Deja Vu in Den Haag

View from my bicycle

I had the house to myself while the Horner-Devines drove to Belgium to visit family. There wasn't any room for me, but having already been Belgium, I wasn't too disappointed that I had an entire weekend in solitude. I got to spend lots of time at the gym (including the relaxing sauna), check out the library, update the blog and facebook while tipsy on wine, and go on a long bike ride to Den Haag. 

Parking a bike with no kickstand is a challenge

Den Haag (The Hague) is the seat of the Dutch government, the Supreme Court, and the Council of State, home to the Queen, host to the United Nations, and is where the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court is located. It took about 45 minutes to bike there from Delft, and what felt like another 45 minutes to find a parking spot for my bike - a problem that I never thought that I would complain about before moving to Holland. Even though I was in Den Haag 5 years ago, I didn't recognize any of it. But then I turned a corner suddenly a feeling of deja vu hit me. Wait a second, I thought, if I just keep going down this way, I'll find the Royal Palace... and there it was!

My photos of the palace from separate trips (2012 above, 2007 below)

Then I tried to retrace my steps from there to find a little cafe where Margot, my mom and I had lunch 5 years ago. I remember it so well because I had made such a fool out of myself. First of all, I had to order something vegetarian, but that's not really their thing in the Netherlands. I thought that the simplest thing would be to order a sandwich, but request if they could just not include the ham when they make the sandwich (awfully confusing). What I got was a mound of veggies and cheese with a spear through the middle decorated with fresh fruit. It took me a minute of strategizing before I realized it was an open faced sandwich. Then I just had to order fixings to make my own Thai iced tea (something that I was really into when I was 20). I ordered a  black iced tea, milk, and sugar. The server was so perplexed that he almost refused to fulfill my order because he thought that this was a very bad idea. "Trust me, trust me," I reassured everyone at the table, "I know what I'm doing." Famous last words. When the waiter brought us our drinks, he stopped and told Margot that he was going to watch me assemble my concoction. With false confidence, I added sugar and milk to the glass of black tea, and watched in horror as the concoction exploded before my very eyes. It overflowed quickly, making a huge mess of the table. The black iced tea, unbeknownst to me, was carbonated Lipton tea, so I had essentially created a science project with my ignorance. I think that might have been the end to my Thai tea making days...

Den Haag, 2007

When I returned back to our home in Delft, I found my photos from a previous trip to Holland in 2007. It was quite amusing to see that I had taken similar shots of the same things, so below I have paired them together.

Delft Fish Market, 2007 & 2012