First few days

This whole place is amazing. The Hague (or Den Haag) only has about 500,000 people and all of the architecture is gorgeous. People literally stay in beautiful homes inside of parks. Yesterday after dinner we slightly got lost walking back to the hotel, and wandered through a park (our hotel is in a park) with the homes of foreign diplomats, all of them were amazing. The people here are very nice, a few of them are somewhat snobby. I accidently nudged an older lady on the train coming from the airport, and I apologized but she gave me a ‘half’ rolling of her eyes, I didn’t merit the full roll. The younger generation is amazingly helpful for the most part, although many of the guys remind me of the movie “Snatch.” Everyone dresses very very well, suits and fancy shoes. According to our walking tour guide The Hague used to be made fun of in other cities for its people who put out fake hams or used thinly cut cheese to try to appear opulent; the symbol of the city is a stork—which is supposed to mean wealth.

Anyway, this morning’s breakfast at the hotel consisted of cold cuts, a half-boiled eggs, fruit, and beans, all delicious but an odd combination. We took a walking tour of the downtown city area where the government meets and where the old time kings and queens lived. I have pictures that will do the city more justice than I can here. Even in the middle of the ‘city,’ the buildings are surrounded by water and trees. Apparently a small river runs under the homes, and back in the day people would just dump their ‘extras’ into a small door in the floor and let the river take it away. It’s amazing, all of the buildings are from the 15-1700s yet people still live and work in them as casually as ever. Everyone here is very laid back, the shops open ‘around’ eleven and close around six, and the restaurants/bars stay open ‘til whenever. It doesn’t even start to get dark until about eleven then the sun is right back up at five.

This afternoon we started a crash course in the courts and institutions we will be visiting over the next couple weeks, all very interesting. This evening we took a walk along the beach boulevard again and through the neighborhoods. All the neighborhoods are kinda like San Francisco, but with shorter buildings and mostly narrow streets. Tomorrow we will be visiting the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to watch some of the trial proceedings for one of the last two defendants to be prosecuted.

I will try to post and put up pictures when I can. There isn’t much extra time. Well, off to read for the night then bed, it’s 11:00 here but it's just now dusk.