studentsineurope

I used to think that the best souvenirs were those that could double as Christmas presents for those relatives you don’t see very much — most of the snowglobes, mugs and other assorted paraphernalia people brought back from Europe didn’t seem to have much purpose apart from being an occasional paperweight.
However, there are some real [...]

I love English. English has elegantly simple grammar paired with a lexicon as decadent as a pre-industrial monarchy. English has a subtle and variable cadence. Much as I love speaking Italian, you’ll never convince me that Romance languages are more “musical” than English: English is like jazz while Italian is like opera.
But when I’m abroad, [...]

Amsterdam is a wildly cosmopolitan city with no shortage of quality restaurants, and not just traditionally Dutch ones. It’s harder to find a place serving Dutch food (whatever that is) than Italian, Indian, or Indonesian.  In fact, it’s Indonesian fare that’s the highlight of the city’s culinary scene.
Due to the Netherlands’ one-time colonial presence in the [...]

At 5:15 this morning I left my hostel and wheeled my broken, noisy suitcase onto the streets. It was quiet and dark out. Groups of students chatted, wobbled, and pedaled home after their long nights out at Groningen’s many clubs and bars. Here and there a flower pot was overturned or a bunch of fries [...]

You always have an excuse when you get seduced. You know you’re making a bad decision. You even know you’ll regret it. But your amazing powers of rationalization kick in and before you know it, the deed is done. In my case, I blame the muffin. I was wandering innocently around Groningen looking for an [...]

At the east end of the Grote Markt you’ll find the Martini Tower, a huge square bell tower that rises over the city and can be seen from almost anywhere (making it, incidentally, a great way to reorient if you get lost). As one of Groningen’s characteristic monuments, it’s worth a visit when you’re in [...]

The University of Groningen was recently voted the most international student-friendly university in the Netherlands. Start browsing their web site, almost all of which is available in English, and you’ll see why. Groningen makes a real effort to make the university accessible to non-Dutch students. It offers a variety of classes in English, so you [...]

Finding the Simplon Youth Hotel from the street was a bit tricky. It’s located off a hidden courtyard and you have to go through an unmarked brick arch to find it. However, once you finally locate and enter the bright green door, Simplon becomes a pleasant home for your stay in Groningen. It’s clean and [...]

When I first started scoping around for dinner in Groningen, I was shocked and horrified by the restaurant prices. “This is a student town?!” I wondered, not believing there wasn’t something less expensive. But everywhere I looked advertised entrees for upwards of twelve euros. The best deals were “plates of the day” for around nine-fifty.
I [...]

It was not easy to get here. I flew Meridiana from Cagliari to Rome, Easy Jet from Rome to Amsterdam, and then took a two-and-a-half hour train from Schiphol to Groningen (thankfully, for my travel-addled brain, there were no transfers). I left Sardinia at 7:30 this morning and I arrived in Groningen around 5:30 in [...]