Big city, little city

Andi had some cheap passes that allow you to take the train an unlimited amount of times anywhere around the Netherlands for a day, and that is just what we did.

We decided that Den Haag would be a nice place to go. I don't actually know too much about the city but it was a really nice place to walk around in. There were cool buildings and architecture and nice cafes. We also passed a funny mushroom man that just could escape our cameras, as you can see! Around the city was also random sculptures, sorts of modern art, that really added to the ambiance of the place. Den Haag is actually known for their beachfront, but we didn't go there that day because it was cold and rainy and the beach is not much fun in that kind of weather.

So, instead of the beach, we went to see Madurodam. This place is kind of freaky. It's a miniature version of the entire Netherlands and all of its famous landmarks, like churches, museums, bridges, boats, zoos, city centres, the cheese market, and even a whole mini version of the Schipol airport with working planes and trains and cars and all! It's like traveling the entire Netherlands in a few hours. We felt a little bit like godzillas marching through the place. The seagulls definitely looked like monsters when they landed on the buildings, but we didn't manage to get a picture of that. The small park was full of tourists from around the world. They even have guidebooks in every language to accomodate all of the international visitors (I got one in English and Andi got one in German)! They also push really hard to sell stupid souvenirs. We did, however, end up getting pressed pennies.

Labdag

After the international party the night before, I dragged my sorry but to Labdag ("labday"). This is a day of fun activities organized by people in the medical biology section of the UMCG, for the people in the medical biology section of the UMCG. Kind of a day for bonding outside of the lab.

The theme for this year was "around the world in a day". We started our day off on our bikes, towards a kind of retreat near the countryside. After an hour of teatime, we started the day of with a bang by getting african drumming lessons. In the pic is Maaike doing some fancy drumming. Maaike was also on the organizing committee.

After drumming, we did some painting. Half of us were split into 6 groups and each group got a canvas with a rough sketch drawn in. The trick was that each canvas was one panel that, when put together, the panels make up a whole painting. Pretty cool, actually. So we had to run from canvas to canvas and group to group and try to match colours of paint and stuff. I was responsible for the actual painting part. How nostalgic it felt! Though my paint protection gear was not so fashionable, as you can see.

(The full paintings are now on display near the front entrance of the UMCG for anyone that wants to check it out! You can also buy it for the low, low price of 300 Euros)

After lunch, we did chocolate making. This was a very tasty activity! We made truffles and chocolate art. You can see that I made a fairy with my chocolate. The wings are chocolate leaves. The fairy tasted really good, too. The coloured chocolate is flavoured like lemon, strawberry and white chocolate... Lekker...

Later we had a tapas feast and sat around some candles inside. Finally we dragged our butts back home because it was a Thursday and everyone had to work the next day.

International party!

There was an international party, organized by WINGS, the university associated international orientation organization. The theme was to dress up as your country. As a natural lover of theme parties, I did just this. You can see here the final result of my efforts. My boys (Wicax, Andi and Jorn) are holding me up so that my flag is in the correct orientation. My cowboy hat also has a Canadian flag on the back. During the night, however, I barely wore my hat as many of my friends decided they spontaneously wanted to go Canadiana. Wicax tells me that it worked really well for picking up girls...

The party was actually held at the Golden Arm, the most popular gay bar in the city. I actually spent most of my time on the second floor, which wasn't open to the public, so I missed all the cute (gay) guys dancing half naked on the first floor! But my friend still managed to get a memorious picture of the sign outside of the dark rooms, shown here. For those of you who don't know what a dark room is, you'll have to wait to see me in person for an explanation. I simply just can't type it on the internet. In the meanwhile, use the 'darkest' part of your imagination...

Ameland for mom's day

My fellow student in the lab, Lowrens, took me and Shanti and Deva to Ameland, an island off the north shore of the Netherlands. His family owns a mobile home there that had room for the four of us and Lowren's girlfriend. We rented bikes and stayed the night and did lots of fun things while we were there.

It all started with a car ride through the country side where I saw more big cows. We arrived at the north shore and took a ferry across to the island. The ferry ride was about 40 minutes because we had to take an indirect route across that followed the deeper waters. But I didn't mind because this ferry was more like a cruise boat with a restaurant inside.

The most prominent thing at the island is the lighthouse, a classice one with red and white stripes. Deva and I were the only ones that braved climbing up all those stairs (like, 20 stories!) to get to the top and see the beautiful view of the entire island! It was absolutely amazing. There is also a sort of museum inside the lighthouse to break up the long hike up the stairs. One of the most interesting facts I learned was that each island in the area had their own lighthouse and each lighthouse has their own blinking light pattern so that boaters can distinguish them.

We also rode our bikes along the dykes, another famous feature of not just the island but of the whole Dutch culture. After all, most of the Netherlands is actually under sea level so in order to have access to the land, the Dutch pumped all the water out using some mysterious skills and build super impressive dykes around the waterline to keep the water out and the land dry. When you see the dykes in person, it feels like being on another planet! We also witness a tour group going mudwalking, which involves walking in the mud along the shore when the tide is low. It actually looks really dangerous and I think it is because you need a guide if you are to mudwalk and you want to come back alive.

Another famous feature of Ameland is their liquor, called Nobeltje. You can see in the picture the store that sells this liquor. It tastes really sweet (kind of like ice wine) and it is very, very alcoholic. And Ameland is the only place that makes it and sells it. I actually had to buy 5 litres of the stuff to bring back to people in the lab that were requesting it. I guess Nobeltje can also be addictive, too!

My favourite part of the island was the beach. It was too cold to go swimming but not too cold to walk barefoot in the sand. And that is just what we did! What a wonderful feeling to have soft, wet sand in between your toes! The beach was not very busy and it was hidden behind a bunch of sand dunes so it was actually quite peaceful, just like a postcard! Making drawings in the sand made me feel like a little kid.

I certainly hope to make it back to the Dutch islands one day. If you ever visit, I really suggest that you go see them. Absolutely amazing.

Indonesian dinner at Bart's

Deva had the idea of cooking Indonesian food for the lab. Then I wanted to help so we turned into an asian food night consisting of Indonesian and Canadian-Chinese food! Since the student housing common rooms and kitchens are crap, we had the dinner at Bart's place, who was kind enough to sacrifice his pad for our dinner party.

In the picture is Bart showing his love to me and Deva with a big hug!

The food was great, the party was great. We had a great ol' time. Everyone smiled when they saw the table of food, as you can see! The only one not smiling later in the night was Paul because he decided he was man enough to eat a whole thai pepper. I think it's safe to say that he learned his lesson after that.

Garmerwolde with Deva

Deva and I took our first trip out to through the Dutch countryside towards a tiny city called Garmerwolde that is just north-east of Groningen. Lucky for us it was a beautiful, sunny day!

On the way out of the city we passed a petting zoo and just had to stop to take a look. There was mostly baby goats there that were sleeping and lazing in the sun while naughty children climbed all over them. There was also sheep and a baby cow that tried to get it on with the sheep, and a turkey that was very camera shy! We petted the animals and the animals chewed my skirt and I bought local strawberry jam. A very adorable place to hang out for a half an hour!

After the petting zoo, we ran into some wild animals that I thought were giant cows at first (Dutch cows are really, really big!) . But, lo and behold, they were not cows! They were water buffalo (I think) !! The whole family was relaxing in the afternoon sun and we managed to get up really close! They were very beautiful creatures and I feel lucky to have gotten to see them.


Closer to Garmerwolde we spotted a real, working windmill - not a fake one that poses as a tourist attraction. I love this picture. It screams "here I am in the middle of Holland with my bike and a windmill!". I hope you like it too :)

We arrived at Garmerwolde later in the afternoon. I didn't post the pics but there is a beautiful church in the town with a really old cemetery with nice gravestones and stuff. The church is pretty much the only thing in the town. We wanted ice cream and managed to find one single corner store in the entire town. Not even a restaurant.

Finally, we arrived at what was my initial destination - Liberation Forest. This is a group of trees that were planted by children in memory of the Canadians that fought for the liberation of the Netherlands - one tree for each Canadian soldier. The trees are actually very young so it is not much of an actual forest.

However, at the end of the trail is a very quaint memorial for the Canadian soldiers. People had laid out flowers on the memorial, which has the names of the different regiments engraved in it (including, of course the South Saskatchewan Regiment!). There is also a giant maple tree (Deva and I are posing by it), a lane called maple leafpad, and a sculpture of a giant maple leaf with birds silhouetted in it. I didn't post all of the pictures but I have them to show you later.

Liberation Day

Liberation day marks the end of the German occupation in the Netherlands during WW2. To commemorate this special day, Paul took me to see the concentration camp called Kamp Westerbork. The Nazi occupying forces deported 102,000 Jews via this camp to their death in Auschwitz and other such camps. One of those Jews that came through Westerbork was Anne Frank, who left on one of the last trains on September 3, 1944.



There is a special monument in the camp that is located at the former role-call site where 102,000 stones have been placed - One stone for every murdered man, woman and child.




The train tracks you see are the very ones that led into what is called "hell's gate". With the liberation of the 5,000 survivors of the deportation, the end of the tracks were turned up to symbolize that no train would ever enter here again.



Liberation day is actually a very important day for Canadian-Dutch relations. Canadian troops played a leading role in liberating the Netherlands and the Dutch have not forgotten. At the camp museum, I spotted a Canadian soldier uniform bearing the badge of the South Saskatchewan Regiment.


Back in Groningen, the public does not forget the what the Canadians have done either. It is tradition to hang the Dutch flag on your balconies and windows only on Liberation day. But in my own neighbourhood, we spotted one balcony bearing two flags : Canada and the Netherlands.


The younger public, however, views Liberation day as just another long weekend and many choose to celebrate their freedom by going to a huge outdoor music festival. At the end of the night, there was only a 'graveyard' of a gazillion plastic beer cups.

After leaving the music festival, me and a bunch of friends hit the centrum where we stayed out until sunrise. Many, many youngsters were doing the same. They all, of course, rode their bikes out. Here is the main parking area in the centrum at 1am.