venturing

Cherish all your happy moments: they make a fine cushion for old age. Christopher Morely

Today, out of a desire to see more of the Netherlands, I ventured outside our home city to Haarlem.

It was another gorgeous day and even in my skirt and short sleeves I was quite toasty as I headed toward Centraal. By train it only takes about 15 minutes to get to Haarlem. I had already decided I didn’t want an agenda – I wanted to wander and just take in the pretty. And so I did.

The city is adorable. It’s like a countrified (in a good way) version of Amsterdam. It retains the charm but also offers a quieter atmosphere to enjoy it in. There were pretty streets and glittering canals. One thing I noticed was that there were the most charming cafes I have ever seen. There were a ton of them and they all had a different vibe and decorations, but they were all too cute. Haarlem is also home to a shit load of shops. Lots of high-fashion clothing ones, departments stores etc, but there were also a lot of specialty ones. I walked into one that was solely selling candles, and it smelled like a crayon. It was all very lovely.

Grote Kerk is the big outside thing to see. It’s this magnificent church in the middle of a square, and so not what you would expect to see in Haarlem. It’s huge and the city is baby. It’s quite cool.

I spent about two hours wandering aimlessly, enjoying the crooked alleys and open squares, and then headed back into A’dam. I’m really glad I went exploring. It was definitely worth the time, energy and money to go there.

Tomorrow I have the concert field trip I signed up for way back in February. It seemed so far away at the time, and now it’s tomorrow night. I’m excited for it though, we get to get somewhat dressed up, go to dinner and then hear some (hopefully) good music. It will be quite the cultured night!

Also I think we’re all getting a bit panicky about how close the end of the program is. We have about a month left, and that is just plain depressing. It also elicits a nervous response that we have to jam-pack everything in to the next four weeks. I’m going to Oosterpark with Christy today and I’m going to bring my Amsterdam guidebooks to see what else I’ve missed that is a “must – do”. But more I just want to soak up Amsterdam’s vibe as much as possible, enjoy the sunny days with every fiber of my being, and as corny as it sounds live life to the fullest, because it’s all gonna end way to soon.

But for now we’ve put the “program ending” on the “not allowed to talk about” list.

Much Love!

bri

~ by Brianna on May 6, 2008.