Notes from the Netherlands is my feature where I discuss my time studying at Leiden University. I want to blog about this amazing experience as much as I can!
So it’s been a while since I posted about my time in the Netherlands, therefore I have a bit of a backlog, about 3 posts or so to cover November and December. Let’s begin!
- One afternoon I went with two of my friends to Leidse Hout, which is a big park/wood on the outskirts of the city. They have deer, rabbits and chickens, and there’s a little tea house near the entrance, so we stopped for tea and cake before going for a walk. It’s a beautiful place, a little green haven, and I definitely want to go back there to take some proper photos.
- In November I met up with the wonderful Amber, Mel and Judith in Amsterdam. First of all, we ate lunch in the library which is HUUUUGE, and we were hoping for a fantastic view over the city from the balcony – which was unfortunately closed for the winter. Luckily, there was still a nice view from the building itself!
- After lunch we headed to… the bookshops. Is that a surprise? No? Well what is surprising is that we were all on book buying bans, and we stuck to them! I think my favourite of the bookshops we visited was the American Book Center, where I got to meet Tieman, who I have chatted to on Twitter, in person! They had a really great selection of science fiction and fantasy, and it wasn’t all shoved away in one tiny corner like you find in so many bookshops.
- Of course we ended up in Waterstones (which apparently still has the apostrophe in Amsterdam). It was strange being in such a familiar environment in a different country, and even stranger seeing a section for ‘British food’ and snacks, like Marmite, teabags, HobNobs and other things we might miss…
- There was a board on the way out where you could write what you were currently reading, so of course we had to leave our mark.
- And finally, we ended up in Starbucks, as you do! It was wonderful to meet them all (or again, in Amber’s case), have a wander around Amsterdam and band together to keep each other from buying books!
- After everyone left, I was still hanging around in Amsterdam – because I was going to a paint party with my friends that evening – but my account of that is for next time!
Leidse Hout
It still has the apostrophe!
The Wise Man’s Fear! It’s there, somewhere…
Judith, Amber, Mel and myself.
Rinn Reads 
I love that wooded park. That is a place I would be running at all the time. Beautiful.
It was gorgeous. Today would’ve been a lovely day to go, first sunny and non-rainy day in a little while… but I ended up having to finish off an essay and some other stuff 😦
I have been remiss in never visiting a single bookstore all the times Ive been to A-dam. Next time!
Visit them ALL! 😀 And definitely check out the library, it’s just round the corner from Amsterdam Centraal.
Ahhhh! Leidse Hout looks and sounds so lovely! Just so SO lovely! 😀 That’s going on my list of places to visit someday. 😀
I’m super happy to hear that you’re having a great time! ♥
It’s sooo pretty 🙂 Apparently there’s quite a few more parks around here, I definitely need to check more of them out!
I’m still amazed that we managed to stick to our bans! We’re awesome. And of course I just went through that photo to spot our Currently Reading books XD
I know! And haha, I can actually still remember what each of us wrote…
It’s still amazing we didn’t buy any books!
Super powers! We just need to work together to keep to our book bans, obviously 😛