Rotterdam!

It seems fitting that my little journey started in Rotterdam, as it is a city of journeys. From Dutch settlers who left from here to go to America (the picture is of the New York Hotel, which was where they left from), to the colonisation of countries including Surinam (more of in a bit), to students from  all over the world (the Erasmus programme is from Rotterdam). I was only in the city for a couple of days but I seemed to see lots of arrivals and departures in that time and it made me think a bit about the nature of travel and the different reasons why it is so addictive to some, so imperative as a life choice for others. 


Anyway, I turned up and guess what - Rotterdam has a rush hour too - who knew? This meant that I missed the skate tour, so instead, my lovely host Renia fed me and showed me around the city. As we joined the apres-skate (lots of sound systems in the city centre and people effortlessly wheeling round on their skates drinking beer and eating ice-cream) it turns out that me missing the tour was a VERY good thing. Rather than a quaint tourist notion of donning a pair of skates and being led through the city, it is several thousand Rotterdammers (and people from other regions) skating (pretty fast) for 16km around the city. I probably would have died. Or broken something. 


Instead over my couple of days, I learned a lot about Rotterdam and Surinam from Renia, a Rotterdammer who came from Surinam as a child. I'm not going to go into the massive political situation there - you can google it - or wait for the song I write about it maybe... One thing I can write about Surinam is that their food Rocks; they use the hottest chillies in the world and they put boiled eggs in everything, which for me is a very good thing. 





Because it was bombed so much, Rotterdam is full of new buildings, and people really seem to mourn their lost architecture - so they make up for it with huge amounts of public art. Sculpture and murals are everywhere. The fire boundary from the war is marked by lights all around the city and the Brazilian graffiti (from a project last year) is amazing.



There is also a decidedly quirky project that turns the entire Noordereiland into a ship, with it's own mast, lights and flag, so that one day it may sail off on it's own. I am now sailing off (in my jeep) to Hamburg.