HOLLAND

To all you foreigners Holland is often times a difficult to understand. If it isn't the soft drugs policy or the euthanasia, if it isn't for living with 15 million people on a piece of land the size of a stamp, it certainly is our language with al the strange hissing sounds in it that throws you of.

Sure things
Sure we've got some elements you can easily point out: we do have an ex-football star named Gullit, but you don't pronounce his name as 'cool it' at all. It's more like 'Gullible' mixed up with 'littering'. And no, our new prime-minister is not the uncle of Harry Potter. I couldn't tell them apart either, if it wasn't for the obvious lack of any kind of magic connected to mr. Balkenende, but family? Uh-uh.

Misunderstandings
To clear up one more misunderstanding: it doesn't always rain in Holland, we just like to complain. About anything if we have to, but if we don't have to we just complain about the weather and the government.

Go tulips
So, for all of you non-Dutch people out there in the world: if you want to know something about Holland or if you want to have a head start when you visit the tulips, the canals and the famous fishing villages (please stop doing that) read these columns. They're written as e-mails to travellers like you.

Pick a subject down below and go Dutch yourself ... they're for free!