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French fries (Or: A tasty treat)

Some weeks ago Marco and I visited Bram Ladage, a small takeout place that serves mainly french fries and milkshakes. Once you have had those fries it is hard to go back to McDonald’s.

Patat met pindasaus from Bram Ladage

On top you have pindasaus (peanut sauce in English).

The best part about Bram Ladage is there is “free” seating nearby on the Grondwetbank (a loose translation would be “Constitution bench” – it’s a very, very long bench which is inscribed with the first few lines of the Dutch constitution).

It’s not something we get very often, but when we do it is always very tasty!

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Ride free with tram 11 day (Or: HTM flyers and ice cream)

Yesterday HTM had a promotion to ride free with tram 11 so that you could experience the new Avenio trams. So far tram 2, 11, and 17 ride with the new model. 11 has had the new model for a while, but considering the route is from Station Holland Spoor to the beach (stop Strandweg), perhaps they were waiting for better weather. And we definitely had awesome weather!

Tram 11 coming around the corner (actually at the beach, so this photo was taken on the way back):

Tram 11 by Strandweg HTM The Hague

A promotional cover over the machine you normally use to check in and out. It says ‘Travel today for free’.

Ride free with tram 11 day June 2016

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Cold refreshment (Or: Like taking a sip of the universe)

Last month Marco was feeling creative. He knows I like the color blue so he decided to make me a blue lemonade + tequila + orange juice concoction. Originally he was going for a layered look but I think this result was much, much more awesome…

A drink of the universe

Another look:

Tequila with orange juice and blue lemonade

The glasses were actually a promotion from Baileys – buy a bottle of Baileys and get two glasses free. They are quite beautiful actually.

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It must be almost summer (Or: Iced coffes galore)

This will be a very coffee-themed post… It’s almost summer (maybe) so it is a lot more fun to drink iced coffees. First up we have a frappé from the library café, Bibliotheek Den Haag. I found it so tasty I had to struggle not to drink it all up within 30 seconds.

Iced coffee at Bibliotheek Den Haag

Second we have a Starbucks drink from a coworker (her blog and her Instagram). After a while it gets old just writing your name on the side, so these days the Starbucks workers write random messages on the side. It’s raining men… and coffee!

Its raining men Starbucks cup

Next we have a summery mural from the Eat Company from the artist Sophia den Breems. I’ve previously blogged about the Spring 2016 mural here.

Summer 2016 mural by Eat Company The Hague
Iced cappuccino and iced chai tea at Kaldi The Hague 2

Finally, the latest discovery… iced chai tea by Kaldi! It’s hidden away in the Haagsche Bluf. It’s the drink on the left, next to Marco’s iced cappuccino. It was delicious, a slightly thicker concoction with the chai tea taste at the end.

Categories: Everyday purchases, The Hague | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

PostNL (Or: The fun of trying to get a package delivered)

Earlier in the month I requested a new passport from the American consulate. Not because my old passport was expired (I had another 4 years) but because I wanted to change my last name to my married name. Yay!
I must say that the process definitely seemed confusing at first. Of course, you need an official copy of the marriage certificate as evidence that you are married, which you can request from city hall. But when I received the marriage certificate, it said that my last name after marriage was still my maiden name. It turns out that in the Netherlands your last name is still your maiden name, but you can use a different last name in certain circumstances. You need to tell city hall what your preferred last name is and then any organization which gets your data from city hall’s records will use it unofficially (Den Haag article).

But since I got married a few years back, this information slipped my mind. So imagine my shock when I received the marriage certificate and it said that my last name was still my maiden name even after getting married. What! But after speaking with the American consulate it seems they are quite used to this – just send the information, they said.

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Categories: Culture, Daily Dutch living | Tags: | 3 Comments

Palace Garden (Or: Enjoying a day off)

As I mentioned in my last blog post, Thursday was a holiday here in the Netherlands – Ascension Day (40 days after Easter). It was also Liberation Day (Dutch | English). For most people, that is only an official holiday every 5 years (2015, 2020, …) so most people had the day off because of Ascension Day.

But the reason Thursday was so great was the weather – 18c, or low 60s. A great day of sun that almost everyone got to enjoy. Since Friday we’ve been in the 70s.

Marco and I went to Hometown Coffee where I again ordered my iced mocha coffee. Yum! Marco got a blended cappuccino. Due to the good weather we decided to take a walk. Somewhere along the way we decided to go to the Palace Garden (Paleistuin in Dutch) where we found a bench to soak up some sun and watch the kids play on the playground.

image

And that’s the thing – good weather is precious here in the Netherlands and something to enjoy. The city comes alive in this time, with the outdoor cafés crowded, every table in the sun taken. It’s a great time!

(And here is a shoutout to my mom on this Mother’s Day!)

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Tricks of the eye (Or: Is that …?)

Marco and I recently had coffee at Hema, splitting a slice of apple pie. On the way out, we noticed some of Hema‘s famous sausage:

Marzipan sausage at Hema

Except that this was in the candy aisle. The sausage was made of marzipan! (Marzipan is apparently rather popular over here, but not so much in America).

I also noticed some chocolate bars which say “You are sweet” and “Thank you”. The problem with this is I have some good memories of the chocolate bar when it used to be in Dutch (“Ik vind je lief“) so it is a bit odd to see it in English. For example, the first time Marco gave me one when I still lived in America…

Thank you and You are sweet chocolate bars

And finally, a what the heck? kind of image. Check out this Kit Kat flavor Marco and I saw at the Asian store:

Sweet potato kitkat flavor

That’s right – if you look at the pricing card underneath you will see it is sweet potato flavor… All right-y then.

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Rain rain go away (Or: Life I Live festival in The Hague)

King’s day was on Wednesday this year, which meant that the Life I Live festival took place the night before. In short, the night before the holiday the center of the city closes down for the festival, with various music stages set up around the area. Most of the major genres are represented – jazz, rock, blues, covers and more.

Problem is the weather was pretty horrible, especially later in the night. It was also apparently the coldest festival ever. So it was pretty hard to stay out longer than an hour!

Here is a look at two of the street art pieces that were created during the festival from scratch. Street art #1:

Street art in progress 2 2016 Life I live Festival The Hague

Street art #2:

Street art in progress 2016 Life I live Festival The Hague

Street art #2, another angle:

Street art 2016 at Life I live Festival The Hague

Here’s a look at the newly installed lights on the Grote Markt. They alternatively glowed orange …

The Hague Grote Markt lights during Life I live Festival

and the colors of the Dutch flag:

The Hague Grote Markt lights during Life I live Festival 2

You can also see photos from the 2013 Queen’s night, which has better photos of the stage and the actual event itself.

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Public service announcement (Or: I love trams)

(Public service announcements, or PSAs. Basically messages that are freely distributed to the public because they are in their best interest.)

Trams rule! I never realized this while growing up in the US because there wasn’t much public transportation around. Or when there was, it was just buses, and I am not as big a fan of those.

Here’s the birthday card Roger made for me. Front cover – a look at the Avenio trams, the newest model. Some of the tram lines have started to use them (2 and 11) with 1, 9 and 17 next. You can just make out the top of the tram where he edited the sign to say “Niki’s birthday”.

Tram themed birthday card - front

Inside you can see a map of The Hague (at the very bottom), and then a tram service schedule on the left side, with a picture of an older, yellow tram sign you would find at a stop on the right. Roger even added a picture of gourmetten in the middle since that’s what we ate on my birthday. Finally, in the middle you have a look at the tram lines throughout The Hague.

Tram themed birthday card - inside

And a look at the two books that I currently have checked out from the library:

Two books about trams in the Netherlands

The larger book is a photographic history of trams in The Hague since 1945 (until 2011). The smaller one is a non-fiction book written by a journalist who spent a year working as a tram conductor in Amsterdam.

I love trams. No interest whatsoever in driving them, but I love reading the latest news. Try htmfoto.net or HaagsOVforum.nl. The first one includes way more than just tram stuff, or even HTM stuff. There’s a lot of old pictures of the city to lose yourself in.

Categories: Transportation | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Tapas at the Mezze (Or: Dinner out in Scheveningen)

Amazingly my birthday celebrations are still going strong a week and a half later! My taalcoach (language coach, Den Haag SamenSpraak) invited Marco and I to dinner at the Mezze, an Arabic/Moroccan tapas bar in Schveningen. It’s actually right next to the Kurhaus, on the side facing away from the beach.

The food was great – we did the all you can eat buffet which meant everyone could choose what they wanted. And go back multiple times for the same item, in my case…  Below is a look at some of my food (bottom plate) and Marco’s food (top plate). A mix of cold and warm items.

Buffet at Mezze Arabische Tapasbar

Quite simple but the thing I kept going back for was the soup and bread. Did I ever mention I love bread? Yum. Actually, in the picture above you also see the bread (the slightly darker pieces on the plate itself) – it’s just been cooked for another day and is much crispier. I prefer the softer bread at the far right above or in the picture below, though.

Soup at Mezze Arabische Tapasbar

The area where we ate was in the glass enclosed terrace. Even though it was a cold day outside, it was warm enough inside, thanks to a healthy fire in the middle of the table.

Rocks and fire at Mezze Arabische Tapasbar

The restaurant also has belly dancers on the weekends. I didn’t get a picture of it, but she had a very pretty navel piercing – a blue jewel.

Dancer at Mezze Arabische Tapasbar

And because I just like colorful plates, here’s a look at the choices for the soup bowls. One of these does not belong…

Bowls at Mezze Arabische Tapasbar

Afterwards we had dessert and coffee back at their house. Check out the desserts! Of course I went for the chocolate one. 🙂

Dessert cakes

But check out the design at the bottom of this one. Very cool!

Dessert cake

Categories: Food, Friends&Family, Scheveningen | Tags: , | Leave a comment

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