Adventures and Life

All my life Europe was always just a place I'd read about, mostly in high school history classes (and we all know how much useful information is available there) so I didn't really know what to expect when I got off the plane. I'd imagined what it might be like to go there, but I never really expected to actually stand on a street corner in an amazing city and think to myself, "I can't believe it. I am really truly in another country, halfway around the world from where I was born." It is an incredibly surreal experience. If it weren't so beautiful, and if everyone wasn't speaking Dutch, I almost wouldn't believe that I am here. Maastricht, Netherlands. Being American, a Western American at that, the oldest city I have ever lived in was maybe a couple hundred years old. Maybe. Maastricht has been a city since the Roman Empire built a bridge over the river Maas. I don't know if there are any relics left from that time, but it is amazing to me to think about all the thousands of lives that have been lived here since. I suppose that could be true of nearly any spot of ground on the whole planet. I am probably more conscious of it because the history is so much more obvious when there is a cathedral a several centuries old across the street.

The city is beautiful. I love that so much history has been preserved, even as the society has become very modern. We went to an open air market this morning and I was a bit surprised at what was for sale: lots of fish (it's Friday, you know) some fruits and vegetables, a few stalls of luggage, clothes, and acres of fabric. More fabric than I have ever seen at one place, and it was all beautiful. The picture shows only the tiniest fraction of the stalls. But there was no yarn! I am really rather disappointed. I find it hard to believe that the Dutch sew so much and yet nobody knits.