Brinkbeest in English

Thursday, August 05, 2010

100 things I love about the Netherlands: 2

Folkloric costumes

all photos will enlarge if you click on them

You all know the Netherlands from the windmills (100 things I love about the Netherlands: 1), tulips and wooden clogs. And of course we all wear folkloric costumes *).
This map of the Netherlands, our newspaper was kind enough to publish last Wednesday, shows you which folkloric costumes are worn where in the Netherlands. Oh, and another thing, it is the Netherlands (we Dutch just say Nederland. And we are not Dutch, we are Nederlanders, but you can call us Dutch, not to be confused with Duits, because they are Germans from Germany, which we call Duitsland. Confused?).
Holland is only the western part of the Netherlands. Roughly under no. 2 ‘Marken’ and no. 7 ‘Volendam’ the province North-Holland is hidden. And the part somewhere between no. 4 ‘Scheveningen’, no. 7 Volendam and no. 1 ‘Spakenburg’ is South-Holland. (I’ll do a separate post about the provinces one day, because that is another thing I love about the Netherlands.)

The map and people on it are obviously exactly to scale **). Our country is so small that we Dutch simply are too big for it. Some people just have to keep one foot in the water all day. Or even two feet if they live in Marken. Tough luck.

The local attire people in Volendam (no. 7) wear is probably the most well-known costume and associated with the windmills and the tulips. But different provinces have different folk costumes.

I live in the North-Eastern part of the Netherlands, the province Groningen.
And yes, that is what I wear all day every day ***).

The numbered places in this map are the villages or regions where some people actually still wear their local attire. But it’s a fast disappearing fashion. In Staphorst (no. 5) about 700 people wear folkloric costumes daily. All of them are women. Bunschoten/Spakenburg (no. 1) is second on the list of places where people still wear their local folkloric costume. For about 400 women it is their daily attire. Both villages are very religious.

Once I saw a small car, filled to the brim with four Spakenburg ladies. They are easily recognizable, because of their huge shoulder pads. And I’ve seen women from Staphorst shopping in a modern shopping centre near where I live. I love to see those women in totally out of context places. Their colourful clothes, in a sea of dull jeans, brighten up your day.

This was where I had enclosed a YouTube video of a reversed striptease that shows the Sunday look of the women in Zeeland (no. 8, showing a bride and groom). Forget getting (un)dressed quickly. But Blogger disagreed with me about a couple of things, so I decided to remove it. And it was kind of tedious too actually, but if you really want to see it: this is the link.

Hubs has clogs too.

He never wears them though. I used to wear clogs when I was about 6 or so. According to my mother they are very good for your feet. Uhuh. I’ve never seen hér wearing wooden shoes. Hubs’s clogs are the new and improved version of the original wooden shoe. These ones have a leather strap where the instep of his foot otherwise would have touched the wood. And I can assure you from experience, it takes a hell of a long time for your foot to get insensitive to that feeling of wood touching instep every time you lift your foot. But once you’ve worked your way through half the apothecary’s plasters stock and formed some hard skin , they are really comfortable. And you can drop things on your toes without feeling it. Everything has it’s plus side I guess. And that is why I love wooden shoes (not really).
I told hubs about my experience with wooden shoes, but he wanted to be ‘the farmer’ and ignored my good advice not to embark upon the painful journey of wearing them in/’adjusting’ his feet. He bought clogs, wore them for about two days and they are now gathering dust, providing comfortable living space for some spiders.

The well worn sneaker on the right is mine. Quite a difference eh? And you should feel my insteps now. Very soft.

*) no we don’t

**) if you believe that, you’ll believe anything

***) that is true of course ;-)

Thursday’s Trifles

Thursday’s Trifles are based on what I’ve read in our local newspaper Dagblad van het Noorden

Crabzilla

Sea Life Scheveningen will be the new home for a Japanese Giant Spider Crab, or Giant Japanese Spider Crab, whichever you prefer, with a leg span of 3.5 meters (11.5 feet). It weighs 15 kilos. This spider crab was caught in the Pacific Ocean at the end of last year.

Of course the DvhN considered this to be a wonderful subject for an interview with someone from Sea Life Scheveningen:

“Who will be Crabzilla’s new housemates?”
”He will live together with thornback rays, spotted rays, blond rays, tub gurnards, seabass, dogfish and catfish in a 30,000 liter aquarium.
”Are his new housemates psychologically prepared yet?”
”That will be a bit difficult to do. But this crab may look dangerous; it isn’t. Normally it scavenges around on the bottom of the sea for ‘leftovers’. It doesn’t run around hunting for live food. On the contrary. He won’t hurt a ~~fly~~ fish.”
……
”Can he predict the football results?” (referring to psychic squid Paul)
”There is no need for that now the World Championships are over.”
”How does one transport a broadloom crab?”
”Simply in a refrigerated truck. He is only broadloom when he is stretched out, but that is not his natural position.”
”So you won’t have to fold him?”
”No no, usually his legs are bent.”
”Can he expect any female visitors?”
”I wouldn’t think so. Even though females are smaller than males, it will get a bit crowded in the aquarium. He must be able to tramp about in his new home.”

Reverse parking challenge championships for women

On the 17th of September the first Reverse Parking Championships For Women will be held in Antwerp (Belgium). It is open for women from the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) and is organized by car rental company Hertz.