Vierhouten...

I had had the worst hangover of my life. Followed by the other worst hangover of my life. And it wasn’t even the weekend yet. Oh god…what has become of me.
I was in severe need of some detox. Fortunately that weekend I was visiting the Schlingemanns, in a place far removed from the incessant parties of Erasmus.

All week I had been receiving sweet little emails from Marianne:
Dear Madeleine,
Have you received my e-mail? You can come anytime when you want (feel like it).
Coen has studied at TU Delft mining(engineer).
I hope you like it there,Delft is very nice.
Sorry Madeleine for my bad english.
Lost of Love Marianne.

I was looking forward to finally meeting the author. So after several hours on the train, next to a smelly person (why does this always happen?) it was great to pull into the station at Apeldoorn. Marianne was patrolling the platform, while Koen waved a homemade sign saying “welcome Madeleine, Australian girl!”. When I found them, and it was like I had known them all my life.

We drove home through the forest, along a two lane road. They were doing roadworks and Koen had to severely reprimand the driver of a bulldozer until they let us through.
“No, you are not allowed to pass through”
“But we live here….”
“Oh, ok.”
After a pit stop for appeltaart met vanille saus we returned home for lunch. I rediscovered the concept of variety in food. When living on your own you end up eating the same thing for three days, because if you buy more than that they everything goes off before you have time to eat it. Like when I bought 250g of salmon by accident and then had to eat it for four meals in a row (I wasn’t complaining mind you). Or the giant block of pate I was ‘forced’ to consume on my own. So when Marianne put this eye-popping spread of different food types on the table I couldn’t help but have three sandwiches. She had also stocked up on every typical Dutch food she could lay hands on, so I got to try everything within the course of the weekend, learning (to my future detriment) about more new and addictive cakes and biscuits.

Marianne and Koen were the perfect hosts, and throughout the weekend I saw twee little harbours, eel-smoking frames, dykes and fish nets. Oh so many fishnets… to which I had a bad attack of camera trigger-finger. I was given hot chocolate with rum in it, and spent time luxuriating in their heat cabin.
But something was wrong…. I could tell. My back was aching and aching in a way that screamed “WARNING … virus alert!!”. My week of partying was coming back to haunt me, I was getting sick for the second time since arriving in Delft. I was not as sociable as I woud have liked to have been… I kept falling asleep on the couch in front of the Dutch version of “Dancing on Ice”.

On my second day Marianne took me cycling in their forest, stopping for a sad moment at the grave of their son, who died in a car accident 16 years ago. I can’t understand why such bad things happen to such good people.

After parking our bicycles we walked together in the forest for couple of hours, hoping to see a wild pig. Of course, as soon as they heard I was coming they all left town for the day. Wildlife does not like me….although the fact that we were having a good and rather noisy chat probably had something to do with it! Marianne introduced my to dust mushrooms….fungus designed to entertain. They obviously only exist to be destroyed, because when you stamp on them they explode into a cloud of dust. It’s so amusing that I’m surprised they haven’t become extinct.

We finished the afternoon with a leisurely stroll through a food festival that was happening in the main street (well… main for a very small town). Watching sheep-herding demonstrations and falconry. I got a close up of an owl….and took the sort of photograph that makes me look like a person who can actually take good photographs. Afterwards we wondered the food stalls, once again eating such an astonishing variety of delicious things that I couldn’t finish my dinner. I’m not a greedy person… honestly…..

When I left the next day it was with sadness and foreboding…. I was leaving the Schlingemann’s and paradise to return to starving in a garret. And hurtling head first in to the waiting arms of ….THE SICKNESS.