Arrived at 8:30 AM on Friday morning, which I thought was too early to call my elementary school buddy Jamie, in Amsterdam on an exchange. So I just walked...and walked. Bought some boots for $20.
Finally called Jamie around 11:30. He was meeting another friend at the train station in 10 minutes, so I headed over there. Had to use a few strangers' cellphones to figure out exactly where to meet him....
We went to a tea shop for lunch - this place had 'high tea' options - but we just got a pot and some rolls with cheese and meat.
Since I hadn't yet found the red light district, we went there. It was maybe a bit early for prostitutes (though there were a few in this one alley who all looked under 16) so we just headed to a café - the Greenhouse Effect - for a...beer. Strong stuff. Music playing in café: the pixies.
After that we headed to Jamie's 800 E/Month 2 floor suite (he has four beds, so I'll be staying there some time), then back out to play a few games of pool (music playing in bar: TLC's 'No Scrubs') and a snack at Febo, this bizarre fast food restaurant where all the hot food (little cheese and meat filled fried things, small burgers) is in little dispensers and when you pay they open...and they have people working there just filling the dispensers up.
Then I decided to walk around a bit more before catching the 4:11 train back to the airport (where all my bags were and where I was due to catch the 5:18 train to Groningen). A bit more red light dstrict - more prostitutes out now - and a Cannabis garden, which I had to pay 3 E to get into and which turned out to be just 3 plants in a room.
Apparently it is disrespectful/not allowed to take pictures of the prostitutes, so this is from across the street
look closely at the decorative cast iron fencing...
the unremarkable 'cannabis garden'
Bad Luck: I broke my glasses 10 minutes into my plane ride
Good Luck: I found a photo on the street (I collect found photos)
Groningen.
Cab driver abandoned me at the door of my apartment. I was supposed to call this girl to get my keys but I didn't have a phone, and couldn't figure out which apartment she lived in. Finally after 10 minutes a girl came out and let me use her cell. The apartment building is not what I expected at all. The bathroom and shower are shared, but otherwise I feel like I am living alone. Not at all like the 'house' I was expecting. I have my own room, kitchenette, keys...and also haven't seen a soul in the building (an old school, perhaps?) since I got here.
What I see from my window
The first thing I did was blow the fuse for the entire apartment except one light by plugging something into the converter. Then I just decided to go to sleep.
14 hours later and the power was miraculously back on. Was able to plug in my poor dead computer. Went out in search of some food. After walking for about 10 minutes, I found a market. The beautiful weather (about 5 degrees C) was interrupted briefly by a surprise blizzard that lasted about 5 minutes. I bought some fruits and vegetables, then passed by the grocery store to get some essentials. Bad idea. They didn't have any plastic bags and I had come empty handed, so I had to use the thin little ones for fruits and vegetables. And I had a lot of stuff. 4 broken shopping bags, 1 broken bottle of wine, 1 broken bottle of oil, and some bleeding fingers later, and I still wasn't home. A woman kindly stopped and gave me one of her shopping bags, so I was finally able to get home.
ps. this blog is chopping my photos pretty much in half...will figure out how to fix that.
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