Leiden's path

You value a thing/person/place when you lose them. That's an old truth. I would never think I will miss Leiden so much. Leiden not only as a city I know well but also as people, my friends...

We (me and Bob) went to Leiden a few times recently, for a toga party - which was really nice, for a summer linguistic school and for the graduation of a few people I studied with.

Moments like those make me realize how everything changes... Irretrievably. Well, I don't want to sound melancholic here. I was very happy to see those places and those people!

One of the lovely canals and bridges of Leiden

The view from the V&D cafe

The toga party - we were invited be the people we used to live with - it was very sweet of them. The party was really nice, almost everybody wore a Roman toga, there was wine, grapes and not quite Roman tzatziki with crisps ;)

We didn't bring our own togas all the way from Nijmegen, but thanks to Saskia we got some of hers. Seems like she has a whole collection ;) Bob above.

Saskia, Rebecca and a guy.

More people joined after midnight...

Gadaris, a Roman god ;)

We went to good old Katwijk - a little town at the seaside, on the way to which I talked to Bob for the first time in May 2008 :) We went there quite a few times, mostly to skate, well, Bob skated, I was taking pictures ;)

Then we went to the beach. The weather was really nice, you could tell by the number of people lying in the sun...

...including us ;)

...and some of us had secret admirers ;) (I hope they don't discover the photo of the girl here) This beautiful girl was looking and smiling at Bob all the time and said 'Doei' when was leaving ;) She was so cute!

I liked looking at the boy, he was so determined building the dam... A real Dutchman ;)

clouds... and Hitchcock-like birds...

Graduation day for Anna, Beata, Boris and Marjoleine. It was also a nice experience, although I managed to see only two presentations, but I attended four 'parties' ;) I hope I'll be graduating soon myself...

Congratulations Anna! You managed against all odds!

The very-interested-looking-guy on the right is Anna's supervisor :)

There is a tradition to put your signature on the wall at the university when you graduate.

And this is the first page of Anna's thesis and I AM mentioned there too!! That was a very nice surprise! Thanks Anna (you!)!

Congratulations Marjoleine! A thesis cum laude!

And the party, well, one of them. Congrats Boris!

Yeah, right...

Anna and Despoina - our love-birds ;) It was sooooo nice to see you guys! Next time we'll see each other in Chania :)