Guus Bosman

Sunday we went to New York all day. We did some shopping, I bought a jacket and new shoes. We walked around Times Square and Madison Garden. In the evening we went out the two of us.

The weather Monday was really very good; it was almost like spring. We had coffee at the Promenade at Battery Park, looking out to the Statue of Liberty. We were taking our luggage with us.

We also saw Ground Zero, and the reconstruction that was going on there. It was the first time since September 11th that I was in New York. The very first thing I did when I was the first in New York in 1998, was going to the World Trade Center to the observation deck. It is really sad.

Sasha's bus to Washington was at 16:30 o'clock, my train to the airport (Newark) as well.

I had a very pleasant flight. After an hour flying or so the person next to me asked me: "excuse me, are you perhaps a programmer?" He saw me reading the book Cryptonomicon, which is a big hit among computer people. He was a programmer too, so we talked quite a bit. He and his girlfriend were flying back from a holiday in Europe, in Paris they actually got engaged. Cute.

The plane landed on schedule in Newark Airport. There was a big line before Immigrations so that took some time. I didn't have any problems with my passport.

When I went past the customs the first thing I saw was a Starbucks shop. This was too tempting to resist, so I had a double espresso to compensate for the six hours time difference. Then I called Sasha on her mobile, she was in the bus from Washington to New York.

The airport in Newark consists of a couple of terminals that are connected through a monorail. I have very nice memories of both the airport and the monorail. In 1998 Sasha and I stayed in a motel near the airport, and we always transferred at the airport when we were going to and from New York.

The traintrip to Secaucus went smoothly, except for the fact that at first I pronounced the name of the place completely wrong so nobody knew where I wanted to go.

Oh yes -- this time I want to be on time, so I'm leaving now. My plane is at 13:30, so plenty of time to wait in lines, get coffee, a magazine perhaps...

I'm trying something rather revolutionary: I'll travel light.

Because I'm going back on Monday, I would have felt quite silly to bring my large backpack or the huge huge suitcase I used in Bulgaria. So, I'm bringing only hand luggage.

Tonight I went to Jean-Paul and Inger. They live in Aalsmeer with Arjen, their two-year old son.

We had dinner together. Jean-Paul made some kind of lasagna that was called "lasagnette" -- very nice. Arjen ate with us, he was a bit shy with me the first minutes but then he got used to me and called me "Huus".

I hadn't seen their house before; it's quite large. They will have a second baby soon so they're working on a second children's room.