On the weekend our fair city of 700 000 was flooded by an est. 20 000 Scotsmen, most of whom were dressed in kilts, some showing their pride further with exuberantly plumed tartan hats... They started arriving in small groups on Thursday and trickled steadily in until they were to be seen everywhere in the tourist areas on Saturday. Apparently there was a big football (ie: soccer) game being held Saturday night between the Dutch and the Scottish. It's very nice to see football get the enthusiasm that is only it's due... slowly Canada will learn, if only because new immigrants will teach us old immigrants!

The city responded with efficient preparation: portable urinals were placed at intervals downtown, a greatly enlarged police force roamed the streets, and the water trucks were at the ready to hose down the astonishing amounts of puke and litter in the streets that testify to a night of drunken revelry the morning after. I sat chatting with a Dtuchman in a pharmacy who said that the city was on edge both with anticipation of the game but also with some anxiety over the possiblity of drunken riots. The Scotsmen seemed harmless enough to me, however; cheeky flirtatious bastards, but good hearted. As far as I am aware, there were no incidents reported.

Portable urinals: glorified drains, really, providing no privacy; indeed four men can stand around the unrinal and each relieve themselves at one of four corners of the plastic stands. I have come across one permanent public urninal, incidentally. It is made of a lovely wall of wrought iron which leads via a little labyrinth to a comparitively private standing area with a drain on the ground. I had walked past the structure several times, vaguely advired the ironwork, before I realized what it was... and that simply because I head the sounds of running water...

The game, incidentally, was 3-0 in favour of the Dutch. I was cheering for the Scottish, Peter for the Dutch. It being Peter's birthday, however, out attention was much occupied with a high stakes game of Munchkin... yes, we have our board games birthday parties even here, and yes, we've made geeky enough friends to join us in considering gaming a worthy use of time!

A warm Kiwi couple who arrived here the same time as us opened their house for the evening. We ordered pizza --important lessons learned: a medium pizza is the size of a small back home; Dominoes' pizza in Europe eschews greasy crusts; and shoarma pizzas are simply fantastic--I baked a cake and we played til the wee hours. I daresay our fun was sure to have rivalled that of partying footballer fans.

Oh, and the best part was the gift I got Peter: a single box of Quaker instant flavoured oatmeal costing 10 Euros (about $16 CAD)!!! But, damn, it was worth it! Any and all of you planning to visit must come bearing gifts of aforementioned oatmeal or you will be turned away at the door!