Walking And Talking In The Hague

photos and notes from The Flâneurs Project weekend (26th - 28th of July 2024)

Welcome to The Flâneurs Project. This is a follow-up to We’re A Small Group of Travellers, sharing news from our in-person gathering in The Hague. Since this post is a long photo essay, the best way to view it is on the website. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

As the last weekend came to a close, I found myself wondering why I hosted this three-day gathering. The experience was wonderful, nourishing, and refreshing in many ways, yet I struggled to pull any concrete insights or new learnings from it. It seemed as though the whole purpose was just the experience itself, no more, no less.

I could say that I advocate for “slow travel” or that meeting friends and strangers in different corners of the world to see a city with new eyes is a way of “encouraging small adventures.” I might even claim that I’m promoting the “sweetness of doing nothing.” But as important as these reasons are, I didn’t think they were my core motivations. I think I simply wanted to create new and different memories (akin to Nicole Krauss’ emergence of “new feelings”) by hosting dinners and conversations at home for a group of people from various parts of the world who want to experience a new city alongside others.

Memories are fascinating, endless conversations within ourselves—they nestle into the corners of our minds, waiting to be unshelved from time to time. This entire weekend was a good, beautiful memory.

For those of you who haven’t read my previous post, We’re A Small Group of Travellers, this weekend gathering was a type of "walk and talk" event, where five people joined: two from the Netherlands, one from the US (New York), one from Austria (Vienna), and one from Switzerland (Basel). The purpose was to meet and have salons together—engaging in long conversations about specific topics, most of them city-related—and to discover The Hague through each other’s eyes.

Part 1: The Dinner

At home, in The Hague.

On the dining table: a cheeseboard, fuet, bread, a cold pasta salad with homemade green pesto, tomatoes, and mozzarella, and a red velvet cake.

Letters, notebooks, and books were wrapped up in maps to welcome the travellers.

Six hours later, we were all nourished and tired, and the living room was lit only by the lights from the buildings outside and a small, flickering candle inside.

Part 2: The Walks

The walks started around 2 PM the next day, and we met in front of the Escher Museum. We split into groups of two and went our separate ways to explore the city. From time to time, the WhatsApp chat buzzed with photos from our explorations, showcasing many faces of the city.

There were moments when I couldn’t tell where I ended and where the others and the city began.

The endless conversations that arose in different corners of the city felt expansive, brimming with life.

Christoph’s photos.

Window selfie, with Alina on the left. We spent the next three hours walking around Javastraat, visiting the Panorama Mesdag Museum, and eating a late lunch on a terrace.

Emily Dickinson’s poem on a building: “Yesterday is History.”

Yesterday is mystery—
Where it is Today
While we shrewdly speculate
Flutter both away.

—

After our walks, we met at the main train station around 6 PM to catch a tram to the beach. We walked together to a restaurant called Xiringuito and ordered different tapas to share.

Scheveningen Beach.

Group photo ( + Alina Jitari, who couldn’t join the second dinner).

Part 3: Sunday Morning

On Sunday, we all met for coffee and shared a few more stories on the terrace of a café in the city center. By the third day, I had become accustomed to meeting this group daily, so it felt bittersweet to say goodbye.

The sun was shining through the high-rise buildings as we slowly enjoyed our breakfasts and coffees, sharing stories from Uganda, Kenya, Austria, Romania, and America.

Jonathan was the first to leave to catch a plane to Nice, with his final destination being Monaco that day. Christoph was heading to the airport soon to catch his flight back home to Basel. Olga, Harry, and I went back home, each of us wishing for just one more day with the group.

The next day, before Olga boarded her train back to Vienna, we had a lovely lunch on the terrace of Burrata, an Italian place near my home.

We wondered where we might see each other again.

Next year, I will be hosting The Flâneurs Project weekend gathering in my country of origin, Romania, in a city in which I lived for a few years: Cluj-Napoca. If you’re interested in joining me and other travellers, please fill out this Google form. I will likely share more news about this gathering in late autumn or winter of this year.