Reverse culture shock

 Daily Adventures  4 Responses »
Jun 152012
 

Utrecht, The Netherlands.
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I’m back.

And I thought South America was weird. But the Netherlands is weirder by far!

Giants stride through town, with sickly pale skins and golden locks adorning their strange looking faces. Not a word of understandable Spanish passes their lips, instead they speak to each other in a strange guttural language that seems to come all from the back of the throat. I can’t believe that everybody doesn’t have a sore throat all the time…

Bastiaan vs. Jet-lag; 1 – 0. 40 hours with 2 hours of sleep in an airplane. Going from sleepy to hyper to almost-blackouts. But, went to bed at 12 and woke up at 8 this morning, feeling almost like normal. Yay!
Shops close at random moments! Like at 6 in the afternoon! And you can’t get anything. No friendly pharmacists, no it’s-12-at-night-and-I-desperately-need-a-pair-of-pants clothing shops.

You can get food though. But it’s weird! No ceviche, no asado, no pollo a la brasa. There is shawarma though. But they call it shoarma. Silly people!

And they add vegetables to their food! And not just as decoration. Or something to put your meat on. They actually eat it! I guess that explains the pale faces?

Toilet paper goes in the toilet.

Beers are tiny. “I’m not a baby, why don’t I get a grown up bottle. Doesn’t have to be a liter, the 660 ml is fine as well.” They looked at me strangely. I looked back strangely. It all was a bit strange.

Saxophone!
Bikes! Everywhere! It’s an invasion! Coming in from all sides at the same time, your life is never certain.

Other than that, it’s good to be home!