Holland

A great card Peggy sent me for her cultural RR.

the card shows a typical Dutch way of eating herring. (personally, not very fond of it). The herring is raw, and apart from how it is shown on the card, another way to eat it is to hold the whole fish above you and let it slide in.(yuck!)
The specific-type of herring which is the first young herring suitable for consumption is called Holandese Nieuwe. It is prepared in a traditional Dutch way after it's been caught. The first day these new young herrings are being caught is celebrated in the town of Scheveningen with flag-day. The harbour is decorated with flags and the first barrel of herring is auctioned and the money goes to charity. It can go up to 70.000 euros!

there are two stamps on the card and the left one is really nice. It was issued in 1988 commemorating the Australian Bicentenary which was celebrated in 1970 on the 200th anniversary of Captain James Cook landing and claiming the land, and again in 1988 to celebrate 200 years of permanent European settlement. The other stamp is from a set of four Tourism stamps and was issued in 1996

Holland

A really nice view....I like the colours of the card, so bright and clear.....gives some happy image....a warm summer day when you just feel the freedom all around you....

and of course....a card which raises my eternal Holland - Netherland battle....and the ironic thing is that Holland is persistent and keeps winning...I really dont get it...why do they keep insisting on calling their country Holland when im trying to be so nice and respective and refer to it as The Netherlands?

anyways, i would really love to be at some peaceful place like this right now....my mind feels sooo tired from all the work and all the lack of sleep due to it....this would be like a battery recharger....there is this line from an AIR song (sang along with Beck) which is stuck in my head...."Im running after time and I miss the sunshine....summer days will come happiness will be mine"....it really feels so.....I end up seeing the sun just through the window, since I constantly battle with time and deadlines and Im always falling behind....

and a rare occasion to see some different Dutch stamps.....not really fancy ones, but honestly ANYTHING is better than that omnipresent eurocent one

Holland

It may not be some mother's/women's day...but here is a bunch of tulips for you :)

Wow! These Dutch fields just seem amazing!  Esp. from this aerial point of view when you actually get to see their colours perplexing like this...just lovely!
Tulips are always associated with Holland/Netherlands...ok, i really dont know which name to use anymore, so ill stick to what the card says and the card this time says Holland...so be it Holland...anyway, as i was saying, although when you think of tulips, you probably first think of Holland, their name actually originated in the Persian Empire.The tulip, or lale as it is also called in Turkey (and in Macedonia!!!!!!) is a flower indigenous to Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and other parts of central Asia. Although, it is unclear who first brought the flower to northwest Europe, it is the Turks who made tulip known in Europe.
I remember i once read somewhere that tulips can be grown in every single colour, except blue! ehh, i dont know if this is really true, but how come that out of all the colours, my favourite one cant be a tulip...

Sometimes i wonder if its me the problem and why i cant find the English speaking sections at certain sites...like the one of the Dutch Post office....im pretty sure ive been seeing this stamp (or other values of it with a similar design) for ages...but right now i just cant give any info about it in particular...and frankly, im sleepy and tired and just not feeling ok...and yeah, lazy too :)

Well, off to sleep...

Cheese Market, Holland

I got this card in the Netherlands to the rest of the world tag, and i must say i really really love it! Im a bit tricky on what i like and what i dont when it comes to cards that arent regular touristic cards, but this one is just great...and soo different from the rest of my Dutch cards...

If you wondered why i named this one as "Holland" and not "the Netherland", i think that a look on the card itself will clear it all up....and im not gonna go against something which is already clearly stated, regardless to what it refers to....argghh, this Holland/Netherlands thing is gonna drive me nuts one day :)
When i first looked at the card, i thought the kids were carrying grapefruits or citruses, or any of the kind...when i read on the back, turns out it was cheese...really embarassing from my side, but if you take a good look at those big yellow 'balls', they do look like as some of those fruits.
Well, what can i say...i love cheese! Esp the one which isnt very salty and feels smooth....i could eat that in large amounts!
And i really like the spontaneity of the card...more precisely, the second pair of children..the way that the second one takes a glimpse behind her...the way that the first one has made a facial expression, murmuring something...it all makes a great card, when you know that someone didnt set this children in order to get a shot for a card, but that it was just a spontaneous moment while they were walking...it really really turned out in a great image!
thanks Amber for this one! I totally totally love it!!

Holland

Here comes one of my favourite issues with the postcards, Holland vs Netherlands!


And here we have a map of the WHOLE country, BUT it is labeled as Holland!
And then you wonder why i get confused or why millions of people out there get confused?! :)

I dont mind its labeled as Holland one single bit...it just again opens a room for discussion of why native people keep referring to it as Holland when its The Netherlands. I feel it would be as if I dont really make a difference whether i call my country Macedonia or FYROM....and i totally outcast the latter, for the simple reason its Macedonia...but lets not get political now.

regarding the card, i cant say anything else, except that i love it...just my taste! :)
I dont know all the buildings which represent their own town, but one step at a time...

I just wonder what exactly the picture at Volendam stands for....

Holland

A very disputable card, which right now makes me think of how I trapped myself and now i have to send a card to the Netherlands, written in Dutch! This wouldnt have been such a problem if i knew how to utter at least ONE single word in Dutch....so this is gonna be real fun! I can ask someone who speaks the language for help, but honestly, there is no challenge in there and i really want to manage it on my own....so i think im left upon some of those online-translators and compose something....and having in mind how those translators work, im 100% positive something ridiculous would come out and I wont even know its ridiculous....well, the worst thing that can happen is that i die laughing :))) Heh, i really like the challenge, plus i may learn some words in Dutch as well so it can be useful......and its fun :)

NL-83762

Now back to the card and the thing which makes my brain cells work harder....

The card comes from The Netherlands, but on it, it says Holland, so thats why i labeled it as Holland...it would be quite odd to name it as Netherlands, when pretty clear the card tells you it comes from Holland, im not gonna argue with it :)

Now....time ago, I finally made the distinction between Holland and the Netherlands....so Netherlands is the whole country, while Holland refers to a region in the western part of the Netherlands.....now, my confusion here is, does the card represent only that western region or the entire country? Or they had put Holland just to confuse the already way too confused foreigners :)
There is no particular information on the card, so I cant figure it out.

Thing is, for years, I had refered to the country as Holland, for a simple reason, and that is, here in Macedonia, we call the country Холандија (Holandija) which makes the perfect analogy to Holland, not the Netherlands...so I guess we have it all wrong....plus, another thing is, for years, when ive been sending letters to my pen-friends there, I always wrote "Holland" and the letters always arrived....and this wouldnt have been so odd if on the return address they also wrote "Holland"....so, I dont know..its pretty confusing all this....though for years now ive been refering to the country as The Netherlands....which is fair and square.....to call you by your name

I just still need a clarification of the card above....if its Holland, or the Netherlands on the pictures...