02 Mar So, what about Holland?

Since i’m lacking poorly in my commitment (tnx IEEC) I’ll blog immediately..

Let’s talk a bit about Holland today (or the Netherlands, whatever you want), cause what’s up with all those damn stereotypes?! When I introduce myself and say I’m from Holland, most of the people immediately assume that I live in a tulip farm in Amsterdam with windmills everywhere which I check from time to time, walking on wooden shoes and while smoking a big fat joint.. well, I hate to tell you, but that’s not true..

First of all, Holland is more than Amsterdam, I’m from a tiny village called Beek-Ubbergen and live in Nijmegen, an 1,5 hour train ride away from Amsterdam (okay, I’ll not deny that Holland is small), it’s a city near the border with Germany (for Germans it goes under the name ‘Nimwegen’). Nijmegen is, in Dutch terms, a quite average city (165.540 inhabitants), and since there are 16 million people in our tiny little country it’s damn crowded there. Second of all: If you leave the city there are some pastures, but they are all green and there are no tulips in them.. the last time I saw a tulip in Holland is a long time ago and was probably in a flower shop. What’s also hard to find in those pastures are windmills. We had a lot of them in the past, but most of them are gone. And then the part which surprises me the most: wooden shoes, seriously? We wear normal shoes in Holland like everybody else, so we walk on converse, nike, vans and whatever other shoe brand there is as well! Have you ever tried wooden shoes? They are heavy and not comfortable at all! They even hurt. And about the weed part: yes, it is legal in our country, but if you walk through San Francisco you see more people smoke weed than you’ll see in any city in Holland. Maybe this is because of the fact that it’s legal nobody smokes in Holland (except from the tourist of course) – you know it yourself when you think about beer, it’s fun to drink illegally until your 21 (which is 16 in Holland) but after you turn 21 there’s no fun in it anymore, it’ll give you a crazy night, that’s for sure, but the excitement is gone! I personally smoke not much weed, but out of the few times I smoked 80% of it was outside of Holland, how about that! (of course I didn’t smoke weed in America at all, I don’t want to do illegal business here..). So that’s set then!

Some fun facts? Here you go:

– There are 12 provinces in Holland from which Flevoland is the newest.
– 80% of Holland will be under water when the dykes will give way.
– Holland has almost the same amount of inhabitants as Australia, only Australia is bigger than Europe and Holland unfortunately is only a small country in that continent.
– The care system of Holland is the best in the world.
– You can call our country Holland, or the Netherlands, it doesn’t matter! We say Nederland ourselves, and of course we speak Dutch there, cause we are Dutch, not German.
– We can drink beer and wine and drive a scooter when we’re 16.
– We can drive a car (after passing the exam of course, but alone (there doesn’t have to be somebody next to you)) from 18, and you can drink liquor and smoke weed from that age too.
– For a tiny country as we are we do pretty damn good in the world, Holland is the only country that has a seat at the same table as the G8, despite we’re not part of these 8 big motherfucking countries.
– If you go to Holland, you should definitely try a ‘Friet Kapsalon’, that’s French fries with salad, cucumber, tomatoes, kebab, cheese and garlic sauce. I don’t get it why Holland is the only country where you can get that.. Other great Dutch snacks are ‘Frikandellen’ or ‘Kroketten’. Try them, they are amazing!
– We’re famous for our Gouda cheese and Heineken beer.
– The Dutch soccer team is pretty good.
– All the television commercials are Superbowl-funny
– Our flag is red white and blue, but we like orange a lot too!

Well that was about it now. Since the stereotypes and ‘what people think about’ pictures are so hot at the moment I made one myself about the stereotypes of Holland.

So, I hope you learned a bit about how Holland actually is! I want to add to this blog that it is definitely worth to visit Holland, Amsterdam is a great city to visit but there’s also Rotterdam, Eindhoven, Groningen, Maastricht, Arnhem, Nijmegen, Utrecht and so much more places to see! If you’d like to want to see the Dutch stereotypes in real life, than you should go to Zaandam, there they walk in the original Dutch clothes with wooden shoes, windmills and tulips everywhere! It’s worth visiting but 110% touristic! It’s a great country which you definitely have to add in your Eurotrip when you’re planning to make one, and guys and girls, do not only go there for the lots of weed and hashbrownies we have ;).

If you want to know more about Holland, please let me know, I’m happy to tell you!

Let’s end with a nice Dutch proverb: “als de kat van huis is dansen de muizen op tafel!”. Translated this says: “when the cat’s gone, mice are dancing on the table”, which means: if the person with power is gone (e.g. boss, parents or whatever) everybody will do whatever they want, It doesn’t care at all!

See you soon folks,
Tim