In the Western Europe there is a country that is called the Netherlands, with the capital at Amsterdam, although the parliament and Dutch government is situated in the Hague since the 16th century.
The Nederlands includes the European territory plus three islands Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius. While the kingdom of the Netherlands, besides these territories mentioned previously, adds other three islands to its possession, in the Caribbeans still, Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten. The name represents literally “Low Lands”, which comes from its low geographic position, with only half of the country lucky enough to be one meter above sea level. Don’t be socked seeing how much territories has this small country conquered outside Europe, you’d be surprised what’s their position among some Asian and African countries. The Dutch Kingdom was an important colonialists. Nevertheless, they had territories in South America and did you know that New York City was a Dutch territory? And even the wonderful Manhattan was brought from some native Americans in the 17th century by the Dutch Kingdom.
Holland is not a country, Holland represents only two provinces from the Netherlands, which are North Holland, with its capital at Haarlem and the largest city from the province is Amsterdam; and South Holland with the capital at the Hague and largest city is Rotterdam. See?! Maybe here is where the confusion is coming from, as you can see the top 3 most famous and most populated cities possessed by the Netherlands are situated on the West Coast, where the “Hollands” are. By the way, the Royals are in Amsterdam, therefore also on the territory of “Holland”.
Anyway, these two terms, Holland and the Netherlands, are to be used exclusively knowing which part of the country are you referring to; if you go in Amsterdam and say you go to Holland is correct, but if you say you visit Utrecht, that’s not Holland anymore.
When it comes to people, I must say that Holland and the Netherlands are two different countries. In the Netherlands in general and excluding the Holland part, most people are more close minded, judgmental, unsociable, weird and traditional, sometimes they even say that about themselves; and some of them can barely take a joke, I might say that bordering Germany in East has affected people’s humor.
On the other hand, Holland is exactly how you imagine it, people are funny, full of energy, always in for a party, interesting conversations and actually sociable, they tend to be less judgmental and more friendly, they like welcoming people in their country and make them have the greatest time of their life, the cities over there are filled with mixed people, therefore more cultures combines, this mixture of people animates the cities with joy and coziness. How Dutch people might say “gezellig!”.
The Nederlands, the all of it, is a great country to visit and explore, and not only for weed, Russian hookers in Red Light District or alcohol, but also for their beautiful landscapes and culture. It is a country worth to know about and I bet most people would be surprised to see how much importance is this small country bringing to our world. And it’s not that cold, is temperate, not too hot summer, nor too cold winter, but very humid.
Killing Oblivion 