hi
posted by Alex Pappas in Belgium forum
I am living in The Hague since 25 May. about 50 days.
I am not the most qualified to speak about the Netherlands, or the Hague, as most of these days I was indoors, sitting in a chair,
surfing the internet, looking for jobs, sending cv's , and occasionally taking a train to go to an interview.Now that I found a job, I am again online, looking for a home to rent.
And when I find that, I will be at the store buying some furniture
:)I will have a better picture of everyday life when I start working, spending all morning with Dutch colleagues, when I send my children to schools, etc.
I did 5-6 long walks, around the centre, the beach, some neighborhouds, and the parks.
The Hague is a lot more green, spacious, clean, and calm than Athens.
In the summer it is also a lot more livable (max temperature is 20-25 C ), with ocasional rains.
During the winter, propably I'll miss Greece and its very mild winter.But, ok, about the Hague, I can say it is not what the turism industry likes to show to the visitors (the same is true for Athens, London, Paris, etc)
If you walk freely, on your own, away from the seaside of Scheveningen, or the centrum with the parliament, you have the chance to see alse the poor neighbourhouds , the areas around train stations.As I said, you can see that in every major city of the world,
but if you go lets say in Paris, the city is huge.
You need A LOT of walking/cycling to find the suburbs.
While Hague is a lot smaller, easy explorable.I like very much the Cycling culture here. Everywhere cycling paths.
The car drivers must be very careful beacause most of the times cycles have priority, and in case of accident almost everytime, the blame is on the car (I do not drive here, this is what a Dutch told me).Also, nearly everyone in the major cities, speaks good English, making your life a lot easier. Not only in stores, but also police officers, bus drivers, public servants, neighbours, etc.
The same common english knowledge, is what makes learning Dutch a bit difficult.