The visitor (1/3)

Monday was an exceptionally exciting day, with the arrival of my lifelong best friend Fem from Tilburg! Sharing all of our major life experiences with each other, I was very keen to show her the best of a city I had grown to love in such a short time - as well as introduce her to the people who make it even better.

my first time visiting the station

I showed her the town centre, and the major sights on the city on the way back to the hostel, including many many (pretty creepy to be honest) barrel organs scattered throughout the city as we had unwittingly chosen the day of the Barrel Organ Festival for the visit.

Laurens Jansz Cooster, inventor of the printing press, on Grote Maarkt

Back in time for lunch with the rest of the hostel employees, and with other friends joining us, I tried out the frier for the first time (reasonably successfully, only sustaining minor burns and taking the food out only slightly too late) making potato croquettes! Looking around the hostel and enjoying the company took us onto our plans for the evening - more food! 

mmmmm

The new workplace of our friend (and the previous nightwatchman), San Blas, is a super trendy beach cafe (accessible only to students using an employee discount...) at Bloemendaal aan zee. Enjoying the sun, we managed to get through 2 sorts of tapas platters, nachos, and I'm not even sure how many beers. Despite good intentions, the 'vegetarian' tapas of the 2 was predominantly fish (although I was told that everything was delicious), however I got to eat all of the loempas, sweetcorn, falafels, bread and houmous, AND all the non-cheesey nachos, so I was very satisfied! We sat for most of the afternoon and evening, petting all the passing dogs, and watching the surfers, until it got too cold and it was time to take the bus back to the comfort of the patio fire, through the south nature park.

tapas

more tapas + nachos

san blas 

getting cold and sleepy on the benches

Back at the hostel it became apparent that Fem would not be ready to leave for the 10.30pm train that evening, and instead decided to book a room in our Province dorm! The Hello I'm local/Haarlem experience could not have been complete without a night in an expertly made bed.

professionally folded pillows

We spent the evening with new friends from Canada and Bristol by the fire, making plans for a day trip together the following day. An evening practically defining the word gezellig was the best way for the day to end, and after far too many beers I was ready to sleep before more excitement the next day.

gezellig