Photo's by Michael, except the one of him of course.
Michael up in the bell tower in Utrcht
Having a beer in Brussels
St. Michael's Cathedral in Brussels and having a drink in Amsterdam waiting for the hail to stop

I’m going to back track a bit because I forgot to tell everyone that the Secretary General, Ban Ka-Moon visited ICTY
February first. His visit lasted a whole 35 minutes and took a week to
prepare. It would be a little like the President visiting the capital
in Salem, though on a much smaller scale of course.

The day he
came, everyone was poised and ready. One of my co-workers, Vincent, was
the cameraman chosen to video taped the whole event. My friend Kristina
is the VP of the staff union so she was part of the greeting party.
There is an outside balcony on the third floor over looking the front
of our building. I was up on the balcony waiting theSG ’s arrival. Soon
about ten police escorted black BMW’s pulled up in front of the
building with the front car waving UN flags on ether side of the front
bumpers; very dramatic looking. The middle car in the procession
stopped at the front gates. Then out walks theSG . He walked between
our security guards in dress uniforms standing at attention, and then
he was welcomed by the greeting party. I leaned over the balcony rail
and watched Kristina shake his hand (silly, I know). After his tour
around the building, he addressed the staff in our front lobby before
he was swept away to his next stop.

The back story to all of
this is my supervisor. He was to help Vincent by carrying extra camera
batteries and acting as his grip. That did not happen. When we viewed
the tape in the office we saw Rob in front of the camera in almost
every shot. He was running around and pushing people out of the way as
the guest party moved through the building. It was jaw dropping to
watch. One of the funniest scenes is himsideling up next to one of the judges in a wide shot of all the judges with the SG. Someone here at work created a little montage of the event and put it on YouTube. If you are interested, go to YouTube and type in “Rob Barsony”. Anyone out side of ICTY may not find it amusing. The truth is us in the office and others throughout the building find it embarrassing.

OK, on to other stuff. A few weeks back I was assigned to the Prlic case and we had a very interesting witness all week. His name was Herbert Okun, or I should say Ambassador Okun.
He worked with President Kennedy during the Cuban missal crisis and was
a special adviser on Yugoslavia to former U. S. Secretary of State
Cyrus Vance.Okun helped with the framing of the Vance-Owen peace plan
in Bosnia, hence his reason for being called as a witness. Today he is
a professor at John Hopkins University. I must say, he has quite and
impressiveresume.

The Ambassador is in his late seventies and
is as sharp as they come. He was fascinating to listen to and made a
few of the defense attorneys look a little foolish. When they tried to
corner him on dates and events, suggesting maybe he was mistaken on a
few points, he never yielded. Though if he miss spoke, he was more then
willing to admit his mistake and correct himself. During the session
breaks he would entertain the French interpreters with stories. The
interpreter’s booth is next to mine and across the hall from the
witness waiting room. The Ambassador did not want to just set in that
little room for thirty minutes, so he would adventure out and bend a
willing ear.

I was able to catch the tail end of a few of his
stories, mostly about dignitaries being difficult and too much drinking
at dinner parties. By the end of the week we were all greeting each
other like old friends. Even though some of the testimony was a bit
hard to listen to, it was a fun week.

The highlight in the
Month of March was my oldest son Michael came to visit me for a week.
We had a great time together and some fun day trips. The day he
arrived, I meet him at the airport then brought him back to my place by
train and tram. It’s always fun to break in new arrivals by showing
them how well the public transportation system in Europe works. After a
brief rest, it was off on bikes to see DenHaag . I bought an
inexpensive typical Dutch bike for him to ride while he was here. We
rode over to Kristina’s and she came along to help as a tour guide.
After passing by the Queens stables, the American embassy, and the
Dutch government buildings, we headed for theCentrum and wandered around the shopping area. Frank Joined us a bit later and then we all went out to dinner.

The
next day I had to work so Michael took the opportunity to do some food
shopping. I’m afraid he takes after me in this regard. The hamster gene
is apparently past on to subsequent generations! His goal was to buystroopwafles
(for those of you who don’t know they are a delicious Dutch cookie). He
planned on bringing back about twenty packages and thought it best to
spread his purchasing out over the week. On his first shopping trip out
he bought about five packages along with other Dutch goodies.

I took Tuesday and Wednesday off. Tuesday we went to Utrecht. The city is known for its double-decker canals through the center of town. The canals
are low with a walking path bellow the street level and several
restaurants open up out to these paths. There is also a church with the
tallest bell tower in the Netherlands. There are guided tours up to the
top and of course we took the tour. On arriving in Utrecht, I was able
to introduce Michael to theautomats and Kass Soufflés. The automats
are mostly found in train stations and some shopping areas in the
cities. They are a wall of little glassed door cubicles that hold
different kinds of fast fried food. One of my favorite things to buy is
the KassSoufflé . Basically a soft cheese square rapped in a crunchy
shell and deep-fried. May not sound appetizing, but they are delicious
and addictive. We had to buy one whenever we past a machine. They are
few and far between so it was a treat when we spotted the nextautomat.

The
next day we went to Belgium and all I can say is beer, beer and more
beer. Oh and chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. We walked all over the
city and stopped from time to time and had a beer. We then found a
great beer shop and loaded up as much as we could carry. Michael bought
at least ten bottles of different kinds of beer to bring home with him.
I also bought a few. Michael had the duty of pack mule after that stop.
We timed it right before we were going to have dinner, and then headed
back to the train loaded down with goodies.

The following two
days it was back to work for me and Michael armed with a city map went
exploring. He went to the beach and to theCentrum . Thursday night is
known as late shopping night. The shops are open until nine. A group of
my friends have started meeting at a bar in theCentrum on this night to
sit and catch up. Michael and I went and met up with the group of
regulars. I was afraid of giving Michael his next Dutch experience of
“riding your bike home drunk”, though we were able to maintain.

On Saturday and Sunday we stayed up in Amsterdam. Michael's
plane was leaving at seven am Monday morning and it was easier getting
to the airport From Amsterdam then The Hague. We stayed at a hotel
within walking distance to the train station so heading out at five am
was not difficult. It is amazing how life changes when you don’t have a
car. Getting around is easy and doable; just a little more planning is
involved.

We did quite a bit while in Amsterdam. We went to the Rijksmuseum, The Ann Frank House, the Rembrandt house, The Van Gogh
Museum, and of course the red light district plus general sight seeing
along the way. We even found a brown bar from the 1600’s to have a beer
with some of the locals.

On Sunday after we stopped and had an early dinner, we got caught in a hail storm. The weather all week had been great, I didn’t
want Michael to go home thinking that the weather was great all the
time, so his last day in The Netherlands was brought to a close with
some crazy weather and good memories.

All for now, cheers!

Kim