Life in Holland 2
This post is a continuum of the previous: Life in Holland. It’s really in bits and pieces, and because I’m no writer. So here comes.
Day One: Our first exposure to the wind / breeze. It is very unsettling. We are yet to come to terms with it. The wind cuts through to your skin and forces a shudder. It was Monday, a fairly quiet day. Many shops remain closed for the first half of Monday (A Sunday fatigue phenomenon, perhaps). It is one of those weird things.
Early days: Our initial days were spent discovering kinds of food; getting used to the time zone; shopping for warm-clothing; getting used to the “brown bread is food” (that our hotel served perennially); knowing how trams work and how to commute; how to use tickets; searching for Indian restaurants on weekends; a bit of site-seeing (weather permitting), getting used to pronouncing Y for J; finding a place to buy Bollywood DVDs (so that we could watch the missed ones); grappling with Dutch language and labels in grocery stores, and other such activities.
House hunting: December wasn’t really a great time for house hunting. Obviously, getting people to show us places, so we could choose was a major problem, with the weather shifting sides every now and then. In spite of it all, we managed to find a property that we decided to call “home”. We found a nice three-level house, with narrow carpeted staircases and some other nice things—very Dutch.
Workers: The next couple of weeks were spent getting the property cleaned and checking stuff worked, replacing white items before the actual move-in. The workers we found here—at least the ones we worked with (with an exception of one person)—to be extremely lazy.1 They changed our perception to ‘perhaps Dutch aren’t really a hard working lot’ as the book mentioned. “No” is a magic word in their vocabulary, and we really like the way they use it. We have been told that they’re quite frank, but we think it’s the quickest excuse they can come up with, without justification.
The people: The people here are really wonderful, warm, helpful and I must say, quite friendly. Lots of smileys. This is very unlike the uptight chinese, we were used to in Malaysia, and for whom looking unsmilingly stiff is basic instinct, at least at first contact.
Native Indians: Holland, incidentally, is home to Indians from the former Dutch colony, Suriname. Their native language, however, surprises me. It is Hindi or something close to it. But when I hear them speaking, it’s like going back a century behind in spoken language. It’s very ‘rusty’, if I can put it in one word.
Indian spices and grocery: Most of Indian stuff like grocery and other such comes from the UK. There are some asian shops that sell these.
Business hours: Shops work just like offices and are open only during office hours: i.e., from 0900 to 1800. Only on Thursdays, they’re open until 2100. Just once a week (if you leave out Saturday) you can come home a little early from work and go shopping with family. To us, this is extremely unusual—when compared with other places we have lived or visited. It is as if they don’t know how to business, which would be typically: be open when customers can come and shop! Hello?! Anyway, the book had forewarned us about this, and we came mentally prepared. Almost everything is closed on Sundays. Sigh.
Shopping Furniture: This one is off the hook, by yards. They say if you order furniture at any store (with an exception to Ikea), it takes at least 3-months to deliver! What are we to do until then? Sleep on the floor, may be? This was the reason we shopped everything for our home in Ikea, inspite of some quirks (and the fact that they don’t really make good sofas). Oh by the way, Ikea is considered an entry level furniture store here in Holland. Stuff for the masses or some such.
Bikes: I was telling my colleagues about how for the price of an entry level bicycle here, I could buy a 100cc scooter in India. But, bikes and accessories are really special, and I have never seen anything like such before. Amazing stuff. And so are their prices. Did you know that you can insure new bicycles here? We bought one last week for about 400 euros — 3 gears shimano, ladies unisex :), fitted with a baby seat on the back carrier, a couple of sidebags, head and tail-lamps, and a few other things I haven’t seen in any bike before.
And so the weirdness continues :). May be and just may be, if I am interested enough, I’d write a part three.
- We know we are generalizing and we could be quite wrong, you never know for sure. [←]
You should check out live for presence of bird eye view of local city(amsterdam is not there,but look for sttutgart). Your shots of miniature was what reminded me of this facility. Try out gapminder and spotfire which has nice shell case study on using visualization. Finally try out flash fun @ typeorganism.
Feb 7, 07 at 06:31Other things which I wanted to email was ted & colors.
Btw - for good trend on it - read vinnie
I visited Netherlands for a week in April’ 2006 and seen places like Den Haag (The Hague), Kinderdijk, Rotterdam, Arnhem, Keukenhoff, Apeldoorn on a hired car and Amsterdam by walk and trams. We stayed at Landal Coldenhove 20 kms north of Arnhem and criss crossed the country from west to east and back a few times (in most cases within 3 hours from end to end). It was a very enjoyable trip.
In Amsterdam, try Shiva Restaurant on Rembrandtplein at 72 Reguliersdwarsstraat. This was the only one we tried, when we were in Amsterdam. It has got good Veggie options and is pure Indian (not bangladeshi or pakistani).
Last year was the 400th birth anniversary of Rembrandt. Try visiting Rembrandt House and Rijksmuseum if you can. Also try to visit Anne Frank House (Huis) that of a famous jewish girl, whose family evaded the Nazis for two years, by staying in a loft section of their house. The story is very interesting and moving.
Nemo near Amsterdam Central Rail Station is a good Science Museum for the kids.
Coming to the Dutch may be firing on wrong cylinders in some aspects, you may be partly true. The same could be true with Italians, French, Spaniards and Portuguese.
Regarding shopping, I think most of Europe follow the same opening timings (been to Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland), i.e from 9 am to 6 pm. UK is changing a bit off late. Shops are now open on Sunday afternoons as well.
Feb 22, 07 at 00:19Hi Vidya Sagar, it’s good to hear your take on things. Thanks! It’s good feedback. We are still exploring
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Feb 22, 07 at 09:13