More interesting tidbits about the Netherlands

What is the correct form in English? Netherlands or Holland?
The Netherlands refers to the entire country, whereas Holland only refers to the western part of the country. Holland is eroneously used to refer to the entire country, so Netherlands is the correct form. 


So how did this all start you may ask? Blame the French. 


The Netherlands (note the article "the") is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The kingdom as it is known today, came into existence after Napoleon. From 1806 to 1810, the Koninkrijk Holland (Kingdom of Holland) was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom governed by his brother Louis Bonaparte. So the name of Holland became the name for the entire country. The Kingdom of The Netherlands also included Belgium from 1815 to 1830. Today the Netherlands consists of twelve provinces: Groningen, Friesland (the local dialect sounds very similar to English), Drente, Overijssel, Flevoland, Gelderland, Utrecht, North-Holland, South-Holland, Zealand, North Brabant and Limburg (yep, the stinky cheese).  So technically "Holland" only refers to the two provinces called Holland.


Now to confuse you even more the Dutch cheer their football team by shouting out "Hup, Holland, Hup" which means "Go, Holland, Go" and you will see football shirts for sale with "Holland" emblazoned on them. Here is a flag hanging from an apartment. BTW the Netherlands lost the first game in their division.

See it says Holland! and yes the picture is sideways.

Tapas Bar Pilsvogel decked out in Orange for the first game. Just around the corner from my apartment.

Speaking of drinking here is what you call the designated driver on a night out here in the Netherlands - Bob, yes Bob. The Bob is the person who gets to drink one beer and drive everyone home. It is believed that Bob stands for Bewust Onbeschonken Bestuurder or "deliberately not drunk driver" but not true. It was originally from a Belgian (remember they had been part of the Netherlands a few years back) anti drunk-driving campaign and the name stuck. So if someone at a party call you Bob you better stop drinking, unless that is really your name.

So where do you go if you have the munchies.......

Febo

The often-derided Febo snack bar chain takes its name from the location of the first outlet, opened on the Ferdinand Bolstraat in Amsterdam in 1941. Founder Johan de Borst, who trained as a baker, died in May 2008 at the age of 88. Febo is a coin-operated snack bar – you drop a coin into a slot which allows you to open the door to the deep-fried food of your choice. And yes I have tired it once when I really needed to eat something.

But on the weekends I shop at the Albert Cuypmarket around the corner from my apartment.

The market is so big that it is difficult to get a good picture

My favorite produce stall

The Vishandel -fishmonger

There are at least two of these herons who wait for the fish market to close in the evenings.

These guys need a calendar the market is closed on Sundays and the Albert Cuypstraat doesn't look the same

What a difference on Sunday mornings.

   
Here is a video of the market and other things to do in Amsterdam.

The picture below is a store that sells....you would never guess that a country surrounded by water would have... Specialty water. No really, here is the link to Watershop.NL  This is almost up there with a Starbucks on every corner (and yes Starbuck coffee is available in A'dam).

And where have I been??

There were times recently that this would have been the best thing to do.


For those who are wondering why I haven't posted anything lately let's just say there have been a few 'unfortunate' events with me and my computer but all is much better now.

One item that may become a recurring theme in my blog is the lack of Customer service in the Netherlands.  This not to say that the Dutch are rude but they think Americans express fake and insincere friendliness. Well not just the Americans but the British as well. Here is an excerpt from another expat's blog regarding customer service: "Dutch customer service at best, lacking in many establishments and it is certainly one of the gripes that expatriates have about living in the Netherlands. Many are shocked at how "staff" talk to people and there seems to be little interest in keeping customers an avoiding any damage to a company reputation."

This attitude is found not just in restaurants but in just about every aspect of daily life to include dealing with utility services and banks. When I had to send my computer out for repairs recently it took 2 of my friends (one Dutch and one German) and myself to get it in for repairs and delivered back to me. When you are given an expected time for service here you need to understand that the clock doesn't start until the item arrives at the designated location but you will never know when that happened. So what should have been a two week event turned into a month. My German friend said that I needed to understand that the repair company was in Germany but had to go through a local Dutch office before being repaired. It was the Dutch office that was absolutely no help.

Next on my list of places not to return to are hospitals, not just here but any where. The Dutch medical care is about the same as the US and tends to be non-interventionist in nature but the health care system is very different. And now I have first hand experience. May was to be the month I was to finish some small tasks like registering with the local city council, get a new phone, and get my Dutch health insurance taken care of.  Nope none of that happened and I got to experience what it is like to get emergency treatment. I am not certain if I now have a "huisarts" now or not. A husiarts is a family doctor you register with and is the person you receive your non-urgent or specialist referral from. So when I got sick recently I had to find an after hours huisarts so I could be referred to a hospital. Luckily I had a friend with a car to take me around A'dam. Of course I got sick on the night of a big soccer (football here and they don't understand American football) tournament celebration which added to the driving excitement and one interesting observation. While my friends and I were waiting for me to been seen there was a young man with an ankle injury rolling a spliff in the waiting room. He did need to hobble outside to smoke it. Don't know what happened to him as I was finally admitted into the hospital. Don't expect the same level of care in the Netherlands as delivered (if you can afford it) in the US. There is a certain expectation that you will have family around to help you while you are in the hospital. And don't expect to be given anything much stronger than Tylenol for pain.

Okay enough about me and now let's talk about what the natives are excited about - ORANGE FEVER! Yep it is football mania here. Here is a link to another expat blogger : http://janeduttonutrecht.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/fever-pitch/
Jane's description of it building slowly is correct. It really started around April 30th which is known here as Koninginnedag or Queen's Day.  I wish I had photos of how orange decorated every thing was then but I was not up or about. The country goes wild one this one day a year that is not the real birthday of the current Queen. In my neighborhood there was free music playing from 11 am until 8 pm. So the orange decorations have been increasing every where since then. One hotel has a giant inflated orange soccer ball on its roof. There is an office pool that was announced on comapny email which is a striking contrast to the wink-wink we don't have an office football pool farce in the US. But many things are different here like being able to drink beer while watching a movie in the theater and how freakishly tall most Dutch are, men and women.


I have been reading several other Expat blogs and I have found that we all pretty much post the same "interesting" facts abut the Dutch. So here are a few should you want to check out my "fascinating facts"


Invading holland


stuff dutch people like

I will post some pictures shortly now that I have my computer back and able to get around.

Nesting Great Blue Herons at Oosterpark