On my 5th day of this world trip (woohoo) I moved from Jasper’s place in The Hague City to the huge port city of the Netherlands: the city of Rotterdam, where I am staying with Patricia! This old friend of mine took me out to the Rotterdam style of celebrating Liberation day, met another old friend Marieke and went to the city fair all together.
I got waken up by Suzanne and Jasper. Jasper had planned to make breakfast at the beach restaurant where he also had to work this afternoon. So I quickly took a nice shower (and shaved myself again after a three-days-old sandpaper skin) and drunk some coffee at their home bar.
After taking some streetcars we got to the Scheveningen beach again and Jasper disappeared into the kitchen as soon as we got there. Suzanne and I sat at the warm fireplace talking about all kinds of things, while we waited for our delicious breakfast: toasted filled sandwich á la Jasper!
At around 11 o’clock my next hostess came by to pick me up. That’s luxury! Patricia found it too much of a fuss to let me hitchhike that little piece to Rotterdam. After drinking another cappucinno with her too, I had to say goodbye to Jasper and Suzanne and loaded Patricia’s car.
I’ve been acquainted with Patricia for a considerable time. We go way back to our high school days. When I failed my final year, she took a gap year to work and travel across Australia and New Zealand. The following year, we both enrolled in journalism school in Zwolle, and coincidentally, we ended up in the same class. Patricia decided to specialize in Communications, while I opted for Printed Press Journalism.
After Patricia graduated in Communications, and I pursued various interests alongside my studies, we gradually lost touch. However, this project has reunited us after a long time.
Once we arrived at the apartment on the 14th floor in the Northeast of Rotterdam, we took the metro or tram to reach Rotterdam Central Station, where we met Marieke.
I am also acquainted with Marieke from journalism school, but she was a year junior to me. As classmates, we had our fair share of ups and downs. During her studies, she met her partner in Australia and stayed there for some time. She is also involved in a lot of TV work in the Netherlands. For me too, it has been a long time since we last saw each other.
We walked from Rotterdam Central Station to the city center, and on the way, we passed by my former summer job spot at John Schipper & Zoon’s Snack Bar, where I worked back in 1995. To my surprise, my former boss still worked there once a week, and upon seeing her, she vaguely remembered me. However, upon telling her my name, she recollected me and mentioned that I had to quit working as I went to study journalism in Zwolle, which was approximately 70 miles away from Rotterdam. We couldn’t resist trying their old-fashioned, homemade French fries, which were absolutely delicious!
After that, we headed towards the square where live bands were scheduled to perform in celebration of Dutch Liberation Day. However, the bands were relatively unknown, and their music didn’t quite match our taste. Nevertheless, on the same square, there was a small, high-cultural market selling all kinds of unfamiliar food and practical souvenirs. We decided to sit down on the terrace of the theater café Plan C at the old harbour of Rotterdam.
They ordered fresh drinks and we picked up old memories from the past. About what we know what happened with other old classmates (some are already married!) and weird situations from our high school until our journalism faculty. Fun!
After spending some time on the terrace, we strolled towards the location of the annual Cityfair that takes place on Queensday (April 30). Upon reaching there, Patricia was excited to try out The Sound Machine – a large ride that spins, goes up and down, and sometimes even goes upside down, all at a fast pace. I wisely ignored the invitation to join while Marieke and Patricia got a ticket and got on the ride.
Some little ten minutes later I was laughing the most when I saw them step out, Marieke with a big smile and Patricia almost looking purple and disorganised from the inside… That’s way I didn’t want to go inside it. I knew from before it could do some great damage to my morning breakfast, haha!
After this, Patricia needed some time to get back together again and we sauntered over the fair. It wasn’t really busy and it also was the last day, which made us see everything very fast and we didn’t do anything again.
After taking the metro back to Patricia’s place, we all did some shopping for dinner and crashed on the couch at home.
Patricia lives together with her older sister Alexandra, while being between jobs. Well, she is currently looking for something new in the fields of the marketing. Alexandra made some nice enjoyable spaghetti and we had some white wine with it. And by the way: I helped doing the dishes afterwards!
Because there was nothing on television, we decided to watch the video of I Love Trouble with Julia Roberts and that old Nick Nolte playing competitive journalists. For me there where to many longlasting romantic strings in it; it was hard to keep up (stay awake)…
Because Patricia picked me up at Jasper’s restaurant, they had handed over the gift personally. Patricia looked pretty amazed at the Frisian Flag which she received and she had no real idea what to pass over to the person where I’d stay tomorrow… But after telling her what I already knew about him, she came with the right idea!
