Groningen & Utrecht

With only a few weeks left here in Germany, I decided that it was about time that I took a trip to the Motherland: The Netherlands!

Day One/Minus One: Friday Night/Saturday

My train to Groningen, where some of my ancestors are from, left from the train station on Friday night. The trip there was 14 hours long! And I got a lot of stories out of it.

I had to transfer a bunch of times during the course of the night, and no transfer was more eventful and horrible than the transfer at 2am. I had to get off my train at 2am and my next train did not leave until about 5am... so I had a few hours to kill before I could continue my journey. As it was freezing outside so early in the morning, I tried to waste some time in the deserted downstairs part of the train station. I had spent maybe a good fifteen minutes in the train station when one of the station employees came up to me and said that they were closing down the station, and that I'd have to leave. I asked him if I could wait up at the platforms. He said no. Starting to freak out a little bit, as I had nowhere to go and I had no idea what was around the town I was stuck in for the night, I asked if there was anywhere that I could sit for a few hours before the train station opened back up again (which he said would be at 4 or 4:30... I don't remember exactly). He told me that if I went across the street, there was a McDonald's that I could wait at. Wonderful. I left the train station, crossed the street, witnessed all of the clubs, bars and drunk people in the area, and made my way into the McDonald's. Of course I had to buy something to be able to sit there for a few hours. Once I had made my small purchase, I found a booth, ready to spend a few hours trying to stay awake. I started to read Oliver Twist, as I have to read it for one of my classes, and began to pass the time. Maybe about an hour in, this guy throws a napkin at my leg, which I had up on the booth seat. I look up and saw that the guy was totally wasted. He gave the peace sign with a very drunken, "Peace" in English. I gave the sign back hoping that he would just leave me alone. And so I went back to reading. Unfortunately, the guy did not stop there. He came over and started to talk to me in German, but I couldn't understand anything he was saying because he was so drunk. So, at this point I put my headphones in and put my music up high, hoping that he would get the hint. But no. He kept on talking and asking me unintelligible questions. I couldn't hear what he was saying with my music, and probably couldn't have understood that drunken fool even if I didn't have my music on, so I just answered "Nein" to everything, hoping that he would get frustrated and walk away. He left eventually, but came back and put the rest of his burger on my tray and said that it was really good. Apparently, in his drunken conversation with my "Neins" he got that I was still hungry and that I wanted his burger. I don't think I will ever understand.

All I wanted was to sit in peace and pass the time! WHY WHY WHY did I have to be annoyed by drunk Germans so early in the morning. He later came back and tried to take a picture of my on some girl's iPhone. I put my hand up and blocked the picture, telling him in German to leave me alone. But he kept on bugging me. At this point I was just angry. There were other people in the McDonald's, and not a single person came to help me. Needless to say, I was relieved when he left. But in parting, he would at first say nice things and then when I wouldn't respond, would yell profanities at me. Whatever. I had my music. It was only a good half hour to an hour after this incident before I could go and catch my next train. I got maybe an hour of sleep the whole night, and when I finally got into Groningen, I was exhausted!

The Groningen Train Station.

The inside is very famous for its' style.

From the train station, I went out to find my hostel!

On the way into the town. Here's the museum.

The museum again, along the water, with bird in flight.

After a bit of walking, I found my hostel.

From there, I decided to just walk around a bit!

Pruim City! Woo Hoo! (In reality, it was a run down empty store).

I walked into the market place after that. Here's the Aa Church!

Here's the market they have on Saturdays in front of the city hall.

The Martini Tower!

The City Hall!

Every hour, the bells would ring like this!

"The Gold Office, or Goudkantoor, is one of the more striking old buildings in Groningen. It was originally the tax office of Groningen and later became the gold assay office.
Currently it is a restaurant." Thanks TripAdvisor!

I went for a walk through Groningen, getting a bit lost but always finding my way back, and found a hidden little garden with the church in the background!

Adorable garden: Complete with covered walkways!

All of the bridges would either lift up or, like this one, twist out of the way to let boats pass!

People working on their boats in the canals.

I'm not exactly sure what this was... I'm guessing it's a tadpole type thing growing into some sort of freak of nature. If you look to the right you can see the beginning stages coming out of the ground. I had to take a picture of it.

They had musicians playing all evening/night for Swingin' Groningen!

After walking around most of the day, stopping into the tourist shop to buy a map, and getting lost despite the map a few times, I went for dinner at a place near my hostel. After dinner, I just walked around some more, but decided to call it an early night, seeing as I had gotten absolutely no sleep the night before.

Day Two: Sunday

I always have the same problem when I plan trips. I forget that everything closes on Sundays. GAH! When I woke up on Sunday, I got going fairly early, and found that absolutely nothing was open. It was fairly cold out, but I decided to walk to the parks that I hadn't seen yet.

On the way, I saw the market place that was filled with vendors the day before!

A sheep farting museum??? Oh Dutch, I don't understand you! ((Some how that translates to Maritime Museum. I like to think that it's a museum dedicated to sheep farting... way funnier that way.))

I made it to the park, and sat near the water and read for a little while just taking in the surroundings.

While I was in the park, there was a little girl there with her dad, and the little girl only wanted to catch a bird. There were ducks, pigeons, geese, and a lot of other smaller birds there. The girl would walk around with her arms straight out in front of her, and would slowly walk up to the birds until they flew away. I think that she thought they would just jump into her arms. She kept doing this for a while, until her dad pointed out a cat that was nearby. The cat had caught sight of the birds, and was crouching real low to the ground, hoping to pounce on a bird. The girl then switched her goal to try and catch the cat in the same way, but the cat just wanted the birds. Anyway, it was really funny to watch the cat trying to avoid the small girl while trying to catch the birds. I was quite entertained.

While I was sitting on the bench, a guy came up and sat on the bench next to me. I was reading so I didn't look up.  He asked something in Dutch, but I couldn't understand, so I didn't look up from my book. Then he goes, "Can I sit by you?". Um no. I'm not reading on this bench so that creepy guys can come up and ask if they can sit by me. Why, why, why, do all the creepers find their way to me. 

I seem to recall a certain postal worker that was about 50 and asked if he could visit me in Chicago after he gave me his number. No. No. No.

And the time that the old guy on the street here in Tuebingen, while I was walking past him, whispered very creepily, "Du siehst sehr gut aus". You look very good? UHM NO NO NO. 

Sorry, rant over.

After that happened, I made my way back to the train station through the main part of the city.

When I made it to the train station, I realized that I couldn't really spend any more time in Groningen, and since I had a transfer scheduled in Utrecht for later anyway, I decided to catch a train there a little early.

When I got there, I thought that it was just a big city without any sights, so I just spent some time in the train station until I eventually got bored and ventured out into the city. Good thing I did, too.

Here are the sights of Utrecht!

They had little restaurants all along the canals.

So, Emily walking through a foreign city is a little like a bug flying towards the light. I catch sight of a tall building, usually a church, and follow that until I reach something important.

This was the first big building that I walked to.

Along the way, I got a lot of pictures of the canals with all the old buildings along the side!

The next big thing that caught my attention was this windmill. Rijn en Zon is a dutch Tower Mill built in 1912.

I had a lot of fun taking pictures. Sorry!

From there I saw another big church tower, so I headed there next!

There it is a little closer!

Along the way, I got distracted by this chess castle looking building.

I think I've seen this before. Like the one in DC.

Back in DC... Oh the bangs.

Oh NO! Someone's falling!!! Oh wait, it's just a barbie hanging from a wire from a window. Funny.

The Dom Church tower.

In case you get lost! Like I did a few times!

Another church.

The whole town was absolutely beautiful!

This'll be me and Christina in a few weeks! Although we won't be in Utrecht sadly.

I realized that I had to go back to the windmill for a picture with the gnome..

As the time for my 9 hour train ride approached, I had to head back to the train station. Along the way, I walked along the canals and it was just so pretty!

Sorry this post took so long to update! I've been busy with exams and German bureaucratic nonsense! I'll post a few more times before I leave! Less than two weeks now! Tomorrow I leave for Berlin. Well, actually I leave tonight and then have to spend the night in the airport so I don't miss my flight. I never plan these things well. Oh, well. Do it while I can I guess! I hope you all enjoyed the pictures, and I hope my rants and random stories weren't too ridiculous and boring! Hopefully, I'll post again soon! Until then, Tschuss!