Groningen is a fascinating city. It seems built upon the principle, "opposites attract." It's really a very pleasant city, but in its own, bizarre way. I got some of the more important things done today, such as GETTING SHEETS! and finding out about my classes. It's probably about time to worry about getting a bike, but for now I will still be walking everywhere.
I finally made it to the grocery store yesterday. It's called JUMBO and its AMAZING! A really good selection of good-quality items for decent prices. I also had the most DELICIOUS sandwich I have ever tasted for lunch today. I decided to treat myself and went to a funny little shop that several people recommended called Bagel &Beans. They make excellent coffees and bagel sandwiches and it was SOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOD. I had a tomato bagel (yum!) with really fresh mozzarella, pesto, tomato, fresh basil leaves, some heavenly combination of spices and herbs, and pine nuts. I have never had such a delicious sandwich.
I have also determined I REALLY need to learn Dutch. Thanks to my lunch, and asking the woman who made it how to say "delicious" in Dutch, I now know the words "heerlijk" and "lekker." My new phrases that I am learning are: "Dag" = hi/goodbye; "alstublieft" = please; "dank u wel" = thank you; "Spreekt u Engels?" = Do you speak English?; "Ik spreek geen Nederlands" = I don't speak Dutch. It's a start!
Weather again today was chilly, grey, and very, VERY windy. Please keep that in mind as you observe the following photo journal. Enjoy!
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| The sunniest it got all day. |
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| The view of one of the building's courtyards, as seen from my window. |
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| As you can see, my building is not terribly attractive. It is, however, HUGE. It houses 330 international students. Just about every non-Dutch student I've met so far lives here with me. I have already become acquainted with students from Belgium, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, and New York (;)). |
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| A...slightly? less ugly view of my building. It is called Winschoterdiep, pronounced vin-Scott-er-deep. |
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| The city was also designed around bicycle transport. Here you see the road to the left as you come out of my building.... |
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| ...And here you see to the right. This is a bicycle-only road. You will notice wide sidewalks for pedestrians, and a narrower version of a normal street for cyclists. The care you see at the edge is parked as far down the street as cars are allowed to go. There are a number of streets in the city center where the only vehicles allowed are bicycles, scooters, and motorbikes. No cars. |
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| I've made this one a little larger in hopes that you can see some of the little kitschy stuff in the windows of this boat house. The street my building is on is actually split down the middle by one of Groningen's many rivers. On the river, as you can see, are boats. But not just any boats. They are boat houses. I kid you not! They have addresses, mailboxes, trash bins, permanent storage sheds, some have cars, patios, decks, gardens, trellises....the list goes on. There is also a large quantity of lace curtains. Some look kind of...boat-ish like this, and others are really just floating houses. Some look quite modern, others simply like normal homes. There are some quite lovely front doors. |
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| This is part of the many paradoxes found in Groningen. This series of apartments (very modern) sits right next to my building. Across the river from it are some of the buildings you will notice in the photo above. In other parts of the city, you will notice some charmingly old-fashioned residential lots. Very interesting. |
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| This is a boat house. Notice: front gate, number next to the door, trellis, patio. You can't see the mailbox but its there! |
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| The bridge about 300 feet down from the above boat house. |
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| Part of the above bridge. I'm not sure what structural purpose it serves, but it looks cool. This bridge, I might add, is one of many used only by pedestrians and cyclists. |
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| A church spire on the way in to the city center. |
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| One view of the Groningen Museum. Not sure what it's a museum of. History, I think. I'll go there eventually and report back. |
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| Another view of the museum. |
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| Which happens to be right across the street from this building: the central train station. Again, we see contrast. STRONG contrast. |
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| Another segment of the museum. Also note that the museum is built in the middle of another one of the city's rivers. Not on an island. IN the river. |
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| One of the bike-only streets. Again note the wide sidewalks. There are lots of shops down the side streets. |
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| I'm...not really sure what this is. I suspect it's a turnabout of Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal," but I'm not really sure. Spray painted on the side of the building where I ate lunch. Interesting enough I decided it deserved a photo :) |
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| And finally: one of the many squares in Groningen. I suspect that the weather was keeping a lot of people inside today, although perhaps by the time classes start next week the weather won't matter. LOTS of cobblestones in this city. Only pedestrians allowed in the square - you'll notice the road is a slightly redder color off to the left. Not very tall buildings, but definitely a city. About 4 or 5 blocks from the main university. |
