day 74, delft

Right after my little hissy fit of a rant in Amsterdam this girl sat next to me with a computer who gave out a particularly normal vibe, which was somewhat intensified with all the other vibes that was in that weird place.  We struck up a conversation and both wanted to get out of the hostel as soon as possible. Went for a walk looking for beer/dinner and got on really well. Her name is Evie, she is lovely and has done many interesting things and gone to many interesting places, including spending a year and half in Palestine. We ended up aiming for a park, after stopping for some very nice thai food on the way, which was really nice to be out of the tourist city centre. After walking for 15 minutes things become quieter, people move a bit more slowly and you realise how pretty Amsterdam is. I wish I knew a local in Amsterdam as I’m sure there is a completely different side and scene that tourist rarely see, and I’m sure would be infinitely better then the city centre where I was staying. After making a loop of the park and finding our way home (Amsterdam is really hard to get orientated, as just full of side streets, canals, buildings and churches that look the same and chain shops, it looks especially difficult at night) we got back to the hostel. I declined the offer to join in with the late night prayers and went to bed after a shower. I had a corking sleep though woke up in the evening rather itchy, and have various bites all over the place which are pissing me off a treat. I’d been messaging kelly (the girl I met in prague) about meeting up, and she said to come to delft. I took the train to delft and immediately felt a lot better then Amsterdam, it was quiet and very pretty. I got myself into the only hostel in town (which is still being built but is very cool) and met up with Kelly. After a posh sandwich and a cup of tea in the square she showed me around Delft, which is very pretty, quaint and cosy. We went into this second hand shop which was just full of everything, all of it shit, it looked like all the crap that charity shops would chuck out, and reminded me of scrapheap challenge and I loved it. We went past canals, churches, art on the walls and various independent shops which were very interesting. We grabbed some milk and dutch biscuits which were awesome and sat in the park and had a chat. She was interested in the hostel so went back and showed her around the place. They had a really cool roof terrace that was still being built, and gave a really different perspective of delft, including of the massive gothic cathedral which belts out various bell turns of differing lengths from 6 in the morning to 2 at night. We met chris who was doing some painting work at the hostel, a aussie travelling and working, who was a chef by trade. Kelly had to go to work (at the daily wok, Chinese in a box!) so I got some food and drink from supermarket and read with my feet dangling just shy of the canal. After that went back to the hostel and read for a bit, before chirs came and did some more painting and having a chat. At the moment am sat in common room waiting for kelly to finish work at 9 before going off to Rotterdam for a night out, also eating some amazing spaghetti that chris cooked before heading off to Brussels tomorrow sometime, have a look around, have a sleep and take the train back to London!