Delft and Rotterdam

On Saturday the 15th, Erin, Sam, Liz, Celine, and I slept in and then headed to Delft to see what they had to offer. We took the train from Station Hollands Spoor and ended up in Delft around noon. We headed toward the center of town, stopping on the way to eat at a really cute restaurant. We took our time before hitting the center, which was truly how you think of Holland. There were musicians on the street playing music, and—get this—people canvassing on the streets. Sadly, we’re not Dutch so we couldn’t help out the canvassers very much, but it was awesome to see the youth activism there. Especially because they were raising HIV/AIDS awareness. Holler!

Then, we headed to a little workshop that made authentic Delft pottery. We asked for a tour, to which one of them men replied, “A tour? Uhh… sure. Here it is!” He showed us around and showed us how the pottery was made. It takes a few firings before painting and then a firing after. After a few dish washes, the paint will come off, so it’s important to hand wash the authentic things. Apparently, the smaller the item, the more likely it is to break during firing.

Things were expensive, but needless to say, I bought a few things for mama bear (not gonna give it away though! Good try, mum.) We became fast friends with the guy who makes the pottery, and got a photo with both him and the painter. The potter was passed down the craft from his father. Super cool.

After that, we found an outdoor market that pretty much rocked. There were tons of fresh flowers. I really wished I had somewhere to bring flowers, because they smelled incredible. There were other booths for jewelry, clothing, underwear, purses—pretty much anything. It was kind of like a flea market but better. And we seemed to be some of the only tourists. The potter had told us that tourist season was the spring, so they were making pottery to stock up for that time. They don’t get very many customers this time of year. There was a stroopwaffle stand too. And Delft boys? Super cute. Much more attractive than other men I’ve seen in this country. (No worries Roth, you’re way cuter)

Then, Celine headed to Leiden to visit a friend, and Erin, Liz, Sam, and I headed to Rotterdam to see what was up there. It’s a large city, but much more spread out than Amsterdam, and therefore, it was difficult to find out where the haps were. The architecture is all really cool, since it’s all relatively new and experimental. During World War II, Germany bombed the hell out of Rotterdam before the Netherlands would surrender, and therefore much of it had to be rebuilt and they got wicked experimental. Photos to come! We went into a sex shop and walked around a bit, but most things were closing around that time, and it was definitely before party time.

With that, we headed back to Den Haag, grabbed food at a wok place, and watched Dirty Dancing in Liz and Sam’s room. And that, my dears, was our exploratory and fabulous Saturday! It’s so great to be able to hop on a train and be somewhere totally different in 5-20 minutes. I so with the US had a system like this.

Peace,
Mac