I know I may be going crazy lately, with my wedding coming up and all the long distance planning I have to take care of. But the Dutch have been going crazy lately too- and it will also only get worse! I don't mean losing-your-head type of crazy like me, but I mean more fanatic-crazy. This is for two reasons that you could only find in Holland: fish and football. By the way, the Dutch word for crazy is "gek"...with a very guttural g sound.
Just this past weekend, 'hollandse nieuwe', or the first new herring of the season, arrived on shore, and the winning barrel went for thousands of euros. It was auctioned off on Tuesday. The fish stand down the street from my office has flags up and signs and everything. On Tuesday he even had shots of alcohol to his customers to celebrate. He is known to us as, "the fish man". It may be just a bunch of fish, but it is a BIG deal here. They must be extra tasty or something...I refuse to let those fish get near my mouth. Nee, dank je!
The other craziness is not only in Holland, but all over Europe. The European Championships are starting on Saturday. Every 4 years , Oranje (orange) Fever begins. Whole neighborhoods come together to deck out their apartment buildings and streets in orange flags. Stores are selling more Dutch team related shirts and items...its a great marketing ordeal...and it sells, big time. The first game is on Monday night vs. Italy...its gunna be huge! I'm excited for it, it was great fun to watch 4 years ago here in Utrecht...and even the World Cup was fun to watch while i was in Washington DC. Too bad I will be in the USA for most of the EK (abbreviation for the Dutchies). I bet I won't be able to catch a single game, not just because I will be so busy with other things, but also because Americans aren't very soccer savvy and it won't be shown on tv. Big hopes for the team this year, as Marco van Basten, the coach of this year's team, could become the first every person to have the EK trophy as a player (1988) and as a coach...but can Oranje go far this time around? We shall all see how it plays out in the Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria.
Oh yeah, and if you were planning a camping trip to Switzerland around this time, you can expect to be flooded by a bunch of crazy Dutchies...many camp sites have basically been taken over there by orange-clad dutchies, renaming them Oranje-dorp (orange village). It is a very Dutch thing to go camping (in tents but also campers/RVs). I wouldn't attribute this only to Dutch loving the outdoors, I think it is more of a thing about being cheaper than staying in a hotel. That is a very large part of the Dutch persona - "thriftiness".
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