Those crazy Dutch… random stories and a fitting end

So, a week has come and passed and every day I’ve written about a small part of what I’ve seen during my months in Holland, the land of the crazy Dutch, but what I’ve written is just a spec of dust in a sand storm of impressions gained in this strange and yet wonderful country with depressing weather and crazy inhabitants.

I feel that it is fitting to end the week of crazy Dutch stories with a few of the stories I’ve considered writing but which didn’t made it in this weeks stories. In no particular order I’ll just mention facts, impressions and thoughts.

The crazy Dutch have something against wearing hats… Only when the weather is so cold that you get frost bites on your brain they would think about covering their heads with something. It’s true, it’s strange, it’s Dutch.

The girls wear boots a lot. Yup, don’t know if it’s just a passing fashion thing or it has always been so, but if you walk around you will see a lot of girls wearing boots. It’s true, it’s not that strange but it’s still Dutch.

There are a lot of people that do sports on regular basis, all kind of sports. Being  a person that likes sports and considering that in Romania the biggest sport is football and it’s practiced by sitting on the couch and drinking beer this seems as a breath of fresh air. It’s true, it’s the way it should be and it’s Dutch.

Above – Crazy Dutch goat at the Open Air Museum in Arnhem.

There are a lot of petting farms for kids, so the kids can see that milk does not come from a factory, produced, like soda, but from a cow. It’s true, it’s good and it’s Dutch.

 Above – Windmill at the Open Air Museum in Arnhem used by the crazy Dutch for pumping water

There seems to be an obsession with how to build dams and use pumps to control the flow of water. Well, for a country with so much land below the sea level it’s not that unexpected, but it’s still strange when you see how this obsession manifests itself. I’ve see in at lest two museums (The Water Museum in Arnhem and NEMO in Amsterdam) a sort of a water slide you could build dams on. I also saw at the Open air Museum in Arnhem a sort of a crane toy in the middle of a puddle with which children could build dams. It’s true, it’s strange and it’s Dutch.

There also seems to be some obsession with swimming. Kids have to pass some swimming tests where they show they know they can swim and that they can also swim with their clothes on and in difficult conditions. It also has to do with the country being under the sea level. It’s true, it’s cute, it’s useful and it’s Dutch.

When you go to a cinema you might be amazed that instead of pop corn and soda people drink beer and eat… beer. I was taken by surprise. As far as I understood going to the cinema is considered the same as meeting your friends in the city, which seems right, therefore it’s like going to the pub, so having a beer is normal. Also, some cinemas have a pause right in the middle of the movie, like at the theater. It probably has something to do with unloading all that beer . It’s true, it’s weird, it has some logic to it, it’s Dutch.

The beer doesn’t come in the half a litter bottles but in 0.33ml bottles, which, sometimes, makes more sense, if you drink all night. It’s true, it’s different and it’s Dutch.

And I probably can go on like this for a few more pages (actually I ran out of good ideas but there are some other things which I might remember).

Now is the time to write a conclusion… And what comes to mind, my dear reader, is that I’ve been surprised by how friendly the Dutch are, I’ve been amazed by how things seem to just work in Holland, and I’ve been amazed by how many interesting things such a small country manages to hide. I feel that the whole Dutch experience was, is and will be a privilege and I’m very happy to have had the opportunity to meet and get to know a little bit how the crazy Dutch are and I’m very happy to be able to call some of the craziest Dutch I’ve met, my friends.

And thus, my dear reader, I choose to end the week of crazy Dutch stories, hope you enjoyed it, hope to hear from you and hope you will read on!