Tilburg

Tilburg is a city in the Netherlands. If you have never heard of it, that's alright - most people in Europe haven't heard of it either. Many people even in the Netherlands only have a vague idea where it is: "somewhere in the south". So, I'm not surprised that you never heard of this place before.

Despite its being not very well known, Tilburg is the 6th largest city in the Netherlands (with more than 200,000 people).

I like it here. It is urban enough to provide you with the conveniences of city life, while it retains a kind of "village" character. Like, if you ask somebody in a bus for directions, many other people will pitch in. Or, you can be late up to 15 minutes for an appointment, and people don't complain too much (in the Netherlands, they are quite punctual). And the youth are less rough than those in other big cities.

I have stayed here since 1983, which seems like ages ago. Then, it was more "village"-like than now. When we were new here, and couldn't speak Dutch well; people accomodated you by speaking Dutch slowly. In cities like Amsterdam or Rotterdam, they would shift to speaking English if they find out you don't speak Dutch well.

Tilburg is rather unique as Dutch cities go. It is probably the only big city without access to either a river or the sea. It is relatively "new" - it really only became a city in the 1830s; while most other cities were there already during the 1600s. Tilburg became a city because it is surrounded by sheep country - the sheep needed to go somewhere central to get their wool sheared, and this turned out to be Tilburg. We had a thriving textile industry here till the 1960s. But this ended when cheap imports from Asia replaced the Dutch textile products. Because of this, Tilburg used to have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

But Tilburg is busy re-inventing itself. Now, it hosts a lot of higher-educational institutions, with a renowned University, and various colleges. It has also developed into a distribution hub for all sorts of products. And Tilburg is definitely an "in" city for the youth. It has the famous "013" pop center, has a pop academy; it is also the place for big festivals e.g. the "Festival Mundial" featuring rock bands from all over the world (mostly Third World). Tilburg is also the nearest city to the "Efteling" amusement park.

There are not too many Filipinos in this city. I think that there are less than 30 of us here. Every first Sunday of the month, we have a Filipino mass here in Tilburg in which about 30-40 attend. However, most of those who come are Filipinos from surrounding towns.

In a sense, it is rather strange to have ended up here in Tilburg. I didn't plan on doing so; hell, I never even heard of the place before I came here. But here I am... and I am trying to make the best of it. And you will now be with me, as I bring you along with me through this blog.