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Published: 25.06.2007

Updated: 25.06.2007

Description of my location in Dokkum, Holland

I am in a refugee camp they call “AZC”, which means “Asylum Seekers Center” in a city called Dokkum in north Holland.

1. Dokkum, Holland

2. Refugee Camp

1. Dokkum:

Dokkum is north of Holland and has a population of 13,000. It is very neat and clean. It is in a state called East Friesland. It is a round 15 km from the ocean. One of the larger cities near Dokkum is Drachten which I guess has around 20-30 thousand population, and Groningen, which I guess it to have 30-60 thousand population. Both cities are around 30-40 km far. Dokkum has no train station; the next city with train station is around 10-15 km far. However it has a very good organized, clean and on time bus transportation system with 10 bus lines that go in all directions, it is slow but very functional. The buses are mainly of two different companies, one is English and the other I guess it to be Dutch. As most of the cities in Holland it has a lot of man made water channels, which they also use very strongly for watering the many farms around, transportation, leisure and so on. It has around 15 churches or religious temples, has around 5 supermarkets, one small shopping center you can browse through it in under 10 minutes. Thanks God there is no McDonalds or his a like, however there is quite a few Dutch style of fast food, which is mainly private owned and very nice. 3-5 foreign restaurants such as Chinese and Italian and a few native restaurants and bars. Library all in Dutch. Many sport recreation. And a few cafés, not coffee shops, coffee shop in Holland means café that sells marijuana smokes. It is usually like a small sports bar, with some recreation such as pool/billiard. I went there once by mistake because I asked for coffee shop, and was sent to one which it turned out to be not café. Café for me means a small gastronomy shop that is specialized in coffee, pastry and light snacks, where many people gather mainly to socialize in a quite atmosphere.

2. Refugee Camp

I will write later.