Leiden - the best in many ways
I know I should write more. Now, my friend from Turkey came to visit me and I’m picking her to important places in the Netherlands. She seems to like the country and especially Amsterdam and Leiden. I can tell you about our trips later but now I will write about Leiden.
Leiden is a small city that has all the facilities one may need. You can chill out, relax, have a nice nature trip but also glorious night out, drinking. As many Dutch people tell; Leiden is like a little Amsterdam. For so many people, it is more than that. Architecture, canals and green atmosphere is more visible than in Amsterdam. Also, people of the city is mostly students and that means Leiden is a live city.
The list of specialities of Leiden:
-Poems on walls: You can come across a poem written on a wall in its original language. Russian, Italian or in any language. There is also one of Fakir Baykurt’s Turkish poem in a little street.
-Canals and windmills: Canals are in everywhere in the NL but here it s much more beautiful. They are much in quantity but the most importantly they are linked to each other. You can have a boat trip and see almost the whole city. The thing that makes these trips so magnificent, is architecture andd windmills. Those are old windmills that Dutch people built to pump the water and keep themselves not to drown.
-Leiden University: This university was founded in 1575 after local people of Leiden saved their city from Spanish army’s attacks. According to the story; the William of Orange rewarded Leiden’s honorable people by building a university. However, as I learnt in my Dutch Studies course, the real aim was to support the commerce, life and safety of the city, they wanted to open a university and make the city powerful. That’s why the first faculty that was opened was the Law faculty. The reason was to teach “consensus” to new generations
-Hortus Botanicus Leiden: After the university was founded, university council and governors wanted this university to have a botanical garden. All prestigious universities of that time used to have one. Corolus Clusius was invited to make a botanical garden and fill it with the most beautiful flowers. Clusius was a famous gardener and had hundreds of flowers. He saw a charming flower in his friend’s garden in Italy. His friend told him that this beautiful flower is from Turkey. Clusius imported those beautiful flowers , tulips and planted them to the University’s garden. Then, this flower had its own market and became a tradition in the Netherlands. Still, tulips are really important for the Netherlands and they import their tulip bulbs to every part of the world.
-Museums: Like in many cities in the NL, Leiden has important museums . Since I haven’t seen any of them, I do not want to write about them now.
-Pieterskerk: As its name suggests, it is a church. But now it is used as a hall for events. I went there to listen Ban Ki-moon’s Freedom Lecture and the atmosphere was inspiring for me.
P.S: I know I will learn other things peculiar to this city but now these are all I can tell.
DON’T forget to visit Leiden, if you come to the Netherlands.
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