Standing in line

If you have time while in The Netherlands, just try being distracted at any kind of line waiting to be served and for sure someone will take advantage to get quicker attention!

People here are really polite but not on regards to queueing, they will stand in line over anything but then always try to get ahead. Also if another cashier opens the last person in line is very likely to be the first to get there and they will not respect who was first or second on the old line... It's every man for himself, like any other country I know... :D

But if you try to say something they will either ignore you or get really offended for the acusation, it's a laughter... 

It's really funny - once I was queueing and a lady with a scarf on her head went ahead of me and a dutch lady that was near me making funny faces to my daughter just went nuts about the lady getting ahead (I didn't dare saying anything because I lack the correct words in Dutch for this kind of situation...) and I was kind of happy she did that. But on my way home I thought it's really ironic, because Dutch people do that often and I also think that it might have been driven by racism? I didn't know anymore whether to be happy or sad... :S

Death in The Netherlands

I had never thought about it before but the way people face death and the way we honor our loved ones in the moment of saying our goodbyes is also part of a people's culture. So it's with a tear in my eye and with my heart tight that I write to share how death is experienced in The Netherlands...

The husband of an ex-colleague of Carlos suddenly passed from a heart attack and we wanted to show her our support so we went to the service in the crematorium.

It seems Dutch people face death as part of life, as we all should, after all that's the only thing we have for sure in life!

In this case the service was in the crematorium and we never been in one before, we weren't sure if there was a mass or some kind of ceremony.

We went there a little bit earlier and the place was already packed with family and friends wanting to pay their respects.

Weird concept for me was that they had a respects registration which consisted in cards where people could write their name and address. I guess that helps remembering who was at the service or maybe they want to send a postal card or something afterwards. I really didn't want to do that, I had the feelling I was giving extra trouble for being there... :S

I wasn't looking at the clock but I think at the time scheduled they let people in to see the open coffin if they wanted. After a while they closed the doors and opened them again briefly afterwards.

It was a big room with chairs in aisles forming a corridor to the now closed coffin with a small stage behind and a big screen showing a picture of the deceased.

There were several people talking about the deceased and telling funny episodes of his life, some put tears in my eyes even with my medium dutch skills. But I'm a sensitive person, I start imagining how would it be if it were me or if I should write down how I would like my funeral to be and I can't stop feeling bad... I was struggling the hole time to stop this non sense thoughts! Between speakers they had pictures of so special moments... it really teared me in pieces and I couldn't stop tears from falling.

In the end I didn't even pay my respects to my friend because there were so many people and I was afraid I would start crying for her pain and would tear her apart too. And that's what I always do... still not this time that I could change the way I act in memorial services.... :(((

Another peculiarity is that they actually make cards saying where the service will be and to join for coffee/tea afterwards.

Ouddorp and Zierikzee

It's been a long time, so many things have happened making me far too busy to write about it, and I kept a list of topics to write about, but as it got bigger and bigger it got me further away of writing anything. So I made up my mind, very tough decision, to just write about the now, and leave the rest behind for now.

So after searching for a house, going to Cape Verde on a volunteering mission to protect sea turtles, redecorating our new home, moving, getting pregnant, giving birth... we went for a ride in Zeeland like we used to do before - looking in a map for a town that sounds nice - I chose Ouddorp - and turning the GPS on. As usual we stop whenever we feel like it or deviate to where ever looks nice.

Ouddorp is very small but cosy and pretty - as I imagined due to the name: oud means old and dorp means village. It didn't disappoint.

It also has a lot of nice beaches! This was at the Ouddorp surfers' beach (view to the lighthouse):

After this two stops I set the GPS to interest point on the way home, but we stopped far before any of them when passing Zierikzee because I saw so many interesting towers from different types, so we decided to have a look - that took us the rest of the afternoon, but was worth it! Such a nice town!

The building with the tower in the main square reminded us of Tavira's city hall back in Portugal!

This is the new church, the old one was destroyed by a fire. Weird hum?

Maastricht!

Já há algum tempo que queríamos ir a Maastricht, o tempo nunca estava bom, ou tínhamos outros planos... Finalmente num feriado resolvemos ir, infelizmente apanhamos uma fila de trânsito descomunal - acontece que os holandeses não têm muitos feriado ou fins-de-semana prolongados mas conseguimos acertar num deles... toda a gente estava a ir para algum lado passar o fim-de-semana prolongado!
De qualquer forma, aqui ficam as fotos! :)

We wanted to go to Maastricht for a long time now but the weather was never good, or we had other plans... Finally we went on a holiday, but unfortunately we were caught in a massive traffic jam - Dutch don't have much holidays or long weekends but we managed to choose one of those! Everyone was going somewhere for the weekend! Anyway, check the photos!