I love my life these days for I am enjoying each moment of it. I am living in the Netherlands and I am surrounded by great friends and their families. Most importantly, I am travelling around in this country and exploring cities and towns at my own pace and to my own taste..
I just spent a long weekend in Maastricht. Many beleive that this is the oldest city in the Netherlands but some others argue that it is Nijmegen. I lived in Nijmegen for three months this year and I recently spent three days in Maastricht. My first ever visit to Maastrict. The trip was special for a number of reasons. For the first time I experienced Dutch life in camping cars.. for those of you who are not much in contact with the Dutch, they are fond of their bikes, their boats and kayaks and they cant imagine their summer without their camping cars. By now I had seen a number of camping cars from outside and a few from inside but this time I spent three nights in a camping car. I was excited like a child at this opportunity as carvans and camping cars for me were things to be seen in movies... and there I was living in one... and it was superfun... By the way, I live in Groningen, the city way up in the North and Maastricht is way down south, some 360kms away and Maastricht is a confluence of Germany,Belgium and the Netherlands. This city by the river Maas has acquired a unique character from these cultures and I have more stories to tell you about that...
What else I did in Maastrict apart from enjoying the camping car? Well, I rode an electric bicycle for the first time, I watched first Dutch play. I did not understand the words but I must say I could feel the tension as the play unfolded in front of us. I freaked out in the weekly vegetarian open market for super cheap fresh vegetables but also I could find Okra.. I do not get Okra that easily in the Netherlands, particularly kind of Okra that we get back home. We do get Okra from Suriname which is slightly different but in Maastrict I bought Okra from Kenya.. and I cooked a lovely vegetable out of it. One morning, I woke up by the river and the other day by a lawn with horses. I participated as an enthusiastic audience for a bachelor's party.. and I was overjoyed to take few fabulous shots of thunder storm and lightening... I visited a huge Asian supermarket, I had never seen such a huge Asian market before in this country and guess what, I went to Belgium one morning just to buy fresh bread and some muesli. The food in Belgium tastes so much better... I relived my moments in Leuven. I binged on my favorite apple-cakes. We visited a castle nearby on a Sunday morning, there was no one around.. we were the princesses strolling around. A tree lined canopy fascinated me and we meditated under this arch of green life. It started raining soon, we could hear the rain drops and its intensity but we were safe and dry.. the meditation was refreshing and energizing.
The ease with which we can cross borders within EU still surprises me. I spent an hour with a Belgian family, a family of musicians to be precise. Sunday morning, warm and friendly people and some apple sap... a dog competing to get your attention.. three siblings spending summer together in their Parents house. I met first Cello player in my life, this young, bright and beautiful woman is a professional cello player and has been trained in Brussels and Freiburg and will soon set the sail for Basel. It is a pity that I did not get to experience her music. Her dad is a piano teacher and he tunes the pianos back into melody.. I did not know what is the word for such a person but I did not want to say, he fixes the pianos or treats the ones who are not doing well. One of the brothers is a Kayaker and leads student groups on many expeditions. The family was so special but still so humble, friendly and happy.. I was happy to have met them all... I wish I could spend more time with this family.
The evening turned out special due to performance of the Dutch play. But we also cooked Indian dishes for a group of 60 people. My first cooking stint in such a massive quantity. I was a bit nervous if they would find food spicy but as luck would have it, we ran out of food. People just loved it and we did not even get to taste it. I think it is true that food can connect people.. otherwise how do I explain all the connections I have been making in this country... ohh I love food and I live for food...
Food, that reminds me.. I have to take you on a special culinary experience that I had in Maastricht.. I will do it in my next blog post.. so stay tuned and enjoy every moment of your life...
Love and sunshine from Groningen...Doei....
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