Is Holland the worst place in Europe?

DDT Filled Mormons wrote:

On the good side you can smoke weed, drink good beer, ride a bicycle
anywhere, and eat Indonesian food (well, almost).

I kinda like Holland!


Except that the Dutch are cheap, arrogant, and lack a sense of
humour...

--
Best
Greg

Gregory Morrow:

DDT Filled Mormons wrote:

I kinda like Holland!

Except that the Dutch are cheap, arrogant, and lack a sense of
humour...

That's right. And they are the World's best in that. Don't you dare to
deny that, or else we'll send Martin to convince you!

{I hear he's just improving his skills in Volendam]

--
Erick
[running and ducking]
Just kiddin', Martin!

On 15 Dec 2005 02:54:23 -0800, "Gregory Morrow"
wrote:


DDT Filled Mormons wrote:

On the good side you can smoke weed, drink good beer, ride a bicycle
anywhere, and eat Indonesian food (well, almost).

I kinda like Holland!


Except that the Dutch are cheap, arrogant, and lack a sense of
humour...

And too bloody tall!
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

"Martin" wrote in message
...
It's years since Dutch Indonesian restaurants sold real Indonesian
food.


You can say the same for Brit Chinese & Indian, but still like the stuff!
However, my two particular Dutch friends are both highly trained as bone
fide Indonesian chefs (as a hobby) - they're far too bloody fussy for me!
Had me topping & tailing beansprouts for a whole morning once, for
xxxxxxxx's sake!
BUT - they produced amazing stuff in-house, and we all knew where to go when
eating out.

Surreyman

DDT Filled Mormons:
On 15 Dec 2005 02:54:23 -0800, "Gregory Morrow"

Except that the Dutch are cheap, arrogant, and lack a sense of
humour...

And too bloody tall!

....and strong.
And handsome. And intellent, of course.



--
Peugeot Elystar - http://elystar.ardane.com
Low Countries By Bike - http://lowcountriesbybike.ardane.com
Uschi's Gallery of Clay Art - http://uschigallery.ardane.com
WebWax Webdesign - http://webwax.ardane.com

Following up to Martin

and eat Indonesian food (well, almost).

It's years since Dutch Indonesian restaurants sold real Indonesian
food.

that's always the way with food sub cultures, they evolve, like
CTM in UK.
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-photos UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-photos Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

Following up to Gregory Morrow

Except that the Dutch are cheap, arrogant, and lack a sense of
humour...

In my limited experience they aren't arrogant or humourless, if
they are cheap, all the better.
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-photos UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-photos Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

Citizen Ted wrote:

On 14 Dec 2005 11:16:16 -0800, wrote:

snip whining
As a tourist you will be spared much of the horror of the abysmal
infrastructure - nearly 2 weeks to open a phone line, ages more for
internet
snip

This is something about Europe I will *never* understand. Perhaps my
immersion in American uber-capitalist society has utterly blinded me,
but it seems to me that utilities like phone and Internet providers,
who are both facing incredible competition and possible extermination,
would be FALLING ALL OVER THEMSELVES to hook up new account requests
toot-****in'-sweet. Here in the US, if someone calls up requesting
your service, and your service is on the chopping block of
technological displacement, that caller is considered a "live one".
You *must* rope in this n00b ASAP and with all the alacrity and smiles
you can muster. To fail spells certain doom.

You can't tell me Europe doesn't have cell phones or wireless
Internet. If I called up an Internet provider and they told me it was
2 weeks to get service, I'd tell them to give me a login and password
NOW, or I'd give an extra 20 Euros to each one of their competitors,
just to **** them off.

Worth noting: I just got back from a lovely Xmas party where a small
cadre of us discussed how much we enjoy and even envy Europe. So I'm
not harshing on the culture per se. But 2 weeks for ****ing Internet
service? Heads would ROLL.


It's the European concept of "service", Ted...the concept of "pleasing
customers" does not exist in most of Europe, the attitude of service
providers is "You want something? We MIGHT get to you if we feel like
it...and you are nice to US". Somewhat lackadaisical (to us Yanks at
least) service is the norm because a) many service jobs pay something
of a living wage (unlike here in the States); b) in most European
countries it's very difficult to fire someone from a position...so
service personnel can generally be as rude (or even pleasant!) as they
desire...

It also stems somewhat from a more egalitarian outlook, here in the
States we are expected to bow and scrape if someone waves a dollar in
front of us, e.g. "Since I am PAYING you I OWN you", in Europe that
mentality doesn't really exist...

[I'm thinking here of the moronic contretemps US talk show host Oprah
caused when she tried to barge into Hermes after - hours in
Paris...she's the PERFECT example of an "ugly American"...Hermes
apologised but they really should not have given her the time of day.]

Take say France as an example: when entering a store the customer is
expected to acknowledge the store staff with a "Bonjour Madam" or
whatever, if the customer doesn't do that said customer might get a
very chilly or even *no* reception. You also don't barge into a place
saying, "I WANT...", you phrase your request in a more polite manner,
"Pardon me, I was wondering if you have...???". Customer and staff are
more or less equals...

I must say that overall I prefer the more egalitarian European concept
of service...I HATE the phoney - baloney US concept of "service" where
the clerk or waiter is supposed to be your best friend and you are
supposed to suffer any manner of indignities from your customers --
it's simply a monetary transaction, that's all, it should not be
fraught with all this servitude baggage.

--
Best
Greg

On Thu, 15 Dec 2005 06:12:55 -0000, "Visitor No 3"
wrote:


wrote in message
roups.com...


On the basis of extensive experience (well, a few weeks) I can announce
that an in-depth study has found that Holland is the worst place in
Europe.

I must assume that your extensive experience wasn't extensive enough or that
your in-depth study wasn't very deep. Have you been to anywhere else in
Europe beside the Netherlands? Have you been, for example, to Kaliningrad

They have a lot of sandy beach.

or
Albania

Plenty of sunshine.

or Bulgaria

Plenty of corruption.

or Romania or

Plenty of Roma.

Moldova?

Never been there!
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

"Des Small" schreef in bericht
...
"Iceman" writes:

The Van Gogh Museum and Rijksmuseum alone would justify a trip to
Amsterdam.

They would and do. I like the Netherlands in general, though, and I
still dislike Amsterdam in particular. It serves an admirable purpose
as a honey-trap for pot-heads, perverts and one-stoppers, and that's
as much as I'll say for it.

Des



What is a pot-head and what is a one-stopper?
Why do you dislike the nicest, most-beautiful city in the world?

Giny (pronounced with the one and only Dutch g)