Oh man...if we did no partying in Amsterdam, then we have officially made up for it in Tilburg.

one of our good friends from the good old college days now plays in the first division of the netherlands hockey league. great guy, this is our second "swing by" (1 of 4 times we "swing by")...i gave him one of these: "so...i was thinking...since you're pretty central...and we're not going more than a few hours away...how do you feel about, you know, us coming back like every day for the next 6 days??" hence Tilburg becoming "Home Base 2" (See Herne, Germany for Home Base 1)

instinctively, i challenged their house to fight for "favourite home base" of the "local tour 2007". out of the deal, we got fresh smoothies, a place to stay that felt like home, a laundry machine, and all the games of cribbage a girl could ask for. we left as house champs (dad would be so proud) but returned twice more to even the score. i'd still like to think that in the long run, we came out on top.

we hit up londy's hockey game with our two friend lauren and chris - the crowd was rowdy, and we spent the third period watching the game having some drinks. this is where the night kicks it up a notch and my memory goes south. great night, i know that much. rach packs it in early, chris some how manages to get his own ride home, gets in the house, and falls sound asleep, and lo and i are the all-around champs (again) and stay out all night. definately a rough next morning.

Their roommates were amazing - Rody, the native Dutchie, and Donny, who has been living the dream for 9 years playing hockey in the netherlands and is from back home in canada! these guys ended up being like brothers, and rach and i made them ornaments, in "series" i might add: the dinosaur series, the hockey series, the "ethnicity" series (we had a diverse group of roommates in tilburg), the native american series (a branch of the ethnicity series), and the number series (which included each of their hockey jersey numbers and of course mine and rach's 18 and 19)

and beer is cheap, so after the night out, we had a day out. 10 am, start playing cribbage, and how is beer a bad idea? the place was like college revisited. i'm glad time travel is still possible with a quick flight from detroit to tilburg.

the tilburg boys drive us to the train station, and keep saying "i still don't believe you're leaving". we did, but we came back. but first up: Brugge, Belgium!