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| Timo and Morten |
Friday night I went to Amsterdam and stayed at a friends house. She lives right next to Vondelpark and her house is massive!!! It was immaculate and so modern, white and clean. We spent most of the afternoon laying in the sun and kicking around a ball we found. The weather was around 75 degrees so the park was packed...almost no empty space left to sit. We left for a little when it started to cool off and went back to get our jackets and set off to buy some wine to go back and sit in the park for the night. When we finally made our way back to the park we saw a sea of blue lights flashing on the far side from where we were. Some Dutch girls were freaking out about how we needed to leave NOW and that people were probably murdered but of course the American in us likes to stare at car accidents and watch fights and so naturally we tried to get as close as possible.
When we got over there, I would say there were probably about 60 police on motorbikes, horses and in cars. The police were all lined up and evacuating the park. Some guys we asked told us that some drunk people pushed a policeman and his horse into the water and that now the horse was stuck in there. We saw what looked like a horse being held on the edge of the water. I just found an article on an English Dutch news website that says there was a fight between about 60 people but doesn't say anything else.
Police on motorbikes and horses intervened following reports that a gang of youths were harassing people, pulling them off their bicycles. When the police arrived, they were pelted with bottles and other objects. Five arrests were made
The next morning my friend Kira and I planned to wake up early to go to Groningen, a city in the north of the Netherlands. Thursday night my host mom brought up the idea of hitchhiking and asked if I had considered doing it...I hadn't so I mentioned it to Kira fully expecting her to say she would rather take a train but she thought it would be fun!!! So Friday night I spent a few hours researching places to hitchhike from and the direction we should go towards Groningen. Saturday morning we were off! We went to a train station just outside of the city and then maybe 200m from the station is an official "liftplaats" which is a hitchhiking spot that had a big sign with a thumbs up on it. So there we stood with our backpacks, cardboard sign and our thumb out on the side of the road to wait for a ride. Lots of giggling ensued and we were not sure if we were doing it right...a lot of people were acknowledging us and saying sorry and then a ton of people seemed to be doing some hand signal where they pointed downwards. We later found out from our first ride that it meant that they were staying nearby and couldn't pick us up. After maybe 20 minutes or so a nice Dutch man picked us up and drove us an hour north. He was really nice, spoke excellent English and told us all about his hitchhiking experiences and also about the area we were driving through. We were dropped off at a rest stop and he told us we would have no problem finding a ride and wished us luck.
So once at the rest stop we felt totally uncomfortable again since we were supposed to actually approach people at their cars and ask for rides. I asked one man and he just kept saying no over and over. most of the people in this area were older couples or families with young children. We ended up standing at the entrance to the rest stop with our sign and after almost an hour someone waved us over and offered us a ride the rest of the way!! He was a Turkish man who didn't speak a lot of English but I at least knew enough Dutch to make a little small talk and make sure he would bring us the right way. In the end it was a great experience. We both definitely want to try and do it again. I was surprised at how easy it was and how friendly people were. |
| Couchsurfing friends..Sebastian and Nils |
The next day Kira and I were on our own and we spent a lazy Sunday in the city. We walked around a bit, ate a slow lunch outside and then spent some more time laying in the sunshine. I got home Sunday night around 9 and then spent most of Monday laying outside in the sun...yet again....I am trying to get a nice tan going while the weather is nice just in case it goes bad soon!! So far so good :)Up next on my things to do is plan a trip to Berlin...and possibly hitchhike there!!! And then this weekend is Queen's Day and I am going to Amsterdam to stay with friends again. Well tot ziens!
