Amsterdam um there's so much to say see if this resonates with you when you travel to other destinations around the world I find that a lot of the time you find yourself connected to the people Amsterdam is not one of those places for me but I have a stronger connection here than maybe to any other place in in the world and the distinction here is I feel connected to the city not the people where so many other places around the world it's the complete opposite I I don't know if that makes sense but there is
a distinction that I'm trying to to wrap my head around but when I think of a place like Spain I think of the people dancing when I think of a place like Bali I think of you know the people their smiles how like warm and welcoming they are when I think of a place like Budapest and Hungary I think of this like heaviness that I don't know the the community rallies around it's just like an interesting feel it's it's connection with the people but here in Amsterdam when I think of Amsterdam I don't think of
the people I think of the city and in so many ways I gotten this for Sarah about a year ago and that that is what I think of when I think of Amsterdam I I I never have my mind go towards thinking of the people it's it's a connection with the city and that's not to say that the people aren't here and don't exist and and that you don't have thoughts and relationships with them you do but something about the city itself is just different so this is obviously one of those unfiltered conversations I'm just
going to kind of break down my experiences in Amsterdam and how I've you know come to to think about this place and the relationship that I have with it and and the people who are here so for backstory I am now in my like fifth month in in Amsterdam since starting this like World journey of moving to a new country every month we have come back to Amsterdam multiple times uh but it's just captivating and I guess I'll start at the beginning the first time that we came here we hated it uh Sarah and I
both were like what is the hype around this place we had huge expectations but the first like 48 Hours here we were like we do not get this this is not us and I think there are a lot of people who end up feeling like this um I was on the train doing some travel through other parts of the Netherlands and we were stopping near the airport and I overheard this couple talking about their Amsterdam experience they were just leaving and both of them said yeah this isn't a place that we're ever going to come
back and I totally get that because I was there but I also think that is so wrong not saying you can't have that opinion but I think a lot of people fall into a trap the first time they come into to Amsterdam the city is laid out in a way where it's very easy as a tourist to get wrapped up in this tiny little bubble that you think is the city and it is very much not you you quickly realize oh this is the little area of town for the tourists and everything else is completely
different so again first two days really hated it ever since this has become our favorite place on planet Earth uh there's a reason that we're here for a fifth month um this is a place that we really could see ourselves living so I want to talk about some of the pros some of the cons some of just the things that I've noticed um and observed o over the time spending as much time as we have in Amsterdam this is a stroll City and I think part of why Sarah and I really have an attachment to
the city is the city is built around some of the things that we really value walking being one of those biking being one of those we hate sitting in cars um living in the US for most of our lives like obviously a car is just a part of your day-to-day life uh in the US and in most places around the world right but in Amsterdam it is very much not I mean it's like the the bikers have first ride away then it's the pedestrians walking then it's cars I mean it'd kind of be a nightmare
to try to drive in the city and that really adds to the Ambiance the culture the feel of the city it is quiet uh it feels like a place that you are meant to just walk around and stroll and again coming back to this picture right here that is what I think about because so many of our days here are spent wandering and looking at at at things like this cuz the beauty is unlike anywhere that we've we've seen it's not obviously so much of the beauty is man-made right you're not looking at gorgeous beaches
or huge mountains or anything like that like it is manufactured but in a way that is just unique and just like it's so hard to explain it's just it's peaceful um and it's just a wonderful City to to wander through and stroll and it's very different than a big city like a Paris or London that feels like it's this sprawling City with all these different areas and huge energy there is energy here there is they they do have those Pockets but it feels like a town more than a city and because of the biking culture
and just like the infrastructure it's so easy to get like anywhere in town within 10 15 20 minutes max on the bike uh and if you are coming to Amsterdam highly recommend like you got to get a bike your experience changes drastically the second that you get on the bike uh and I know for a lot of people that's scary cuz like if you've never been here if you've never been like amongst this many bikers at once it is a scary thing at first but it really does change the feel uh in a in a
positive way but this is one of those stroll cities I'll talk about some of the things that I think some people don't necessarily love a lot of people you hear site the weather they're like oh man the weather and the ne villains is just terrible and I mean sure I I I get that um we spent a lot of time in the summer here intentionally we've also spent some months in the winter and the days are on the extreme ends you're so far north that in the winter days are really short you're not getting as
much sunlight as you would in a lot of other places around the world and in the summer like it is right now uh it's complete opposite sun doesn't set till like after 10: but even when it sets it's not oh it's set and now it's dark it's like you get what I call like the blue hour where there's still daylight it's still really easy to be outside you never feel like it's truly night uh until probably close to midnight which is just really interesting again because it's not something that a lot of people have experiences
with um because you have to be this far north so the weather definitely is more moderate right now it's like the heat wave of the summer uh in Fahrenheit it's like 80 something degrees today but last week everybody here in jackets in scarves and hats and it's like mid June uh and that's how people are are interacting with the weather because you just never know what you're going to get so I get that another thing that I think some people don't necessarily love about Amsterdam is the food like I said it feels more like a
town than a big city so I think a lot of people struggle finding good food in the city um Dutch food in general tends to be a bit I'm going to say adverse to spice and when I mean spice like the spicy kind of spice where a lot of people would like to find flavor um but this is such a city that that has so much great International Cuisine um that if you know where to look this is one of the best cities in the world to eat in I we say another con is this
place is expensive from the food from the coffee from accommodations like this is not a cheap place to be the the more I'm thinking about it I really do I I think the main cons that people see with this city is expensive because it is the weather because that can be a challenge you know for for for folks and then people just not understanding how to interact with this city but I want to shift gears and talk about some of the cultural things that I've that I found interesting um if you've never interacted with folks
from the Netherlands the the the Dutch I really enjoy my interactions with the Dutch people it's very straightforward conversations right there's no beating around the bush um in in in the Dutch culture things are very direct and I think a lot of people especially Americans sometimes can view that as like oh this is maybe like not great service people are a little bit rude I get why you would think that it's not that the people are necessarily trying to be that way um and in fact I I think you'll find it very waiting for the
siren to go by it stopped okay the people I I I find her very well educated very willing to have those um deeper conversations because they're so direct it sometimes is easy to get the their you know authentic perspective because they're not afraid of offending you know anybody they'll they'll they'll say it how it is and that can definitely be you know refreshing um but again I think that catches a lot of folks you know off guard I've really enjoyed those conversations you know with with the locals and I appreciate that sense of the culture
but I do recognize that for a lot of people that is a a a drawback I think there are a lot of other things that are just interesting culturally one is their approach and just view on like debt and and credit cards that was a shock um coming from America obviously like America loves to shove credit cards down you know the the people's throats right like there are great ways to make a lot of money using credit cards if you can use it responsibly obviously a lot of people are not I'm not condoning credit card
usage I obviously do use some credit cards point being here is in the Netherlands people are very very averse to to debt um so much so that a lot of places in town particularly the grocery stores don't even accept credit cards like you have to have debit or this like my asro card though a local version um so there are little tiny cultural things like that which is like man why am I not able to use my card like normal here um and that's not something you should be worried about as a tourist I've never
been anywhere where the tourists hang out in Amsterdam and had that be a problem it's when you are spending the longer periods of time here and trying to live like a local it's at those local spots where you start finding that and I found that to be a very interesting part of the culture to interact with and and navigate and it's just interesting hearing their perspective on why they're reversed to debt what the perspective is there so that's all very interesting I think another thing that is interesting is the culture around coffee shops and when
I mean coffee shops I don't mean coffee I mean the other substance that is legal here in Amsterdam and it's why a lot of people you know from the UK and other places come here and I think Amsterdam kind of gets this wrap for being like Oh there's is a place with you know a lot of substances that I can use if I want there's the red light district and yes those things do exist but you don't see locals interacting with those things on a daily basis um that really is just a portion a small
portion of the tourism and I think it's one of the things that turns off a lot of tourists but I will say the open-mindedness of the culture of the people really provides an interesting feel and structure to the city because obviously there's a lot of beer consumed here a lot of alcohol that is that is had but there are other substances that are utilized as well and it's really interesting being in a place where there is a culture of both they Clash but not in a way that are like there's not a lot of friction
between the drinking culture and the other substance cultures there is space for both there is an openness and understanding and respect of hey you do you so long as everybody can be adults about it and that's a very interesting thing that you just don't you don't get to see that in a lot of other places around the world um so I found that to be interesting and one of the coolest cultural things I wrote about this in in the newsletter which uh you're not on my newsletter and you want to be I give like a
weekly travel tip and an update from where I'm at every week so link will be down below if you want to sign up for that but I wrote about how it's particularly fun being in town this time of year because AS school wraps up there's this local tradition where as a kid is graduating like the equivalent of like high school you know in the US uh the parents as a form of like celebration of great my kid you know graduated you know high school they're you moving on to a new new phase of Life they
take their backpacks and they hang them outside on the flag poles so you walk the streets and you just see backpack after backpack um hanging on these just beautiful old historic homes and it's just Sarah always laughs and says damn like why couldn't I have you know been been born here that's such a cool thing that must be so fun for the um for the teenagers and and the families just to celebrate education in that way and that is very clear that education is very much prioritized um in the Netherlands and an Amsterdam specifically when
people are looking you know for things to do in the Netherlands often times it's museums it's going to you know art galleries it's uh finding ways to connect with nature and connect withs absorbing new information in some way is is at least been my experience um with it which is a really really beautiful thing and then another thing that I find to just be very true more so than other places I'm not saying they have like world class um transit system in the sense that they're not doing anything different necessarily than than other places but
everything here just seems to work everything seems to function uh whether it be the trains the trams the you know bike Lanes like you would think that it's just chaos but it's not like there's just a flow to everything and there's just a very comfortable experience being here Everything feels comfortable for me in in in my experience um one of the like examples with the public transportation that is just like simple is you don't need to buy your ticket on the tram you don't need to you know know exactly where you're going you just take
your phone and you do like tap to pay or hold your credit card up to the thing and then you do it on the way out again and it tracks it for you knows exactly which stop you got on and off and charges your you know your your card accordingly it's things like that where you're like wow I have to do so much less thinking about like those mundane things that I think stress a lot of people out um which when you're here like your your mindset just shifts to kind of this I don't know
I just I call it peaceful the the this it it it shifts to that um and as you could probably tell I am still trying to figure out this city but what I do know is that it is special uh what I do know is that if you are coming here and you manage to break out of that little Taurus bubble this is is just one of the most rewarding and peaceful cities to explore um compared to any other place that I've been in the world and there's so much interesting stuff here but I recognize
that that's not necessarily the experience for for everybody but for Sarah and I this this is one of those places this is this is up there so I'm curious for you for anybody who's been to Amsterdam or for people who haven't been to Amsterdam like what are your perceptions of this place if you have spent some time here what did you think did you manage to have you know good weather is it a place that you would come back or like that couple that I was uh overhearing on the train is this a place that
you never plan to come back to again um because I think there's probably a range of of opinion around this so um would love to hear your thoughts on kind of what I have accurate and what I you know don't have for you know accurate um from my perspective and if you're a local uh would really love um to to hear how you view things I am going to have a full like tips video on all the ways for first- timers to avoid those tourist traps and kind of my recommendations around the city so be
on the lookout for that in the next few weeks um but would love to engage in the comment section you guys do a really uh great job being respectful of one another um and providing some really valuable information so um looking forward to those conversations in the comment section um leave any questions if you got them and we'll catch you guys next time
