Groningen -The City That Turned Orange

Two hours of flying and the steel eagle have landed (also called as RyanAir) to Bremen. Small airport but that is what I was kind of expecting in. I needed to spend there an hour, luckily there was also a McDonanld’s right next to the terminal but instead of going there I decided to find a lawn and just lie there until bus arrived. A bus, yes, even that I’m going to InterRail my ticket won’t be valid before 1.7. so I traveled from Bremen to Groningen by bus, “the yellow line” alias Public Express.

Bus turned into a city and stopped at the traffic lights. While the bus was standing still opposites of us “pedestrians” light changed green. Immediately after that punch of people, male and women from different age groups, ethnic groups etc. showed up with one thing in common with everyone: They were cycling! I knew I was in Netherlands for sure.

Soon after arrival I met Hester and later on that evening Evite, poor girl needed to study still. In this case I do love Finnish education system in universities… Semester starts September and ends up at the end of May. :P Back to Groningen: First observation: Looks a little bit like Amsterdam but in way much smaller and non-touristic scale. But the big difference is that in the city center is built focused on people and only buses and taxis (plus cyclists of course) are allowed to drive around. In the square there was a fish market that was getting close to its closing time. Obviously it has tempted many hungry seagulls and other sea birds to get ready enjoy their meal from market leftovers. Walking around could almost be called dangerous as there was need to be cautious all the time for possible “boob bombing” or just minding your head as birds were flying around.

After taking a quick look of the city and a longer look of the football game (Brazil – Chile), we headed up to Evites place to have dinner. She has cooked a typical Dutch student dish: Pasta with spinach, vegetables and some bacon… It was really good! It could have been a Finnish student meal also so I guess these typical student meals are quite universal: Cheap ingredients, fast and easy to cook.

There is only one correct way to move around in Netherlands – cycling. I was honored to be able to borrow a bike from my friends friend and do it in a Dutch style. It was ladies bike, quite small and tuned up with Hawaii flowers and a pink bell. So riding with that bike (and I managed it well) we were just seeing Groningen around. Here on Sunday everything is closed so city was like a ghost town, silence before the storm.

At the evening there was going to be another football game, Netherlands – Mexico at the evening so because of that they setting up a huge screen on the big market square. That was the place where we decided to see the match. There were around 3 500 people watching the match at the square, everyone wearing something orange and following every second of the game with pure passion. Exciting game, especially closer to it get its end: There was around 10 minutes game left when Mexico was still on lead and the second when Netherlands manage to score to make game even 1-1 all 3 500 thousand people jumped in the air shouting, clapping hands whistling etc. supporting their own team. And then on extra time Netherlands received a penalty kick which was key for victory. Silence before the kick and undescribable explosion of cheering as numbers on screen changed 2-1 for Netherlands. And this wasn't even a quarter final.

Football nation, there is no doubt for that, check out the link:

KickToTheVictory

I've now seen Groningen and it is time to move on, luckily trains in Netherland have WiFi so I-m to publish my blog while moving towards Amsterdam.

Hester, Evite & Yasmin: Thank you for everything, it was nice to meet you up. Take care of yourselves and lets see what might be the next place where our paths will cross.