Find my bike

And how do I find my bike in this bikellion?! It is a small parking place near my university. A really big one is near Central Station. Several floors... 

Bridges

In the picture you see a pretty typical situation in Amsterdam or Rotterdam. Here is a bridge near my house. It opens probably up to 10 time a day. So I am bumping into this wall even twice a day! Every time it is impressive.


Bridge by my home 

TOP 10 in the Netherlands

The best things bout Holland.
Most of them I wrote down in my moleskin notebook during the first two weeks of beeing here.

1. Drinkable water straigth from the tap. (I can't understand why they are selling
bottled water here. Actually, why they are buying it.)
2. Bikes. Lots of them and they are cheap. 10 euros woould be a fair price if you buy it from a junky. In the shop: 130 euros minimum.
3. Clean air.
4. Silence in my room. Especially comparing to the noise and dust I had in my previous apartment in Vilnius.
5. Marketplaces: full of various junk, fruits, vegetables, fish and other everyday neccessities. All cheaper than in shops.
6. VLA. A la youghurt. Pronounces as "flaaaa"
7. Cheese
8. Fast, clean, silent and frequent trains. Trams as well.
9. 40% discount card for trains. The card costs 40 euros, but is wirth it.
10. Unusual, unexpected, unreasonable and sometimes even nice buildings.
11. Streets are vacuum-cleaned and washed every day.
12. Train ticket vending machines. At first they seem confusing, but when you get used to them you want to buy tickets even when you need not.
13. Even tracks for bicycles as well as for rollerblading.

Could you share your discoveries from other contries about TOP things?

Discover the Netherlands

There is a saying "as Dutch as a bike".
So, talking about "as Dutch as a bike" I can describe you a typical Dutch:
- typical Dutch people live outside big cities. In a countryside. In a house. Which means most of them are from "derevn'a" (rus)
- typical Expatriates or immigrants live in centers of big cities, in small small apartment with narrow narrow and steep staircases (steeper than you would normally put a ladder).
- typical Ducth male students put loads of wax-gel-foam in their hair
- typical Dutch male students put their shirt collars up. Always.
- typical Duct female students are (here I am citing one Italian, who's got a good eye on local girls): "good from waste up".
- typical Dutch eat cheese sandwitches for lunch.
- typical Dutch canteen sells a piece of bread for a price higher than soup price.
- typical Dutch finish their work at 17, but go home at 16:30
- typical Dutch goes shopping at 17 because most shops close at 18.
- and yes, typical Dutch do ride bicycle on all occasions: to school, pub, disco, theatre, office, friends, shop, with high heels, with suirts, with skirts...no matter - bikes rule.
- all Dutch people (and by "all" I mean all) are mad about prices. When they buy cheap (in Aldi, Dirk, marketplaces or similar shitty shops) they feel like they are not fooled by expensive shops. One of the reasons they eat cheese sandwithes for lunch is also because is cheap. Must be hard being rich Western-European...

Dircovery: blog

Lately people started using blog. It took me some time to understand what it was, but here, you see me writing it. (However I still don't know what the word "blog" means and how to use it).

Usually I prefer e-mails, because they are dedicated to indivuduals. But on the other hand, Blog gives a feeling of a real writer.

I will write here about my DISCOVERIES. Not only the Netherlands, events or studies, but also about people.
I hope people will read and like what you read.