So it has been a while since I last posted anything. This was a strategic decision, as I thought I would like to make one big Goodbye Haarlem post about my and my roommates last weeks here in order to not string out the "we did this for the last time" and "we did that for the last time", and to minimise getting more emotional than necessary by posting about leaving multiple times, however this decision slightly backfired. We actually did a great deal with out last days, making this post sensationally large (and still pretty emotional), but nonetheless here it is!
So, of course in the last week (and 5 days, as I was scheduled to leave 5 days after my roommate), we tried to fit in as much quality Haarlem time and activities as we could. First thing on the agenda? The traditional Mexican food we had all long since been hoping for. It took a long trip to the Albert Heijn in town to collect everything that my roomie needed for his feast, and the preparation took him almost 2 whole days (I have the recipes for a future post!), but he cooked enough food for everyone in the hostel so we could eat the same meal multiple times throughout the last week to share the experience with all our favourite people. The first night was absolutely incredible, with silence across the board as we gorged on the delicious (pork for them, tofu for me) spiciness. Best Mexican food I've ever had.
Fortunately for me, the football whatever was still ongoing - however it did provide a nice opportunity for us to get together with some friends. Initially we started out at the hostel watching the match of 6pm, as our lovely manager working that evening had promised us a vegan dinner of avocado and walnut pasta which was delicious.
After we had eaten everything at the hostel, it was decided that my laptop was not providing a good enough stream and so we moved to a friends house to use his TV. Here we were provided with an excellent sofa, unlimited tea, dark chocolate, and 2 sort of biscuits - far more interesting to me than the England vs Iceland match.
For the next day we had planned a busy morning of work, last drinks at the Oerkap, board games, and 2 dinners. Starting with the first of the 2 dinners we returned the Mexican food, for all of the leftovers to be devoured in impressive time and silence, before we played a few rounds of Rummikub.
Second dinner was hosted at the amazing apartment (now with the addition of my painting) of one of our loveliest colleagues, and she made nachos with guacamole, and tortilla pizzas. We watched
, to appease our mutual love of Sacha Baren Cohen, and my love of German accents, and had one of my most favourite cozy evenings here in Haarlem, on the sofa with blankets, 2 of the best people, Pluum the pug, and Hammy the hamster.
The following day, was my roommates last. The new Night Watch had arrived the evening before, and so I spent the morning showing him the ropes while the old Night Watch was doing our thing of having out at the bar. We had our last group lunch, and everybody came by to say goodbye, one friend even brought an epic chocolate vegan cake with yogurt, Pluum the pug came, and it was very emotional.
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| new adventures in Berlin |
My last week
Although pleased he is moving forward with his own adventures, which is very exciting, I was very sad to say goodbye, even if it is just goodbye for now. That evening I spent relaxing, trying out a new Jopen beer (the IPA - it was actually very tasty), and starting work on the thank you cards for my hostel friends.
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| IPA |
On the first day of the new Nacht Wacht duo we were fairly busy, cleaning almost all the rooms but taking our time to get him acquainted with everything. Once we were done we went with another colleague into town to a frozen yoghurt cafe for some fro-yo (or a glass of water for the broke vegan!) in the sun, where we planned a nice dinner to cook together, and some drinks later. We picked up some groceries, and I learned an amazing recipe (from the catering history of my new roomie!) for a vegan shepherds pie with red wine sauce.
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| mixed roast vegetables |
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| ceramic dishes |
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| eet smakelijk |
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| friend dinner |
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| beer & wine |
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| cozy |
After work on Sunday we met up with a big group of friends (and one friend of the new Night Watch visiting from California) to go to eten op rolletjes, a food truck festival happening only a short walk away. I was skeptical of what it would be like, because I wasn't sure if there would be anything vegan friendly, and also because what do you do at a food festival after you've eaten?? I was pleasantly surprised however as there was a big stage with live band, so we were able to get a large bench in front of there all together to sit, chat, and drink a beer in the sun in the really nice atmosphere.
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| Eten op Rolletjes |
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| benches & bar |
Keen to not get the go-to vegan option of falafel, I got dinner from the Lebanese stall (I picked the strangest looking option available to me, something I'd never seen before or even heard of), which was a whole wheat flat bread (cooked on a dome shaped pan) with zataar (thyme herbal mix), then fresh mint, cucumber, and tomato - it was very delicious and I'd like to try to recreate it at home! I was also able to try out another 2 Jopen beers; the hoppen beer (similar tasting to Lente beer, but with a higher alcohol content), and a limited edition beer which I cannot remember the name of (or find on the website...) which was good!
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| Lebanese |
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| delicious! |
We stayed until the festival ended at 10pm, when everyone had run out of tokens and it was getting cold - and time for the last night watch shift. It was a really cozy festival and I am pleased that I went with such a lovely group.
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| sunny |
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| sunset by the bar at the lake |
With time quickly running out, I used the majority of the next day to complete the thank you cards I had been working on for my friends here who looked after me and helped to make me feel so welcome. I used a pack of 10 blank cards from a craft shop in town, and drew pictures from moments with everyone on them...this took longer than I anticipated as I had 13 cards to make, and lots to write in them, but finishing them felt good!
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| few of my favourite cards |
In the evening we enjoyed round 2 of Mexican food, and the new Night Watch (coincidentally also Mexican) used the remainder of the chilies we had in the room to create some (as authentic as possible) burritos with tortillas, rice, beans, mushrooms, and guacamole. Everything was very spicy (just the way I like it!) and delicious, not the favourite meal of the Dutch attendants but i thoroughly enjoyed it.
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| Mexican dinner |
I gave my first cards that evening, and said goodbye to 3 of my favourite people in Haarlem. Although we had a lovely cozy conversation all together on the patio by the fire until the early hours of the morning, it was still emotional - but I know it won't be long before I see them again.
On my last full day in Haarlem I planned to take the walking tour of the hidden gardens. Unfortunately for me I received an email early in the morning about my upcoming research internship with a lot of manuals to read, forms to fill in, and a link to the website to begin the creation of my profile to apply for the projects I wanted which took up most of my time, meaning I only made it out at 4pm. On the plus side I am now very excited by the possibilities of the research I could be conducting to help people in the future.
Beginning on the Grote Markt of Haarlem outside the city hall, the tour of the
Haarlemse hofjes is an inner city tour aiming to lead you around historic hidden gardens, courtyards, and almshouses (groups of modest houses around a central garden built to house elderly women or those in need by wealthier citizens in the 12th century). The handy 50 cents map provided easy to follow directions, and lead me to the first stop: the
Van Oorschot almshouses. Built in 1769 these were definitely the largest almshouses I saw, and although the well-kempt gardens were not open to the public at the time I was there, they were still very pretty.
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| starting point |
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| town hall |
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| Van Oorschot almshouses |
A short ten minute walk took me to the second location, the Lutheran almshouses close to the Lutheran church, which are actually built on grounds of a former monastery. Through a very satisfying huge door, these almshouses were instantly smile-inducing. Perhaps I was just lucky to be there at just the right time of day in the right portion of the year, but everything was perfect. The secluded yet spacious courtyard had places to sit in both the shade and the sun, and is a mixture of overgrown wildflowers and well-tended gardens, with the church steeple visible to one side, the whole place is lovely. I stayed here for a long time enjoying the atmosphere before moving on.
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| pretty street |
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witteherenstraat (or white canon street) named after the
robes of the monks who used to live there |
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| wild flowers |
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| view from the bench |
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| Lutheran almshouses |
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| lavender |
I am not sure if stop number 3 (the Frans Loenen almshouses) were in fact closed at the time I was there, or if I was just too weak to open the gate so guessed it was locked...I am choosing to accept the former, however I was able to see the ornate entrance on the street (previously entrance to the Coomans almshouses) before moving on.
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| entrance gate |
It was at this point I got myself lost for around 25 minutes. I maintain that the directions of the map are easy to follow, but I saw something interesting, got distracted going to check it out, and then when I tried to return to my previous path I got completely disoriented - so this brief interlude is much more to do with me than with the map! Eventually I found my way to stop number 5, the
Princenhof which is in the street behind the city hall and I had actually been past several times before since moving to Haarlem without knowing what it was. Previously the herb garden of a former monestry the garden now hosts one of Haarlem's most beautiful trees (the huge weeping beech), a small
temple of peace (built in 1648), and a statue of Laurens Jansz Coster (inventor of the art of Typography). Although this is a nice garden, it was difficult to enjoy it as the surrounding buildings are the Stedelijk Gymnasium secondary school and so it was busy with a lot of students.
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| weeping beech |
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| Coster |
Next I went to see the
Huis van Schagen, which was interesting although the map offered no more information than the fact it was a beautifully restored building with a nice (but closed off) garden at the back...this was not inaccurate but I would have liked to have known a little more about it!
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| restored building |
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| courtyard |
A concealed walkway on the Botermarkt (inexplicably covered in loads of cats) lead to stop number 7, the
Bruiningshofje almshouses. Made up of only 4 houses, the adorable courtyard was lovely covered in red flowers and well attended topiary, unfortunately it was here that I realised it was already ten past five, and the gardens were all closed to the public after 5. Having made it to only 7 of the 14 stop points, finishing this tour is yet another incentive to come back to Haarlem.
Reluctantly I headed back to the hostel to pack up my things (which were all in
the Heem, a private room upstairs I had been upgraded to for my final night!), I watched
Fargo while doing so in an attempt to make the experience more enjoyable, which unfortunately it did not although I thoroughly enjoyed the film (as can only be expected with Cohen brother's films!). I spent my last evening in my favourite way, sitting at the bar enjoying a cup of tea and chatting. That night I slept incredibly well in the coziest and most comfortable bed at the whole hostel.
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| the Heem |
On the day I was to leave, I had 2 very special events planned. The first of which was a road trip to Amsterdam for a day at the Rijksmuseum, a gift in return from the friend I gifted my
Chaos painting to. Also in attendance was Haarlem's very own Indiana Jones (also somewhat knowledgeable on epic sea-battle paintings), so in addition to being excited as I have never visited the Rijksmuseum before, I was also ecstatic to go for the first time with 2 of the absolute best people. After I moved my bags into the Harry Potter cupboard by reception and checked out of my room (like a real guest!), it was time to head out.
Although it probably took longer than the train would have, the trip there was (as always) part of the fun with lots of things to look at out the windows,
rave music, and general group fun. Once inside, we (at least those of us who had never been before) were overwhelmed at the size of museum and volume of artwork that was available to see there, so we immediately got started with admiring everything, puzzling over the more enigmatic choices of subject matter, and discussing our favourite works so far.
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| rave car |
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| in front of the museum |
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| museum |
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| gardens in front of the museum |
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| entrance |
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| entrance |
After not too long of course the time came to visit the most famous painting in the museum, and the most important given the circumstances; the
NachtWacht. Undeniably impressive, and absolutely massive, it was cool to learn that there was previously another half meter of painting on the left and upper sides which had been trimmed off in order to get it to fit between 2 columns when it was removed from Kloveniersdoelen in 1715. Despite being pretty busy by this point, of course we got a few nice pictures in front of the painting representing my role for the last 2 months. In the same hall we were able to see the only wedding portraits ever painted by Rembrandt, which were new to the gallery, and interesting because of the choice of black wedding clothes, nontraditional positions, and unique realism in depicting the depth of the space in which the couple posed (and the wilting of the lace on the outfit cuffs). I was pleased to be able to get a close look at Vermeer's
Melkmeisje here too, which was smaller than I had anticipated (smaller even than the tapestry version in the Night Watch room at the hostel) but was still impressive.
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| Nacht Wacht |
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| large halls |
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| the wedding portraits |
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| Melkmeisje |
After a break at the cafe for tea, we did one last walk around the special exhibition gallery hosting a display of model ships and ship-related items. We were hugely entertained by the cross-section model ship complete with holographic people projected into the rooms performing regular sea-men tasks, including one using the toilet on the front deck. After this there was just enough time to buy a postcard before a walk through the centre of Amsterdam for the train back to Haarlem.
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| tea and cake |
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| ships |
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| holograph |
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| tunnel by the entrance |
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| sunny Amsterdam |
On the way back from Haarlem station to the hostel I took a detour through the town to buy food supplies for the upcoming full day of travel, have another look at all my favourite spots, and to get dinner of my favourite Dutch snack - sadly not available back in London where I will be for the next month. The weather was gorgeous and sunny, utterly perfect. I had a quick stop off back at the hostel to add the food to my bags before it was time to set out on the second event planned for the day - a performance of a friend's band
Traudes at his university graduation party at the Patronaat in town. I had seen him perform with his other band once before but was even more excited for this because they have only one epic song out available to listen to at the moment so they were going to be debuting new material, because the venue was larger with a more professional stage, because they had specially been asked to play (a big honor to be chosen of all the bands - as it is a music university), and because lots of record company officials were going to be in attendance meaning it was an important performance.
I left the hostel with the new Night Watch and 2 of his friends, we met up there with 2 of our colleagues and 1 of each of their friends, and then the girlfriend of our friend who was playing there as well, meaning that when it came time to cheer for each of the players he had quite the crowd! They did not disappoint, and delivered a super high energy performance starting with their old song (at this point I knew all the words) and then playing a set of awesome new songs (cannot wait until they have an album I can buy). The energy continued after they were done, and he was able to join us for some dancing - which was no less than completely mental. After 2 hours it was time to go, and I said some emotional goodbyes to my friends there before going to collect my bags at the hostel.
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| Traudes |
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| Traudes |
With time for one last cup of tea at the bar, I reflected on how incredibly lucky I was to have taken this serendipitous trip to Haarlem where I had seen so many beautiful things, met so many beautiful people, passed my Dutch exam, and learnt so much about myself and about life in general. I thought about my 3 favourite moments; the time I went with my roommate to the Oerkap after we worked at the wedding and we talked about love and life, the entire day of the Zomerfruit festival (but especially the time when we came back to the hostel to annoy the manager working at the bar that evening by playing games and accidentally breaking everything), and the night of the thunder and lighting storm when I slept by the window with the curtains open and fell asleep watching the pink flashes feeling cozy, and happy, and content. At 9.45 it was time to collect my things, and walk to the station. Of course (as my roommate would say)
the emotions were right on the skin, but I left feeling confident that I would certainly be back very soon.
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| heading for the station |
I will end this sensationally lengthy post with a poem I read a few weeks ago that I felt connected with my thoughts on my time in Haarlem which was rattling around in my head as I walked to the station and continues to sit there as I am finishing this post on the bus driving to London through Dover, and a collection of funny pictures from this trip which had no place anywhere else but deserve to be shared.
Goodbye for now Haarlem, tot volgende keer!
- "Strange Phenomenon" by Ioana Cristina Casapu
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| cycling back from the beach |
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| the phrase of Corrie ten Boom |
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| Lisa & the Lumberjacks sticker in town |
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| bike by the bridge |
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| vleeshal |
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| dominos! |
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| Spaarne |
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| ice cream |
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| preservation of the front of a building & gable |
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| gables |
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| Frans Hals room ready for a wedding party |
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| fresh mint tea & speculaas |
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| lost a bath mat out the window |
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| Birthday decorating |
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| football on the phone with a wine stand |
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| Botermarkt |
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