Posted on - June 3, 2018

Nowadays we always talk about disappearing borders and distances becoming smaller. When I went home for the weekend for example, it took me only 7 hours to get from my house in Napels to my sisters' house in the Netherlands, including the waiting time at the airport and the public transport in the Netherlands. Skype and Whatsapp offer me the possibility to see and talk to my family and friends whenever I want. Unless the internet connection is as bad as it is in my house, but still. Since we are all Europeans, I can even call them without spending any extra money. And yet, despite the small distance, I sometimes feel like Italy is another planet. A good one, don’t worry, but in some ways it is so different from what I am used to, it’s unbelievable.

I will leave the traffic and driving habits out of sight this time, since I already talked about it many times. I will forgive the Italians for the horrible experience I had with a certain person driving, since we also have bad drivers in the Netherlands. Albeit a little less dangerous, since we don’t have mountains to drive off or hairpin curves and we don’t drive and text at the same time as much as the average Italian does.
Difficulties remembering where we are? No worries, I'll help you with this map. It's understandable, since the country is tiny.

Of course I have to mention food. First off, I need to say that my eating habits probably don’t represent the Netherlands at all, but it is the way I am used to do it. My breakfast usually consists of two slices of white bread with butter and hagelslag and it is the best breakfast for a regular day. Abroad I can never find the bread we have, so I replace it with baguettes, because the taste resembles the taste of our bread. On a normal working day, this breakfast would be around 8:00, because my days at the university started at 8:30. Since I absolutely love bread, I also eat bread during lunch, but this time not with a sweet topping. In the afternoon I would eat ham or a kind of marmalade (something that is like a marmalade, since it is not very well known outside the Netherlands). At my university we have a long lunch break, so this lunch is usually between 12:30-13:30. In the afternoon I generally eat a banana or another snack to bridge the gap to dinner around 18:00. The more traditional Dutch dinner consists of boiled potatoes mixed with boiled vegetables and a slice of meat afterwards. And the dessert is a bowl of yoghurt. However, I think this is not the most common meal anymore, not even for me, although this is still one of my favorite regular meals. For dinner we actually eat anything, from pasta to paella, from rice to potatoes to meat, you name it. In our supermarkets the sections with international food (Chinese, Italian, Indonesian, Mexican, etc.) are probably bigger than the more traditional sections, indicating our preferences. However, we usually have one real course. For example, if we eat pasta for dinner, we eat pasta. And maybe a salad to add some vegetables, but nothing else.

Even though the Netherlands may, righteously, not be very famous for their cuisine, we do have a wide variety of sweets. Candies and cookies are our specialty: drop, stroopwafels, stroopkoeken, krakelingen, etc. etc. It appears like we have an enormous sweet tooth, since pancakes is dinner for us, although sometimes it’s also eaten during lunch. These pancakes are not like any other pancake you’ve ever tasted, unless you already had the Dutch pancake, and we have entire restaurants dedicated to them. You can use anything as a topping; the most regular being syrup or sugar, but eggs, ham, bacon, fruit, meat or any other is allowed as well. And then there’s the baby brother of pancakes: poffertjes. There is no translation for this, neither are there words to describe this fantastically delicious food. It is my all-time favorite. It are small pancakes which should always be eaten with powdered sugar and butter, but this doesn’t do it justice. There’s only one solution to know what I am talking about: go to the Netherlands and buy them. Another alternative would be to buy me a good poffertjes pan and let me make them, but I usually prefer the ones bought on the streets as well.

Furthermore there are also some traditions that involve food. On New Year’s Eve we eat oliebollen (oil balls) and appelflappen (apple beignets). In my family it’s a long-standing tradition to make them ourselves from scratch, which takes about an entire day, working with several people, but we enjoy it. To celebrate the birth of a baby we eat “beschuit met muisjes”, which literally translates to biscuits with mice and the mice come in a mix of white with pink or blue, according to the sex of the baby.

A very interesting and quite remarkable difference with Italy (and Spain) is the way people greet each other. The way we greet each other in daily life, naturally depends very much on the relationship we have and the circumstances. In my case, this usually involves just words, sometimes a handshake (in a more official meeting or when I get to know someone for the first time) and in some cases kissing. The handshake I also use on birthdays of people I don’t know very well (or don’t like enough to kiss 😉) and in another weird tradition we Dutchies have on birthdays. When it is my friends birthday for example, I congratulate her, naturally, but also everyone that is present. Since I don’t know most of the people, I shake hands with them. I save my kisses for people I have a special connection with and sometimes also just for occasions. I never greet friends with kisses, unless it’s their birthday (or mine) or another cheerful event. Sometimes I hug a friend when we meet, but this usually involves being apart for a longer time. In my family, we don’t always greet with kisses either. On a birthday and on other special events we do, however. And there comes the confusing part. We usually shake hands and kiss three times, starting at the right cheek. So, Italians, excuse me, if sometimes I fall back into Dutch habits and forget at which cheek to start… Furthermore, the rule is that women kiss both men and women, but men never kiss men. They just shake hands.

Fortunately, I got used to the more Southern habits quite quickly. I still don’t really understand when I should or should not greet by kissing, but I’ll follow you when I meet you. I do remember that the first time I lived in Spain, it was a surprise for me and it’s still not the most common thing for me to do, but I have gotten used to it more or less. It’s just all part of the more physical way of interacting, which I am not grown up with. Unless necessary or in love, we don’t sit close to each other, don’t touch, don’t hug or kiss each other. In both Spain and Italy this is very different. This resulted in me being very confused about the nature of some relationships, especially during my time in Murcia. In my class, I honestly though there were some couples, since they interacted very… intimately, in my opinion. This appeared to be “just being friendly”. Also in Italy the first weeks I had to get used to this again and it is still not clear for me where the boundary between “just friendly” and “romantic” is. Interesting, right? So if you thought I was not very touchy, don’t worry, I am still adapting. This probably has nothing to do with what I think of you.

As you might have noticed, I use both Holland and The Netherlands when referring to my country. The first is an adaptation to all foreigners who don’t know what is right, since the second is the only rightful name. I’ll explain: Holland is only a part of the country, just like Andalusia and Campania are not Spain and Italy. In fact, we have North-Holland and South-Holland, two regions in the west of the country, called the Netherlands. I was born in Holland, but have lived the greater part of my life outside Holland, but in the Netherlands. Can’t follow anymore? Just take a look at the picture. The red parts indicate the two parts called Holland, while everything you see, is the Netherlands. Using Holland to refer to the country is indeed an error, but since many people don’t know, we just let it go. Although, especially people not from Holland, can really get irritated by this habit. Furthermore, we are often confused with the Germans, since both our nationality and language are called Dutch. Despite this resemblance the Deutsch (German word for “German”), we are not Germans and their language is different from ours. So please, don’t confuse us ever again with our neighbors. Another lesson that might come as a shock to you is that the Netherlands honestly refers to only one country. Especially in Spain I was frequently asked in which country of the Netherlands I lived: Holland or Belgium (or in some cases: Luxemburg). This is also one of the reasons I usually tell people I come from Holland when people ask me. And then, the majority makes a new mistake: “Ah, are you from Amsterdam?”. Especially since I was born in Rotterdam, this question irritates me. But also, because our small country is so much more than Amsterdam. We are more than the marihuana smoking people who have a red-light district. Yes, also Amsterdam is more than this, but I think the real beauty is observed outside the big city. Judge yourself, when you look at the pictures in this album, all taken from places outside of Amsterdam. And once you decide to visit my delightful homeland, let me know. I will tell you which places to go to for poffertjes, pancakes, beautiful views, small towns and I might even find a place for you to stay. And yes, I will forgive you, if you also decide to visit Amsterdam, as long as you broaden you horizon and also take a look in other parts.

So the entire country is called The Netherlands and only the red parts depict Holland.

Let me know if you want to know more and what you would like to know. Of course there are many more traditions and habits I didn’t speak about. I could fill a book, but I didn’t want to bore you anymore than I already did. But feel free to ask me or speak about it with me, because I do love to talk about it (as you might have noticed).

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