Blogs from Leeuwarden, Friesland, Netherlands, Europe

Today we headed for the Netherlands northern province of Friesland. Much of Friesland has been reclaimed from the North Sea, beginning with the first dikes around the year 1,000 AD. Slowly but surely the early mounds called “terpen” were no longer needed as safe havens for floods and were being abandoned and even removed. Early Friesland looked like open areas with low bush called heide or heath. At times flooded, at times dry, organic materials created peat, which was later mined for fuel. Excavated sites became shallow lakes so popular today for sailers and fishermen. Friesland is full of these lakes. Our first stop for today was Giethoorn. The band U2 had a song with reference to “street with no name”. Well, Giethoorn doesn’t even have streets in many places. Houses are built along canals and ... read more

Even though a road trip from Groningen to Leeuwarden would take about 45 minutes it is a much slower and longer trip via canal (and I am pretty confident in saying a more pleasant trip!) The canal that we had to take took us northwest to Zoutcamp, then we continued on to the Lauwersmeer (large lake with access to the sea) where we started turning southwest. This led us to an overnight stop in Dokkum. This portion of the canal again took us through plenty of farm land as well as through fishing areas which we have to always watch for no matter where we travel. We saw many more commercial fishing boats when on the Lauwersmeer with its direct access to the sea. As there is quite a distance between towns in this stretch of ... read more

Well, it has been a month since i've written a blog entry and that is quite surprising. Days are going by so fast! I can't believe I have already been here for a month! Here is a recap of the past few weeks: My second week in Holland I spent at Dutch Orientation Course (DOC) in Boxtel where I met 20 other exchange students from USA, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Taiwan. During this week we had lessons on the Dutch language, and also had plenty of time to bond. We went to a dutch carnival (kermis), Den Bosch, museums, and even visited the Boxtel Rotary club. My roommate during the DOC week was Jillian and by the end, we were crying because we didn't want to leave eachother. Our host family (Marc, Els, Tom, and ... read more

Spannend nog even en dan gaan we!!... read more

Have you ever wanted to fly? Feel your body weightless, glide over the natural currents of the atmosphere around you. Its feels almost unnatural, yet when I went kite surfing on Saturday, 8 August I did just that. It was via a travbuddy meetup that myself and 40 other hopefuls, from Dutch, to English hopefuls met up in Vlieland in the north of Friesland. Vlieland is an island part of the Friesislands and the second least populated municipality after Schiermonnikoog. We were all from different backgrounds and different ages but with one common goal. We were going to become the best damn kite surfers there was. Ok well maybe give it a try but lets be all high and mighty while we are at it right? We met early in the morning at Leeuwarden. I had ... read more