10 things we love about the Netherlands:
1. Grocery shopping is super easy. You get a little basket, grab a scanner, and scan all your own food and then check out takes about 20 seconds, then you pack up your food in a small bag and head out to your bike. You can only get so much because you have to bike home, so it's quick, easy, and you only get what you'll eat. Genius.
2. Festivals. There are so many festivals/ celebrations/ happenings going on all through the Netherlands, even in the dead cold of winter. From Sinterklaas celebrations to Carnaval, it always seem like there's a reason to get together and celebrate something.
3. Trains. They're awesome. And so easy to get around. And it only takes like, max 3 hours to get from one side of the country to the next. Go trains.
4. Public Bathrooms. Yeah, sometimes you have to pay .50 to use them, but they are always super clean and not disgusting, so I'm game.
5. Bitterballen & Fresh mint tea & Stroopwafels. Delicious.
6. Good, cheap red wine and delicious beer.
7. Stylish and unique glasses - Everyone has them. Seriously, the Dutch are so stylish with their eyewear.
8. "Gezellig" culture - the feeling of being comfy, cozy, warm, loved. Basically the best feeling in the world.
9. Bike Culture - We love bike culture. It's so awesome being able to jump on your bike and be at the store or movie theater super quickly without having to look for parking. It's way more fun (and worthwhile) to get somewhere by bike and we're obsessed.
10. Concept shops - every town has at least a handful of cool coffee shops/ decor/clothes/jewelry/books/ a store that sells more of a lifestyle than just any one thing. It's awesome and I want to live in all of them.
3. Trains. They're awesome. And so easy to get around. And it only takes like, max 3 hours to get from one side of the country to the next. Go trains.
4. Public Bathrooms. Yeah, sometimes you have to pay .50 to use them, but they are always super clean and not disgusting, so I'm game.
5. Bitterballen & Fresh mint tea & Stroopwafels. Delicious.
6. Good, cheap red wine and delicious beer.
7. Stylish and unique glasses - Everyone has them. Seriously, the Dutch are so stylish with their eyewear.
8. "Gezellig" culture - the feeling of being comfy, cozy, warm, loved. Basically the best feeling in the world.
9. Bike Culture - We love bike culture. It's so awesome being able to jump on your bike and be at the store or movie theater super quickly without having to look for parking. It's way more fun (and worthwhile) to get somewhere by bike and we're obsessed.
10. Concept shops - every town has at least a handful of cool coffee shops/ decor/clothes/jewelry/books/ a store that sells more of a lifestyle than just any one thing. It's awesome and I want to live in all of them.
Eight things that are weird about the Netherlands:
1. Only 10 eggs per carton. For some reason we go through them SO much faster than a 12 pack.
2. Egg rolls are a very common appetizer on a platter. It's odd.
3. It's hard to find GOOD bread. They're OBSESSED with bread, but the most common bread at stores is sandwich bread, and this sourdough- loving girl misses her crispy toast.
4. No Mexican food. I'm still not okay with it.
5. The sun doesn't rise until 9:30am in the winter, which makes it SO hard to get up before 10am.
6. Fuji apples coming in styrofoam containers. So wasteful.
7. People and things are way more relaxed here - for example, one day we noticed that the roof next
door had a few tiles that were about to fall down (and potentially hurt someone below). Next thing we knew, there was a man walking along the rain gutter, not strapped in and 30 feet off the ground, going to fix the roof. Just hanging out by himself, trying to fix a slippery tiled roof standing on a very narrow RAIN GUTTER. Totally not okay in the US. Also, parents bike ride with their kids without helmets/ strapped in. Sometimes you see moms balancing multiple kids + grocery bags. They look like superwomen, but that would totally not fly in the US.
8. Most shops are closed on Sundays and Mondays. This makes being productive on a Monday morning quite difficult.
9. Taxes. We pay A LOT of taxes here. I'm all for giving back to the government for social programs, but considering we don't make any money here, it's been slightly annoying to have to pay a ton of stuff we don't use.
2. Egg rolls are a very common appetizer on a platter. It's odd.
3. It's hard to find GOOD bread. They're OBSESSED with bread, but the most common bread at stores is sandwich bread, and this sourdough- loving girl misses her crispy toast.
4. No Mexican food. I'm still not okay with it.
5. The sun doesn't rise until 9:30am in the winter, which makes it SO hard to get up before 10am.
6. Fuji apples coming in styrofoam containers. So wasteful.
7. People and things are way more relaxed here - for example, one day we noticed that the roof next
door had a few tiles that were about to fall down (and potentially hurt someone below). Next thing we knew, there was a man walking along the rain gutter, not strapped in and 30 feet off the ground, going to fix the roof. Just hanging out by himself, trying to fix a slippery tiled roof standing on a very narrow RAIN GUTTER. Totally not okay in the US. Also, parents bike ride with their kids without helmets/ strapped in. Sometimes you see moms balancing multiple kids + grocery bags. They look like superwomen, but that would totally not fly in the US.
8. Most shops are closed on Sundays and Mondays. This makes being productive on a Monday morning quite difficult.
9. Taxes. We pay A LOT of taxes here. I'm all for giving back to the government for social programs, but considering we don't make any money here, it's been slightly annoying to have to pay a ton of stuff we don't use.
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