It was a warm afternoon. I had spent most of the morning
watching the second season of The Good Place. Today is my last day in the
Netherlands and after almost 14 days of traveling the country, I wanted a day
of rest. Rest initially came in the form of lying dormant in the bed all
morning, rolling back to the familiar Sunday mornings at home, lounging in front
of the TV and watching the YouTube videos of late night comedy shows. At home,
we often end up just vegetating out in front of the TV on weekend mornings.
It’s a strange way of relaxing but somehow in today’s age of fast paced life,
just consuming content without moving a muscle seems to allow you to be awake
while being absolutely corpse-like. It’s like meditating except that when you
come out of this kind of coma there is a feeling of time lost in nothing-ness.
Today started out like one of those days. After binge-watching the entire
season of A Good Place on Netflix, I decided to finally shake myself out of the
bed and walk to the nearby café, which came recommended from our host and
decided to create content for a change, instead of consuming it.
The shower
and the change of clothes were quick. I realized I had left all my clean clothes
up for drying in our host’s office, which also served as her living/dining
room, and since I knew that she was working there with an intern, I decided to
recycle one of the t-shirts from the pile of dirty laundry. Once I had the
momentum going, the departure from the house was rather hasty. I quickly picked
up my bag, emptied it out of all the redundant items from yesterday’s trip to The
Hague and packed up my laptop and charger.
It was going
to be a short 10-minute walk to the café HOOI. I stepped out of the house onto
a rather quiet street. It was, after all, 3pm on a Thursday. A quick walk
across the houses and I had reached Wilhemina Park. There were quite a few
people in the park for this time of the day. The temperature was quite alright
and in the shade of the trees, the park seemed rather inviting. Most of the
people in the park were sunbathing, an unnecessary pastime in my opinion. As I
walked along, I heard the strumming of guitar and spotted three friends quietly
playing guitar and softly singing along. Behind them was the statue of Queen Wilhemina,
the namesake of the park. She stands tall and heavy, looking over everyone who
passes by. Though the park was quiet, it was by no means empty. There was a
steady stream of bicyclists riding through the park onto their destinations.
That is one of the beautiful things about this town and The Netherlands in
general, the town is always bustling with activity, but it always seems quieter
than regular places because bicycles don’t create any noise.
As I exited
the park, bushes upon bushes of roses greeted me, sweetly adorning the houses
along the park. They came in all colors – yellow, white and pink, smelling
heavenly. I continued my walk towards the café through the now increasingly
active part of town. It was coffee time for everyone and the foot traffic in
the town was picking up. Finally I arrived at my destination, a nice calm place
with worktables and cushions for people to work while sipping on their soups or
coffee, or enjoying a meal.
I started
off with an order of zucchini-broccoli soup served on a wooden platter with a
slice of multi-grained bread. The bread looks nice and airy, on which rests a
round slice of butter, looking like a slice of half-boiled egg yolk on a white
hollow egg-shaped plate, the size of an ostrich’s egg. The soup smells
delicious and hot. It has a streak of cream with a sprinkling of coriander on
it. The butter on the bread, though, is the best part of this meal. Absolutely
delicious! I intend to follow it up with a slice of quiche and I can already
tell by the smell wafting towards me that it will be superb too.
“Everything’s better with
some butter”
