Tulip Madness

As in Brussels, this bustling town square branches off into a quiet and serene closed square where there are few people and pleasantly running fountain in the background. A good serene place for writing and meditation. One down..

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At the strong recommendation of my guide books, I set out for the Frans Hal museum. Frans Hal, for those who aren’t familiar, was a renowned painter I had never heard of until yesterday when I read about him in my guide book. The museum holds many of his paintings, but the museum is much more than that.

It begins with a lengthy introduction hall, where the entire walls literally engulfed in huge versions of far smaller original paintings which are used to illustrate a basic history of Harlaam. One of the city’s biggest quirks is that evidently the city went into something of a tulip craze at some point in its history and they became so popular that the rich had to pay up the nose for even one, and a poor man could never afford one. See when I say tulip crazy, I mean really crazy. Supply was unable to meet the demand for the tulip. People were buying up tulip seeds a season before they were in existence. Then one day I guess everyone just woke up cradling their heads and murmuring to themselves “Tulips? What the hell did I have to drink last year.” For whatever reason the tulip market collapsed withn a number of days, dealing a pretty major economic blow to the Netherlands. Tulip crazy, man.

When explaining this phenomenon in history, the museum doesn’t attempt to make it sound more reasonable than it is. In fact one of the things I enjoyed most about it is that the exhibit had no problem ripping into the upper class. .In another parts of the museum it pointed out that although there were an abundance of beautiful paintings of Harlaam’s landscape, few if anyone had bothered to requisition a painting of the slums, which were less than pretty.

Another bit I found interesting is that their upper class citizens created and sustained a myth regarding the Coat of Arms. The current Coat of Arms is four stars, a sword, and a cross. The legend that the upper class created is that long ago the sword and the cross were absent. Legend has it that a German Emperor had presented Harlaam with a sword and a cross, and they added it to their crest ever since, in honor of this occasion.

The reality is that German Emperor in mention was dead before Harlaam ever had a coat of arms, making this an unlikely tale. .

Harlaam’s Civic Guard was not as cool as Amsterdam’s either. .My favorite quirk of Amsterdam’s history is that Amsterdam’s nobility made up their minds that they would be the country’s best defenders. Thus the Civic Guard of Amsterdam was made up exclusively of its Noblemen. I’m sure they were the same elitist bastards that make up every country’s noblemen, but it seems like a good use of their elitism. These days the poor do all the fighting and the rich avoid it at all costs. Amsterdam was constructive about it at least. I wonder how much battle they saw.

By the time I left the museum it was getting late. I stopped at an internet cafe to send and check some email, then I was off.

I made a terrible choice that night. Along the street to my hostel there is a Mexican Restaurant. I managed to eat both one of the highest priced and crappiest meals of my lifetime in that one singular restaurant. Four euros for a soda, that’s how insane the prices were. Unbelievable.