Giant frogs and alcohol

Did you know, that carnival is celebrated also in the Netherlands? Before living here, I thought carnival is mainly celebrated in Rio and Venice. How wrong was I! As partly Catholic country, Netherlands also celebrates the carnival time. The celebrations are mainly centered on the "south side of the river" in Noord-Brabant and Limburg.

Our little village on the "wrong side of the river" is however an oddity amongst others (strongly catholic?), and also celebrates the carnival. Therefore I got a chance to see the mini-carnival few weeks ago. We went to get groceries one Saturday in February, and suddenly there was a huge frog on the road. The frog was the undisputed centre-of-attention of the carnival leading the way. I learned, that Bunnik's name changes into "Kikkerloo" at the time of the carnival. So, for few days I lived in place that is named after a big green frog. Kind of cool.

Since it is quite impossible to describe precisely the parade itself, here are few pictures to illustrate the things encountered. My all time favorite was the sauna-like jacuzzi where people kept jumping out when it became too hot. Please add also a max volume 90's disco music as a background music to the pictures, so you can really tune yourself in to the same wavelength.

I have to say, this is quite nice way of also making it socially acceptable to drink in the middle of the day - for three days. In any other time it is only sad. One of the carnival caravans was handing out beer with a fish net. If it would have been cider, I would have definitely opted for one :)

Needless to say, in Finland some official authority would probably prohibit these kind of motorised undefinable moving things in a record time ;)

P.S. Based on stories heard from the "real carnival" cities, I think ours was interesting curiosity, but probably a a bit pale representation of the real thing. Maybe next year I will drag the Dutch guy to the other side of the river to see how the carnival is really celebrated ;)

Dutch courage

I recently heard a term used in english language called "Dutch courage". I did not have an idea where this is referring to, so with a quick googling I found the following from Wikipedia ()

"Dutch courage or liquid courage refers to courage gained from intoxication by alcohol. Originally the phrase 'Dutch courage' referred to the courage that results from indulgence in Dutch gin (jenever), but 'Dutch courage' can also refer to the gin itself.

In 1650 Franciscus Sylvius, a Dutch doctor, created Dutch gin in an attempt create a diuretic medicine. This was then used by soldiers in the Thirty Years' War by English troops and was an instant success for its believed warming properties on the body in cold weather[citation needed] and its calming effects before battle. Because of the effects of Dutch gin English soldiers fighting in the Dutch Republic in the 17th century apparently called the drink 'Dutch Courage'."

The context I heard it was referring to a situation, that you need to "get some Dutch courage" before doing something. I was puzzled by what was meant, was it suggesting that you need to be Dutch before doing something? Or do you need to have extra portion of cheese & mustard in order to be really courageous? But in essence it actually means, get some alcohol in to your system! As I have not bumped into significant amount of people being very drunk or taking sips of alcohol from a small bottle hidden in their sleeves, it is bid misleading nowadays I would say. I think there is plenty of courage in Dutch people even without alcohol - at least they have no problems being very direct! ;) I think though the Dutch courage could be useful saying in Finland, where it probably happens more nowadays as well. Sometimes a bit of alcohol is needed to get the bit more reserved/quieter Finns to talk ;)

In order to get some Dutch courage on me, I decided to emphasize it with some nice kaasblokjes and dill mustard. Please note also, the liquid in the Hoegaarden glass is not really beer, but cider. I just like the glass so much :)

Dutch cities - Middelburg

I am starting to gradually believe the sentence I have heard multiple times - that there's much more than Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Last weekend I was taken to a surprise visit to Zeeland (bte New Zealand's name comes from this province, so I guess it is the Old Zealand). It was amazingly beautiful there. We stayed the night in Middelburg, which is a very old city and the capital of province Zeeland. We were also lucky with extremely beautiful spring weather. Below few pictures from our one night getaway.

Houseboats on the river

Bakery in the shopping street, and next to that cheese/winestore. The trio is made complete by a chocolate store.

Central square of Middelburg

Lots of ships ready to set their sails to the ocean

Windmills on the coast

On our way back to Bunnik we stopped on many islands and beaches

Travellers

Our hotel was small and symphatetic near the railway station

In the summer these beaches are going to be bit more crowded...

.. But there were still few others, like this woman riding with a horse in the ocean.

During the getaway we also enjoyed the Dutch cuisine as well as neverending beer selection.. ;)

 

Relocating to a new place

What a week.. tomorrow is (hopefully) Friday and I can spend the weekend recovering and charging batteries. This week has been mainly about work, work, and again work.

When reading other expats' blogs describing the first months of relocating to a new country, it makes me feel sometimes a teeny-tiny jealous. There are stories of settling in, getting to know your surroundings by making long walks during the day, going to museums and slowly adapting to the new country around you. While I have this dream picture, the reality can be somewhat different. There are also moments of loneliness, dependency of the other person who might be the only social contact in the beginning and a sense of general lack of purpose.

Therefore in moments of exhaustion, I try also to look on the bright side and think, that I'm actually quite lucky being able to relocate to a country where I have almost everything ready. House was provided by the Dutch guy, work I arranged myself by relocating from our Finland office to the one in Den Bosch and language course is in progress. Slowly, but steadily.. :-)

I believe work is also one of the things that has made it easy for me to start building the normal, every day life so quickly here. But I can't help it to sometimes dream of this careless museum-wandering period..

The next step in the adaption process is to start getting to know people here, also those outside work. Currently my family and friends are back in Finland (except for the Dutch guy of course), and while I wish I could just export them here to the Netherlands, that is unlikely to happen. Therefore making connections in my new home country is essential for future. I wish I'd be one of those "I can network even with a cactus" type of persons. As an introvert Finnish person this takes some time though.. ;)

P.S. A nice curiosity for this week is a http://www.nationalecomplimentendag.nl/ - a national compliment day, never heard of such a thing before!