Stay in a lifeboat capsule at a Netherlands surf commune

Sure, the Netherlands might not be the first place that springs to mind when you think about digging out your Billabong and going on vacation -- hoping to change all that, however, is FAST (Free Architecture Surf Terrain): a makeshift commune-style surf village in The Hague.

So wait, what is FAST again? Well, simply put, it's what you see above: a piecemeal surf-lifestyle camp plopped into the otherwise-industrial outskirts of Holland's third largest city.

When you visit, one option is to stay in their capsule hotel, which's literally an old lifeboat capsule that's been re-imagined as a hotel room. There's also a beach hostel, a place to park campers, and beach camping. And, should flying to The Hague have hogged all your cash, you can stay for free if you let them put you to work.

Despite the implication of its name, plenty of eating goes on at FAST; mainly at their resto.

A beer with a view.

If you haven't noticed the trend yet, almost the entire community (theater included) is built outta modular storage containers.

It's a little known fact that Dutch punk bands rock thrice as hard when doing so in a storage container.

Of course, the surfing there also rocks.

Those crafty Dutch even made bleachers to watch the wave-riding.

There're also all sorts of ramps for some strange brand of wheel-boarded street surfing...

People mainly just hang out, though.

There's also a WWII museum in an old bunker at FAST (of course), probably because people wanted to make sure the surfing didn't end up Hagueing all the limelight from the city's storied past.