Conservatives In A Liberal Land.... pt. 1

.... Will either ever be the same? Dolly and John (Radhika's oldest sister and her husband) arrived from NY Saturday morning. Delta did their best to make it a bad experience (no surprise to me), but they made it and that's the important thing (silver linings are getting extreme in the air travel industry!). Dolly had a surprise fainting spell on the plane, but overcame it and got plenty of sleep, as opposed to John, who didn't probably due to severe shock when one of the other passengers hypothesized that Dolly fainted because she was pregnant!! That probably also accounted for John's zombie-like state when we met them at Schiphol airport. I think he has fully recovered now (mostly due to viewing the sweet ladies wearing special outfits in the windows of the red light district). But, let's not jump ahead. We got them settled in their room and they toured the apartment, being very complimentary (perhaps a little concerned we would put them out on the street if they didn't bring what we considered enough of Mom's great Indian dishes, frozen and carefully packed for the trip). We accepted their kind words, and quickly had them hand over the food! After full inspection and informing them they were not welcome to any of it, and being content with the amount, they relaxed a little, we chatted, and then they pretty much passed out (kinda like me after 2 beers). After waking them, John needing a cattle prod to get him close to vertical, we went walking around the Leidseplein, checking out eatery's and stores, making our way around the area of the centrum. We "accidently" found ourselves in the red light district, where Dolly found it hard to walk with both hands covering here eyes. The "talent" was in top form that night, as opposed to what we have viewed the previous 2 times we had been to the area. The streets were crowded also, it being a Saturday night. We ate at an Argentine restaurant which was pretty good, and then proceeded towards Dam Square where there is a carnival and rides now covering the square. By then, it was quite late, so we made the walk home, checking out store windows and enjoying the (FINALLY!) pleasant, evening air. We crashed somewhere between 12 and 1am I believe, with a trip to Brugge ahead of us for Sunday.