Vlieg van de meisjes

In the Netherlands, many people ride bikes. Almost every street has special designated areas for bikes. One of the interesting things I've noticed is how the dutch ride, especially the girls. The majority of dutch girls ride high on their bike, so that their feet can't reach the ground. Therefore, when they come to a stop they must hop down off the seat to balance properly. At rush hour it is quite common to come to a red light, and find a number of girls, with one foot on the ground, and one foot on a pedal, standing, waiting for a green light. Then when the light turns green they start pushing with their foot, a few times even, before they jump up onto their seat and start peddling. I always think that it reminds me of a flock of birds trying to take off. They need to take a few steps before they can get enough speed to get airborne.
Anyways, this is the kind of thing I notice and spend my time thinking about. Maybe I need a hobby.

Day 270: Hoek van Holland

Today was a beautiful day, so I went to the beach. The closest beach to Rotterdam is at Hoek van Holland a small town on the Atlantic Ocean about 25km from Rotterdam. The town is at the end of the Nieuwe Waterweg, which is the main shipping route into the Port of Rotterdam. It's a good place to watch all the huge ocean cargo ships coming in. The beach side which faces out to the ocean is very nice. The sand is soft and fine. I imagine on a hot summer day it is a very nice plae to relax.

Future plans

So... I have exactly three months left before my work visa expires, and I go back to Canada permanently or not. Therefore I have to figure out what there is I have left that I absolutely must do.
There are many places left in the Netherlands I would like to see. I want to visit the north; Groningen and maybe the Frisian Islands, to the east to visit Arnhem and Nijmegan; to the south to see Maastricht; and finally to Zeeland. So, many places left to visit. Also, there are still museums in Rotterdam and Amsterdam I would like to visit. I would like to go to a Feyenoord game. Not because I have an overwhelming love of football, but mostly because it´s something I would like to say that I´ve done.
Also, I´m planning on going travelling my last month in Europe. I´m thinking of a tour across northern Europe. I´d like to see the places where my ancestors came from. That means I´d like to visit the Åland Islands in Finland, the Dalarna region of Sweden, the Hedmark region of Norway and finally southern Ireland around Cork. There´s some other places i´ll probably stop by too. Helsinki and Oulu in Finland to visit friends. Stockholm, Oslo and Dublin just because it´s nice to see capital cities. I still have lots of planning to do, but I´m very excited about the prospect.
Do I have the time left to accomplish all these goals? And try and find anther job in Holland, or back in Canada?
Any of my loyal readers want to join me on any of these trips? It´s always more fun to travel with friends.

Rotterdamse Museumnacht

Last Saturday was the Rotterdam museum night. 44 museums, art galleries, schools, etc., opened up their doors to put on special exhibitions. For 12 euros we could get into all of the exhibitions from 8:00PM until 2:00AM when everything closed down. I can't quite remember how many places i visited, but it must have been 6-8. Many of the places were small exhibitions that took only 15min to visit. An example of one place that I visited, was the Goethe Institute. Usually it is a german language school. But on this day it had an exhibition of German art from Bohemia, which is now the Czech Republic. Until WWII, there was a thriving German population living in the Czech Republic. There were other interesting exhibitions like this one. Still more museums i'd like to visit in Rotterdam though...

Carnaval!

On the second last of February i went to the province of Limburg to visit my friend and celebrate Carnaval. Carnval is a catholic celebration that goes back centuries, and is generally held in the five days before Ash Wedensday when the 40 days of fasting begins. It is celebrated all over the world, most famously in Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans. In the Netherlands it is traditionally celebrated below the rivers, ie: the south of the country. These are the the traditional catholic parts of the country.
The whole idea of carnaval seems to be five days of drinking lots of beer, dressing up in costumes, having parades and listening to 'Carnaval' music. Here are some examples of the music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw5HmEjSyM4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O-apSZWqzY&feature=related
The music is interesting at first... but then it just gets worse as the evening goes on.
overall, I had a really great time, and I hope to do it again.