Film Review: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas unsettled me.

Was it because I compared it too closely -and it didn't come close - to Life is Beautiful (made by the same studio, Miramax), an infinitely, painfully superior take on a young boy who does not quite understand the horrors of the holocaust happening around him?

Was it because I can't stand when characters who live in different countries - Germany, circa WWII, for example - should be speaking in a foreign language, but for some reason are speaking English, and even more inappropriately in this case of a Nazi German family, in a British accent.

Perhaps I was annoyed that that the adult actors were intriguing (particularly Vera Farmiga - fantastic in everything - and the Nanny, who should have had a larger role), and I wished the annoying kids would piss off out of the movie and let the grown ups take the spotlight.

It disturbed me that, unlike my favourite films about the Holocaust - Schindlers List, The Pianist, Life is Beautiful above all - this movie seemed to cheapen the tactics that those films used so effectively and touchingly. I agreed with the New York Times reviewer wrote: this film shows "the Holocaust trivialized, glossed over, kitsched up, commercially exploited and hijacked for a tragedy about a Nazi family."

It bothered me that some of the characters were so stereotypical (the mean guard, the nice servant, the prissy daughter). It bothered me that the guard showed a moment of humanity at the dinner table that was never fully explored. It bothered me that Roberto Benigni was nowhere to be found, nor were any Hitler-style moustaches. It bothered me that not one word of German was spoken throughout the movie, yet they read German-language books.

But it was the end of the film that disturbed me the most. And only as the scene faded to black did I realize that this was the whole point of the movie. I was disturbed by the fate that befell the innocent boy Bruno, but then I realized that every person in that room was innocent. In fact, the boy was probably the most guilty of all, by association with his father. Then I felt that he got what he deserved. Then I heard the wailing in the distance, just as the father did, of his mother, the beautiful Vera Farmiga, who didn't deserve to lose her little boy. And I watched that heavy door, wishing it would open, hoping it really was just a shower.

And just like that, this film that had so unsettled me, had turned me into a naive kid, like the boy in Life is Beautiful, and like the boys in the striped pyjamas, who understood on some level what had happened, but who didn't want to believe it.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Application Video for Transat Vacationer Job

Transat is hiring a professional "Vacationer" who gets to travel for 2 weeks of every month for ONE YEAR, and blog about it for them (and get paid to do it!).

To apply, we had to make a 2-minute video, showcasing a tourist attraction in our city (I chose Ottawa's Byward Market), and then showcasing ourselves.

Here was my effort!

You will Miss Sarajevo

There are a few cities in the world where you visit and, for whatever reason, can’t seem to leave. Unlike Paris or Rome - where you could spend weeks visiting museums and sites -  these are cities that lure you in with their easiness, inviting you to just hang out for a while. Until suddenly, ten days later, you’re wondering where so much time went, and how it’s possible that you’re still not ready to go?

Sarajevo is one of these cities.

If you’re a history buff, you will remember that it was in Sarajevo where the shot that started WWI was fired. If you’re a music fan, you might recognize U2’s tribute, “Miss Sarajevo,” and if you’re a sports fan,

you probably watched the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics.

If you’ve read Lonely Planet this year, you’ll know that Sarajevo is listed as one of the Top 10 Cities to Visit in 2010.

But if you’re like most people, you will still get chills from the very name Sarajevo, remembering that from 1992 to 1996, during the Bosnian War, it was the victim of a siege that has been compared to Stalingrad in brutality.

When I first arrived, I felt uncomfortable to be in a city that still has bullet holes in its buildings, libraries still in ruins, and thousands of its residents still unaccounted for, while I knew next to nothing about what went on there.

But I didn’t have to worry about my lack of knowledge for long – Sarajevo is also a history teacher.

For a fairly small city – about half the size of Portland – it has many museums, including a History Museum with photos, newspaper articles and artifacts detailing, sometimes excruciatingly, the siege in the 1990s.

There are “Sarajevo Roses” around the city: old mortar shell explosion-sites filled in with red paint so they can’t be missed. You’ll see them on the sidewalks, in parks, in a marketplace where civilians were killed while they queued up for bread.

There are many commemorative plaques; one where Franz Ferdinand was murdered, another on the former National Library that says: ‘On this place Serbian criminals in the night of 25th, 26th August 1992 set on fire National and University’s Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Over 2 millions of books, periodicals and documents vanished in the flame. Do not forget, remember and

 warn.’

There is a guided tour to the tunnel that led one million Sarajevans out of their besieged city to safety.

You can walk through the remaining 20 metre section and try to imagine how it felt to make that walk not twenty years ago, risking your life to leave the city you love.

The tour guide, probably a young Bosnian who lived through the siege himself, then takes you to the spot in the mountains where part of the Olympic luge still sweeps down through the trees. Ten years after it was used for sport, it was the point from which soldiers fired down into the city.

I asked my guide, Mustafa, why the past seemed more available in Sarajevo than in other Croatian and Serbian cities, which suffered through the same war but do not have nearly the same amount of commemoration.

‘We didn’t do anything wrong in Sarajevo, we

were not the aggressors, so we aren’t ashamed to talk about it,’ Mustafa said.

Sarajevo wants its history, albeit sometimes

painful, on display so that it doesn’t repeat itself.

But its history isn’t all bad, it’s not limited to the siege, and it didn’t begin in the 1990s: it was the Ottoman Empire that had the biggest impact on Sarajevo, not to mention the tastiest.

Thanks to 400-years of Ottoman rule in Bosnia, there are coffee shops aplenty in which to sit for hours with strong cups of Turkish coffee. That is, when your mouth isn’t full of cevapcici; a minced-meat, Ottoman-era delicacy that is enjoyed throughout the Balkan countries, but perfected in Bosnia, where its is paired with onions and sour cream on a doughy flatbread.

 Fascinating history lessons, great coffee, spicy cevapcici, and all a fraction of the price that you’d pay elsewhere.

No wonder the city is a black hole for tourists.

You’ll see them wandering the cobblestone streets of Bascarsija, feeling like they’ve just stepped out of Europe and into the Middle East. Bascarsija, the old Ottoman bazaar, is the heart of Sarajevo now just as it was four hundred years ago. Each of its narrow streets is dedicated to a particular craft; you can buy rugs, pottery, handmade jewelry, and copper coffee sets. In the doorway of the tiny shops, the employees sit on carpeted stools, drinking little coffees, while the sweet scents of shisha waft out of cafes and the calls to prayer sound from the minarets overhead.

Legend says that if you drink water from one of Sarajevo’s many fountains, you’ll come back someday; most visitors, although having spent more than enough time in the city already, will have a quick,, hopefuly sip from the fountain in the centre of Bascarsija, outside the Ferhadija Mosque.

Before the siege displaced 100,000 people, Sarajevo was called the Jerusalem of Europe with its mixed population of Bosnian Muslims, Serbian Orthodox and Croatian Catholics. The demographics have changed, but within the city you can still Catholic and Orthodox churches, a synagogue, and mosques such as Ferhadija, the country’s finest example of Ottoman Islamic architecture, damaged but not destroyed in the war.

Together, they have reached a level of peaceful co-existence where other Bosnian cities have not been

so successful.

Despite all its tragedy, it is a city that inspires. Only Sarajevo could have produced stories such as the 1993 Miss Sarajevo pageant, held in one of the many underground cellars for protection. Or the “Romeo and Juliet” of Sarajevo, a young couple killed at the foot of a bridge as they tried to escape their burning city.

The owners of a restaurant called “To Be or Not To Be” crossed out the “Not to Be” on the sign over their door, offering no other choice but to survive. On the wall of that restaurant today is a poster of the Cellist of Sarajevo, defying snipers by playing his instrument amid the rubble of the National Library.

If a city can be defined by a word, then Sarajevo’s word is LIVE.

On the eleventh night of my scheduled 2-day trip to Sarajevo, I met my friends in the Sarajevska Pivara Brewery across the Miljacka River, a grand room with delicious dark beer and good music. The brewery is one of Bosnia’s most successful industries, established during Ottoman rule and flourishing under the Austro-Hungarians. It is also one of the best places in the city to spend an evening.

When we left at midnight, the snow had started to come down. By the next day, it would cover the entire city, from the cobbles of Bascarsija up to the cold mountains, where red flags warning of landmines are still posted in the grass.

We walked home in the dark, clear night, sliding along the sparkling roads, throwing snowballs and drawing our initials on windshields. The windows of the houses were yellow-tinted and peaceful.

We felt exhilarated to

 be alive, sorry that we didn’t know enough about what happened here in the past, but grateful to have finally learned.

And we thought maybe that’s why Sarajevo makes everyone stay around for so long: you can’t leave before you understand it, this city that makes you wholeheartedly believe in the promise of a water fountain.

Croatia Sailing 2009 - the movie!

For those of you who were there, this video should bring back memories of the greatest country on Earth, and thank you for making it such a great time!

For those of you who weren't, watch and be jealous (and then book your holiday immediately!)

Here's what I've been doing with my summers for the past 2 years...

(If it's easier, it's on YouTube too at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fqgx4B3jAQ)

Vienna

POPULATION: 1.7 million (more than 25% the population of Austria)
-Vienna is the 10th largest city in the EU

-In 2009, it was tied with Vancouver as the city with the highest quality of life.


QUICK HISTORY

Under the Habsburgs back in the 13th century, Vienna became a major European capital. It was, for a time, the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. It was the capital of Bohemia and Hungary when they were under Austrian rule. It was subject to attack by the Ottoman Empire, so it became a fortified city in the 16th century. When the Ottomans were finally defeated in 1683, during the Second Turkish Siege (where they were defeated by Polish King Jan Sobieski), Vienna was finally able to let its guard down and flourish.

The 18th Century was characterized by extensive building, in the baroque fashion. Many palais were constructed during this time.


BAROQUE

The artistic style that prevailed in Europe from the 16th-18th centuries. Its popularity was supported by the Catholic Church, who wanted arts to communicate religious themes (as a response to the Reformation). The Renaissance before it hade gotten away from religious themes a little in favour of realism, so baroque style saw a return to it. The aristocracy also enjoyed baroque architecture because it was impressive to visitors, and expressed triumph and control. It is simple, but at the same time, characterized by large courtyards and entrances, grand staircases and reception rooms, operatic gestures, and, above all, opulence.

Where the Turks had been unsuccessful in capturing Vienna, Napoleon’s army was able to capture it twice during the French Revolution (in 1805 and 1809). The first conquest happened without a battle; three French marshals crossed the Tabor Bridge over the Danube, told the Austrian commander who was guarding the bridge that the war was over, and they let the French army enter without a fight. Napoleon was quite good to the Viennese, and let them keep their national guard and all of their arsenal.


Congress of Vienna

After Napoleon was defeated, the Congress of Vienna took place. This was a meeting of ambassasdors from around Europe to draw the European political map after the French Revolution had ended after 25 years of war, and the Holy Roman Empire abolished. It was held in Vienna from November 1814 to June 1815. At this congress, the boundaries of France, the Netherlands, and various Italian territories were drawn.

The Congress of Vienna was a model for the League of Nations and the UN. There were representatives from all of the nations that took part in the Napoleonic wars (around 200 representatives of cities, religious organizations, special interest groups too), but the most influential players were: Russia, Britain, Prussia and Austria and France. One unusual characteristic was that the meetings were not formal, held in boardroom affairs. They were informal, face-to-face meetings between leaders.

The main results from the Congress included: Russia was given the Duchy of Warsaw (Poland), and Finland; the nearly 300 states of the Holy Roman Empire were consolidated into Germany; the Netherlands were united (but broke apart shortly afterwards when Belgium revolted); the neutrality of Switzerland was guaranteed; Austria received control of Croatia, Hungary, Bohemia and Slovakia; the slave trade was condemned.

The 1867 union of Austria-Hungary saw Vienna become the capital of the Empire. The 19th century was a heyday for Vienna: it was the centre of classical music, high culture and modernism.

WWI saw no physical damage inflicted upon Vienna, but it was the end of Austria-Hungary, which was proclaimed in front of the Parliament in Vienna.

Inflation after the war, economic difficulties, radicalization of the government, latent anti-semitism that had been increasing over many years, and the frustration all of this caused in the population led to Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler being warmly welcomed in Vienna. He gave a famous speech from the balcony of the Hofburg. The Viennese citizens took part in the November, 1938 Reichskristallnact (this was a simultaneous attack across several cities, triggered by the assassination of a German diplomat by a Polish Jew in Paris; it led to up to 30,000 Jews being arrested, placed into concentration camps, their homes and synagogues destroyed, belongings confiscated). Vienna was less supportive of Nazism than the rest of Austria, in fact Hitler himself hated Vienna and wanted to see his childhood hometown of Linz replace it as capital, but this did not result in any resistance. When WWII ended, Vienna was divvied up between the Allied powers (similar to the division of Berlin, but not as severe), and it did not regain its political independence until 1955.

Today, Vienna is full of beautiful buildings, grand parks, magnificent architecture. The Habsburg history can be traced, but there is a lot of Art Nouveau around as well. Vienna is the seat of many international organizations: it is the 4th UN City (after New York, Geneva and The Hague)


VIENNESE BALLS

Vienna is the last capital of the 19th century ball. There are still over 200 balls per year, with orchestras, in beautiful venues around Venue, the most impressive being the Hofburg Palace. For many Viennese, they will attend several balls in their lifetime (as long as they are at least middle class), and for the richer folk, the ball season may last several months.


VIENNESE COFFEE SHOPS

The Austrians claim to be the inventors of filtered coffee. Apparently, when the Turks invaded in 1683, they left behind sacks of coffee beens. The King gave the sacks to one of the officers who helped to defeat the Turks, named Jerzy Kulczycki. Jerzy had his choice of booty, but left behind gold and weapons in favour of the beans that others thought was just camel feed; he had visited Turkey, and knew exactly what it was. After a little experimentation, and the addition of sugar and milk, he was able to make it a little more palatable to the Austrians, and opened the first Viennese coffee house. The concept then spread to the other countries of the Austro-Hungarian empire; by 1900, there were 600 coffee shops in Vienna alone. (Paris, however, was the first city to open a coffeehouse in Europe).
The Viennese coffee house became an institution in the 19th century, with writers and artists turning up there to discuss and create their work. The Viennese coffee house is the equivalent to the Parisian cafe.

The popularity of coffee houses waned with the rise of television and chain coffee shops (some old coffee shops are now Starbucks), but there are still some classic examples in Vienna.

A few to try:

Cafe Frauenhuber: Vienna’s oldest cafe and one of Mozart’s favourites

Kleines Cafe: One of the smallest in town, and used in the movie Before Sunrise

Cafe Sperl: Hitler’s preferred cafe


SITES AROUND TOWN:


BURGTHEATER

OPERA HOUSES

HOFBURG PALACE: The Habsburg’s city centre base. Inside are many museums:

HOFBURG MUSEUM: the location of the treasury, holding the imperial jewels of the Habsburg dynasty.

SISSI MUSEUM: tells the story of the strange life of Emperor Franz Josef’s wife, Elisabeth (“Sissi”)

KAISERGRUFT: the Imperial vault, holding the remains of several Habsburgs, including Sissi (where many of her followers still leave flowers)

SCHONBRUNN PALACE: an imperial, 1440 summer palace. It has gardens similar to Versailles, a maze, and is also home to the world’s oldest zoo, the TIERGARTEN SCHONBRUNN

-100 Art Museums around town

OBERES BELVEDERE: A Baroque palace-cum-art gallery, home to Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss, and other Impressionists and early 20th century works. (There was a scandal in 2005, which saw 5 Klimts returned to Maria Altmann, the descendent of the man who owned the paintings before they were stolen by the Nazis; one of the 5 paintings was later sold for US$135 million, making it the world’s most expensive painting).

MUSEUM QUARTER: Former Imperial Stalls that were converted into a museum complex in the 1990s (including the LEOPOLD MUSEUM)

MUSEUM MODERNER KUNST: Art Gallery

KunstHausWien: Designed by Vienna’s version of Antoni gaudi, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, this former factory was transformed into an art gallery. It has a collection of his works, and other modern artists.

Hundertwasser House: Another of Viennese Gaudi’s designs; very colourful, in different squares of colours, its floors are uneven (an uneven floor is a divine melody to the feet), a roof covered with earth and grass, and large trees growing inside the rooms, with limbs extending from the windows. The artist, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, took no payment for the house, which he designed in the 1980s to counter all of the baroque and classical architecture. saying it was worth it to prevent something ugly from being built there.

ALBERTINA: A few Michelangelos, and other modern exhibitions, are here.

ZENTRALFRIEDHOF (Central Cemetery): Home to Beethoven’s grave, as well as Schubert and Brahms. Mozart has a monument here, but is buried elsewhere.

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL: Found in Judenplatz, the first of its kind in Austria

PETSAULE: The Plague Column, on Graben (the Plague killed 1/3 of Vienna’s population)

AUSTRIA

Capital: Vienna

Population: approx: 8,400,000 (approx. 2 million in Vienna, or 20% of the population - no other city exceeds 1 million)

Currency: Euro

Languages: officially German (also Croatian, Slovene, Hungarian locally)

Borders: Austria is landlocked: Germany and Czech Republic to the North; Slovakia and Hungary to the East; Slovenia and Italy to the South; Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the West

Landscape: The Alps constitute 62% of the nation’s total area (of the total area of Austria, only a quarter can be considered low-lying)

Rivers: Danube (in Vienna); Salzach (Salzburg)

Part of EU?: Yes (since 1995)

-Austria is one of six European countries that have declared permanent neutrality (written into its constitution)

-It is one of the 10 richest countries in the world in terms of GDP

-Vienna is consistently rated first or second most livable city (after Vancouver)
 
 
QUICK HISTORY


The age of the great Austrian Empire really kicked off with two important marriages: 1477, Mary (daughter of the last Duke of Burgundy) and Max (son of Frederick III Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor); and 1496, their son Philip married Johanna the Mad (daughter of Spain’s Ferdinand and Isabella). Another marriage a few years later (Max’s grandson to the daughter of the King of Bohemia and Hungary) gets them the crown of Hungary too (after the Hungarians are defeated by the Turks at the Battle of Mohacs).

This pretty much gives the titles to Burgundy, Spain, Austria and Germany, i.e. most of the major kingdoms of Europe at the time, to the Habsburgs, making them the most powerful dynasty since the Romans, and all through peaceful means.

The Habsburg marriages of 1477 and 1496 give rise to a much quoted line of Latin poetry: Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube (Let others make war; you, fortunate Austria, marry).

These intermarriages inevitably resulted in disaster and inbreds, but it worked for many years.

The Habsurgs were great patrons of the arts (much like the Medicis). They were the origin of all of the Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, rulers of the Austrian and Spanish Empires, and responsible for bringing the thrones of Burgundy, Spain, Bohemia and Hungary (and others) together. They separated into the Spanish branch and the Austrian branch, and by the 18th century, both died out due to lack of male heirs (their reign began by creating families, and ended with lack of families, probably due to their inter-marriages!). The Spanish branch ended with Charles II in 1700 and was replaced by the house of Bourbon (Philip V). This prompted the War of the Spanish Succession. The Austrian branch ended in 1780 after Maria Theresa died and the new house called itself the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

They wanted to consolidate their power through marriage, but this resulted in disaster. They married their cousins, their uncles or nieces, and this inbreeding led not only to the famous Habsburg jaw, and to severely disabled leaders such as Charles II, but to their eventual extinction. The last Habsburg on the throne was Charles I, who was deposed in 1919, and because Austria had lost WWI, the Habsburgs were banished from Austria until they renounced all claims to the throne (which Otto von Habsburg subsequently did). But regardless of their dubious sexual preferences, they were great patrons of the art, responsible for Austria’s great history of classical music, and possibly for Kaiser rolls.

But back to the history of Austria ...

In 1556, the capital of the Holy Roman Empire was located in Vienna, and the Holy Roman Emperors ruled places as far away as Belgium. Before the French Revolution, it didn’t matter as much what type of nationality you were, but rather who ruled you (the Turks ruled the Balkans, for example). The French Revolution changed all that, saying that people should be ruled within their own “national” boundaries. Napoleon dissolved the Holy Roman Empire, declared himself Emperor of Austria

After the Congress of Vienna in 1814, which ended the French Revolution, all of the leaders of Europe got together to figure out who controlled what. Austria ended up responsible for Germany and Italy, as well as Hungary, Bohemia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia.

Revolution broke out in 1848,, and Austria lost much of its territory (after the German Prussians revolted). In 1867, Hungary demanded a dual-government, so the kingdom officially changed its name to Austria-Hungary. Their joint parliament would meet one year in Vienna, the next in Budapest. This union worked well; they made good trading partners, and their territories, such as Croatia, managed to get enough concession to keep them happy.

The only ones that weren’t happy were the Serbians. They won their independence from Turkey in 1878, and wanted to establish a large Slav state, with the King of Serbia at its head. To do this, they particularly wanted Bosnia (which still belonged to the Turks, but its population was Serb/Croat/Bosnian). The Russians were happy with this idea, being fellow-Slavs, but Austria-Hungary was not, and in 1908, Austria took over Bosnia for itself.

In 1914, when Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand (heir to the throne) was celebrating his wedding anniversary with his wife in Sarajevo, a Serb terrorist group, lead by Gavrilo Princip, shot the Archduke dead.

Thus began WWI.

The teams were: Austria-Hungary/Germany/Turkey vs. Serbia/Russia/France/Italy/Britain/US.

Once the Americans entered the war, it ended a year later.

The different nationalities (Yugoslavia/Hungary/Czechoslovakia/Poland) declared independence, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed.

Fast-forward to WWII, when Adolf Hitler, from Braunau, Austria, had a vision to re-unite all of the German-speaking people of Europe (the way it was back during the Holy Roman Empire).


STRUDEL


Origins from Turkish burek, probably entered Austria through its ties with Croatia and Bosnia. Austrian cuisine took in a lot of qualities from the territories it posessed during the Austro-Hungarian empire. The oldest strudel recipe dates back to 1656, from the Habsburg empire.


WIENER SCHNITZEL

Commonly served with a slice of lemon and potato salad/potatos. The traditional Wiener schnitzel is made of veal, but now also made of pork. There are debates as to whether it originated in Italy, or in Austria. “Wiener” means Viennese in German. Legend has it that a Kaiser in the 9th century liked his meat covered with gold; this practice was a little too expensive, so an alternative was created: yellow-gold bread crumbs. Breading meat soon spread to other countries (through the influence of the Austrian empire). In the 1800s, an Austrian discovered a meal called “Costoletta alla Milanese” in Milan, which was a thick veal cutlet covered in bread crumbs, and he brought it back to Austria.


KAISER ROLLS

Originated in Vienna, thought to have been named to honor Emperor Franz Josef. Franz Josef, incidentally, was the last Emperor of Austro-Hungary before its dissolution in 1918, and the second last from the house of Habsburg-Lorraine (Charles I was last). His heir was his nephew, Franz Ferdinand. Franz Josef is the third-longest reigning leader in Europe (after Louis XIV of France and Johannes II, Prince of Liechtenstein).

PEZ

First marketed as a compressed peppermint candy in 1927 in Vienna. (“PEZ” is derived from the German word for Peppermint: Pfefferminz). The first PEZ dispensers were shaped like cigarette lighters, and were marketed as an alternative to smoking. In 1955, the first heads were put onto the dispensers, and to date, over 1500 varieties have been created. The Pez HQ is still found in Austria. The highest amount ever paid for a Pez dispenser was $7000, for a Mickey Mouse head. They also have Pez conventions.

-SCHNAPPS

COFFEE

The Austrians claim to be the inventors of filtered coffee. Apparently, when the Turks invaded in 1683, they left behind sacks of coffee beens. The King gave the sacks to one of the officers who helped to defeat the Turks, named Jerzy Kulczycki. Jerzy had his choice of booty, but left behind gold and weapons in favour of the beans that others thought was just camel feed; he had visited Turkey, and knew exactly what it was. After a little experimentation, and the addition of sugar and milk, he was able to make it a little more palatable to the Austrians, and opened the first Viennese coffee house. The concept then spread to the other countries of the Austro-Hungarian empire; by 1900, there were 600 coffee shops in Vienna alone. (Paris, however, was the first city to open a coffeehouse in Europe).

The Viennese coffee house became an institution in the 19th century, with writers and artists turning up there to discuss and create their work. The Viennese coffee house is the equivalent to the Parisian cafe.

The popularity of coffee houses waned with the rise of television and chain coffee shops (some old coffee shops are now Starbucks), but there are still some classic examples in Vienna.

A few to try:

Cafe Frauenhuber: Vienna’s oldest cafe and one of Mozart’s favourites

Kleines Cafe: One of the smallest in town, and used in the movie Before Sunrise

Cafe Sperl: Hitler’s preferred cafe


REDBULL

Began in 1987, inspired by Lucozade and other “functional” drinks in Asia. The inventor, an Austrian entrepreneur named Dietrich Mateschitz,, visited Thailand and found that one of their energy drinks cured his jet-lag. He worked for three years to create Redbull, changing the taste a bit and making it more palatable to Westerners (its taste is said to be akin to liquid gummy bears), and it hit the market in Austria (Salzburg), and in 1992, hit its first foreign market in Hungary. In the 1990s, the company was the most highly valued in Austria, and Mateschitz its richest individual. Today, the owners of Redbull are the 260th richest persons in the world (Forbes). In Germany, a small amount of cocaine was found in Rebdull, so six German states have banned the drink until further notice. The Thai drink that Redbull was inspired by – called Krating Daeng, was popular among cab drivers and blue collar workers, but Red Bull markets itself strongly to young, active people, by sponsoring football teams, RedBull Flugtag (a homemade flying competition ... Mateschitz was a flying enthusiast) , racecars, extreme sports, graffiti-style advertising, promotions for young club-goers, Reggie Bush is a sponsor.


SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL

Founded in 1895 by Daniel Swarovski using his expertise at glass-cutting. First factory was built in Wattens, Austria (near Innsbruck). Swarovski was born in Bohemia, and his father was a glass-cutter who owned a small factory (glass-cutting is very popular in the Czech Republic). In 1892, Daniel patented an electric cutting machine that facilitated the process, and with a few partners, founded his company in Austria. The Swarovski theme park, Crystal Worlds, is located in Wattens and was built in 1985 to commemorate the company’s 100th anniversary. Today, the crystals are used for jewellery, Christmas trees (Rockefeller Centre), Bluetooth pieces, chandeliers, figurines (the figurine line was started accidentally in 1973 when a designer built a little mess out of spare chandelier parts).


CLASSICAL MUSIC

In the 18th and 19th centuries, classical musicians were drawn to Vienna due to the patronage of the Habsburgs (much like the Medicis during the Renaissance). This was known as the Classical Period, and Vienna was its capital. Beethoven, Mozart, Strauss, Brahms, Haydn, Schubert, were all there during that time. The Vienna Philarmonic’s New Years concert is still one of Europe’s most important concerts.

In modern times, Falco is Austria’s most famous musician (“Rock me Amadeus”).

The accordion was also invented in Austria.


VIENNA BOYS’ CHOIR

Founded in 1498 by Emperor Maximilian I (a Habsburg, of course) for concerts of the court and private masses. They were privately tutored, which of course had a positive influence on the rest of their lives. Mozart has worked with this choir. Today, there are over 100 members, between the ages of 10 and 14. They are broken up into 4 groups, each of which tours for about 9 to 11 weeks per year and are named after Bruckner, Mozart, Haydn and Schubert.


Other Famous Austrians:
GUSTAV KLIMT
SIGMUND FREUD
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGAR

The Czech Republic

Capital City: Prague

Population: approx 10,500,000 (approx. 200,000 Romani)

Currency: Czech Koruna (CZK) (will possibly adopt the Euro in 2013)
1 EURO = 27 CZK

Languages: Czech (Czech has few vowels, and many consonants).

Religion: The Czech Republic has one of the least religious populations of Europe; 59% are either atheist, agnostic, or a non-organized believer; 26% Roman Catholic; There used to be 118,000 Jews, but they were virtually annihilated during WWII; in 2005, there were only a reported 4000 Jews in Czech Republic

Borders: Czech is a landlocked country: Poland to the Northeast, Germany to the West, Austria to the South and Slovakia to the East

-The Czech Republic is divided into 13 regions; composed of the ancient lands of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia

Rivers: Elbe, Vltava, Morava

Part of EU?: Yes, since 2004, along with Slovenia, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, and several other Eastern Bloc countries that had recently emerged from Communism. This was the single largest enlargement of the EU, and was met with a lot of criticism from other member countries that feared letting in so many poorer countries would result in cheap labour, massive immigration and bring down the general EU economy.

This was also the event that gave rise to stereotypes like “the Polish Plumber” (which originated from a French politician saying he wanted to hire a Polish plumber because he couldn’t find good handyman in France, stemming from the idea that Polish people provide cheap labour. The Poland tourism board turned the negative stereotype around and designed posters with gorgeous male plumbers, and subsequently female nurses, beckoning French people to come to Poland).

QUICK HISTORY

From around the 5th century, Slavs, Germanic, Eastern European people migrated into the lands of Bohemia and Moravia. The Bohemian or Czech State emerged in the late 9th century, and was a fairly powerful player as part of the Holy Roman Empire.

The first hero of Czech Nationalism was Good King Wenceslas, the Patron saint of Bohemia. Prince Wenceslas was executed on the orders of his younger brother, Boleslav, who took over the Bohemian throne. A popular cult arose proclaiming Prince Wenceslas as the perpetual spiritual ruler of all Czechs. The horse market, Prague's traditional meeting place, was the scene of a brief thrust of Czech nationalism against the Austrian Empire in 1848, when people named the place Wenceslas Square (Václavské nám.). The statue at the top of the square was erected in 1912.

The 14th century, particularly the reign of Charles IV, is considered the golden age of Czech history. He was King of Bohemia, Holy Roman Emperor, and during his reign he made Prague one of Europe’s most advanced cities. He inspired several sites around the country, including Charles University and Charles Bridge in Prague, and the spa town of Karlovy Vary, before the Black Death decimated the population of Bohemia.

After the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, the Czech lands increasingly came under the control of the Habsburgs, who expelled the Protestant Czechs and banned all religions other than Catholicism.

The Hussite movement, founded by Jan Hus (1369–1415), linked the Slavs to the Reformation one hundred years before the Reformation actually happened.

Jan Hus was a University lecturer (and now a Czech nationalist symbol). He didn’t like what he saw as misuse of power by Rome and the German clergy in Prague, and questioned the authority of the Pope (he was ahead of his time, and Renaissance scholarship really took off after his death). In 1414, he was summoned to explain his views before an Ecclesiastic Council in Germany, and promised safe conduct by the Holy Roman Emperor. but was arrested on arrival and burned at the stake as a heretic on July 6 (now a Czech national holiday). Because of what happened to Hus, Martin Luther was quite concerned about meeting the Emperor at the Diet of Worms.

The Pope and Emperor launched a crusade to crush the Hussites in Bohemia, but the Protestant Hussites, with Hus as their martyr, fought back. On July 30, 1419, they stormed the New Town Hall on Charles Square and demanded the release of other arrested pro-reform Hussites. After town councilors rejected the demand, the Hussites tossed them out of third-story windows, killing several. This became known as the First Defenestration, from the Latin for "out of the window." The incident sparked a 15-year battle known as the Hussite Wars, which ended in the defeat of the radical Protestants in 1434.

In 1618, Ferdinand II, a Hapsburg who was a dedicated Catholic and vowed to stamp out Protestantism, particularly in Bohemia, became Holy Roman Emperor. Before he took power, Rudolf II had been King, and had granted Bohemian Protestants religious freedom (in the Letter of Majesty). Czech Protestants at the time were building a few new churches in Prague, but the government tried to stop them. When the Catholic leaders metaphorically threw the Letter of Majesty out the window, the Czechs rebelled, stormed Prague Castle, and literally threw a couple of Catholic Deputies out the window (Second Defenestration).

Thus began the Thirty Years' War, which engulfed the entire continent. It was the Catholic Habsburgs vs. the Protestants of other countries. The Thirty Years War was one of Europe's most violent, and the Czechs were defeated in the Battle of the White Mountain in 1620 (although war continued to rage until 1648, when it ended with the Treaty of Westphalia). Twenty-seven Czech leaders were beheaded in the Old Town Square in Prague, and hundreds of Czech nobles fled the country

The Czechs were ruled for the next 300 years as part of the Austrian empire. This period, until the late 18th century, is known as the Dark Age.

Following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in WWI, the independent nation of Czechoslovakia was created in 1918, incorporating Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slovakia. During WWII, Hitler threatened to annex part of Slovakia, allowing the remaining parts to be partitioned by Hungary and Poland, so Slovakia seceded from Czechoslovakia in 1939 and allied itself with Nazi Germany. The remaining Czech territory was occupied by Germany, and almost 400,000 Czech citizens were killed in the holocaust, while hundreds of thousands of others were forced into camps (such as Terezin) or forced to evacuate. There was a Czech-Government-in-Exile, and the occupation finally ended in 1945 when the Soviets and Americans arrived.

In 1948, the Communist party (KSC), disillusioned with the West and looking favourably to the Soviets after they helped with the Czech liberation from German rule, staged a coup d’etat and took complete control,. For the next 41 years, Czechoslovakia was a Communist state within the Eastern Bloc.

COLD WAR

North America had formed a special alliance with Western Europe, called NATO, to guard against attack from the Soviet Union. So the Russians formed their own alliance with the Communist states of eastern Europe (including Czechoslovakia), called the Warsaw Pact. Each side started arming themselves with missiles.

By the 1960s, the economy was stagnating, there was media censorship, and calls for reform.

Alexander Dubcek, a Slovakian, was a leading figure in the reform movement. His vision was a softer, more liberal form of Communism, Socialism with a Human Face, where you could be a Communist but still speak your mind without fearing repercussions from the secret police. In the Prague Spring of 1968, Dubcek’s government drafted the Action Program, removed the Czech Prime Minister and Dubcek became leader.

The Soviets weren’t happy about the Prague Spring, and the Warsaw Pact invaded Czechoslovakia on August 20, 1968, which really turned the population (and the government) against the Soviets, and got them behind Dubcek. In 1969, student Jan Palach set himself on fire in Wenceslas square to protest the Soviet invasion. The Soviets had to ease up on Dubcek a bit after all the resistance (which was not confined to the Czech Republic, but worldwide), so they allowed him to stay in power for a while. The reforms of the Prague Spring were not reversed overnight, but eventually.

Reformists were purged from government, censorship got stricter, atheism was imposed, conformity and obedience were encouraged and the top creative and intellectual minds were sent into exile or imprisoned. Dubcek was ousted. Underground writing and publishing emerged from dissidents (who, frankly, were only a small portion of the population in Czechoslovakia, as much of the population adhered to the recommended the status quo)

Finally, in 1989:

... Poland became a democracy for the first time since the 1930s (and the Solidarity Union won the first free elections, after being imprisoned by the Communists)

... the wall came down in Berlin

... Hungary dismantled its iron curtain and opened its doors to the west

... the people of Bucharest overran the secret police, capitured the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu and his wife, who were quickly tried and executed

... Yugoslavia broke apart in 1991

... and the Velvet Revolution occurred in Czechoslovakia.

It started with a student demonstration in Prague, which sparked a series of other protests, swelling from about 200,000 on the first day to a half million the next. Peacefully and quietly, the Communists announced that they would relinquish their control, and the first non-Communist party was appointed, with Dubcek the speaker of the parliament and Vaclav Havel, a playwright who had been imprisoned under the Communist regie, the first Prime Minister (he remained in power for 10 years, getting the Czech Republic into the EU and NATO).

Slovakian national aspirations continued, and the two countries quietly parted ways in 1993 (the Velvet Divorce). The Czech Republic has become the first former member of the Comecon (a response to the European Coal and Steel Community set up by communist/Eastern Bloc countries) to achieve the status of a developed country (2006), and it also ranks best, compared to the former Comecon countries, in the Human Development Index.


PUPPETS/MARIONETTES

Puppetry has been practised in the Czech Republic since the 18th century as part of a family-oriented traditional activity. It had a revival in the 20th century, when puppet theaters were established. Puppet theatre was shown indifference by the country's censors, so it was used for political dissent; in this way, some puppeteers became national, revolutionary heroes. 
 

BOHEMIA(N)

Formerly the Kingdom of Bohemia, before the region was incorporated into the Czech Republic along with the Kingdoms of Moravia and Silesia.
Romani gypsies entered France and Western Europe via Bohemia, so the French called their gypsies Bohemian. Eventually, wandering artists, those who lived untraditional lifestyles, artists and creators who congregated in low-class gypsy neighbourhoods (particularly in Paris), also took on the name Bohemian.
 
 
BOHEMIAN CRYSTAL

The Czechs started working with Bohemian crystal in the 1500s (under Rudolf II, who became patron to the glassmakers during the Renaissance).
 
 
CZECH FOOD

-Czech national dish: roast pork with dumplings and sauerkraut; strong emphasis on goulash, meat dishes (particularly pork); fish is rare

-Absinthe has a connection with Prague, but it did not originate in the Czech Republic. Artists in Prague simply brewed it, and enjoyed it.


CZECH BEER

Czech beer has a long history, with the first breweries dating back to 1118 and 100 still operating today.

The Czech Republic makes a good argument for being the home of beer as we know it. Pilsner, which today describes any light beer, originated in the Bohemian town of Plzen in the 19th century. Budweiser, North America’s number 1 beer, was brewing in the Czech town of Ceske Budejovice for 100 years before the Americans put it into a six-pack. And in case anyone doubted their claim as the Masters of Beer, the Czechs have topped the list of most beer drinkers per capita. So when in the Czech Republic, pick a side in the Budweiser debate and enjoy a few pints, because chances are everyone around you will be having one too.

BUDWEISER

The history of brewing in Cesky Budejovice dates back to 1265. In the late 19th century, the beer was brought by Germans to the US, and started being brewed by Anheuser-Busch. The Czech company, and the US company, fought for years over the usage of the name Budweiser. In 2009, courts ruled in favour of the Czech company, but the US firm still markets as Budweiser or Bud in some countries, the Czech company markets as Czechvar in North America, and they both use Budweiser in the UK. Either way, a pint’s a pint!


Famous Czech People:

-Sigmund Freud

-Czechs invented contact lenses, first separated blood types

-Franz Kafka, a German-Jewish Praguer who, for much of his adult life, worked in relative obscurity as a sad Prague insurance clerk (“kafkaesque” now means absurdity)

-Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being), was born in Brno but has lived in exile in France since 1975 after he criticized the Czech government and his books were banned until the Velvet Revolution in 1989

-Milos Forman directed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Amadeus

-Martina Navratilova, Jaromir Jagr, Dominik Hasek

-The Czech Republic is the homeland of many supermodels: Eva Herzigova, Paulina Porizkova, Petra Nemcova

-Ivana Trump, Madeleine Albright (former US Secretary of State)

 
QUIRKY FACTS

-Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, the country found itself without a common single-world name. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested Czechia, but it never really caught on

-According to The Economist, the Czech Republic has earned "a reputation for promoting human rights at every turn". EU officials have been irritated by the Czech Republic's activism in human rights. Kosovo was one of the main EU issues in 2009 (with Czech as the Presidency of the Council)

-The Czech Republic has the most Wi-Fi subscribers in the European Union


Language Tips

Hello: dobry’den

Goodbye: na shledanou

Please: byt prijemny

Thank You: dikuji

Excuse Me/Sorry: prominte

Yes: Ano

No: Ne

Do you speak English?: Činit tebe mluvit Anglicky

Where is?: kde is?

How much?: Kolik?

One: jeden

Two: dva

Three: troyka

Four: ctyri

Five: pet

Water: voda

Beer: pivo

Wine: vino

Cheers!: Na Zdravi!

The Netherlands

God created the Earth, and the Dutch created The Netherlands...


Capital City: Amsterdam

Population: 16.5 million (very densely-populated country); 15 million live below sea level.

Currency: Euro

Languages: Dutch; also West Frisian, but only official and spoken in the northern province of Friesland.

Religion: The Netherlands is one of the most secular countries in Europe, with only 39% being religiously affiliated.

Part of EU?: Yes, it was one of the founding members in 1957.
 
Borders: Bordered by the North Sea to the North and West; Belgium to the South; Germany to the East

Rivers: The country is divided into two main parts by three major rivers: the Rhine, the Schelde and the Meuse.

Landscape: Generally low-lying, flat; mostly coastal lowland and reclaimed land (used to be islands, the Dutch stitched them all together, built a bunch of dams and windmills, controlled it and created a country out of it.

-The Netherlands is broken into 12 provinces; The country is commonly called Holland, which is incorrect because North and South Holland are merely two of its twelve provinces

FLOODING

Being a low-lying country, there have been many floods in the Netherlands. The last major flood took place in early February 1953, when a huge storm caused the collapse of several dikes, and more than 1,800 people drowned. The Dutch government subsequently decided on a large-scale programme of public works (the Delta Works) to protect the country against future flooding. The project took more than thirty years to complete, but greatly reduced the chances of flooding (chances are now 1 in 10,000).

Following the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005, the Americans looked to the Netherlands and inspected the Delta Works for tips on how to protect their low-lying areas.



THE HAGUE

The Hague is the seat of government in The Netherlands. It is known as the World’s Legal Capital because it is home to the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia), the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice

-The Economist ranks The Netherlands as the fourth most democratic country in the world; UNICEF ranks it first in child well-being

 
QUICK HISTORY

Until the 16th century, The Netherlands was known as the Low Countries, along with Belgium and Luxembourg. They were doing quite well, taking part in the Hanseatic League trade, the Renaissance was flourishing with artists like Reubens. Bruges and Ghent were two major cities in Europe. The regions had a lot of control over their own affairs (particularly in places such as Flanders and Holland), but their independence stated to be stripped away in the 1400s, with the rise of the Duchy of Burgundy.

Burgundy was a royal court that had carved out an empire between France, Germany and the Netherlands. It was known for magnificent trade (such as its sought-after Order of the Golden Fleece, a must-have for knights) and its support of the Renaissance (Jan Van Eyck was a patron of a Duke of Burgundy). The Dukes of Burgundy wanted to turn their Duchy into a kingdom, and nearly succeeded if it weren’t for the French coming in to stop them.

In 1415, the French went to war with the English, and the Dukes fought on the English side. In the end, the last great Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was murdered, and the French took back the French part of the Duchy while the Habsburgs kept the rest of it. Charles the Bold’s daughter, Mary, married the heir to the Holy Roman Emperor (Max), and from then on the Emperors (mainly Habsburgs) protected The Netherlands. They were quite happy there, too, with all of the Renaissance paintings and excellent trade systems.

Mary and Max had two children, Philip and Margaret, both of whom married into the royal house of Spain, which began the link between The Netherlands and Spain. Philip married Joanna (the daughter of the Spanish Inquisition’s Isabella), they gave birth to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

Charles V’s son, Philip II, ruled The Netherlands from Spain in the 1500s, during the time of the Reformation. Just like their social tolerance policy today, the people of The Netherlands were very tolerant back then too, especially when it came to religion, so they weren’t happy about Philip II taking after his great-grandmother and starting a new Inquisition against those who spoke against Catholicism.

In 1566, the Dutch Calvinists (who fully supported John Calvin’s theories and the Reformation), started smashing church statues and pictures (which they saw as idols that should not be worshipped - one of the major tenets of Protestantism) in the Iconoclastic Fury. Philip II wasn’t happy with this, and sent an army to crush these protesters.

In 1572, the Dutch Revolt occurred because the people resented being harshly put down by their absentee (and Catholic!) leader. They had been feeling resentful ever since Charles V first moved out of The Netherlands and into Spain, but the momentum of the Reformation and Philip II’s action inspired them to action.

During the Revolt, other countries jumped in on the side of the religion they supported, and it all ended in Philip II’s bankruptcy and Spain’s demise. The Dutch Revolt was part of the wider Thirty Years War.

The Netherlands officially declared independence from Spain in 1579, and in 1596, there was a split between the north and South (north being the Protestant Netherlands, and the south was the Catholic Spanish Netherlands, present-day Belgium).

During the 17th century, the Dutch had their Golden Age. They were a leading seafaring and commercial power, establishing colonies around the world. They took over the spice trade in the Far East from Portugal (it had been united with the Spanish crown during the wars, so it concentrated more on that than on business), and the Dutch East/West India trading companies were established (an unfortunate sidebar to this successful trading business was the slave trade that it depended on). William the Orange was their leader.

The Dutch were ahead of the times in many ways. Their leaders were Protestant, mostly business-oriented merchants in the trade industry (which helped The Netherlands, and Amsterdam in particular, to be on par with the French and English). Most Dutch people were urban (their townhouses were copied by the English many years later), and they lived in smaller family groups than was normal at the time (the trend that later became the nuclear family). They had the first stock exchange, and had the first capitalist government.

Because the English were their closest rival, there were several Anglo-Dutch wars. It was a burden for the small country to have to fight, and they were forced to give up some of their overseas territories (such as New Amsterdam, which became New York after the Dutch governor gave it up to the Duke of York).

But where the English weren’t successful in dominating the Dutch, the French Revolution was. Napoleon came in and named his own leaders (many of whom were French Catholics from Belgium), and the fiercely independent Dutch weren’t happy.

After a 20-year French occupation, upon hearing of Napoleon’s defeat, the Habsburgs at the Congress of Vienna formed the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which once again included Belgium (they wanted a strong country). But there were divisions between the Belgians and the Dutch, and in 1830, Belgium rebelled and formed a separate kingdom.

The Netherlands remained neutral for most of the World Wars, but it was occupied by the Germans. 104,000 out of 112,000 Dutch Jews were killed (25,000 in one night in Rotterdam). Amsterdam lost most of its population, and many were reduced to eating tulip bulbs.

Princess Juliana of the Netherlands sought refuge in Ottawa with her two daughters (current Queen Beatrix was one of them) during the war. Juliana was pregnant, so when it came time to deliver her child, the Canadian parliament declared her suite at the Civic Hospital “extraterritorial”, to ensure the Dutch citizenship of her child. A day later, the Dutch flag was flown on the Peace Tower (the only time in history that a foreign flag has waved atop the Canadian Parliament Buildings). The Canadian Army was also responsible for liberating much of the Netherlands. Today, Canada and the Netherlands have a special bond (symbolized every May during the Tulip Festival).

After the war, the Netherlands decided to leave behind its staunch independence, and forged closer bonds with its neighbours in order to protect itself in future. It established Benelux with its former partners, Belgium and Luxembourg, in 1946, and in 1951, all three countries joined France, Italy and West Germany to form the European Coal and Steel Community (the precursor to the 1957 European Union).

Today, its trade industry is still flourishing (Rotterdam is the biggest port in Europe), and it is still known for its tolerance.

 
SOCIAL TOLERANCE


They were the first:

...to legalize cannabis (in 1976)

... to legalize prescriptions of medicinal marijuana

... to legalize euthanasia (in 2000)

... to legalize same-sex marriage (in 2001)

-The Netherlands is also very permissive of immigration; during the Spanish Inquisition, the Reformation, and World Wars, many other nationalities who were being persecuted fled to the Netherlands.


FLOWERS

The Dutch rank third worldwide in value of agricultural exports, behind the US and France, with exports earning $55 billion annually. A significant portion of these exports are derived from fresh-cut plants, flowers, and bulbs, with the Netherlands being the world’s largest exporter of flowers (two-thirds of the world's total).

(Incidentally, The Netherlands also exports a quarter of all world tomatoes, and one-third of the world's exports of peppers and cucumbers).

Keukenhof Park, in Lisse, is the largest flower garden in the world, with approximately 7 million bulbs planted annually. It was designed to showcase The Netherlands’ flowers.

Flower-growing in country began in the late 19th century. Conditions in The Netherlands are perfect for flower cultivation: low lands, very wet and fertile.

The Netherlands is known for its tulips, although they actually originated, and were named, in Persia (brought to Europe by the Ottomans in the mid 16th-century). They were seen as status symbols and their names were prefixed with titles such as “Admiral”

Tulipmania was a period in the Dutch Golden Age during which contract prices for bulbs of the recently introduced tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then suddenly collapsed. At the peak of tulip mania in February 1637, tulip contracts sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. Goods exchanged for a single bulb: four fat oxen, eight fat swine, twelve fat sheep, two hogsheads of wine, four tuns of beer, two tons of butter, 1000 lb of cheese, a complete bed, a suit of clothes and a silver drinking cup.

The term "tulip mania" is now used metaphorically to refer to any large economic bubble (like the dotcom bubble).


WINDMILLS


There are 1180 windmills around the country. They helped to remove excess water from lowlands and helped with agriculture. They have been around since the 13th century, and in the 19th century, there were around 9000 windmills.


CLOGS

Clogs have been worn in The Netherlands for around 500 years. Wooden shoes help to keep the feet dry, so they were used by peasants who worked in fields. They inspired the modern CROC shoe, adapted from a plastic clog to be worn in spas.

DRUGS

While most countries believe that drugs should be outlawed, Dutch officials take the point of view that they cannot eliminate drug use entirely, so they might as well control them. The Netherlands has the second highest drug related public expenditure per capita of all countries in the EU (after Sweden).75% of their expenditure is law enforcement, and 25% is health/social care. There is an enforced distinction between “soft” and “hard” drugs; the Dutch believe that smoking pot is a victimless crime, but doing hard drugs is a different story. The Dutch are also very hard on importing/selling drugs, and the amount that a person can sell is regulated, with a zero tolerance policy for drug crimes (on par with Sweden).

The number of drug-related deaths in The Netherlands is among the lowest in Europe. Magic mushrooms and all hallucinogenic drugs were deemed illegal in 2008 (but can still be bought in smartshops, shops that sell drug-related paraphernalia).

COFFEE SHOPS

Introduced in the 1970s to separate hard and soft drug use. They are only allowed to sell cannabis, and not allowed to sell alcohol. They are not allowed to sell more than 5 grams at a time. Coffeeshops are also not allowed to advertise, so many of them will have reggae-inspired flags or paraphernalia outside the shop. There is an on-going contradiction, as a coffeeshop is allowed to sell cannabis, but not to buy it: "The front door is open, but the backdoor is illegal." In 2008, the Dutch government decided that coffeeshops would no longer be allowed within a radius of 250 m of schools.

DUTCH PEOPLE:

-The Dutch are among the tallest in the world, with an average height of about 6'1" for adult males and 5;6" for adult females

-A third of Dutch people smoke tobacco. Holland has a long tradition as a smoking culture, being among the first to import the tobacco plant from the New World. (Strangely enough, the Dutch are also among the healthiest people in the world).

-Dutch people leave their windows open all the time, they don’t mind people watching them. Incidentally, the TV show “Big Brother” originated in The Netherlands.


BIKES

Due to excellent cycling conditions (particularly the flat land, although it is also quite windy and wet!), plus decreasing parking spaces, limited access to cars in cities and strict fines for motorists in collisions, nearly a third of all journeys in the Netherlands are made by bicycle. The country's 16 million people own 16 million bikes, and Amsterdam is known as the most bike-friendly city in the world. The Dutch team brought bicycles to Vancouver for the Olympics to promote healthy living, but the Canadians had to put an import tax on them.


Food and Drink

-Cheese (Gouda and Edam)

-Fries and Mayo

-Heineken, Amstel and Grolsch beer

-Salted herrings are eaten as a snack


DUTCH ARTISTS

-Rembrandt

-Vincent Van Gogh


Famous Dutchies: Erasmus from Rotterdam; Descartes’ major work was done in The Netherlands; Anne Frank, Van Halen


QUIRKY FACTS:

-Rotterdam has the biggest port in Europe (used to be the World’s Busiest Port, until Shanghai took over)

-English rivalry with The Netherlands especially during the period of the Anglo-Dutch Wars, gave rise to several phrases that promoted certain negative stereotypes of Dutch people as ungenerous and selfish: “Dutch courage”, “Dutch oven”, Dutch uncle and Dutch wife.


LANGUAGE TIPS

Hello: Hello

Goodbye: Tot ziens

Please: Alstublieft

Thank You: Dank u

Excuse Me/Sorry: Verontschuldig Mij/Droevig

Yes: Ja

No: Geen

Do you speak English?: Spreekt u Engels?

Where is?: Waar is?

How much?: Hoe veel?

One: Een

Two: Twee

Three: Drie

Four: Vier

Five: Vijf

Water: Water

Beer: Bier

Wine: Wijn

Cheers!: Cheers!

Where are my clogs?: Var zien min klumpen?

Watch out for cyclists!: pass op for feetsters!

I am drunk!: Ek ben drong can!