Europe Blog #2

The Cowgirl's in downtown The Hauge and in front of the Queen's Palace...also the beach in Scheveeningen

By Nicole Rice and Bostyn Burger:
We all woke up feeling and looking more rested and refreshed from the previous day. Breakfast consisted of a buffet with various breads (which croissants were a huge hit) deli meats, yogurt, eggs, cereal, freshly squeezed orange juice and fresh brewed coffee, espresso, or tea. We left for Den Hague (The Hague) around 10. It was an hour and half drive there. Most of the drive was farmland and was really green. Once we got there, the first stop was the actual Hague center. Here the Queen arrives in her gold carriage to give her speech, the equivalent to the State of the Union. We got to walk around and saw a demonstration that Cees, our tour guide, said was nurses prostesting about their Health Care.

After walking around, we had some free time to wander around the shops and streets around the Hague. However, with no one having real cell phone service, no one was really sure what time we were supposed to leave for the beach. Emily and Bostyn took a little adventure of their own which ended with Jason and Brian running around the Hague looking for them (but we knew the whole time to be back to the bus by 1:30pm and walked on at 1:28pm).
On our way to the beach, we stopped at the Peace Palace where the world peace flame is. The peace flame was cool because there was a rock from about 100 random countries around the flame. After we took pictures with our UW Foundation bags, we stopped at the Queens Working Palace. Since the orange flag was up, the Queen was there and working. The road to the beach consisted of driving past a lot of Embassies. A lot of us had never really seen embassies before and we were all suprised to find that if you cross onto the embassy's grounds, their rules from their country apply.
The beach was a gorgeous site; there were all these clubs/restaurants with umbrella seating, firepits, and bar areas. the only down fall was that it was terribly cold and windy (just like Laramie at times but with sand and the ocean). We all ate lunch at Binky Bear. It was interesting to say the least. The food wasn't too bad, just took awhile to get translated and defined. We (Nicole and Bostyn) had a Club Sandwich BB which had salmon instead of chicken and bacon. Everyone seemed pleased for the most part.

Since the beach was not the best weather, we went back in the shopping area of the Hague until 5:30pm. We left for our game and were allowed graciously by Danny to stay on the bus and take a much needed cat nap 30 minutes before warm up. The main field at the club complex was under construction so we ended up playing Ter Leede team on a side field. It was slightly windy and a little chilly but overall nice weather for a game!! We warmed up and got pumped for the game. During the coin toss, the head ref used a Euro and asked me if I wanted Cross or Queen instead of head or tails...a little different than the US coin. We started the game off well, moving the ball working hard and keeping up the intensity. The game was tied until the second half when Ter Leede scored off a corner kick. We personally thought it was a lucky goal for them...it helps when the opposing team knocks your keeper into the goal as she is trying to punch the ball over the cross bar. But, that goal did not keep us down. We pushed harder and pumped up the intensity. We had numerous shots on goal. We had shots that barely went wide and the keeper had to make save after save after save!! Even after being denied from the amazing 16 year old Ter Leede goal keeper, 2 minutes into extratime of the game Chelsea made a pass to Jules who blasted it low to the near post slipping it underneath the keeper for an awesome game tieing goal! The ref blew the whistle right after kickoff with the ending result of a 1-1 tie against Ter Leede. We got tea in the locker room after the game and mingled in the clubhouse lobby. We then began our hour and a half adventure home. This was probably one of the most interesting, entertaining and rebellious drives home. We were looking for a place to stop to grab food so we stopped at a McDonalds. We arrived at the doors at 23:00 but with our American luck McDonalds closes their golden arches at 23:00. So, we drove to another one. It was closed as well but Cees convinced them to let us 'walk' through the 'McDrive'. This sounded like a decent idea until cars started piling up behind our team as we ordered 2 by 2 in the window. Nicole and I got a little scared when cars started reving their Dutch engines. Not only were we risking our lives for McDonalds, it costed twice as much as it would back home. In the end, the 18 car pile up in the McDrive was worth the sight as we were driving off in the bus content and happily fed. Nicole walked on the bus telling Danny that we pissed off half of Holland. Danny gave her the classic response of "who cares?"
We arrived back at the hotel at 1:30am. Everyone walked like zoombies off the bus and into the rooms. In our room (Nicole, Bostyn, Kayla and Chelsea), we all took turns on Nicole's laptop emailing our beloved and missed parents/loved ones. We tried to go to bed but we were all excited with anticipation to spend the day in Amsterdam tomorrow!! Rice and Burger agree that today was a great day of touring, soccer and friends!