Monday, April 13, 2015

Friend and WWII

Finally, some sunny weather!
And good timing too, because my friend from Utrecht came over! We've known each other since High school, so we have a long history together (reminiscing over midterms, boy-crushes and the Hills!). I'd say we know each other almost like sisters! Unfortunately, our other High school friend was supposed to tag along as well, but she couldn't make it due to a fierce migraine. But in my eyes that's only a good excuse for another High school-reunion.
Since my old friend hadn't seen my new place yet, we first went straight to my apartment for a tour (did I mention she brought an Orchid? The sweetheart!). However, since my apartment is rather small that was done in about 10 minutes. So instead we went for a long walk around the city and did some shopping. And of course we had dinner at my favorite place, the Drie Gezusters.

And Sunday was pretty exciting too, as it was the celebration of the liberation of Groningen. Like many Dutch cities, Groningen was occupied during World War II by the Germans. After four days of fighting (from April 13 to April 16) Groningen was finally liberated by the Canadians in 1945, but not without substantial loss. In total over 500 people were killed, of which 110 civilians, 43 Canadian soldiers and 400 German soldiers, and half the city was burned to the ground. To commemorate the event exactly 70 years ago, soldiers from Canada, the UK and of course the Netherlands were gathered to reenact the events (website in Dutch, sorry!). I tried to take some pictures, but the crowd was so dense, it was almost impossible! Luckily, Youtube is filled with people who are a little taller than me (even if I'm not short with my 1.75m).

If you'd like to watch some clips of the event, look below (it's really pretty intense and impressive):



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