seeing orange

about a month ago a good friend of mine, manon, flew me to holland. i was there for two weeks and had a wonderful time. manon is originally from holland but works on a mega yacht that during the summer is based out of st. maarten (hence how we met). her family is in lieden which is where we stayed for most of the time.

she toured me around on her scooter and we visited many of liedens historical places. it is a beautiful place.

after the first few days we took the train to amsterdam and stayed in a small hostel just off the main area. we were there for queens day and i have never seen so much orange!!! everyone had something orange on. it was a bit overwhelming going from my small caribbean island to a big city with SO many people (over 300 000 appeared in one square over the course of the day). there were times when i could hardly walk!! but the music was great and it was definitely a fun atmosphere to have experienced.

after the queens day weekend we toured around doing lots of different things. beaches (which were FREEZING), going to different festivals, and trying every kind of dutch food manon could think of to give me.

just before i left i was able to travel inland and up to the west end of holland to visit my friend yasmin. we met in st. maarten and had a lot of fun together, i was very said when she moved to holland so it was wonderful to have the opportunity to go and see

her. it was just like when she was in st. maarten, lots of laughter and silly pictures. we rode her bicycles everywhere and did lots of exploring. shes now living in a very small town so it was really nice to get out of the city and away from so many people.

overall an amazing trip and a nice chance to get off the island for a little while. it was strange to be back in "reality" and having everything running smoothly and working well. lots of fun, freezing cold (even though everone else was in shorts), good food, and good times!