The Irish, and War Crimes

An interesting mix. Yesterday evening we ventured out in search of Utrecht's best fish & chips. We'd mentioned to Amadeo and Javi that there was little better in the way of British cuisine so we thought we'd try and prove it. There are two Irish pubs around here and they both seemed like a natural starting place. The first one, Florin, was packed by virtue of it being their €5 student menu night. So we went onto Mick O'Connells which was substantially less busy, and to our delight, was having a quiz night as well. They took ages to get our dinner to us, and in two parts, with Emma and Richard having to wait about 15 minutes after we got ours before theirs turned up. The upshot being that the landlord gave us a round of drinks on the house. As for the fish & chips, well, for €9 I think we were all expecting a little more, both size and taste wise. It wasn't bad by any means, just not as good as the local chippy back home. So I'm afraid that Amadeo and Javi left feeling a little short-changed. We'll have to give Florin's attempt a try later.

As for the pub quiz, it was fiendishly difficult. Anyone know who came runner-up in the 10m freestyle diving in the Sydney Olympics? Thought not. Still, we didn't come last and scored more points than some of the other teams had done in the past three rounds combined. Whether it'll become a regular Monday night event remains to be seen.

Today things got slightly more sombre as I went on a visit to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Or rather, Voorburg, a place just outside The Hague, so why it's supposed to be in The Hague I've no idea. To be honest, it was something of a let down. The place was deserted (probably as they've nothing really to do, despite them trying to convince us otherwise), and we spent two hours being talked to in a press conference room. We couldn't see into the Chamber as they were preparing for a 'closed session' - in November... But at least the trip introduced me to another new place in the Netherlands, albeit an area where I primarily saw nothing but four very magnolia walls.