Considering the size of Holland, its people has done many tricks. When thinkinf of Holland some conjure up the famous wind mills or colourful tulips. The postcards have the fault for that, but these guys also founded New York (under the name of New Amsterdam, before being elbowed out by the British) and Big Brother (yes, Dutch idea). Other things were not invented but improved, as bicycles (not only each street has a parallel bike path but also cities are linked by them). Other Dutch delikatessen is legalizing everthing that has been forbidden for centuries by Roman right: private property finds a nice stop in the right to squat houses whose owners cannot keep in inhabitable conditions. And legalized marijuana deserves a separate essay. Enough with saying that half of the drivers were smoking and driving without worries. What an irony that with all this legal relax it’s to Holland where you go if you behave really bad (ask Milosevic).
Mi friend Stephen lived in Delft, a small managable, and old nice city, with it’s mandatory channels crossing it, it’s burg houses in flemish style and a couple of 13th century churches/ The first hing I saw when I entered his house was a pack of yerba (Stephen has Dutch passport but blue and white heart) and a cat making unreturned caresses to a beer box. The first day was for nostalgy, we remembered the time we both walked to the town of Crotto (in Argentinean Pampas)… The wines are just like wines, they get better with pass of time.
On Sunday we rode our bicycles to The Hague, where there was a free muscic festival which was attended by 100,000 people. There, wuth perverse pleasure, Stephen took the “mate” out of his backpack and started it. In land of free marihuana the old yerba caused a magnific interest and a prportional deception. They would get close tiptoeing to see what our strange pipe was, asked if you could get high and went back to their places. Big news during the concert: Maxima, the argentinean born Dutch princess has had a new son. People clap… but it’s not mine!!! I swear!!!
The conspiracy’s agenda said on Tuesday we were to do an asado (large argentinean BBQ with steaks and stuff). This was carried on in the squat house at Nieuweelaan. It was the first asado I did in the shadows of the law, since dutch law banns fire… But the steaks coocked well anyway. While we eat we talk. Stephen is tired of working in Holland. As an hidraulic engineer his job is to calculate the impact of a 5mm water level rise in 2114…. And he feels his job is useless to the rest of mankind, so he is evaluating accepting a job for the UN in Chad. That’s why you worked in Argentina? “Yes – he answers- but there the more expensive my project was the merrier for the government”
Two days were used in getting a new italian passport in Amsterdam. I went and came back in train using Stephen’s month pass and smiling without saying a sinlge word to the inspector. My italian passport went missing in a letter from Dublin to Milan. When the new one is ready Stephwn will post it to wherever I’ll be. So far the “blue” (the argentinean one) goes unscatched, with the syrian visa and a rather lost looking swiss entry stamp. The italian ID is used as ajoker sometimes should I prove my tecnnich europeanhood… That’s what I call “selective invocation of grandparents”
The week ended with an attempt to walk to one of the islands in the North Sea during low tide. Something like the dream of all hidraulic engineer… to feel like Moses as the watera give way. We moved to Gronningen for that. The driver that took me there pick his girlfriend up in a sort of transitory camp with many old circus wagons used as houses. More people looking for a way out of this system. I loved it. So we finally started our water trekking, with maps and GPS, but half an hour later we had the water in the neck so we went back. As you see I carried the cross in Dysseldorf but failed to walk over the waters. I am sorry to upset those who saw in me some kind of mesihas. But multiplying bread I do it quite well. My original budget was 5 euros and thanks to everybodys hospitality I couls reduce it to 2,60. The disaster of the week: the toothpaste opened in the backpack… I set off for Denmark
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