Thoughts about Holland vol.5.
It would be more appropriate if I used the Netherlands instead of Holland, beacause Holland is just a part of the whole country. There are other parts/regions/shires or whatever you call them, these parts namely North Holland, Zuid Holland, Zeeland, North Brabant, Limburg, Utrecht, Gelderland, Flevoland, Overijssel, Drenthe, Friesland, the Western Frisian Islands and Groningen. Quite many, and the Americans still use the form Holland. Alright alright I don't have to go too far, because we Hungarians use the same form along with other nations. How smart it is from the French and the Spanish to call it Pays bas / Países Bajos! Low country/ies. Certainly it is a low country. I have read that the lowest point is 6,74 m below the sea level, which is at Gouda (yesyes home of the Gouda cheese - kaas), approximately 20 kms from me to the East.
Today I am having a day off, no excursion, so I have some time to write.
The weather is really nice, my collegues always say that it is pretty unusual to have such nice weather for so many weeks in a row, so probably it is me who brought it with me. LOL, maybe, but if I did, in Budapest it would be constantly raining. In fact it is not, sunny weeks over there!
Yesterday I was at the seaside, the most popular resort called Scheveningen. And what is the coolest about it? In order to get there I only have to take the tram at the corner where I live and takes me straight there. About 45 minutes of tram ride, but you can see whole Hague along the way, the Parliament and the International Court of Justice and World Forum sites as well. The Hague is just sooo nice. I could imagine myself living there for a while. Whereas in Amsterdam I don't think I wanted to. I just didn't feel myself at home at all.
Scheveningen is a vivid little place, full of tourists and native people of course, but to be honest I heard more German and Russian words than Dutch. The beach itself is quite similar to the one I have been in Texel. Sandy beach, and small grassy hills along the shore. During low tide (as it was now) you have to take a long walk in order to reach the water. This time I was much more reluctant about going in, but I said I have to try. This time I spent 5 minutes in the water but just went until the water touched my knees. Sorry, I am weak. This sea is not designed for me. My flatmate went in twice, but we have to mention that he is the native person, so probably in his DNA it is coded somewhere that he shouldn't mind that the sea is freezing cold. LOL, I was really wondering about that!!
There is a large luxurious hotel along the beach, the Kurhaus, which is in fact a really impressive building. Oh and they built an enourmous pier really deeply into the sea, they are so proud about it, but to be honest I think it's not nice at all. Unique for sure, but I think the only functional use of it is that you can do bungee jumping from the end of it. Anyway I still owe the town a big walk, because this time it was really a regular beach visit: enjoying the sun. I guess I would have a solid tan by the end of the three months if things go on like this. LOL, Riccardo want to have a race? Btw, as you wrote me that I should be a Lonely Planet author I am always thinking about that. Maybe I should publish this blog as a book... Too bad I don't get to know good recipes here so it wouldn't be a gastro-bestseller. haha
In the evening I went to Leiden for a house warming party with a friend of mine, that's about a 20 minutes train ride to the North. I think I haven't told this before, that the internal migration in the country is between Delft and Leiden. The reason is really simple. In Delft there is a technical university (TU Delft), so 90% of the students are guys. Whereas in Leiden you may find a university (Universiteit Leiden) which has several faculties: Law, Natural Sciences, Medicine, Philosophy, Creative and Performing Arts, Social Sciences. Here the majority of students are girls, although not as strong majority as in Delft, but still. So if you want the people to form couples you certainly need the migration somehow, no?
So, Leiden. There was a huge happening over there, because it was yesterday 400 years ago that Rembrandt was born in Leiden (easy to calculate but I will put it here: 15 July 1606). Therefore the city was celebrating, and the was a big procession on the canal, and on each boat they projected with people dressed in the most renowned paintings of Rembrandt. On the main boat the was a guy who was playing Rembrandt himselft, he was standing in front of an easel and holding brushes and a palettein his hands. Of course there were a zillion spectators compared to the size of Leiden, and the music in the background made excellent ambience. Although when we were moving ahead, we got to experience the disadvantage of the canals. Terrible smell!! Fish and sewage.. brrr. So at this point we made our steps faster, and finally reached the place we were going to, a nice little house in a very romantic street. In fact very quiet, but nobody really cared that half of the party was going on before the house on the street.
After having warmed up the house we started off to find a club to go out to, but the range of offers is not that distinctively wide, so we jumped into one we found. Well, I wouldn't compare it to the Passage, or even Kaiko, but still we had a nice time there. Finally we took the night train back to Delft. Actually we had to switch for a night bus, but got back home safely. Sunrise was on its way, so what do you know, I went to bed when it was already light... (before 6 a.m...)
While I am writing these lines it is 9:45 p.m. and still completely light. That's the nice thing about being up North...
alright bis bald drágáim,
Kusjes
J.
It would be more appropriate if I used the Netherlands instead of Holland, beacause Holland is just a part of the whole country. There are other parts/regions/shires or whatever you call them, these parts namely North Holland, Zuid Holland, Zeeland, North Brabant, Limburg, Utrecht, Gelderland, Flevoland, Overijssel, Drenthe, Friesland, the Western Frisian Islands and Groningen. Quite many, and the Americans still use the form Holland. Alright alright I don't have to go too far, because we Hungarians use the same form along with other nations. How smart it is from the French and the Spanish to call it Pays bas / Países Bajos! Low country/ies. Certainly it is a low country. I have read that the lowest point is 6,74 m below the sea level, which is at Gouda (yesyes home of the Gouda cheese - kaas), approximately 20 kms from me to the East.
Today I am having a day off, no excursion, so I have some time to write.
The weather is really nice, my collegues always say that it is pretty unusual to have such nice weather for so many weeks in a row, so probably it is me who brought it with me. LOL, maybe, but if I did, in Budapest it would be constantly raining. In fact it is not, sunny weeks over there!
Yesterday I was at the seaside, the most popular resort called Scheveningen. And what is the coolest about it? In order to get there I only have to take the tram at the corner where I live and takes me straight there. About 45 minutes of tram ride, but you can see whole Hague along the way, the Parliament and the International Court of Justice and World Forum sites as well. The Hague is just sooo nice. I could imagine myself living there for a while. Whereas in Amsterdam I don't think I wanted to. I just didn't feel myself at home at all.
Scheveningen is a vivid little place, full of tourists and native people of course, but to be honest I heard more German and Russian words than Dutch. The beach itself is quite similar to the one I have been in Texel. Sandy beach, and small grassy hills along the shore. During low tide (as it was now) you have to take a long walk in order to reach the water. This time I was much more reluctant about going in, but I said I have to try. This time I spent 5 minutes in the water but just went until the water touched my knees. Sorry, I am weak. This sea is not designed for me. My flatmate went in twice, but we have to mention that he is the native person, so probably in his DNA it is coded somewhere that he shouldn't mind that the sea is freezing cold. LOL, I was really wondering about that!!
There is a large luxurious hotel along the beach, the Kurhaus, which is in fact a really impressive building. Oh and they built an enourmous pier really deeply into the sea, they are so proud about it, but to be honest I think it's not nice at all. Unique for sure, but I think the only functional use of it is that you can do bungee jumping from the end of it. Anyway I still owe the town a big walk, because this time it was really a regular beach visit: enjoying the sun. I guess I would have a solid tan by the end of the three months if things go on like this. LOL, Riccardo want to have a race? Btw, as you wrote me that I should be a Lonely Planet author I am always thinking about that. Maybe I should publish this blog as a book... Too bad I don't get to know good recipes here so it wouldn't be a gastro-bestseller. haha
In the evening I went to Leiden for a house warming party with a friend of mine, that's about a 20 minutes train ride to the North. I think I haven't told this before, that the internal migration in the country is between Delft and Leiden. The reason is really simple. In Delft there is a technical university (TU Delft), so 90% of the students are guys. Whereas in Leiden you may find a university (Universiteit Leiden) which has several faculties: Law, Natural Sciences, Medicine, Philosophy, Creative and Performing Arts, Social Sciences. Here the majority of students are girls, although not as strong majority as in Delft, but still. So if you want the people to form couples you certainly need the migration somehow, no?
So, Leiden. There was a huge happening over there, because it was yesterday 400 years ago that Rembrandt was born in Leiden (easy to calculate but I will put it here: 15 July 1606). Therefore the city was celebrating, and the was a big procession on the canal, and on each boat they projected with people dressed in the most renowned paintings of Rembrandt. On the main boat the was a guy who was playing Rembrandt himselft, he was standing in front of an easel and holding brushes and a palettein his hands. Of course there were a zillion spectators compared to the size of Leiden, and the music in the background made excellent ambience. Although when we were moving ahead, we got to experience the disadvantage of the canals. Terrible smell!! Fish and sewage.. brrr. So at this point we made our steps faster, and finally reached the place we were going to, a nice little house in a very romantic street. In fact very quiet, but nobody really cared that half of the party was going on before the house on the street.
After having warmed up the house we started off to find a club to go out to, but the range of offers is not that distinctively wide, so we jumped into one we found. Well, I wouldn't compare it to the Passage, or even Kaiko, but still we had a nice time there. Finally we took the night train back to Delft. Actually we had to switch for a night bus, but got back home safely. Sunrise was on its way, so what do you know, I went to bed when it was already light... (before 6 a.m...)
While I am writing these lines it is 9:45 p.m. and still completely light. That's the nice thing about being up North...
alright bis bald drágáim,
Kusjes
J.
posted by Juli at 4:47 PM
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