do you think people in The Hague feel weird about their city becoming a byword for the International Criminal Court? like I bet a lot of people deserve to go The Hague not because of war crimes but because they would enjoy the *quick search* Indo festival or *checks wikitravel* the oldest forested area in the Netherlands, the Haagse Bos
people in Den Haag mostly don’t think about that and get confused when others from abroad don’t realize that it is A Town where People Live. source: I live near the Hague and have gone there specifically to get bubble tea
What's even more interesting about The Hague is that it's where the Dutch government lives. That's right, unlike almost every other country on Earth, our government is not seated in its capital! We even put the Prime Minister in a building lovingly called "The Little Tower."
to repost something I said on mastodon a year ago:
Dutch person: the capital of the Netherlands is Amsterdam
American: so that’s where the government is?
Dutch: no
American: where the embassies are?
Dutch: no
American: where the king lives?
Dutch: no
American: then how is it the capital?
Dutch: I don’t understand the question
…
Dutch: well it’s big, like New York!
American: NEW YORK ISN’T EVEN THE CAPITAL OF NEW YORK
semi-relatively, it has taken me a good long while of being out of the Netherlands to "forget" that gouda is a place and just accept it as a cheese only
