I had a pretty good weekend... from what I can remember any ways. Spent it in Groningen, in the very north of Holland. It started out with a drive from hell on Friday night. Traffic was really horrible, stop-and-go for a long part of it. That drives me crazy. So instead of 3 hours it took about 5 to drive there. Yeash.

After I got there I was a little worried that it may end up being a repeat of last weekend with the whole town on vacation somewhere else. It was very deserted. I went out for dinner and there were hardly any people on the streets. It was weird too, because I remembered that the reason that I had choosen that weekend to go up there was because there was supposed to be some kind of a festival in town that weekend. There was even a carnival setup in the main square of the town, but no people at it?!? I don't know if it was the time of night (between 8-10pm) or what, but it got me worrying. So after dinner I was too tired to do much but watch some sorely missed english TV and go to bed early.

On Saturday morning I got up, pulled out my guide book and found a little town Bourtange about 1/2 hour away that sounded interesting, so headed there. I was hoping that after a morning of sightseeing that Groningen would be a little more busy in the afternoon than it was the previous night.

Bourtange is a very small village that decided in like 1965 or something to restore itself to how it was in the 18th century. Including defensive moats, bridges, cannons, all that kind of stuff. It was pretty cool, shaped like a star, I guess for defence, with the moats all around. It was amusing, but quite small and thus only took like an hour to explore the whole thing.

So after that, I still had time to kill, so decided I wanted to at least see the ocean since I was so close to the most northern part of the Netherlands. I had read in my guide book about this cool walk where you can walk over the mudflats when the tide is out to a remote island. It takes about 4 1/2 hours for the trek accross the mud flats from the mainland. Then you wait for the tide to come in so the ferry can come and pick you up and take you back. Gives you a little insentive apparently to get accross in time or the tide would come in and completely wash you away! Pretty cool, but unfortunately a whole day event, which I didn't have time for. But still wanted to see the mudflats.

So went to a little town Delfzijl that was quite unremarkable on the coast. Only cool things were it was completely surronded by dykes, which I could not figure out in what circumstances the ocean would rise up that far. Weird, but the ocean never rises past a certain level in Vancouver, yet other parts of the world it fluxuates quite drastically??... Maybe it has something to do with the area, as it's not really directly on the ocean, but a bay of somesort, with Germany only like a couple of km away and Denmark, etc, all in the same area... not sure. Any ways, the other thing was a restaurant on the dyke in the middle of nowhere. Bizzare.

After that I drove back to Groningen and started to explore the city. OK, crazy difference between the night before and Saturday afternoon. There was a TON of people out and about. Masive crowds of people. I found out later that the festival was the aniversary of the liberation og Groningen. So I was much happier, and almost too many people, some streets very crowded that I started to get annoyed. Just no winning eh? So any ways after a few hours walking about, got some lunch/dinner and went back to the hotel to rest.

After a short nap, got up and went out to find nightlife around midnight. Crazy parties going on in the street. One had a 60 year-old DJ with an Elvis mask spinning in the street and the crwod going crazy for it! Very bizarre. Fun though. I wish I could much more easily (and safely) take my camera out at night to get pictures of the crazyness that goes on in some of these cities. But, I guess night pics are never that good any ways. Videos don't work at all.

So any ways, after one failed attempt at a bar, it was closed, i was a little worried, but then headed over to the "main" club listed in Spartacus. Got there around 1am and was really worried because it was completely empty! I was assured by the staff though that it would be real busy that night, so stuck it out. Luckily after only 1/2 hour it started to pick up. I hate those time things, some places will be busy by 11pm and other not till like 3am. You can never tell unless you have been there once. Oh well.

So any ways, it was a pretty cool club, I quite liked it. I would have given it an (!) myself. It had four floors, all with different music, 3 dancefloors, each small of course, 4 bars, etc. Top floor played the dutch euro-vision type music. Didn't like too much, but also had the cutest guys, so did spend some time up there. 2nd floor had real good music, hip-hop, pop, dance mix. But it's where all the lesbians hung out so was there only some of the time too. Main floor had the typical dance/club music, but the DJ was absolutely terrible. Too bad it was the best, biggest floor, but music was so bad I couldn;t stay there much. And finally the basement had the standard cruise bar and dark room. Can't remember the music they played because I didn't go down there at all until (of course) the end of the night when all other floors had cleared out, that one stayed open later. I was tipsy by then, of course again, and don't remember much of down there. Oh well.

I think the club closed maybe between 6 and 8am? And, somehow afterwards I ended up on the back of a bike again headed back to my hotel. Don't remember how, I just remember getting to an intersection and knowing that the person was going to go the wrong way. I am extreamly lucky that I have such a good sense of directions!! I remember talking with the bike boy and he kept insisting that the hotel was one way and I had a huge instinct it was the other. I'm not sure if he was maybe trying to pick me up or not... probably. Oh well.

Any ways, in the end, my stubborn self (of course) decided that I was right and let him go off his way and I went mine. And luckily no more that 5 minutes later, or maybe a little more hard to tell time when that drunk, but regardless a short walk, and I was at the hotel.

Then is seemed like only 2 mintues later and the cleaning lady was yelling at me that checkout is at noon. So a quick shower, a 3 hour drive, and I was back in Antwerp to spend the rest of the day recouvering. Stomach was OK, only hurt a little early Sunday evening. The club had one of those cards where they mark off everything you drink and then you pay at the end of the night. I wish I could remember what I spent. Would have given me a better idea what I drank. I tried to keep track but after 5 drinks they started using combinations of different columns and I could't tell anymore what was for what and how much, etc. Oh well. Another week (month?) off my life... Africa here we come!