Theres a time in every holiday where you suddenly realise how little time there is, and this makes you try and take everything in and savour it because you never know how long it will be until you come back. So that is what I've been doing: making sure I eat as much Dutch cookies, cakes biscuits and lollies as humanly, or otherwise, possible. I will miss dutch baking. The Bakeries over here are so underrated. See, a bakery in New Zealand is often a place where they unwrap frozen meat pies and microwave them until they have no identifiable form, texture or meat. But a bakery over here is a thing of beauty.
Of course they make bread, and well. And the savoury breads are brilliant. From turkish breads and pizza's to cheese bread (with more cheese than bread) to croissants and Itallian style bread. Some of these can be duplicated in New Zealandese bakeries (supermarkets), but no-one can come close to Dutch cookies, biscuits and pastries. And no, I'm not talking about Amsterdamnese brownies. There are the well known speculaas (pronnounced "Spay-koo-laas", but often known as "windmills biscuits") and the classic Dutch apple pie. But There is oh so much more. And its not like mexican food where everything actually has the same taste but only looks different. For the last week or two I've made it a personal mission to have as many different baked goods. Coconut buscuits which are so tasty that you eat the baking paper. Waffles with jewelery-quality sugar crystals. Soft cookies filled with almond spice. Things with marzipan, chocolate, custard, syrup, icing, caramel... And its not like french baked goods where they just make it look pretty. If you need a good reason to visit holland, look no further.
And there is also the liquorice, which is also a way to test if someone is Dutch or not. Instead of a pledge of allegience to the queen, at the naturalisation ceremony they just hand out some liquorice. (This is the reason my luggage is so heavy. I'm smuggling a few kilos of the stuff).
But since this is my last night in Holland, I'm in a reflective mood. I've learned a lot about Holland. Not from my holiday, but from a book I bought the other day. It is filled with nuggets of information about the country. I mostly look at the pictures, but from the one page I've read, I learned that without Dykes, 2/3 of the country would be flooded. So thats why we legalised gay marriage. No I'm kidding. But 20% of the country is reclaimed land. This here is the key to one of the big modern mysteries of the world: Global warming. Its all a lie. The reason the sea level is rising is because Holland is reclaiming all this land.
But onto a more serious topic: getting lost.
Unfortunately I have managed to find my way back each time, but I seem to have a very bad sense of direction over here. I think it is because I grew up on the southern hemisphere, but others have rightly assured me that it is because I'm a stupid git. My home town where I stayed for about a month, Schiedam, is my Bermuda triangle. I must have biked there 10 or 15 times, and I only once managed to get home without biking halfway to the next town. Its not entirely my fault; the Dutch don't believe in road signs. I could not point out where the central station is, despite having been there on numerous occasions. Sometimes it's there, or not. And the public transport gives whole new opportunities to get lost. And I like that about Holland. Getting lost is difficult to do in New Zealand, especially in Nelson. Getting lost is more than not knowing exactly where you are. Its a kind of meditation. It reminds me just how stupid I can be.
So the last few days in Holland have seen much more normal weather. See, I've had incredible luck with sunshine. Sure, its far from the 25+ degree weather in New Zealand, but if you have a warm jacket, you are happy if it reaches 5 degrees. Its strange hearing yourself say that it is "nice weather" when it is hardly above freezing point. For the last few days I've had the expected grey skies with some rain. But, this has worked to my advantage. Yes, I went to another museum, this one an "Open-air Museum", a kind of park where they have rebuilt about 90 classic old buildings from around the country. because of the crappy time of the year and the crappy weather, I had a great day. The whole park there must have had about 25 people in it, and 20 of those were workers and 2 were my Aunty and Uncle. They had a futuristic moving-seat cinema thing, a fully restored tram from the early 1900's, and what turned out to be a private tour. It was like they opened the doors especially for us.
Anyhow, I think you get my point. I will miss Dutch baking, and I will miss getting lost. And when I'm in the air, for 1 1/2 days, I will miss being able to move my legs, I will miss having an actual meal and I will probably miss out on a lot of sleep. But it will give me a lot of time to think about my last entry on ruben in dutchland which I will write on return, where I will finally reveal which country is better.
In the meantime, thanks to everyone who has had to put up with me over these last two months. Those who fed, clothed, bathed and entertained me. I would also like to extend my apologies to the people who had difficulty understanding my accent, to the beggars I refused to give money to (somehow I don't think Holland is the most lucrative country for the profession of beggary), and to the old lady who I laughed at when she fell off her bike. And I would like to extend my middle finger to whoever decided that I need to be at the airport 3 hours before my flight takes off. So farewell to some, and to others, I hope to catch up with you soon.
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