The diary of a Scot in Amsterdam

I was still living in Scotland when my friends Jocelyn and Carole announced that they were getting married, and this weekend the time finally arrived for their big day. Although they have been living in Glasgow for almost as long as I had, they are both in fact French and so had decided to get married in their home country, or to be more specific the town of Oloron-Sainte-Marie in the Southwest close to the Pyrenees.

Needless to say, myself and all the other friends they have made in Scotland were delighted at the opportunity for a wee holiday in France, and of course were also very pleased for them since they are such a lovely pair!

Myself and Laura were the only folks travelling from Holland, although since we were able to get a direct flight ours was a relatively easy journey compared to the people in Scotland who had to contend with various ill-timed connections and dashing across Paris in order to make flights. This meant that we were able to arrive a few days before the wedding and could spend a day in Pau (rhymes with “low”), before taking an outrageously-expensive taxi to Navarrenx, the village where we would be staying during the wedding. It’s a lovely wee place, not much bigger than a couple of streets and with a a huge medieval stone wall encircling the entire village.

When we arrived we immediately bumped into Antoine, Tam, Jef, and most of the others from Scotland. I have not seen any of them for over a year and it was really great to catch up. Needless to say, soon (about 5 minutes after arriving) the beer was being poured and the piss-up starting. Not for the first time on the trip I ended up totally plastered and probably making an arse of myself, but well, I was on holiday…

Saturday was the day of the wedding, where after a short service in the city hall the service took place in a lovely old church in Oloron, followed by the reception in an old farmhouse not far from Navarrenx. It was an absolutely fantastic place, surrounded by fields and hills with the Pyrenees and Spain in the distance, and the wedding meal and dance (with Céilidh music and Scottish dancing) was a good laugh too. The only thing was of course that I and the rest of the Scottish lot could not understand a word of French, and we were left feeling a bit lost during the service and speeches. The Scottish-based Frenchies were able to offer some helpful translations of the funny bits!

Sunday and Monday involved more eating, drinking, and not doing too much else. The last of these was pretty much essential due to to the heat, which our northern skin is not really built to deal with. Fine if you don’t have to work, though.

Finally, there was a wee garden party at Jo’s parents’ house in the evening before we headed home on Tuesday, back to Holland and work and responsibilities. And, I would think, a period of sobriety.

I have been missing my camera for the last month, since I lost it in Münster. It had not disappeared totally, though, and was handed in to some colleagues of mine from the DAI after I had left. Long story short, Jolanda had it, but she lives in Den Haag (The Hague), and so I had to go and pick it up. I didn’t mind this so much, since I have never been there and felt like a wee trip out of town.

Got the camera back, and have now added photos to my report on my week in Münster – thankyou Jolanda! Nice one. It seemed silly to head straight back to Amsterdam straight away, so I took a wander round the town. There were some interesting works on show as part of Den Haag Sculptuur, a yearly event showing outdoor works of sculpture in the centre of the city. I particularly like the cute little scooter parent-and-child!

I also had time to visit the Mauritshuis (lots of very sobre portraits from the Gouden Eeuw (Dutch Golden Age)), as well as the Gemeentemuseum (Municipal Museum), which had some very nice work including an exhibition of the Finish artist Helene Schjerfbeck, and GEM, the more contemporary next-door-neighbour of the Gemeentemuseum. The last of these had a frankly dazzling show consisting of a specially-built collection of interconnected shed-like constructions with doors and corridors much too small for me, containing the oh-so-cutesy paintings of the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara. Well worth seeing.

Well, that was about as much art as I could deal with for one day, so back home it was!

It was my birthday today – I am now twenty-eight. I don’t really like celebrating such things very much, but doing something nice on the day would was OK. Astrid suggested that we could go up north to Friesland and get some country air, and that seemed like a very good idea.

We set off early(ish), catching a train to Enkhuizen. It’s a small and pretty little town on the coast of the IJsselmeer, about an hour north of Amsterdam, although we only had time to stop for a coffee and some apple tart before the ferry left for Stavoren.

The trip across the IJsselmeer took about and hour and a half, and I was reminded of journeys over rough seas off the west of Scotland on CalMac ferries many years ago. This crossing was not so wild, though, since the IJsselmeer is in fact an enormous lake caused by the damming off of the former Zuiderzee in 1932. According to the captain of the boat (who explained this as we set off), this means that it gradually turned from salt to fresh water over a period of time. This means what was once a major fishing ground is now mainly used for recreational sailing.

After chips and ice cream in Stavoren, we decided to set off for a trip around the coast. This we did by means of hiring a tandem (see picture). This was not as scary to ride as I had expected, although of course not very social either because you are either talking to someone’s back or shouting over your shoulder.

Before catching the last ferry home, we had time to go swimming in the IJsselmeer. This was of course bollock-freezing to begin with, but quite nice when you got used to it. Refreshing!

Finally, after getting back to Amsterdam we went to see what was playing at Pluk de nacht (“Pluck the night”), a free open air film festival which has been running over the last few weeks. Unfortunately, it started to rain just before the film began, and so of course everybody piled into the only covered part of the site, and you couldn’t see the screen or hear very much. As soon as it stopped, of course, they all dived back out again in a comical fashion. By this point I couldn’t really concentrate any more, and anyway the film wasn’t that good, so we went home instead.

A long day with lots done, but fun all the same. Last but not least, an answerphone message from my parents singing me “Happy Birthday” – sweet!

Oh, and one more thing when I got home – a present from Andy and Laura. I was in Holland on holiday almost exactly two years ago, and bought the hat shown here on the left (the blonde person in the background is Laura). Well, of course, I lost the bloody thing somewhere in the meantime. Imagine my surprise and delight then when I was given a hat exactly the same (see right), and from the same shop too. Aww, I love my pals!

Not much interesting been happening lately, hence no new posts. About the only thing of note is that following my earlier construction of a bed & shelves, and later more shelves, I have now built myself a sofa bed. Since I have a tiny room this really helps. I’m quite proud of my efforts, it must be said.