ESN excursion: Weekend in Ameland 20.-22.9.

Last weekend was the best. On 20th to 22nd of September I joined an excursion to one of the northern islands of Holland, Ameland. The excursion was held by ESN, Erasmus Student Network Groningen and there were in total around 90 participants excluding the organizers. So we enjoyed a weekend full of new friends, lots of laughter, luckily a lot of sun also and new experiences. Oh, I enjoyed it so much! In between all the stress from school it was nice to get out from Groningen to explore a new place.

As it took a while for me to actually write this post, I am not sure wether i remember everything, but at least I have a lot of pictures to share!

We started off the trip with a one hour bus ride to the harbor, in a city called Holwerd. From there we took another one hour transfer to our destination, but this time by boat. From the harbor of Ameland we walked trough the city to our accommodation. The city was the cutest thing ever. Narrow roads made of bricks, old houses with perfect gardens and families biking around. 

For the first day our schedule was to settle down to our rooms, have some barbecue-dinner and get to know each other a little bit better, and finally enjoy the party with a theme of "High School". We had a lot of fun, dancing and meeting new friends. Nevertheless, quite many people, including me, were so tired from the traveling and all that we went to bed "early" at 2 am or so. I think it is better to enjoy as long as you want/can and leave while it is still fun.

The next morning was relatively early, wake-up at 9 and to breakfast. I think I made the perfect choice to come to Holland, as even though the schedule handed beforehand seemed quite tight, everyone got to have their breakfast and other morning activities without a rush. 

Finally the program of the day started - we were divided to two groups. The other group stayed at the guest house and we went to pick up bikes and from there to the beach.

We drove to the beach, at the same time sightseeing. The island of Ameland was so pretty. Everywhere the roads were so clean, the vibe was incredibly serene and I could not have asked for a better start for the day. The fairytale continued at the beach, kilometer after another white sand and dunes. There was even a horse carriage party, just, you know, normally strolling by the waterline. While biking around we got to see the island well, as it was only 100 km to bike around and 27 km, if I remember correct, from the one end to the other. 

After a dutch lunch, aka, sandwiches, in the afternoon was our turn to play some games at the house. We played dodgeball, volleyball, blind football and other fun activities. Blind football was the absolute favorite, so much fun!!

Drained from the day, we just enjoyed the beautiful weather and played HalliGalli and drank a few beers, of course. The germans also introduced us to a hilarious sport drinking game; Flunkiball. Of course, girls defeated boys like no other!

Flunkiball

Bagpiper from the neighbor 

In the evening we were knackered from all the things we had done just during that one day. We joked that we had done more in one day than what normally do in one week. After dark, we headed back to the beach for a cozy moment by the bonfire, eating marshmallows and so..

After the bonfire, we had the chance to go check out the one and only night club in Ameland. We had heard some pretty fishy rumors about the place, "Swinging Mill", so of course we wanted to go. First of all, at the entrance when we left our jackets, we had to buy these special coins, looking like poker chips, to buy beverages at the bar. For example, one coin was 2 euros and for one coin you got a beer. How weird and unique, have never seen such! The place was super small and- verifying the rumors -filled with underaged boys. Still, we had fun and lasted until 3 pm. Luckily the place was in a two minute walking distance from our house.

The last day started very lazy. Breakfast, cleaning, packing.. Last rounds of HalleGalle and trampoline jumping and back to Groningen. Kindly, ESN had organized a fairly tasty lunch by the local "snägäri" and all who were hungover got their dose of salt and grease.

The whole weekend felt like I was 15 again on a summer camp without any worries. Perfect, relaxing weekend! Even though the flu caught me even worse after the weekend, but oh well, it was all totally worth it!!