Ten days in Amsterdam

I had a good friend in town for the past ten days, so I took a bit of a break from blogging (and everything else) to enjoy my time with her. It was her first time in Amsterdam, third or fourth time in Europe, and I was (obviously) hoping to show her a good time. When I said goodbye to her this morning, she said everything had been perfect, so mission accomplished! She was originally planning to do some day trips to other nearby cities, but ended having such a good time just hanging around Amsterdam - and we still didn't do tons of things that we talked about. Here's a brief-as-possible rundown of her trip, in case you're wondering what someone does with ten days in this city.

Day One, Saturday: picked her up at the airport and encouraged her to nap (the time difference from NY to Amsterdam is rough!) while I ran some errands during the day - she didn't protest. When she woke up we took a walk around my neighborhood, I showed her where the bio supermarket is, and we started catching up on the past five months of our lives. Once it got dark, I put her on the back of my bike at night and cycled us over to Cinema Paradiso for a lovely Italian meal - we spent at least 3 or 4 hours in the restaurant and had ample time to catch up, one on one. Went out for drinks with some friends at a bar on the same street, then rode back to my house around 1am and stayed up late with whiskey and good conversation.

Day Two, Sunday: dinner party at home! What better way to introduce her to what my life is like in Amsterdam? I put out the word and got about 12 people in my apartment for a really nice little party. The day was spent food shopping (me) and jogging (her).

Day Three-Six, Monday-Thursday: I had to work these days, so she was on her own to explore. She took a yoga class, went to the Van Gogh museum, read a book in Vondelpark, ate lots of appelflaps and stoopwafels, and rode around the city on her rental bike. We went to the movies at De Niewe Anita (Monday), and enjoyed a long dinner at my place with some friends on Wednesday. On Thursday night, we stopped in a coffeeshop where a friend works, dropped by Da Portare Via (Leliegracht 34) for a pizza, and ended the night with big glasses of German beer at the Soundgarden.

Day Seven, Friday: I took the day off from work and we took the ferry over to Amsterdam Nord with our bikes. We spent several hours riding around, and I did my best to recall the bike ride I went on back in early June, when my old roommate took me to a really great cafe with tables on the water. I couldn't believe it, but I found the cafe, it was a beautiful day, and Ayelet got the full Amsterdam Nord experience - farms, windmills, water, big open spaces. When we got back to the city, we went to the Ij Brewery (aka: "the windmill bar") and had a glass of beer on the patio. We intended to go out that night but found ourselves quite content with wine, food, and good conversation.

Day Eight, Saturday: started the day by wandering around the Jordaan market, where I convinced myself I needed just about everything that was being sold but only walked away with a bag of lentils, a big hunk of feta cheese, and some olives. I wanted her to experience a piece of apple pie at de Winkel (on the corner of the Westerstraat), but so did everyone else in Amsterdam - the line was insane! So we stopped in a nearby bakery, got some pastries, and took everything over to Vondelpark. After a breakfast of ... well, basically sugar, we stopped at a really amazing chocolate shop for dessert. We bought our chocolates over to the museumplein, sat on the grass, and people-watched before going out for an early evening drink at a pretty basic Dutch "brown bar." Basically the entire day was spent riding around the city, eating, and drinking. On Saturday night we went to a screening at the Kriterion for the Balkan Film Festival and then out to a few clubs and bars that night.

Day Nine, Sunday: We split up for most of the day - she went to return her rental bike, visit one of the English-language bookshops, and do some souvenir shopping while I went rock climbing. When we caught up later that evening, she wanted to go out to dinner, someplace that was open late, nothing fancy, preferably with good meat or fish. I asked some friends for advice and ended up at Cafe De Ponteneur - open until 1am Sunday-Thursday, and until 2am on Fridays and Saturdays. The food and atmosphere were great, and it is one of the only places in Amsterdam I've been without an English menu! I liked that - I used my limited Dutch vocabulary to get through the list of food (and asked the waitress for a few translations).

And day ten, Monday... she left! It seemed so quick - we never made it to Nemo, the Rijksmuseum, and I never gave her a proper tour of the red light district. The weather was too beautiful to be inside museums, and since both of us love food and movies - it makes perfect sense that her trip to Amsterdam was built mainly around food, cinema, and of course cycling. For someone who had not been on a bicycle in a really long time, she took to riding around on the back of mine like a pro, and instantly took to the whole cycling culture in Amsterdam. I can't emphasize this enough: she is not a bike person. I've known her almost my entire life, and she's never been interested in cycling, either as exercise or just as a form of transportation. But by the time she was leaving Amsterdam she said that returning her rental bike felt like "losing a limb" and she was already realizing how much easier life could be in Brooklyn if she had her own bicycle.

My friend said her favorite part of the trip was the bike ride around Amsterdam Nord. My favorite part of the trip was just simply having her around. I mentioned this to someone this morning, but I felt like most of her trip was just doing all the normal stuff (eating, drinking, hanging out with friends) - it's just that all the normal stuff was a million times better because she was around.

Five month review: Pros and Cons of expat life in Amsterdam (it's mostly pros)

Before I start, let me acknowledge - five months isn't a very long time to live somewhere!

What makes expat life so easy in Amsterdam?

Last night, my friend Brooke and I walked from my place to the Roti Room (Eerste Oosterparkstraat) for dinner. It was perfect - warm, spicy Indian food served by a really friendly staff who insisted we not rush, that we should ask for more if we were hungry, and instructed us about which sauces to use for which dishes. Another friend happened to be in the neighborhood and stopped by to join us while we finished up the meal. Amsterdam is like this for me - people call me when they're around. I pull out my phone when I'm riding past someone's house that I know, or if I'm in a friend's neighborhood. I like that so much, and that kind of simple stopping-by-to-say-hi thing almost never happened in New York or Philadelphia.

When Brooke and I got back to my place, I had a skype video call with Kevin, a very good friend who lives in Tennessee. Skype is an expat's best friend. Not only can I talk to people without spending any money, but we can see each other, and it makes the distance seem not so great. I carried my computer around my apartment and showed Kevin where I live - he could even watch me make a cup of tea while we chatted. Later on, I caught up with my friend/former roommate who has returned to Italy, also over skype. Sometimes I really miss not having her around so that we can share every single detail of our lives with each other (we're girls, it's what we do), but as I put away my laundry last night I got to hear her explaining what she ate for dinner in Rome and what her new bike looks like, and it was almost like having here there with me. Having good friends all over the world doesn't seem that scary anymore - though of course it's always better when they're actually there, in person.

And of course, there's just my daily routine. Standing out on my balcony this morning, drinking coffee, watching the cyclists and trams go by as I listened to a Guardian podcast. I left my house after 10am and started my picture-perfect commute to work, at times noticing that I had the entire street to myself - no cars, no other cyclists. A commute with no traffic, no stress, no running to catch the train - I can't emphasize enough how much I love that. My headphones were on, the sky was blue, the sun was shining, and there's that wonderful distinct feeling of crisp autumn air. The leaves are starting to change colors, and the temperature is just cool enough for a jacket and scarf, but I haven't had to put on gloves yet (I'm sure that's coming soon).

Even though hearing Kevin talk about going climbing on real mountains made me want to be in the US, and picturing Christine eating that amazing ice cream from San Crispino made me want to be in Italy, every day that I wake up in Amsterdam I am reminded that the very simple, natural, obvious things here make the lack of mountains and good ice cream seem like a small price to pay. The one thing I'm trying to convey, and I hope it's working and I'm not being too dramatic, is that there's nothing super-amazing-unbelievable-oh-my-god-perfect about Amsterdam. It's just consistently good. Hanging out with friends, finding affordable Indian food, cycling, staying in touch with friends from home, and not feeling oppressed or stressed out from the people, atmosphere, traffic, or surroundings - this is what I like about my life here, this is why it's easy.

What are the difficulties of being an expat?

I have to attend the wedding of one of my best friends on 2 May in Philadelphia, and three weeks later my brother is getting married on the 23rd of May in California. I can't miss either of these weddings, but how on earth am I going to come up with the money for two trips to the US in May? The Philadelphia wedding was already going to be a bit of a financial squeeze, but flying to California from Amsterdam in late May? That's just going to be insane. I still have to pay off my US student loan and credit card, but all my money is in Euros now (ok, that part is great) which means monthly bank transfers, which means extra charges (only €10, but still). I still haven't quite gotten used to the European standard of getting paid once a month (in the US, every two weeks is normal), so I find that the last 4-5 days of each pay cycle I'm practically wiped out. And of course even though I live in the Netherlands and would quite happily stay indefinitely, I can't vote here, so I still feel more invested in US politics than Dutch politics. I don't like that. On one hand, what happens in the US (politically) does affect the entire world and I think it's important for everyone to pay attention, the same way we should also pay attention to what happens in Russia, Europe, Africa, etc. But my life is here now, and if Dutch laws and policies change, my daily life could be more directly affected than if the US passes a new law. It is unnerving that I have no say in the country where I live. Let's face it, I will always have to keep part of my life in the US (ie: an address, bank account, voter registration, etc) and part of my life here. For the most part that's ok, but it can become annoying at times.

Anyway, the pro/con list is done for now. Another really beautiful weekend has arrived, and I can't wait for it to get started. The first US presidential debate is on tonight, but it will be shown at 2am here, so I'll most likely catch it over the weekend. My plans consist of climbing, helping friends move, doing a bit of shopping, a party on Saturday night, and a dinner on Sunday night. I'm also going to try to get to the beach to watch the sun set on Saturday evening before the party. These sunsets are just incredible, and it's a short train ride to the sea, and come December I'll be wishing I took advantage of the long days while they were still here.