wooden shoes and windmills

A Happy (be-lated) Thanksgiving to Americans the world over. As hard as it can sometimes be to celebrate American holidays outside the country, mine was a Thanksgiving that will not soon be forgotten.

It started with the saga of the pie. I had been invited to the home of an American man and his Australian wife who I know from church. They normally have a Bible study in their home on Thursday nights but yesterday, in honour of the holiday, they were having a special dinner. Everyone was bringing something to contribute and I had been asked to bring a desert. At first I was quite keen on making a pumpkin pie until, after visiting the market, I realized pumpkin - in any form (not whole and definitely not canned) - is very hard to come by in this country. Period. Pumpkin is typically used to feed pigs here, and therefore is not eaten by civilized humans. As a result canned pumpkin does not exist in Holland. I was not defeated. I switched my focus to apple - which the Dutch have PLENTY of - and took an apple crisp instead.

I arrived at the apartment with very little trouble - in other words I didn't get lost as per usual - and was ushered into a warm, fantastic smelling room filled with people. There were seven countries - Nepal, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Holland, Australia and America - represented at our Thanksgiving table that evening, and plenty of delicious food. Besides the usual turkey and stuffing we ate an Ethiopian noodle dish called Bami, couscous, sweet iced tea (sans ice), and a variety of salads. My Australian hostess even went through the much be-laboured processes (due to the country's lack of pumpkin and pumpkin-related products) of boiling, scraping and pureeing to make the most delicious pumpkin pie.

After dinner we sang songs of worship of thanks to God and had a time of sharing and prayer. It was awesome and not like any Thanksgiving I've ever experienced.

Hope yours was just as memorable!

I think I've waited long enough. It's been nearly three months since I exchanged my tiny little bedroom in Southern California for a similarly tiny room nearly half a world away in Holland. Several people - mostly family members - have been clamoring for updates and pictures of my European adventure thus far. Finally, I've decided, it's time to post something...anything!

I'm encouraged to do so by the 200 or so pictures I took during my trip to England two weeks ago. I visited the post-grad darling of Canterbury (ie. my dear friend Leanne) for the bulk of the week and capped the adventure with two days in London - and my first stay in a hostel. Besides taking in culture and way more designer coffee than I could really afford it was quite splendid to have days full of no obligations or responsibility. Here, in pictures (because I've finally figured out how to post them), is my trip!

Starting in Eindhoven I traveled by train through Holland, Belgium and France to Calais-Ville where I hopped a ferry to Dover, England. I should have only needed to change trains three times but I missed one of those connections and that number grew to five. Some things never change. Ya gotta love traveling the rails.

[getting back on the train in Antwerpen, Belgium]


Thankfully I arrived safe and sound (and, mind you, much later than scheduled) in Canterbury Saturday night. The majority of the week was spent walking the streets of central Canterbury and...

[downtown Canterbury]

sitting in its coffee shops with a book. This was my first British Starbucks and I felt the need to commemorate the occasion with a photo (we don't have Starbucks in Holland). This particular shop is next door to the gate of the Canterbury Cathedral.


Riding in one of these double-decker monstrosities on the "wrong" side of the street while the driver squeezes it through Canterbury's "west gate" is quite the experience.The wall - remains of a time when Canterbury was actually still guarded by a wall - still exists in places. The west gate is thick, strong and VERY narrow!


Friday Leanne and I caught the train to London. She had a conference to go to for a class - serious grad student that she is - so I spent the day exploring the city on my own. My first stop: Trafalgar Square.

[This amiable pigeon was kind enough to pose in my panorama of Trafalgar Square, London]

Next I headed to Covent Garden. A bustle of activity, this area was mostly booths of artists selling their wares - jewelry, pottery and the like - but this particular weekend there was a food fair going on. I strolled among the stalls sampling cheeses and baked goods and - because I was feeling adventurous - whiskey, which was awful.



There was also a place to watch this particular street performer who, among other things, balanced a bicycle on his head and jumped through the hoop this boy made with his arms. He was definitely a crowd pleaser.


After that I walked around in the dark snapping pictures like this:


[the must-have London photo of, what else, those landmark red phone booths]

whilst trying to find one of these:


[how do you spell relief for my tired feet: u-n-d-e-r-g-r-o-u-n-d!]

Riding the tubes in London was a ball what with all the pushing, shoving and smelly armpits in my face not to mention strange looks from Londoners listening to our funny North American accents.

[ahh Charing Cross - my favourite street in London]

That evening Leanne and I met back up at the hostel (St. Christopher's by the London Bridge tube station - highly recommended) grabbed dinner, Starbucks and one of the best films I've seen in a long time: "Finding Neverland". See it, it's brilliant. After the movie Leanne and I took a (unintentional) 90 minute walking tour of London. It was 1 AM when we started out towards St. Chris' and 2.30 before we arrived "home". I can now say from experience that the view of Big Ben and the Eye of London from the Thames is mysterious and beautiful in the middle of the night but the train overpasses we scurried under - are not so much.

Saturday morning dawned much too soon for our tired tootsies but we drowsily hauled our behinds out of bed determined not to waste a day in the city. First stop Leicester Square to buy theatre tickets and then on to Harrod's department store.

[London cabs are the coolest!]

The Christmas displays in the windows at Harrod's were enchanting and to fully complete the wintry/christmasy feeling they had a Christmas tree display above the main entrance - complete with fake snow being blown off the top of the building. Leanne decided to stand underneath the falling "snow" and pretend to be something special. :)

[it's hard to tell in this picture but there really is fake snow falling on these people]

Finally, after lunch at TGI Friday's (can't get much more North American - and much less British - than THAT restaurant) we decided our day needed culture so we tubed it to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.
At Westminster Abbey we arrived after visiting hours but just in time for the evensong service (sung almost entirely by the Westminster Abbey Boy's Choir) so we stayed for the experience.

[night falling on Big Ben]

Our day was rounded out by an evening at the theatre - Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" at the St. Martin's theatre. In it's 52nd year it's the world's longest running show. We found out at the end whodunnit but we're not aloud to tell. Don't even ask. We promised.


Sunday morning Leanne got to sleep in but I hauled my bag to the Canterbury East train station and started my journey back to the Netherlands. After nearly 12 hours of travel I was happy to be back in Eindhoven and after six nights of sleeping on Leanne's floor (no offense Leanne - I was thankful for your floor) I was thrilled to sleep in my soft, warm bed!



So there it is - my first post from Holland. This should satisfy all those clamberers. Stay tuned for upcoming pictures from previous trips to Amsterdam and Aachen, Germany.