This is the story so far…

such cute dogs!

I’ve had a really great trip to Rotterdam, so far.

Thursday was a productive, albeit lonely, day at the Rotterdam Office; dinner was with some really great people and lasted late into the evening.

Friday was a bit less productive—I was sluggish getting out of bed and to the office—and at the office I met up with Marcus who came up from Belgium just to see me. He was supposed to be at dinner on Thursday, but Belgian train employees went on strike that day, so he was unable to join us. Instead he spent a mere three hours at the Rotterdam Office before leaving for his 3-hour trip home.

Center of Rotterdam's Nightlife.

In the evening I took a nap in preparation for going out, but around the time I was about to leave, I revisited the website for the club I was going to go to and realized it was Urban Gay Night—I’m not sure what I was thinking before, but I suddenly realized that the word “Urban” probably meant music I didn’t want to listen to, so I opted against going out instead watching British TV (always excellent) and sleeping—of course having rested quite well, I woke up a bit early and got to listen to somebody who’d partied too much evacuate his stomach on the street outside my hotel.

Crowded Cafe!

Today was really great: I slept after listening to the poor guy outside until 9, then I did a tiny bit of work, took a shower, got dressed and wandered off to meet one of my Dutch friends. It’s the first time I’ve seen him in a long time and it was purely by chance since he’s not actually living in The Netherlands. He’s just moved to India, from China. We ended up spending over two hours at Dudok, one of Rotterdam’s more famous cafes, although the service was incredibly bad. After that we wandered the streets for a few hours while he was trying to find something (that went unfound) and I ended up spending 20 minutes in the basement of the bookshop looking.

I really couldn’t have had a better few days. I just hope the rest of my trip goes this well.