Groningen

  Groningen, Netherlands
Thursday, March 6, 2008

After two lifts from Rotterdam

On the road from Rotterdam

 we arrived at Groningen, a small student city in northen Holland.  I should add quite accidental, we got dropped on the wrong side of the motorway and decided not to bother to cross :) and so ended up heading north East.

Alway room for a hippy, dog and a gituar!

Even passed through land which has only been in existance for the last 25 years or so, since its all reclaimed.  Its looks relativly normal, till you notice all the trees are the same hight, and quite young, not to mention uniformly planted.  Thinking about it, every single tree, bank, or land mark was created with human intention.

We arrived in Groningen central after a quick decision on the motorway to come into the city.
After walking around and popping into the first coffee shop we found, we spoke to the barman and the doorman about good places to find people in town, and a posible place to stay, he didnt know many, but pointed us in the direction of Kult Bar, and after a short walk we found it hidden on the same street.

After realising it was a normal bar, and it not being very busy we did'nt expect to meet anyone there.  We spoke to the barman, Sjors who gave us free use of the internet station next to the bar (good idea eh) and after a minute or so realised that he was a member of the site we were using to find people in Groningen (Couchsurfers).  After a speaking with Sjors he offered us his flat for a night and we agreed! 

Sjors was working till 10ish so we decided to walk about Groningen for a time and pop into the other bars/coffeeshops we had heard were for "alternative people" till then.  Quite a small town which seems to have been built up around a old market town, complete with a moat around half of the old city center.

We ended up back in Kult Bar before Sjors was finished and had a couple of drinks on the bar and intresting conversations with the locals, even met a guy who was reserching neuroscience regarding thought creating chemical signals in the brain and the reverse, which he thought were both vaild, intresting topics over beers and joints.....its so nice to be able to smoke inside again   ^_^

We took the bus back to Sjors that night and cooked a small meal (yes a quick stir fry) and sipped on wine,  he was a wonderful host, although he protested when called an angel, claiming that its pritty normal for humans to help each other.....I guess its just the coldness of london (not all the time though) which creates the behaviour of ignoring others in the street etc.

Sjors and his flat mate

01

We woke early and took a bus back to the central station, then a short walk to the road leading to the motorway.  We then spent most of the day waiting at a cross roads for lifts...even meeting a fellow hitchhiker (the first one on our journey so far!)  It was cold, wet and a little windy.  We spent a good few hours in the open air before a car stopped claiming he could take one of us, although we convinced the driver to take all three!  After a tight squeeze we all made it in the car, now enroute to Bremen.

Groningen

Thanks to a plane delay (his girl friend was flying in from Bratislava) we were able to get dropped right in Bremen's center, after thanking him...we made our way for the first internet cafe.