Courtney's Back - Part 2

Our next stop was Delft, a small town endlessly full of charm. Camping Ulyenburg was our first experience of life in a van (yes, we literally were right down on the river) and it was a delightful place. With the river on one side and our friendly farm neighbors (goats, horses, ducks, and the like) on the others, we settled in quite nicely. We soon found our favorite coffee and bagel shop (bagels – a long forgotten carb option - yum) where we would hunker down for an hour or two each morning before hitting the town. In the evenings we'd take a leisurely bikeride around the neighborhoods and backwoods areas, where we made friends with (and then subsequently had to go back to revisit) more farm friends....a handsome white horse and black goat combo, who were shy at first but thrilled to see us back again, several cats, dogs, and what could only be described as cowsheep, a brown spotted baby goat who loved to have his chin scratched, and even a kangaroo! I nearly cried on our last visit when it was time to say goodbye for good. Clearly I was in serious need of an animal fix!





We thought it'd be cool to hook up with some Dutch friends from our scuba class (back in Australia), Erik and Anouk. I started emailing with Erik over Facebook and he wanted us to come out that first weekend in Utrecht, but we were going to a concert. We'd chatted with a guy in the band and it sounded cool (check out Sleepy Sun – they were SO good. Totally awesome in concert but their CD is cool too. They're from SF) So then some time goes by and we end up getting in touch again from Delft and this time I'm messaging back and forth with both Erik and Anouk. We made plans to come by on Saturday afternoon (this was Friday) and Anouk made some comment about how Erik wouldn't be home til 8 or 9pm but we could have dinner with her. I responded that it was funny that Erik said to come around 4pm but he wasn't actually going to be there? So she writes back and asks if maybe I have made an “appointment” with a different Erik because her Erik has never had any email contact with us. Oh SHIT!! How freaking embarrassing.....turns out the Erik I was chatting with was ANOTHER young blonde Dutch guy named Erik, that we'd met in a campground in NZ at the very beginning of the trip! We couldn't even remember what his girlfriend looked like, and I can't imagine how we would've played it off if we showed up and she was not Anouk! Erik #2's FB pic looked exactly like Erik #1 with sunglasses on and a goofy grin.....sooo embarrassing. So we kept our “appt” with Erik and Monique (who we recognized at once) and had a blast hanging out, christening their new mini-kegerator, and talking about our trips at their new place in Waarbrugge that they'd moved into THAT day. We instantly remembered how much fun we'd had with them way back in Waitangi.



Then the next day we bombed to Breda, another cute university town, and went to a huge outdoor concert with Erik and Anouk and had an awesome time with them as well. We never told E&M about the mix-up so they wouldn't know we originally didn't have intentions of calling them up to hang out! Thankfully Dutch people are all so nice and hospitable. We did have a constant sense of deja vu that weekend, not being sure which Erik couple we'd had which conversations with. Their lives were eerily similar!...both just got back from touring NZ and OZ in a campervan, both just moved in together for the first time (besides the van), both just graduated and started their first job, yada yada. I think the mix-up doesn't make me a TOTAL crack smoker! Though Jeremy has offered to take on the social planning role from now on...