The only way I managed to afford travelling around Europe for 6 months was by not paying for accommodation. I did this by planning my travels around friend's couches I knew I could sleep on, and from meeting new people along the way. I am so grateful for each one of my hosts because this a), gave me the opportunity to see many different places, b) it allowed me to see those places through the eyes of true locals, and c), knowing these locals and meeting their friends allowed me to not only learn, but question, why certain cultural stereotypes exist. In October I was in France when I received a call from an Australian friend (who was originally from England), saying that he was going to visit some of his old school friends who now live in Amsterdam, and that I should come and visit. I had never been to the Netherlands before, and at that point I hadn’t seen a friend from home in 3 months, so I happily accepted the invitation.
It didn’t take me long to fall in love with Amsterdam, and not because my friend instantly greeted me with a beer as soon as I stepped off the train, but because Amsterdam had an atmosphere like i’d never seen before in Europe. All different walks of life passed us from the train station to the apartment, all so content biking around their village-like city. As we weaved in and out of the canals to get to the apartment, I was quickly warned by my new friends about the Dutch. I was told that they’re “brutally honest people”, and that I “shouldn’t take it personally”.
The anti-authoritarian and individualistic attitude from the 70s is still very present in the Netherlands today, where a lot of freedom is placed on the individual. Personal choice for the individual ranges from sex, speech, religion, drugs, and beyond. Coming from a traditionally egalitarian society, the Dutch pride themselves on being able to do and say as they wish. The Dutch are straight to the point kind of people, you can see it in their eyes when they ride past you on their bike. Foreigners in the Netherlands are have said to have found the Dutch’s honesty rude, while the Dutch apparently find foreigner’s lack of honesty rude. There is no such thing as ‘plain rudeness’ as we like to refer to it, because just like you would never blow your nose in public in Japan, all ‘rudeness’ is culturally relative. Anglo-saxons infamously pride themselves on being non-confrontational and prefer the ‘sliding things under the carpet’ approach. This comparison means that when a Dutchman has problem with someone, they will not be shy to tell that person; where if an Anglo-saxon has a problem with someone, they will most likely lie about it to avoid confrontation (but in turn will bitch about it later to their friends). The Dutch will proudly tell you that they’re blunt people, but at the same time they’ll also tell you that they have no deliberate intention to upset anyone. The critical yet constructive Dutch approach undoubtably attributed to their famous 17th century Golden Age of writers, artists, and thinkers. One afternoon at a cafe in Amsterdam I asked the barista why no one wears a helmet whilst riding their bike in the Netherlands. The barista handed over my coffee as he then reassured me that, “the Dutch don’t need to wear helmets because we already know how to ride our bikes”.
