0 Netherlands is the country of tulips, the windmills to clogs, Ajax, marijuana, red lanterns ...

Holland is a country without villages, which, however, is one of the largest agricultural producers in Europe

Netherlands is the country of tulips, the windmills to clogs, Ajax, marijuana, red lanterns ... In the fall tulips are hidden in greenhouses, windmills have long been only attraction, and clogs stands alone in the shops for souvenirs. Cycling, swimming, hockey, football is not a new obsession of people in low land. Recreational drug use and cheap rooms with surinamki and Indonesian are patent Amsterdam. But Amsterdam is not Holland. Netherlands is true that near Apeldoorn, Arnhem, Neymehen, Amersfoort, Deventer.

Holland is something else. It feels more of the border - a concept which today continue to handle only we, Eastern Europeans. There no boundaries. Just earth is flat, but the signs are in another language. Skate in the city - left sidewalk is Dinksperlo (Netherlands), and right in - Zyudervik (Germany).

Netherlands row. There are many more order than in the famous Prussian order. Same streets, accompanied by the same bicycle lanes, the same neat two-storey red brick houses with small courtyards full of flowers, the same centers with huge cathedral - a Dutch city.

 Holland is a country without villages. Although even the capital The Hague has the status of the village, the small settlements of low land do not overlap with our view of the village. No yards where chickens are walking, not tomatoes. All agriculture is exported outside the settlements - in the same farms that line the roadside from one city to another. In two thirds of these farms is happening the same thing - dozens of cows grazing peacefully on the area as a football field. From April to October, around the clock there. Then they go home. Who picks them up, who worked on these farms - it is not very clear. The level of mechanization has long enabled the Dutch do not dig gardens. As it is true that Rotterdam is the largest port in the world and because Holland is a maritime nation, so it is also true that this country without villages is one of the largest farmers of Europe.

Netherlands road. A party that has territory three times less than that of Bulgaria, has 35 real highways. When wondering how to get a Dutchman from Groningen to Rotterdam, he simply says - A-28 A-25 A-15. That's all. Brilliant maintained highways have such a mark that allows you at any moment to know where you are with an accuracy of 10 meters. In Dutch roads is no such thing as a traffic cop. Smaller roads are made, however, so that all traffic control is unnecessary. Plate shows a limit of 80 km / h After another half mile sign informed that as a camera that will shoot violators. If you drive more than 80 flash shines above the road - you are shot and then dutifully waiting to get a fine from 50-60 Euro. If you do not pay on time, gives you another payment period, but threefold. None suffered. Any unauthorized parking place or exceeded the minimum period of parking leads to a fine of 35-40 euro new. None suffered.

 Even the Dutch, who wrongly park in Germany, pays scrupulous fine catch him in his municipality. There is a choice - you can pay as the Dutch budget, and German. The Dutch do not rely only on the conscience of drivers - to kill the speed of cars in the country, they make every junction roundabout. Drive ten miles and - hop - reducing ring.

The tip of the road and the road between Lilestad Enkuzen. This is a dyke. Sounds simple, but sublime. 31 km across the sea.

The drivers are kings of the highway. King of the street is pedestrian - vehicle stop dutifully and unquestioningly, when you set foot on the tape. Even greater honor is for cyclists. Due to flat terrain easiest and cheapest way to travel short distances wheel. And because every Dutchman has at least two. Children go to school by bike. Parents go to work by bike, then buy a bicycle. Before the station has huge parking - for bicycles. Grandmothers of '80 pushing the pedals. In their modern naborki make small mopeds. A wonderful sight.

The wheel is a religion of Holland and the only subject of crime in the country, of course, except for crime in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. So the only accessory unassuming Dutch wheel lock. This wheel, you can see in every Bulgarian village, costing between 300 and 350 euros. Average luxury bikes reach 1500.

The only thing the Dutch care more than bicycles is their home. The average citizen of Queen Beatrix lives in a small house. The first floor has a spacious living room, good kitchen and bathroom. Steep stairs lead to the second floor where there are 2-3 rooms and bathroom. There are two optional basements and backyard with small garden. The wealthy live in the house of red brick, but twice more.

In each city has the same stores. In Ultreht Zyudfend or you can visit the same stands for "Blokker", to buy goods in "Kijkshop", to pozyapate in "Hema". You want lots of money or trinkets - for you are "Xenos" and "Widra". Cheap clothes - run to the "Zeeman". Cosmetics? In our country it is in special stores and drugstores in them - as "Kruidvat". And when that diversity is stretched in the city, not more than Pazardzhik you tired before you fulminate suburbs with large halls as "Metro" - "Gamma" and "Etos". Paradise for shoppers.

Dutch traders know how to fold money to the Dutch. The state also able to take back money. If you want to save, work illegally, not paying social security contributions, purchase of Turks and Germans, and the stores for "second hand".

If you want to be a Dutchman, his house rent for 400 euros, earn € 1,300 against license, buy a car mid lease, complete it with gasoline for 1.2 euros per liter, road tax you pay for it 400 euros and immediately give a third of their pay for insurance and taxes. Your child learns in school is a state, but it costs a pretty penny. Fix your teeth and light-new 1000 euro. Everything is money.

But the welfare state like the Netherlands no one should die of hunger. Grandmother, which makes motorbike gets minimum pension in the Netherlands 800 euro. It never worked, and her husband died two years ago. He lives in the house with red bricks, which lived for decades. To be left entirely without means, the state covers part of the rent her grandmother could not afford to go where all grannies go with pleasure - in a nursing home. It costs money. And there is nothing to do with Bulgarian similar homes. Older couples receive apartments of about 100 square meters and medical care. Upholstered furniture, space, picturesque park - all in the city center - these are Dutch nursing homes.

Dutch house has a mandatory feature - windows that overlook the street, at a height of only fifty centimeters and almost none of them curtains. This allows pedestrians to safely watch the owners are sitting on the low coffee table, staring at TV and drinking coffee. There are different interpretations of this feature of Dutch homes - some attribute to the era of Calvinism and the emergence of something like religious police who watched upon morals, others - a time when men traveled with the fleet, and women should not do anything hidden ... All this is gone, but the tradition remained. Only homes where foreigners live, such as Turks, are shrouded in heavy curtains and surrounded by high fences. The Dutch continue to insist on openness.

At the same time the number of foreigners in the country is steadily increasing. In each city, however small it is, there are several Turkish stores that sell exotic teas apple in the Netherlands, Turkish delight, cheeses and cheap tomatoes (1 lev). Doner kebab, pizza has been supplanted by fast food. The Netherlands is full with huge Chinese shops. Of course, these are not places where the average Dutchman shopping. In normal days prefer local native chains as "Edah" and slightly more expensive "Albert Heijh". In such places the Bulgarian best understands that our prices have reached western. The only relatively expensive products are meat and alcohol. Although not garner the Benelux, the Netherlands has bread cheaper than ours. This is not enough for the Dutchman, who to fill the more expensive stroller, goes Saturday in German supermarket chains such as "Aldi".

The only thing Southerner does not understand is the lack of full cafes life that fading at 6 pm. The explanation is simple. The Netherlands has 35-hour working week and no one should violate the law. Simply state believes that if you work more, you will have an adverse effect.

There are exceptions. This is Amsterdam - life does not stop there. From the station of "Damrak" to square "Dame" and Hotel "Krasnapolsky" crowd running incessantly. Commercial artery of the city - "Klaverstaat" always busy. Around the banks of the Amstel and "Channel of the Lord" there is always people. Red lanterns diminish within minutes - only while inside a client and another "Coffee shop" recruiter curious tourists.