Adelaide vs Apeldoorn

I’ve been wanting to write about this for some time. Living in a foreign country obviously many things are different and it takes quite a bit to get used to some things. But, rather than write about the things I’ve noticed between Australia and The Netherlands, I think it’s more accurate to talk about specifically the differences between Adelaide and Apeldoorn, since Apeldoorn has some things which are not necessarily applicable to the whole of The Netherlands.

The food for instance………mmmmm yum. Not far from where we live there is one of the best Chip stores in The Netherlands, known as Patat here. I know that eating fries in Australia is just never going to be the same for me again after eating Patat met en met uien! Nevermind the frikendel and kroketten. The food in Apeldoorn is just fantastic. The milk is better and the water is far more drinkable than Adelaide. In fact, all dairy, bread and anything cooked in oil is far better. The veggies though? Adelaide tops out on that one actually………much nicer fruit and veg. They don’t use preservatives here which is probably healthier, but the food deteriorates really quickly.

Carparks
Laws are quite interesting here. Sometimes they are clear, sometimes I just wonder if anybody knows the rules. Then I surmise that they don’t care. When it comes to carparking there is a simple rule that I know of. If it fits, then it’s a carpark, lol. But there are some places that you must not park or you’ll get a hefty fine………and if you’re lucky that may be sign posted. Otherwise after you get a fine you then now know you cannot park there and the general public seem to have learnt this way. Sometimes it’s ok to park there even if it does have a no-parking sign…………and some clearly designated parking spots you cannot park in. I have not yet learnt why.

Driving has kinda similar rules………it’s only illegal if you get caught apparently. Depending on the act, with 18 million people in such a small area the odds can be on your side. Sometimes it’s even acceptable to drive on the bike lane or footpath if that happens to lead to your designation. If cars really must not drive somewhere, then the only real way to prevent it from happening is to build a barrier……….this does seem to work well 🙂

Water
Where Adelaide has been having an ongoing drought, the opposite certainly occurs here! I arrived in Spring and it rained nearly every day. During summer…….it rained. It continued to rain in Autumn. In winter it either rains or snows. And when it rains it never just drizzles. I went out once in what I thought was a “light rain” and found myself absolutely saturated! I’ve learnt now not to underestimate the rain here and I always take a rain coat! lol

Those are the first things that come to mind. If I think of the other points that amuse me, I will write about those in a second installment 🙂