Greetings from Groningen!

-Written on Wednesday 28.8. evening-

What a journey it has been! Finally we have arrived to Groningen and can almost be eased. Tomorrow it's going to be a hectic day too, and on Friday is the first day of school already.

Today we drove straight from Denmark to the Netherlands and arrived just before 9 pm. First time during this trip, we also got lost as the navigator got overheated and was out of order.. But finally, we nicely made it to our destination, Groningen.

First impression of the city is very nice. The surroundings seem to be very clean, but the map is very confusing to me. Unlike in Finland, the streets are in kind of a circle form surrounding the city center. I suppose it takes a while to learn the map. For now, I will be very lost for a while :-)

Welcome to the Netherlands

As we checked in to the hotel, we got a directions with a map to where we should park our car. We dropped our bags to the room and headed out. Of course, I forgot the map to the room but we figure it would be a piece of cake to find the right street "Just turn right, right, left and you are there." Yeah right.. First thing, we forgot to turn from the correct cross-road. Second of all, we noticed that all the main roads we wanted to go were closed. No big deal, there's a celebration of independence of Groningen right here, right now. All the roads are closed and will not be open until 12 pm. We figured it wouldn't be a big deal if we just quietly drove pass one of the gates to our street.. Until the POLICE stopped us; "Can I see your driver's license, sir!?" Oh, what else could still happen. The Police was a bit confused but finally let us go trough. We made it to our destination, to the parking lot. Oh yes, finally! Oh wait, why doesn't this gate open? The gate didn't work properly, but this time it was our fault as dad didn't drive far enough for the gate to recognize the car. But the receptionist was so kind to drive with her bike to come fix the problem. 

As we parked the car, we headed back to the main street to get something to eat before heading back to the hotel. This either wasn't an easy challenge. Not until the fourth place was kind enough to offer us food. All other were closed. But this place, it was so great!! The service was so kind and it made me feel good, here is where I will be living for the next 5 months for the least and that feels ok.

"I'm sorry, our kitchen is closed already but maybe I can make something for you.." Yum!

On our way back to the hotel, there were a few others also wondering trough the city.. Bikes, people walking and drinking(just not like in Finland; super drunk and noisy. Just noisy). We heard there was a firework for the celebration, but though it was over already as everyone was walking away. As I brushed my teeth, suddenly a big bang went on and continued for the next 15 minutes. I think there was fireworks worth like 2000 euros shot to the sky during that intense 15 minutes. We did see some of them, as a reflection from the windows next to our hotel, haha!

Tomorrow I will sleep in, eat a nice breakfast and then it's time to move and find be mea proper bike!