The Hague is one of the few Dutch towns whose name has translations in other languages. It is the unofficial capital (as Parliament is seated there) of the Netherlands, the official one being Amsterdam. It is an area of social extremes. As a child I went to a school in the snooty part of the Hague, but it has some notorious slummy parts. The Hague is known for its high rate of criminality, the regional accent associated with burglars and vandals, and its typical mode of behaviour is shallow and aggressive, most of that aggression being hot air escaping from between the ears. True natives of the Hague are rather proud of this style of behaviour. Natives from the snooty part of town can always escape to the conveniently close seaside resort Scheveningen with its pier, which at this time may or may not be closed, under construction or rusted to pieces. Of its two main stations, Den Haag Centraal Station and Den Haag Hollands Spoor (abbreviated to CS and HS), HS is more on the slummy side; fortunately, apart from a few trips to an organization called "GUO", I've never had to leave the station, or, frequently, even the train. The few times I've had to change trains here, I spent the wait plumbing the depths of this station's grime.
The railway tracks, from various angles.
That predominantly brown landschape.
Some upper-class housing.
Some lower-class housing, and plenty-much graffiti.
Artistic expression of a more creative kind: spot the house with the doll painted on it.
Outside the station. A tall building with splashes down its walls, and construction work.
