I did know that from Amsterdam I had to catch a train to The Hague. I have a friend who lives and works there called George. When I arrived in The Hague I looked for a public pay phone to tell him that I had arrived. There was no phone to be found, I eventually gave up and approached a lady at the information counter.
"Is there a public pay phone I can use?"
"There is one close by, but I think it is out of order".
This could have been a problem, but the lady was not finished.
"If you want, you can use my cell phone to call, is it a UK number you are ringing?"
I was left amazed, where else in the world would a lady offer her personal phone to call an international phone number? The Netherlands is the answer, or perhaps Holland, I was still not sure.
George works in The Hague for the War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia where he is an assistant to one of the Judges. Which I thought sounds very important.
On the way from the station I asked if he could show me the Hague so I could take a picture, he looked at me strangely and gestured towards the street "This is all The Hague", he explained. Up till that point I always thought that The Hague was a name for one particular building, whenever I heard news reports like 'Gordon Brown gives a speech in The Hague', I imagined one stone structure, when it turns out to be many different places within one city.
I decided then to wait before asking him to clarify the name of the entire country.
My first morning George had to go to work and I decided to tag along. He mentioned quite casually that I could watch proceedings in court from the public gallery and I tried to be casual in response, but I was actually really excited.
The security to get into the building was understandably significant, George gave me a tour then one of his friends directed me to the public gallery. I went through some more security checks then walked into a room where I found myself seated behind the Ambassador of Croatia! On my left was the defence and the accused, on my right was the prosecution. The Judge was ahead and the issues they were dealing with were very much current. Click here to view a news article about what I witnessed happening!
I eventually left the court and some of Georges friends asked if it had been boring. I can see how it could get tiresome everyday but it was such an amazing experience to see a court in action, I decided there and then that Nikki would have to come on Monday.
Nikki. You might have thought she left us to return to England but she got bored, so decided to return to meet in The Hague. In typical fashion she arrived by plane, then met Jen and I in a bar. We were all joining the defence interns for a pub crawl and things were fun till we ended up in a club that was so empty it was sobering.
The next morning we went to Amsterdam with slight sore heads. It was really nice weather and the city was packed. Everywhere I walked it seemed I was stepping onto a bike lane, tram line or busy road. We visited the red light district with women wearing practically nothing and standing in glass windows. We also stopped into the 'Erotic Museum', which made a funny and somewhat unusual change to the usual historical experiences we have had so far.
The day unfortunately ended on a sad note though. Jen and I parted ways. She was returning to London that night by bus and so our adventure together came to an end. It was all quite emotional even though I know that I will not be far behind her. On Tuesday 15 December I will be home.
And it turns out I am in The Netherlands, but Holland is also here too...
bx
(The last photo of us all together)
(George and Nikki strike a pose in the sex museum )
(Nikki, George and myself at The Hague, in The Netherlands)
Yay! Ben and Nikki are coming home!! Call me la! x han
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