Haarlem !

Since I was finished with my year in Den Haag and my host family there, I decided to go somewhere else, HAARLEM !

Soooo beautiful ! :)

Haarlem!

Lekker!!!

Basiliek St. Bavo

Süß!

De Adriaan. Der Adrian!

Between Halloween and Haarlem

I didn't know that Halloween is still that big. Well, not over the last years in Germany but this year, the part of the town where I live here did it big! The houses were decorated in the best Halloween style and the kids were all dressed up. (Well, lets forget about the 16 - 18 year old guys who wanted to sell me that they are still 12 years old...)

In our part of the town Halloween was that super duper cool, that even one princes aka one child of the king Willem-Alexander went here to celebrate it with other kids. Strange world. And yes, it needed to be said.

My hostmother organized it in our "buurt" so we even had GLÜHWEIN, yummy!

Limonade

Dressed up as fries. What the heeeeell?! No doubt, we are in The Netherlands.

That was our entrance. We did our best...

On a nice first November weekend we decided to use this awesome weather to do a bike tour. Actually we wanted to go to the beach in Noordwijk, as we haven't been there yet, but then the sign said it's just 13 km more to Haarlem. So we were like "Uhm... 13 kilometer aren't that much compared to what we already cycled today." So we spontaneously changed our plans and cycled further to Haarlem.

And to warn you: NEVER TRUST THOSE KM-SIGNS! They lie. And it hasn't been 13 km. Maybe 20 or even more.

 

KEUKENHOF! Tulips! Such a tourist place! Near by Lisse, you can cycle there from Den Haag or Haarlem. It's quite in the middle and a must see in spring.

And then, we have been in Noord-Holland. Goodbye The Hague, Goodbye Zuid-Holland. Just skipped provincies!

Haarlem! You might know, I have a "special" connection to this city. Almost my city where I would spend a year. Almost.

That is Haarlem. Wonderful old dutch city (like almost every city is here...).
And if you like to do a bike tour and LOVE to cycle 50 km one way, you might have fun to cycle there from The Hague or wherever.
Yes, we found out that our 32 km were a bit more. About 50 km to be honest. And yes, I believe that as the way back was sooooooo long and cycling for 3 hours seemed so endless.

WHY Den Haag?

Maybe some of you knew that I already had a family in Haarlem where I should start. But there were 2 reasons why I decided not to go to Haarlem but to another city, a city where I really wanted to go, a BIG CITY, which was a dream of me since I had this idea of going to The Netherlands after my finished apprenticeship which I had right from the beginning of my apprenticeship. What matters are dreams and if you have the chance to live YOUR dream, then why shall I take second best?

Of course, Haarlem isn't a small city, but one reason was the "family" and the second reason for me was DISTANCE. With Haarlem and this whole Au-Pair procedure I connected so many things and one person and for me it wouldn't be right to go to Haarlem as I thought there would be things which constantly will remind me of that time. And about the "family", the family is really really really nice and soooo lovely and adorable, but I couldn't imagine myself caring for a 1 1/2 year old baby boy.

Yes, now you might say "Don't let any fear ruin everything." but for me, I just couldn't imagine myself with this situation. Maybe it would have gone all right and caring for a 1 1/2 year old boy wouldn't be that bad but for now, I know that this is not what I want.

About Den Haag, Den Haag is a big city! YES! It is close to Rotterdam (which I pretty much like as I loooove Rotterdam) and it has a beach in biking distance from where I will live. So it all sounds pretty perfect to me. Maybe it will be a nightmare in the end but I choosed it so I can't complain.