It's official. I'm in love.
Trip Start
Apr 03, 2009
1
8
17
Trip End
May 30, 2009
Heerenveen, Friesland, Netherlands
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Mum and I went and spent the day with Aunty Yanni in her little village yesterday. We had cups of tea and chats with her in the late morning (while she plied us with chocolate and all things Dutch and yummy) then she took us out to her favourite little antique shop after lunch. Two things you need to know - the only shops in her village are a wee supermarket, the restaurant that we had dinner in the other night and this little shop. So - small, very small. Secondly - I'm not a huge fan of antique stores. At all.
We walked into this little shop and it was so full of stuff that you didn't know where to start looking first. My habit is to start at the back and work my way forward. Aunty Yanni waschattingg to the lady who owns and runs the place - she's become quite good friends with her since they moved to the village - and mum was going mental over the 50 million teapots they had. I found a couple of things that I knew other people would like so I bought them as presents - and as I was looking around I found this beautiful painting which I fell in love with. Next thing I know we're being invited into this ladies house for a cup of coffee! We go in and meet her husband and her 20 year old cat and she starts serving us all these fantastic little Dutch treats and really good cups of coffee. We were chatting away with the lady and her husband - Olga and Walter for ages - us telling them about NZ and our travel plans and Aria and Asher, and them telling us how they'd moved here a couple of years ago from Amsterdam. It was such a cool afternoon. I can't get over how friendly and open and welcoming they were!!
But it doesn't end there. After our afternoon tea with them we went back into the shop because mum had finally decided which teapot she wanted and I had made up my mind to buy the painting.
However, it's not just me who's in love with this painting - Walter adores it!! He was so sad that it was being sold but at the same time he said that if it was going to go anywhere he's glad it's going home with me to NZ and that he wouldn't have let it be sold to someone who didn't appreciate it the same way he did. Olga started to wrap it up for me but Walter told her to stop and then went outside and started cutting up a thin piece of wood to put over the front of the painting and then wrapping it in layers of bubble wrap!! LOL. Adorable.
Next thing I know Olga is wrapping up a painted plate with a picture of the flower markets in Amsterdam as a gift for me from her!!!!! And then starts wrapping up a teapot that was her mothers as a gift for mum!!!!! These people are just amazing! And it's not just them - everyone we meet or even walk past says hello. We've had so many conversations with complete randoms in the few days we've been in the Netherlands.
So I'm in love. With a painting, with a village, with a country and now with antique stores!!
Comments
you will never be the same!
Don't you agree? how could you ever be the same after visiting Europe!So happy for you Alex and love to your Mum
Love from your Colombian cuzzies
You Are Officially a European Citizen
Just think, thanks to being a daughter of mine, and of your mum, you are indeed, officially a European Citizen, entitled to an EU passport, which allows you to live and work anywhere you fall in love with, should you wish to do so at a later date. The [European] world is indeed your oyster!