It's also quite advanced in that respect, unlike, say, Bucharest, which has yet some (but not that many) years to walk along that way. Which makes sense if you think of it -- the Dutch were building a global empire like what, four centuries ago?

> well-oiled systems

For what it's worth, at least it's got that going for it. I saw one instance of repairs being done on one of the streets on Monday, but that site was gone by Wednesday. Compare that to Bucharest's Piața Unirii during the last few months.

Just saying, after a while one does get tired of the crass incompetence permeating this part of Eastern Europe. Even Bulgarians are slowly getting ahead of Romanians in this game, and I suppose the Moldavian Soviet is soon to follow... and let's not talk about Ukraine; if anything, the war is keeping them on their toes, even with all the destruction they're facing.

> a hologram that will one day vanish into thin air as the power is cut.

I think there's something to be said about these museum towns, something that I've also noticed during my short stay in London, by the way. I don't know if you recall that part in the late intro of Brave New World, where the "civilized" folks go visit the so-called "Savage Reservation". While not (yet?) "savage" in the proper sense, I think that Europe's big capitals, or at least their "historical" centres can be viewed from this angle, where they're just a bunch of museums for the locals to visit, maybe with this or that local peculiarity, such as the legal prostitution or drug ring in Amsterdam. So the "system" that the town is built upon works -- and in that respect, there's a marked interest in keeping it running for a while still -- because it's purpose-built, not an actual town, but... well, something that vaguely resembles one. Something that's in a certain sense similar to the beach resorts that Ceaușescu built during the '70s.