Living it up in the Lowlands - an international Dutch nodermeet (event)

I am forever surprised the distance that noders travel for noder meets, not meets that they are guests of honour at but have travelled to for the heck of it. Sloebertje travelled to London to join britnoders for TheLady’s birthday high jinxes and Dimview flew in for the amble around Avebury and StrawberryFrog and I went to Dublin for general drunkenness and mummies. Although most of these are foreign country jaunts they are only an hour or so with a budget airline. So when Americans pop over the pond to hang out in The Netherlands it flabbergasts me.

When sloebertje proposed Living it up in the Lowlands - an international Dutch nodermeet we were a little hesitant, we are doing crazy things around Christmas and we have spent the GNP of a small country to do this but sloebertje offered crash space we were in. And apparently in with a great mix of noders.

Before we get down to what happened, I think you need to ponder the interesting nine noders (plus the host's dashing partner) who turned up.

There were following:

• Noders from two hemispheres.
• Ninjagirls.
• Only two people from the host country.
• Britnoders.
• Noders living in seven different countries.
• Outies.
• Three noders who only spoke English.
• A couple of vegetarians.
• Eight different accented English.
• Two native Dutch speakers.
• A couple of noders with a grasp of Dutch.
• At least a dozen languages other than English spoken.
• English and E2 at the very least in common.

The bottom of that list being the reason we were there.

The weekend included:

• Losing a noder.
• A pile of pancakes.
• Much beer.
• A Canal Ride.
• Lost luggage.
• Jetlag.
• Confusing the local restaurant staff.
• A sore bottom.

Now, I have to pause to explain the interesting way that the host couple live. It is communal living in a grown up twenty-second century style, called a communal living project, of which there are a number of these projects in Delft. The section of the complex they live in has four other people living in it. These poor people had noders descending them on them and they were nice enough to give up rooms and produce extra mattresses. We took over the communal kitchen a number of times and they were cool about that too.

So back to what happened in this jam-packed week-end.

The Friday that was not so freaky.

The noders started arriving early on Friday at sloebertje and guest user’s home. When StrawberryFrog and I arrived from Amsterdam, after riding over most of the city risking life and limb on bicycles. Dimview and Wntrmute had already arrived and settled in. Frog and I rested a bit, and then we headed into town lead by out hosts: sloebertje and guest user to learn the secret of the strippenkaart to collect Panamaus and montecarlo. The strippenkaart is literal strip card travel ticket with 15 journeys on it. Of course with the name caused much mirth. We met a very tired looking Panamaus and distinguished montecarlo and headed off to a café for dinner.

When we arrived we had to wait for a table, so we were forced to have a drink. Once seated we all started chatting whist waiting for the arrival of kohlcass who was travelling from Germany by train. The food was lovely and the poor waiter a little perturbed, it was his first day working and a table full of various accented English and wild beer drinking was not really what he expected. The look of relief on his face when he moved down the table to Guest User, a native Dutchman was plainly evident especially as he was confused with StrawberryFrog’s half Dutch/Afrikaans and English ordering. Once we were full of good food we went in search of real Dutch beer.

We ended up in an old Market Square. Where once cattle were exchanged there were people sipping wine under large umbrellas, mood lighting and brass band music pouring madly out of one pub. The brass band appeared, clothed in bright orange jumpers, the interesting national colour of The Netherlands, they were intent on drinking a lot and playing wild and crazy music loudly moving from drinking establishment to pub in order to do so.

We stopped for a drink under a slightly dripping umbrella before decamping back to sloebertje and guest user's digs to make sure izubachi was not left sitting on the doorstep. We arrived about 10 minutes before a little tired izubachi arrived reporting lost luggage from his flight back from deepest, darkest Macedonia. Thankfully the lost item was not needed for the weekend and was found the next morning.

Saturday Night that had no dancing but pancakes.

The chatting late into the night meant we were a little slow in the morning and almost all were up when a more than slightly sleepy La petite mort arrived down stairs to watch sloebertje eat toast covered in chocolate curls. It was here sitting down I realised the riding of bikes the day before had given me a sore bottom. I felt the urge to share, possibly over share, but any way. This sharing was cut short by the announcement that we were to leave in half an hour. This caused a flurry by yours truly and a rush up the four flights of stairs to get dressed.

Once assembled, we were off to catch a tram as we were too late to catch a bus. It should be noted that at this point herding noders is very similar to herding cats and sloebertje deserves a medal for attempting it and succeeding.

We arrived in the centre of Delft with the never ending bike racks to meet Panamaus and montecarlo and then take a canal ride around historic Delft. Delft is pretty and historic we learnt the name comes from delving for the clay that the famous delftware is made. We also saw William of Orange's escape hatch and the building he was shot in. The canals are no longer used for commerce but still form part of the complicated system of dykes and ditches that stop the Netherlands from disappearing into marshlands and the sea. Also they provide a very good defence of the country, in the event of invasion they can flood the country. This tactic was last used in WW2.

It was a stop for lunch which was great fun as there were no English menus and we all tried out our basic Dutch and many questions to our hosts. In the end the flustered waitress managed to cope and we got a very nice lunch. Then we wandered around Delft, exploring flea markets, tourist tat shops, churches and seeing historic places. Most of this was completed wending our way through cobbled streets, along side canals and trying to not get hit by the thousands bikes that whiz around the city quite alarmingly.

After a very giggly group shot we made our way back to the hotel to drop off monte and the Maus and to rest our tired feet. There StrawberryFrog ordered his drink and his accent managed to fool the waiter who responded in Dutch, which caused the rest of the noders to laugh loudly. It was a proud moment for the South African Frog.

Then it was back to home base this time with Panamaus in tow leaving Monte to rest up for the Saturday night carry on. After lolling around, it was all action stations. Sloebertje was faced with a challenge, feeding ten noders and taking into account there were vegetarians and other interesting food considerations. She was a braver woman than I. That became very apparent as she roped kohlcass, Panamaus, izubachi and me to cut up fruit for fruit salad. Considering we were slightly lubricated with Rose wine and beer it was amazing no one removed a finger but we were a little slow for the super cook, sloebertje.

Once the cutting was finished, the pancake batter had rested and we had worked out whether it was cooking or baking pancakes, we settled on making, it was time to start.

Now, mere mortals would use one frypan to make pancakes, or possibly two, but our host is a super cook and had FOUR frypans on the go. Using a couple of pots with water in them and plates on top she kept the pancakes warm and with the helpful Yoben, the friendly, bemused housemate it was a cooking whirlwind. Within ten minutes she had produced enough bacon, apple, cheese and plain pancakes to feed a small nodermeet.

It was lovely; we sat in the communal kitchen, around the huge table. Wntrmute and Kohlcass giggling, Dimview explaining sumo, StrawberryFrog taking photos of the fruit salad, Yoben looking slightly stunned, Panamaus delivering dry little moments of humour, izubachi explaining the Albanians and Macedonians, Guest User opening bottles of wine from all over the world and sloebertje making sure we were fed. (Unfortunately Monte did not join us.) By the end I suspect we had all eaten so much that we were fit to burst, it was fantastic, our hosts very obliging, letting us drink all their wine and it was a great night. We talked late in the night and generally chatted, shot the breeze.

Sunday, on which we over slept and missed mass.

It was a lazy start in the morning, but one that involved packing from most of the present noders and yet again heading into the city to meet with Monte and Maus.

The plan was to head to The Hague and visit museum De Gevangenpoort that was going to give us a tour in English. This was all going to plan except for being a little late, we were a little trundling trail of noders laden down with backpacks and suit cases. On the train, stopping to grab some quick sandwiches at the station and heading off to a park to eat our sandwiches. Then it was through the modern part of The Hague and into the older section and through security in the parliament buildings. It was at this time sloebertje noted we were down a noder. We had managed to leave Dimview at the station! We were so intent on filling our tummies we had not noted her missing smiling face! Sloebertje headed back to the station to collect Dimview and Guest User lead us into the inner court yard to get to the museum. Here we hit some sort of celebration that involved military brass band music and men in uniforms on horses. Apparently it was a practice Princes Day. We arrived the museum De Gevangenpoort it become clear that there was not to be a tour in English, this was a little disappointing as sloebertje had telephoned especially to organise it.

Unfortunately StrawberryFrog and I had to leave part way through the tour to catch our train to catch our flight back to the UK. There was, I am reliably informed, a birthday call was made to AncientSnow after we left. The only spoiler for us was more lost luggage, the bag of dirty clothes disappeared in Amsterdam airport for 24 hours.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

At this point I would like to say a big thank you to sloebertje and Guest User for opening up their home to noders descending on them for four days, it was brave of them and all those who attended are very thankful. It was great to see noders we have not seen for years and to meet new faces. And gentle noders, you have the chance to travel to a foreign county for a nodermeet, do it!