Day 5: Dutch Pancakes (Pannekoek)

Tonia and I decided to go and explore Delft a little bit, but it gets dark around 5:00 and most of the stores close around 5:30. As such, there wasn't much to do other than wander around the central square and find somewhere to eat. Here are some pictures from the wandering:

The holiday lights were still up over the streets and the canals, so it really is pretty.

We finally found a place that didn't seem to cost too much and got a table.

It turned out their special for the night was all you can eat pancakes. Dutch pancakes (or pannenkoek) are different than American pancakes. I would describe them as crepes that are a little too thick to be actual crepes. Also, they cook the toppings within the pancakes, like this (image courtesy of google search leading to http://nijmegeneet.nl/, because I don't like taking pictures in restaurants):

Needless to say, they were delicious, but so large that I could only eat two. They also do not use maple syrup, but rather use "stroop" which is similar to molasses.

As we were getting ready to leave, Tonia and I had a very touristy moment... we had no clue if we were supposed to tip or not, or if it was included in the bill (we later found out that the Dutch thing to do is not to tip, or just round up to the nearest euro). Also as we were rummaging for money, Tonia could not find her wallet. I offered to pay and we left to go look for it in lab.

Her wallet was not in the (locked) student room that we work in, nor was it in her apartment. The following is my theory of what happend:

When we sat down for dinner, Tonia hung her purse on a chair at the table. When the waitress brought our drinks and was taking our order, she spilled water all over the table and Tonia. I think (note, there is no evidence to actually prove this) that when the waitress spilled the water on Tonia, she reached into Tonia's purse and snatched her wallet.  Then, she ran away to get a towel and left the wallet somewhere else. After searching everywhere and finding it nowhere, this really seems to be the likely cause of the disappearing wallet. If this is what actually happened, I am still in shock that these "tricks" you hear about are actually used.

A stolen wallet would also explain why the waitresses were laughing at us when were were trying to figure out the bill and how much to tip.  We were just silly American tourists and easy prey :/