Strangers in Venlo

Thalassa from Milk and Cookies


Finally started to meet some strangers in Venlo.

This time I want to meet at least some of the strangers again, so I needed to a find a venue. I decided to go with Milk and Cookie, at Parade 22, Venlo. This is where I met my first Venlo stranger, Thalassa. Thalassa opened Milk and Cookies with her business partner last June.

Thalassa is from Southwest Netherlands, she graduated last year and ever since has been hard at work at Milk and Cookies. She's very approachable and easy to talk with.

Me - "What's a typical Dutch characheristic?"

Thalassa - "Oh, that's 'nuchler', you know?"

M - "No"

T - "Mmm, sober, in the sense of common-sense. We do the right things and get things down"

M - "I understand that Limburger's are different, how is their character different to the rest of the Netherlands?"

T - "I'm not from here originally, but I'm from the south, you know, below the 'river', and close to Belgium, so we are more like Limburgers. We enjoy life, we like to drink and eat. We are more 'bourgondisch', in the north they are more 'nuchler'.

Thalassa enjoys playing with creative ideas and concepts. Milk and Cookies is one of those concepts and her and her partner hope to build this concept by eventually opening more 'Milk and Cookies'.

Since she's working on Sunday, she'll be giving her invite to a friend. So, there'll be at least one mystery guess on Sunday.

Thea


I met Thea and Annie where Venlo has its Saturday market. They were heading towards town, my guess towards a cafe but I didn't ask. Thea did most of the talking because I have no Dutch and she has reasonable English.

M - What are the Dutch like?

T - Friendly, helpful.

Annie


M - And what about Limburgers?

T (ask Annie in Dutch) They enjoy life a lot. They love talking, they're good to guests and the carnival is big here. Everyone loves it.

M - What do you do for enjoyment?

T - We like going to cafes.

Frans from Pieter Breughel Art Shop


Frans is the owner of the Pieter Breughel Art Shop
, which sells modern paintings and sculptures. He's enjoyable to talk to, likes to play golf because it gives him pleasure and enjoys going out restaurants and for some drinks. He also wished me much success, which I liked.

Me - "Are you from Limburg?"
Frans - "Yes, I'm from Venlo."
M - "Do people from the Netherlands have a special characteristic? You know, like the British are considered to be gentlemen, they like to drink etc."
F - "They are humorous, I like English humour. Yes, the Dutch are friendly, and they're open-minded."
M "Yes, the British consider the Dutch to be open-minded that way so many of them like coming here. You're from Limburg. Do you think they are different to other Dutch people?"
F - "Yes, Limburgers like the good things in life, we like to eat and drink, we like to talk and there's the carnival too. Also, now means now in the north but here it could mean in 15 mins"
M - "Why do you think there's a difference?"
F - "Limburg is made up of a lot of small places. Each of those places has their own orchestra and carnival group."
M - "Yes, I kinda know this. In Stejl they have something like this, in English they're called 'Circle of Friends' and they have a red flag with a devil on it. I don't understand why they use the devil?"
F - "I don't really know either, you'll have to ask people in Stejl but they are well known and they're the only one like this in the whole of Limburg.