The Story
Becoming a European Traveler: an Update from Spain
 | I can officially call myself a European traveler. I spent last weekend in the Netherlands visiting my freshman roommate and best friend from the College. Emily is spending this semester in Leiden, Holland’s main university town, and last weekend was their annual festival and celebration. After my love of La Mercè in Barcelona, I decided that I needed to experience Siege Weekend. |
Siege Weekend has been celebrated every year in Leiden since the 1500s, even during World War II. It celebrates the Dutch victory in fighting off the Spanish after being blockaded completely, devoid of food and access to the rest of Europe. Now, it’s celebrated with a huge carnival, tons of concerts, and a lot of debauchery.
When Emily and I started the walk from the train station to her dorm in the Holland rain, I was struck by how crowded the streets were for a Thursday. I also couldn’t help noticing that there was a carnival in the middle of what I pictured as a small college town. “It’s really not usually like this,” Emily kept telling me. “It’s normally just a square.”
I took her word for it.
As we kept walking around, it was pretty obvious that Leiden natives were pretty stoked about Siege Weekend. Though I didn’t go on any of the rides due to my fear of heights, they included a Ferris wheel, a carousel and tons of midway games. Carnival food was more than in abundance, too: you could buy a beach ball-sized wad of cotton candy for 15 Euros (which is about $20). I declined that one. I did try some more traditional Dutch foods - olibollen, a ball of fried dough doused in powdered sugar, and stroopwaffel, caramel syrup sandwiched between two waffle cookies. Both were perfect.
Over the course of the weekend, I also tried some other Dutch foods: hutspot, which is a traditional meat-and-potatoes dish (a hearty and warm welcome to my thinned-out Mediterranean blood), and Dutch waffles, which are more like flat crepes.
After two days of the Siege Weekend carnival, the entire town rested a little, and Emily and I went to Amsterdam for an afternoon, wandering and even hitting the Van Gogh museum. We also spend an afternoon in Madurodam, Holland’s smallest town.
Since we lived together in Taliaferro, Emily and I have shared a love of all things tacky, touristy, and ridiculous. Madurodam is exactly that. It’s a miniature town complete with tiny buildings, trees, and people. Everything is a replica of another building in the Netherlands - from Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam to the Mars chocolate factory in Veghel (where Emily’s grandfather used to work).
The entire town, according to the brochure, is “25 percent smaller than in reality, but that doesn’t make it any less real.” Between that and the sign at the entrance that read, “Please refrain from smoking in the miniature city,” we were hooked.
We spent the next two hours taking pictures of the absurd buildings. This was all in pouring Holland rain, and of course, Emily’s umbrella gave up on her about halfway through our visit. The entire experience was by far one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen or done.
It was sad to leave Emily, but I was more than glad to get back to warm Barcelona weather. It’s still amazing to me that I can hop on a plane or train and easily be somewhere else within Europe, so Emily and I are planning to meet up somewhere in the next few months. I have a couple of weeks in Spain - including a weekend in Sevilla and Granada - before my fall break, and then I’m headed to Prague and Paris!
More from Spain soon, so until then… ciao!