11-17-04

Caleb and I explored Haarlem again because we really like it a lot. Almost better than Amsterdam. It is a lot more laid back. We rode around quite a bit to find a place for lunch. We bought groceries from a local market and had lunch before we even left our camp site at de Liede. This Hungarian character, who's name eludes both Caleb and I for some reason, who lives in a permanent camper across the way from our camp site invited Caleb and I over to his home to have some coffee. so we walk in thru the zipper door and he says to Caleb "You, sit here!" in a very authoritative voice, and to me, "You sit!" and points to another plastic lawn chair at a table. yes, sir! hehe He has been living in Holland for the last 10 years and has moved here from Hungary to make enough money to build a home andhave his own business for his family. He saidthat in Hungary he must work 12 hours 7 days a week for about 1 euro per hour so he cannot support his family in his homeland. His wife and son and daughter were ther ein the camper but they never came out because they didn't speak any english or dutch for that matter. The little kids were cute peaking in when they could and laughing. It was very interesting meeting this guy though A totally different perspective on life. ON the way into the center of the town we saw these apartments that looked like round barn/greenhouse. They were cool lookin! Swans just swim around the canals here. It is just like normal for the people her ethey are all "Yawn" and I am such a kid like, "Sweet! A swan!" We saw a bunch of old cool, brick buildings. The architecture is so beautiful to both of us. We found a new coffeeshop called Regime. The best we encountered in Haarlem. They played some really good music there. Once we post our pics you will see pics of the both of us and that place. We took a lot more pics today. Until it started to rain. I have a feeling that the bulk of the photos we take will be in the spring because the rain prohibits the whole photo taking process. We had dinner at an Italian pizza place. When we finished they were projecting this abstract short film on the side of the building across the street. crazay We biked home the long way and hunkered down in our tent for the night.