Frisia Coast Trail.com

About 2,000 years ago, a tragedy unfolded. A sixteen-year-old girl, who had suffered from scoliosis during her young life, was killed. Her red hair was shaved off on one side, she was stabbed at the base of her neck on the right shoulder, and strangled with a woollen rope. After this, she was placed in the bog. It all happened near the Celtic fields in what was then the territory of the Old Frisians, near the current village of Yde in the province of Drenthe. It was not inves

Being out on the grasslands may bring you face to face with farmers, fellow wanderers, or—of course—'birdwatchers'; see the note at the end of this blog post. Encounters with these countryside folk unfold in slow motion, and follow a sequence of clearly defined phases. Out here, less is more—just like the empty landscape itself. If you have any intention of mingling with the locals of the griene woastyn  (‘green desert’), or hope to receive assistance should you be badly inju

R1b/Hg1/Eu18; R-M213; R-M9; R1b-M45; R-M207; R-M173; R-M343; R-L278; R-L754; R-L389/R1b1a1; R-M415; R-P297/R1b1a1a; R-M269/R1b1a1a2;...

High in the majestic Alps, in Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland, many men, women, and children have witnessed the dreadful sight of dead Frisians marching home under the cover of darkness. The path they follow is known as The Frisians’ Way , a ghostly route linking the Haslital —the Hasli Valley in the Bernese Oberland—to the distant shores of the North Sea, once the heart of ancient Frisia. The dead do not speak the word ‘friend’ and simply enter when they want to pass through

Latið meg ei á Frísaland fordervast!  This is the Faroese language, and its translation is: 'Do not let me perish in Friesland!' It is a cry of a Faroese young woman when she was being kidnapped by Frisian pirates somewhere in the Middle Ages. The question of this blog post is not about how on earth it was possible that the youth on the Faroe Islands had such a bad image of Friesland or Frisia. No. Instead, we will review the old Faroese sagas about Frisians. Faroese oral ac

On March 25, 2020, the coronavirus pandemic was climbing towards its second peak. There was uncertainty about how destructive the...

Brooklyn. Named after the charming village of Breukelen in the Netherlands. Its original Frisian name was Attingahem. With only a twist...

At the intersection of land and sea—where it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins—life is harsh. The corrosive salt of the...

With the upcoming seasonal festivities at the end of the year, it is appropriate to serve you a flavourful cocktail. It is a cocktail from the list 'Myths of Nations', namely the 'Frisians Cocktail'. Its recipe is not as old as some people thought it was, or would like it to be, but it is still quite a reasonable drink to serve before, during, and after Christmas dinners, or as an aperitif on New Year's Eve! What the heck, on every Sunday morning with strawberries for breakfa

The mudflats of the Wadden Sea seem endless. But what do you do with them? How do you give meaning to mud? Sure, one cubic meter of...

How do Frisians spend their time off? Frisians in the Netherlands must have loads of it because job prospects are among the lowest in the country. In addition, those who have a job do not face traffic jams consuming precious hours every day, unlike the people in the cities further to the south of the country. Inhabitants of the province of Friesland belong to the poorest in the country and have the highest unemployment rate. Yet, these people turn out to be the happiest in th

This is one of the simplest things there is, once you’ve got the hang of it. ‘A child can do the laundry,’ they literally say in the Dutch language. This has nothing to do with a history of child labour, by the way. Understanding the logic of Frisian personal names is essential if you want to have a seamless and non-violent hiking experience along the Frisia Coast Trail . Once you get it, a Frisian—or a Dutchman with Frisian roots for that matter—is also easily recognizable b

For those never having met a native Frisian, here is a crash course. There are some remarkable things to mention and rules to live by. Before I start describing what makes the Frisians different, I have to apologize for my poor discrimination skills. I was raised in Cameroon, in Africa. All my friends were natives from the small village of Atcha Tugi, the place where we lived. I admit, that is a poor start. Once back in the Netherlands, my discrimination career took a huge t