Very relaxed morning in Haarlem.. I’m sure it’s because I’m camping now.. yeah, that’s it, it’s the camping thing..

Poffertjes (small pancakes) with whipped cream and strawberries, plus a nice cappucino for brekkie. Mmm Mmm! Entree was a tin of pineapple pieces, sitting on the grass next to the tent. It’s pretty cool here. Campsite is a couple of kay out of town near a lake. You can rent boats and canoes and stuff..

Yesterday I basically rode around town and explored. It was pretty busy with markets on and heaps of people around for Saturday shopping. Lots of interesting sights..

The night before last I stayed in the hostel here. It was also a few kay out of town and quite expensive at 25euro/night. LP said it was only 15euro.. pah! That helped my decision to move to the tent. The bartender at the hostel was from Sydney but I almost didn’t pick him as aussie coz his accept was so strange. It was like every 4th word sounded like Aussie but the rest could’ve been American, Canadian, Dutch, etc! No biggie.. he thought I was American!! Everyone thinks I’m an American! Maybe I should stop wearing the chaps and spurs?

Just for the record, he was another Aussie who handed out free beer yay! The local beer was called “Adriaan” and it tasted weird-as but it was certainly drinkable. Belgium beers were on hand too.. a few 8.5% Duvels and 11.5% Kasteels quickly turned me into the gibbering mess you all know and love..

Anyway, that night involved some heavy drinking (I just said that didn’t I?) with the bartender and a few other dudes from around the world. I think it was 4am when I hit the sack. I was too tired to go into town anyway so it wasn’t too bad. Before that I’d visited a nearby supermarket on the canal and bought an _almost_ healthy dinner, save for the chocolates and strange, orange cream slice. The ride to Haarlem from whereever the hell I was before that was pretty cool. Um.. I’m sure some other shit happened.. I dunno.. whatever..

Some dude got busted in the net cafe yesterday… kiddy porn surfin’ I reckon.. coulda been hacking something, I dunno, I speak as much Dutch as I do Mongolian, ie. 3/8ths of 2/3rds of fsck all. There was also a big crowd gathered around a street sign outside the hostel. The all clapped when it was revealed.. I took some pics but dunno what the big deal was? Did I just witness the creation of a new suburb?

The campsite is nice and green and cheaper than the hostel at about 7.50euro per night. Gotta pay 1euro/5min of shower time though. I still gotta get out on the lake and go for a paddle.. and find out how to get to France for Le Tour.. and find out how to.. and.. and..

Where’s my pipe?

Well, I think it’s the first time I’ve seen rain during the day since England and I ran back to the hostel from town so I was hot and wet.. what did you think I was talking about?! 😛

Wished Mum a happy birthday.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!!

Tried to call Tam but she’s a busy one that one, well, nothing productive, off at the movies my spy told me.. sheesh! 😛

Rode around for a couple of hours. Found a nice little forested area which would be heaps better on a bike that wasn’t slicked and fully loaded. Continued on to the beach as well which was nice. Noticed some very interesting sculptures here (and quite a few in town, for that matter). Ended up with a massive 30k’s with a uci record-breaking average in the realm of 13kph! Look out Lance!

Back to the hostel and after a nap walked into town. (Sidenote: Me, napping.. WTF is happening to me?!?!). Late lunch of strange bread and even stranger cheese. I tried to find the oldest Gouda I could. Gouda is a town near here, famous for that cheese. It could be worse – they could be famous for the worst psycho killing spree or something. Sat down and watched skater dudes do their thing. Just for the record, Vanilla Coke is cheaper here than normal Coke. Also for the record, caramel stroopwaffels aren’t that good.

Tam called just as I walked into some seriously loud music.. I ran away and chatted to her quickly because I’m sure she’s now using stolen credit cards to support her phone habit..

The music turned out to be an awesome marching band. Six or so drummers and maybe four brass players. The were VERY loud and VERY good to listen to and watch. I followed them down the street, taking some video and pics. They stopped in the open area in town where nets were setup for baseball practise (the whole thing was aimed at promoting baseball). Then out came the cheerleaders for some dancing! Yay for free entertainment! While everyone was oggling the cheerleaders I chatted to one of the drummers (okay, I watched the whole routine before chatting to one of the drummers.. it’s only fair, right? :P). He’d been playing with the others for six years! No wonder they were so good. Their timing was very impressive. He was getting tired of it though after six years and wanted to focus on his Thai Boxing. Pity, coz I think the drumming is heaps cooler.. where are my bongos? He said Rotterdam’s Carnivale in July is massive, with heaps more bands and suchlike.

I went looking for shoes sized >46 but found nothing. Came back for the bands second set. This is when it started raining. I dashed back to the hostel after they’d finished. Don’t know why coz I went straight out again.. I’m an idiot.

Think I might head for Haarlem tomorrow. It has a cool name. Amsterdam might have something interesting on during the weekend but I don’t know.. I’m also wondering how I might make it back to France for Le Tour.. do I “waste” a lot of time and ride back or do I try and leave my bike somewhere and train back for a day or two?