the dying grote trekdreef
this is the building i lived in in the netherlands when i was on exchange. my room was 7 from the top and three from the left, with the orange wall. i guess they pulled off all the windows because they are going to demolish it with explosives. i used to joke that it was the ghettos of utrecht, being an area which had a kind of projects/ social housing feel. but if you look on the google maps link you can see that just on the other side of the main road, there is miles and miles of parks, walking paths encircling the city, and farmland, as well as old fortifications with moats.View Larger Map
Labels: netherlands, utrecht
posted by liam at 1:57 PM
2 Comments:
greetings liam. funny to see the TB building like this isnt it. i lived there between 06.2004 and 03.2005. i wasnt a student but i lived on the 6th floor of the student block.
some memories: the lifts that were unavailable b/c someone somewhere decided to 'reserve them' by jamming open the doors. so we'd come back from the Dirk van den Broek and use the service lift.
I once came home and took that lift up to my floor..to find a dead person on a trolley in the stairwell. one of the OAPs from next door. quite weird after cycling back from scoring some hash on A'damsestraatweg to experience that.
The bike pound: in the winter we improvised a few runners from the various wrecks, abandoned bikes left in there. Batavus, Gazelle.
We had two cats. Sometimes they wouldnt come to the green door at the base of the fire escape stairwell when we wanted them too,
so we might have to go searching for them at 3 or 4.ooAM. around the overgrown rear gardens behind the building. Mybe bump into a scarey looking junkie hanging around in the bushes.
The grafitti, the different nationalities on each floor, the generally stoned anarchic atmosphere mixed with straighter, dutch students also ...what a crazy place. i spent more than 20 years in and around the netherlands and when i'd moved on from Grote and returned around the time your photo was taken in 2008, it felt like the end of an era.
everything changes, including dutch attitudes. i was in utrecht a few weeks ago but i didnt bother to stroll over to the dreefs. last year i was there in august and the building is long gone. shame. but at least we were part of the scene. Overvecht is interesting.
If i ever get back to there, i'll smoke one from Malabata for you =]
cheers matey
ahh, stories, thanks! there were still floors with cats when i was there, maybe the same ones as yours.
I remember one of the upper floors used our stair landing to throw a drum and bass party that got shut down by the police. I had a set of computer speakers in the kitchen, and the police came looking for me as well, but i'd gone into my bathroom and passed out. It was a fancy dress party, and when i'd seen the police i'd assumed they were just in costume....
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