Good Friends, Good Bitterballs

Friends in Den Haag

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This weekend I was visited by my good friends Nico, Fiona, Butto and Jess. I arranged a highlight tour of the Hague. And top of the list….go-karting! What is a visit to Netherland without tearing a few laps around a race track?

The gang arrived late on Friday evening. After showing them to their hotel we went to a nearby bar for some “welcome drinks”. So was phase one of the beer sampling. We took it easy though, being a late start and race day was the following morning.

Next morning we meet up to head out to De Uithof…a mega-outdoor-indoor complex with all sorts of sporting things to do…ice skating, skiing, rock climbing, and go-karting! We signed up and got dressed in our leathers and hairnets…I’ve never felt sexier. The boys were testosterone-fuelled and in competition mode. The girls slightly less confident about the idea of ripping each other apart on the race track. We were joined by another group who seemed semi-professional, and they raced very assertively. It was less GO-karting and more BUMPER-karting with these guys as they would simply plough their way past you. The boys tried their best to keep up, but these guys (and one girl) were in a league of their own.

Afterwards we headed back into The Hague centrum, and put Mirjam to bed as it seemed last weeks Egyptian meal was still causing havoc. We then went for lunch at a nearby Dutch “brown café”, to sample some authentic Dutch (and Belgian) beers and snacks. The menu here is extensive and thwart with danger. The beers range from a 4% to around 12%, with the majority around the 6 to 8% mark. The aim was to try a range of beers and to add some more excitement to the day, we would choose each others beers. A bit like Russian-Roulette, Butto lead the day with the 10% alc/vol Forbidden Fruits beer from Belgium. He took it like a man, and faired well.

To compliment the beer tasting, we also indulged in the Dutch snack called bitterballen. An interesting name, but probably the best thing the Dutch have ever come up with. It’s a savoury deep fried snack of unknown contents that is served with mustard and fully compliments a beer like nothing else. They were a big hit with the group and will be talked about for many beers to come… try some next time you come visit.

That evening we turned things up a notch. Unfortunately Mirjam couldn’t join us as she was still revisting the Egyptian kofta. The rest of us headed to a local steakhouse to treat ourselves to a fine piece of Argentinean beef. Most of us went with the Beef de Lomo which was a gorgeous piece of meat, if only I could thank the steer for being blessed with such a tender loin. Complimented with a nice bottle of Argentinean red wine and good conversation. Again, 5 happy customers left with full bellies and proceed to fill the gaps with a few cocktails.

We headed to a Cuban themed bar/club which was just setting up the dance floor for the evening as we arrived. Time for a cocktail first, before we proceeded to work off the Lomo with some gyrating and hip shaking. It proved that the classic Tequilla Sunrise was the cocktail of choice this fine evening. Each one enabling us to perform even more advanced dance moves and show the DJ how much we appreciated his work. A few hours later we had done our dash, and a great evening winded up.

The next morning were some sore heads, but none-the-less we proceeded to Maduradam, a minature-land which models some of the nicest towns, icons and highlights of The Netherlands. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t playing nice, but we did get a mini-truck to drive us a mini-mars bar from the mini-factory. We ticked off all the major sights, so now everyone knows what other places around Netherlands are worth checking out in full-size.

Next stop was the beach, only a short tram ride away. We got down to the beach front, and the sea was angry that day my friends. The weather had churned up a mean-looking swell, actually quite impressive to watch. Time for another Dutch treat – lunch time at a Dutch pancake house. When I think pancakes, I think Nutella, honey, maybe some fruit? But the Dutch take it to a whole new level. Butto had a beef stroganoff pancake, I had italiano pizza style pancake, and Mirjam had a vegetarian pancake (yes she was feeling better – straight back into a nice light meal for the stomach!). The meal was very good, and we ended it off with the final Dutch desert delicacy –Poffertjes. These are little pancakes served with three kinds of butter and dusted in powdered sugar…ahhhh yeah.

We ended the day back at my apartment, before the group collected their baggage and were back on the plane to London. It was really great to have some good friends over and to show them some of Netherlands, and the town that is my home. It made me realise how much I miss having my good friends around. I am looking forward to catching up with them again. So consider this an invitation to you my friends to come over and visit. If not for me, then for the bitterballen!

See you soon.
Steve

A shade less white

Sun in the Sinai

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Well it finally happened. I got a tan.

Most of it has faded away now, but none-the-less I had one. And here’s how I got it.

After a rather cloudy and uneventful “summer” in the Netherlands, Mirjam and I decided we needed to look abroad in order to obtain our annual dose of vitamin D. We decided on the Sharm el Sheik on the Sinai peninsular of Egypt. The online reviews sounded perfect, warm sunny weather, beautiful beaches, snorkelling right off the beach, and hotels with ice cold cocktails. And as it turned out, they were spot on.

We really only had one major agenda initially, and that was to spend a week on a lounge chair getting a tan, with the hardest decision to make each day is what cocktail to order. That remained the theme of the trip, however I convinced Mirjam maybe and extra curricular activity or two would be good just to balance things out.

We arrived on a Tuesday evening, and was greeted at the airport by our hotel representative. Straight to the hotel, we had to strip down because even at 10pm it was still high 20s. Beach side restaurant, I had prawns, Mirjam had pizza (which started a trend for her that week). We already felt pretty happy with the way things were turning out.

Now the majority of the days read a bit like this: Get up late, buffet breakfast down near the beach, wander over the beach loungers to set up camp, sunbake, swim, sunbake, snorkel, sunbake, cocktail, sunbake, shower and get ready to head out for the evening. Sharm el Sheikh is not like the rest of Egypt, in that it is fully decked out for tourists and none of the muslim conservatism is adhered to. There is an array of bars and nightclubs, and one can party all night if they so wish. For us, it seemed a day of lounging around in the sun had zapped our energy for some late night benders so we kept it fairly low key. Everything is alfresco though, which was great as evening the evening are warm. I don’t think I had to change out of shorts and a t-shirt the whole week.

On Thursday we booked ourselves on an afternoon quad-bike ride through the desert. This was a lot of fun, tearing across the sand on a 4-wheeler. For authenticity (or was it to actually keep the sand from whipping your face?) we wore head scarves like the Bedouins. We cruised around until sunset, visited an echo spot in the desert, and had tea at a Bedouin camp. A bit tacky all in all, but loads of fun just for the quad-bike cruising.

Thursday evening we were convinced by the hotels “animation team” to join in the evening show. It was a couple competition, and we had to compete against some other copules to win some fabulous prizes. Well we joined up, and it was fun. Mirjam had to pass a ping pong through my trousers and pop ballons on me…hard to describe. Anyway, the important thing was we won, mainly due to my performance of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean to the seal the win. We received a free massage at the hotel spa.

Friday turned out to be a mega day. This is the one day (evening) that the word “relax” didn’t come into the equation. Now the day was nothing but relaxing (see description above), however for the evening we had signed up for an early morning hike to the top of Mount Sinai to watch the sunrise over the desert. For those of biblical inclination, Mount Sinai is where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, and he spent 40 nights at the peak in meditation. Mount Sinai is about a 3 hour drive from Sharm el Sheikh, so we needed to head off early. We were picked up at 10.00pm, spent a half hour picking up the others and then with a very bumpy 3 hour drive cramped in a mini-bus we got about 4 nano-seconds of sleep and a very stiff neck.

We arrived at the base around 1.30am, and started climbing about 2.00am. It was pitch black, luckily I had done my research and brought a good torch, as the ones provided were rubbish. A Bedouin guide was there to accompany us up the mountain, however this turned out to be rather a pain than any assistance. Our guide, bless his heart, was a nice guy, but he truly was a man of the desert and had a rather pungent odour. To make matters worse, he had a tendency to give cuddles (especially to the women) to “assist them up the mountain”. Well, Mirjam and another polish girl were his favourite targets, and even I got a hug or two, and it was certainly made me want to hurry up. In fact, many times Mirjam had to ask to be let go “because it was easier for her to walk alone.” Additionally, our guide seemed to be a marathon walker and was whipping us up the mountain at record pace. Even me in my peak physical form, was having difficulty keeping up. Another middle-aged lady was turning an unhealthy colour of red in her face.

And to really destroy the ambiance of the hike, our guide had to call out every 10 seconds so that he could keep track of us. Since it was dark and he couldn’t see our faces he would yell out “SAMARA” into the night, to which we would respond – just like sheep. After three hours this was a tiring ritual, and combined with other groups yelling our different words, it damped the tranquillity of the hike.

It was a tricky climb, being so dark and the ground very uneven, it was an accident waiting to happen. However we made it safely to the top, after 3 hours and a few stops at the tea shacks along the way. The top was very crowded, however me made it up in good time (thanks to our guide and his odour) and managed to beat the majority of other groups. Thus we could get a good spot on the peak to watch the sun rise. And it was definitely worth it, the scenery was awesome, and the landscape so different to that of continental Europe. A rainbow of yellow, orange and brown as the sun rose over the desert mountains, it was breathtaking.

The climb down was killer. Now about 7AM, and not sleeping the night before, our bodies were tired and legs feeling jelly-like. We took an alternative route down, 3000 steps created by some monks living in the nearby St Catherine Monastry. This was a beautiful hike, and being day time, we could see the beautiful scenery. We visited the monastry, but to be honest I was so tired I hardly took it in. Then a dodgy Egyptian restaurant at a local hotel that looks like it slipped through the hotel associations quality assurance process, and we got on the mini-bus for another 3 hour bumpy ride back to Sharm el Sheikh. We returned around 2PM, and resumed our position on the sun lounger for the rest of the afternoon.

The brilliant thing about Sharm el Sheikh is that there is wonderful fish and snorkelling right off the beach. In fact, if you wish, you wouldn’t need to go anywhere other than the hotels beach front to get some descent snorkelling. Well, to compliment this, we decided to take a snorkelling tour to nearby Ras Mohammed National Park. A place famous for its diving and snorkelling – we visited 3 locations within the park. I saw many colourful tropical fish – I felt like I was swimming in an aquarium. We saw some salt mangrove trees, and swam in a “magical lake” that only forms during high tide.

And that was our week in Egypt. Very relaxing, good food, and service is exellent. Highly recommended for a lazy weekend away – with the odd extra curricular excursion where so desired. Try the kofta – you’ll be squirting for a week after (I was).

Steve