sun 23 mar 2008 11:35:00 — to and from haarlem
walking in the snow in haarlem
zo 23 maa 08 11.35u. sitting on haarlem bound train at track 2a. to go find olia in haarlem.
demonstration yesterday only 1300 people. cold rainy windy. politicians mostly deliberately stayed away, the speakers and musicians all seemed far forgotten. some people avoided it because it was largely aimed at a specific man, wilders. i don't know how that makes sense. wilders is the self-proclaimed advocate of the racist policy, chooses to symbolize it, so i don't see why it's wrong to demonstrate against *his* policies. i think people are just afraid to stand up.
11.55. train is heading into a horizontal snowstorm. three germans, a family, have sat down surrounding me. the teenage daughter is weirdly cute.
14.30 on train back to ams cs. we had coffee at the only café open, on grote markt. i think it was named "brinkmann" or something. snowed like mad outside. then we wwalked all around haarlem, lots of little streets, not v tall bldgs, some old walls w cracked paint even! got as far as an old city gate, walked through it and back, walked around an old molen as well (we were lost on the wrong side of the river spaarn), then we parted and i found my way back to the station. from the "kiosk" kraam off the concourse to the tracks, i bought myself a broodje gezond and a coke (ongezond). waiting on spoor 1, i watched a 35-car freight train pass thru station. yes i counted again!