—•—

Hello and welcome back to Oosterdam Day 8! Today was a bit of a break from the education/experiential excursions, as most places here are closed on Sundays. We did however visit a vintage market in the area, and believe me, I had a lovely time. 

I haven’t visited too many vintage markets back in the States, though Olivia says she had one in her neighborhood back at home that she visited quite frequently, so I assume it must be a regional thing. I’m more used to garage sales or thrifting for clothes—a vintage market is a unique combination of both. We spent two hours exploring this massive open area, surrounded by colorful street art and crowded with stall after stall of vendors looking to sell their wares. Peeking through the chain-link fence I could already see pieces of clothing I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on. Everything was a little too reasonably priced—imagine my shock when I ran face-first into a high-quality leather jacket for only €10. I didn’t even think to haggle the price down, I just snatched it, paid, and left. 

—•—

—•—

I wonder if thrift culture is a big thing here in the Netherlands. It’s something that belongs to our generation a little more—and seeing as the Netherlands adopts a more tolerant, liberal view on popular axes of conflict like sexuality and gender, it wouldn’t be totally outlandish to assume that thrift culture is as popular here as it is in the United States. The market was certainly populated but not claustrophobic, and there was this electricity in the air. Something that had me enthusiastically flitting from stall to stall with a few of my friends, spending money (somewhat carelessly but hey, cut me some slack. It’s Holland.) and taking pictures whenever the chaos converged just right and an assortment of items formed the perfect backdrop for a photo-op.

—•—

—•—

The market was so spacious, we only managed to explore half of it before we had to leave. Our group took another ferry ride across the, um, river (more on this later)—the same river we crossed earlier today, but I am only just mentioning it now because plot. 

—•—

—•—

Afterward, we went to a special luncheon to meet up with old Pitt Alumni in the area, which was really nice! There were six or seven members at the luncheon, and each of them had a story to tell. They were strangers, but they had something uniquely in common with our group as Pitt-goers in the Netherlands. We conversed for a few hours there as well (and enjoyed some local Dutch specialties) before heading back to the Generator for some needed R&R. The day is hardly over, but the blog ends here! I think I’m going to head to dinner with some friends later. We’ll see. I still have to try on all my clothes too.

Well, that’ll do it for today. Thanks for reading everyone, and Happy Mother’s Day! To my wonderful mother (and father, love you dad) back at home who read my blog posts every day, I wanted to slip in a little extra at the end of this blogpost. Thank you for letting me travel to Europe. Thank you for your unconditional support and love, even when I’m being a ‘lil silly. And thank you for being such a wonderful mother to me.

I dedicate today’s word (phrase) of the day to you, ik houd zielsveel van jou—I love you with heart and soul.