Travel Buddy Reunions

Ive been traveling almost seven months now and I've met a lot of great people from all over the world. The French are always polite in not liking my kind, the Canadians are usually just Americans avoiding political debates, the Aussies always have a great sense of humor, but the Dutch... they always lead to great times. I dont know what they put in the water, or maybe its the laid back culture that and growing up with all the those legalized drugs but if you ever find yourself in the situation of a group splitting up to different bars and you dont know which half to go with, just follow the Dutch.

I got to Germany just fine by thumbing it. The problem was that I had been there before and I have been running out of time before my flights. I looked on a map and had two options: Go slow to Barcelona through France or haul ass to see where all these cool Netherlanders come from. I chose the latter

Back at Tiger Leaping Gorge, a national park in China, I met up with a Dutchman named... Actually I cant tell you his name. This guy has a very long arrest record because of how active he is in protests and other community activism. A sweet old granny gave me a ride into his hometown. There is a long story to this guy but Ill just give the highlights. One hell of a character. Take all the cool, smooth talking and stone face expressions of James Dean, the attitude and clothes of a punker, mash them together and let it run wild in Holland.

This guy is most famous to me for what he and his group does as "Squaters." In short, they take over properties that aren't being used. They usually do this because its a waste of a building, to preserve affordable housing or to save a historical fort from becoming a yuppie hotel. About six years ago my friend and his very large group broke into Fort Pannerden, a beautiful for that was in use during WWII, kicked out the security forces and then barracaded themselves inside. The local response was for military and police forces to evict them by using force. I'll try and find some footage. My buddy took me for a tour of the Fort and we spent the day hanging out with other activists sharing stories of protests, fights with police and brawls with Neo-Nazis. I just kept quite. That night I actually slept at a squat downtown. Nice place, they did a lot of renovations since they kicked the door in and took over.

After some walking around in Amsterdam I made my way to Dan Haag to visit Janice, who I met in Laos. We haven't done that much. Just relax in glorious Holland and ate... a lot. Ive never met anybody that eats as much as Janice and she is only 90 pounds. No travel for a couple days, just sitting, eating, movie, eat, sleep, eat eat eat and cruise suberbia on bikes.