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Reports

During my travels, I received free accommodation for a night in exchange for writing a daily travel diary. This diary documented how I reached my next destination, the hosts who welcomed me, the food I was offered, and other experiences along the way. Below, you will find the archives of these extensive reports. Please note that English is not my native language, and most entries were written quickly, often around midnight. Enjoy!
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Thursday, 3 May 2001
--> Scheveningen (NL)

My night-host Caroline and I made it pretty late last night, so it was quite a bummer for me that I already had to wake up at 8.30 am because she had to go to work. She was already running around fully awake, and when I opened my eyes my breakfast was already standing in front of me on the livingroom table!

After this I took a shower and packed my stuff, not forgetting Her Gift: the signed book about Gavin Friday written and published by herself!

I thanked Patricia generously at the front door, and we went our separate ways. She headed to her job at an Internet company, while I walked back onto the Wibautstraat, which would eventually lead me onto a highway if I continued straight.

My next destination was Scheveningen. Halfway down the street, it started pouring rain heavily. The promised 25 degrees Celsius and sunny weather seemed like a distant dream at that moment.

I took shelter from the rain in front of the building where the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant is headquartered and read some pages of the latest edition in the window until I received a phone call on my mobile phone.

It was Eddy Keur, a radio jockey from the Dutch AM station 'Q The Beat,' calling for an interview in English to be recorded and broadcast abroad. This was part of the sponsorship deal I had with the station, but I hadn't expected the call at that moment.

I was a bit frustrated because I couldn't fully share my story and only answered some common questions. I also think Eddy's English could use some improvement. We'll have to work on that, Eddy.

After the brief interview, I donned my raincoat and resumed my walk towards the highway.

I recalled hearing that walking along highways in the Netherlands is somewhat prohibited, so I used a bicycle path next to the highway to reach a gas station where a German girl was already trying to hitch a ride in the pouring rain. I let her go first and took shelter at the gas station until the rain stopped after about 30 minutes.

Once back outside, I learned never to stand next to the road trying to hitch a ride right after a rainfall. A large truck passed by and splashed mud all over me. Yes, you can laugh, but it really startled me! Fortunately, I had my raincoat on, so I only had to clean the mud off my pants with a towel to look presentable again. After an hour of fruitless attempts to get a ride, I walked to the nearest off-ramp heading towards The Hague.

It wasn’t long before I got a ride from an all-around artist who was headed to Vlaardingen. He dropped me off at the highway junction before he needed to turn left and I needed to go right.

I had only been walking for about five minutes along the busy 4-way intersection when a police car stopped, and an officer started speaking to me in English.

I asked him to speak in simple Dutch, and he requested that I get into the car. I already suspected this was not a routine hitchhike, and when he asked for my ID, I felt trouble was brewing. The officer issued me a fine of 120 Dutch Guilders (over $50) for walking along the highway. So, it really was prohibited. The bill would be sent to my home address, which made me chuckle internally: I won’t be there for a while, haha...

They dropped me off on a sandy road in Leidschendam, where I displayed my 'The Hague' sign again. Within five minutes, I got a ride from a Turkish man who was headed all the way to Scheveningen. That was exactly my final destination for the day!

The Turkish man worked as a cook and waiter at the Columbus Restaurant, and we chatted a bit about the Turkish music playing from his car’s CD player, in Dutch, of course.

I arrived in Scheveningen around 2 PM and walked a bit through that part of The Hague until I reached the address where my hostess for the day, Charis, lived.

Charis is one of the most attractive and youngest webcam girls in the Netherlands, with a unique website where she posts almost daily updates about her life in English.

She is genuinely surprised by the modest number of 500 visitors she gets each day from around the world, though most are older men asking her to undress, which she sometimes does—though only revealing her bare shoulders and a warm smile.

Her ex-boyfriend Derk, with whom she is still living for a little while, let me in, and a few minutes later, I met Charis, who had just returned from the mall.

Our initial reactions to each other were marked by mutual shyness, but after chatting and sharing stories about our travels, it felt like we had known each other longer. In fact, I had met Charis before on March 19 during a web meeting where many Dutch webloggers gathered for drinks. Pictures from that event can be found here.

She showed me their small but cozy apartment, where she’ll be moving out soon, and of course, she turned on her webcam to show me to the world.

After some online chatting and ICQing, she took me to the beach, just a ten-minute walk from her house. The weather was still less than ideal—very windy and quite chilly on the beach—but it was refreshing for the mind. It had been a while since I had experienced the beach, and it felt great!

Alongside her studies in Information Technology, Charis also works as a waitress at the popular beach restaurant Bora Bora. She insisted on visiting this place for a cup of hot chocolate by the fireplace. It was indeed a cozy spot where ‘just feeling good’ was the top priority.

I received an email notifying me of my appearance in today’s edition of USA Today, and Charis kindly bought me a copy at the local newsstand! It felt surreal to read about this project in a globally distributed newspaper. How exciting!

We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and ICQing at the house, and Derk prepared a delicious dinner of rice with chicken and vegetables in a great sauce. It was quite tasty! Throughout the meal, Charis kept her webcam running, so I’m sure you’ll find some pictures in her archives soon.

After dinner, Charis changed her outfit and took me to visit Mark, a very good friend of hers, where she’ll be moving into a student flat.

We took the tram, and Charis even bought me a public transport strip card! Each student room in Mark’s new place had super-fast ADSL, a novel experience for me, having only used a 56K modem until now.

The two of them took me to Havana, a restaurant that turned into a small dance hall as the evening progressed. We drank beers, met some of Charis and Mark’s friends, and had a good time. The DJ mostly played dance tracks from the past five years, which kept us reasonably entertained but sometimes disappointed on the dance floor.

Around 1 AM, Charis and I took the last tram back to her place, where I wrote up my notes about the previous night at Caroline’s place.

I’ll do my best to stay only one day behind in writing my reports, but apologies in advance if Mr. Time isn’t on my side in the future.

Today with Charis was a very interesting day, filled with engaging conversations. We discussed her website, her breakup with her boyfriend, and even had some deep, philosophical chats on the tram about life in general, which made us both reflect and gaze into the dark outside.

It was very, very interesting. In many ways, I see a lot of myself in Charis—both of us are energetic, restless, and enjoy life to the fullest.

When I gave Charis the gift from Caroline, she was genuinely surprised, especially since it was such a personal gift from Caroline and the book was even written by her!

Tomorrow, I’ll be staying at a location in The Hague City itself. Charis still didn’t know what personal gift she would give to my next host.

Find out tomorrow!

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