standing empty and mostly unused because the army owns them and does very little with them. she also showed me some public art and had me try some traditional liquorice candy made with less sugar. i'm not a big liquorice person but it tasted good as far as liquorice goes. it was a nice leisurely day and we stopped by this little street market and bought organic snacks. i had a yummy apple fritter with cinnamon. in the late afternoon we went back to the house.

back at the house rianne showed me photo albums she had put together of her and ed's trips to ireland. and a photo album of her and ed's life together.this wasreally nice. it had picture of them as children and of the friends that were important to them and then their life together.it was really sweet and it made me feel special to see my picture in there with rianne's best friends.:) after dinner we watched the news (bbc and cnn) for information on the earthquake. i was amused because the newscasters couldn't pronounce most of the chinese names. but otherwise the news was pretty useless. i mean they would say they were in taipei but wouldn't show a map of the city to help us figure out where some of these disasters were taking place. after the news ed suggested i use their computer to check my email and see if i had news from taiwan. so i did that. most of my messages were from before the earthquake. there was one from my parents after the earthquake saying "thank god you left taiwan!". but none from any of my friends in taiwan. so i sent mail asking everyone to let me know they were ok. after writing this mail i decided to check another email account of mine and found a message from my friend peter in taiwan telling me that he and his family were all all right. so that made me feel much better. and as it turned out no one i know was hurt.and all their families are safe as well. after checking my mail i went downstairs and they were watching this dutch show called "big brother". it is sort of like the real world. but in this show people are living in a house and they can't leave they can go into the yard but not out of it. and they are filmed 24 hours a day. they show the show once a day or you can see what is going on 24 hours a day on the internet. if the people stay in the house a full year they win some sort of prize. money or something i forget. after this show was over we flipped channels and made fun of the spice girls and the kelly family. it was a fun evening and i was very happy to meet rianne (and ed too) after all these years. she was much more soft spoken than i expected. but i really hope i don't have to wait another 14 years to see them again.:) the next day i took a train back to amsterdam and a plane from there to germany. europe part one europe part three home