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If someone said country bogan to me immediately I would have a vision of what I expect them to look like. But what does a stereotypical Rural Dutch country-sider look like. To be honest it is not a question that I have ever had to ask myself, but seeing as I was staying with my friend Arjen for my first couple of days of my trip, the question was thrown around in my mind a fair bit whilst flying the last leg over to the Netherlands!
I come from the driest state of the driest continent, so for me seeing so much green is novel in itself. But the whole small town was amazing. In comparison there are many differences on the surface to Adelaide. Some of these differences include the houses they live in are smaller. Usually homes in Castricum are two or three stories in height. There is a lot more foliage in one street in Castricum than in most suburbs of Adelaide put together. But there were also so many differences underneath the surface too. For one, people in Castricum seemed more polite than I initially expected, greeting you as you walked past them in the street
or entered into a store. This was a welcome surprise and reinforced the idea that Rural Dutch people were friendlier than city dwellers, which the hypothesis I concluded upon during the long flight over.
Staying with a family was a great experience because I got to learn more about the local area. Instead of dwelling on a Lonely Planet guide of the Netherlands, which unsurprisingly to Arjen and his family did not contain anything about their home. I was able to learn the real best parts of their town. This included some great hiking trails that were located almost directly behind the train station, which I cycled to every day I stayed at Arjen's home, on a bike that was way too big for me, which is the downside of being short in the country with the tallest population on average in the world. The start of the trail was located down a street with tulip fields and farm yard around it. Seeing the Tulips in full blossom was the quintessential Dutch experience I was waiting for. But the trail was something I could never have expected. Through the woodlands of the area. It was a refreshing and satisfying
venture into the pristine nature of the area. Only spoilt as a boot camp full of young tall Dutch women who came running slowly by and some overgrown bovine with woolly fur and massive horns. These large cows were very placid and unfazed. Instead they walked straight past me literally brushing my right arm as I walked by them going in the opposite direction. It was this tranquillity of nature that saw me make another link with those who would be classified as the Rural Dutch. They enjoy the slow pace of life. Similar in many ways to how the most live in Adelaide!
But the biggest difference and most surprising and unsurprising thing at the same time that I have learnt is that they are set in there ways. I discovered this upon going to a bar in Castricum with Arjen. There is only three bars in the whole town and they are within 50 metres of each other. Two are in the same complex, with one being upstairs and the other on the ground floor, and two stores down there is a club, but Arjen specified that the club was attended almost exclusively by those under eighteen.
We walked into the bar situated upstairs and ordered two beers when I first noticed the vast difference in price. 2 beers in Castricum cost me 4 Euro. While the same would cost me at least 14 dollars back in Adelaide! It was a state of delight that I didn't really expect. But the difference occurred when I started talking to the young Dutch girl sitting next to us at the bar. We talked quickly about bar prices but her friend looked very uneasy about our conversation and quickly drew the girls attention back. It surprised me as it was an entirely innocent conversation. Did my lack of speaking in Dutch offend her? Or was it something I may have subtly did?
This was quickly answered though by Arjen, whom I met when he stayed at my place Couchsurfing in Adelaide. He explained that the Dutch are quite reserved. "They don't really like to associate much with those whom they don't know." I realise this was just a sweeping generalisation and wouldn't apply to everyone, but to a certain extent it was true. After all I was told
this by someone who is Dutch!! He knew this was different in Australia as he learnt from his trip to Aus, but for me this was new. I've met Dutch people before, but they have all been quite extroverted. But this was proven again, when Arjen suggested I try and start a conversation with two blonde ladies who were standing at the bar near us. It followed the same pattern as the previous conversation. A little small talk, one of the girls looked awkward and regained the other girls attention, which ended the conversation entirely.
Arjen then asked to remind him what the drinking age was in Australia. 18 I recounted to him and this lead me to something that had bugged me for years. Do those under the age of 18 drink in the town at all. And with that Arjen and myself had ventured down the street to the club. We walked in straight away and ordered a couple more beers and listened to Dutch House music. But the next thing Arjen tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I thought those young girls were under 18. If you know me and have seen me, I
look a lot younger than what I really am so I decided to go and ask them how old they are, which was hilarious for Arjen, but I reckon he doubted that I would actually do it. But to his enjoyment I definitely did, and Arjen was right, the group of girls age ranged from 16 to one who literally just turned 18. This was weird but interesting for me. I never thought I would meet 16-year-old girls whom were legally allowed to be in clubs actually in a club. But I feel it was more of a novel experience for them than it was for me, because they seemed to have trouble coming to terms with the fact they were speaking to an Australian. They keeps suggesting I was lying and constantly asked to prove I was an Australian, which wasn't hard as I am Australian and obviously had a passport. But the one who turned 18 explained that they don't get tourists so it was hard for them to comprehend why or for them to even understand why I was there. I explained why and they seemed enthralled and one slightly infatuated with me. But they were quite
a bit younger than me, so Arjen and me decided to go to the other bar we hadn't been to yet.
Overall I learnt a couple things about Rural Dutch people, these include the fact that they are nice yet reserved people, whom seem to enjoy to party but love the quiet life to. So in essence they are almost the same as me, just they are taller, most are more blonde and speak a much cooler sounding language then I do!!
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