My Holland homes

My 3 month stint in the Netherlands started today back in 2005. This has been the longest 3 months of my life!

I've been in this country for a long time now, I haven't felt foreign for a long time and the language doesn't sound Chinese to me either. But even though I've stayed in the same country for this long it doesn't mean I haven't moved around. In fact I have lived in 4 different locations during this time.

My first apartment in Amsterdam was a first floor tiny place in a traditional canal town house. It was located in one of the best spots of the cities and looked over the canal. I spent so many weekends on the windowsill looking at the activity below: boats full of tourists shooting with their cameras, locals with a bottle of Rose' wine cruising on their boats, people riding their bikes and others just walking around.

After 3 years I made my first move to an area closer to Amsterdam Centraal Station, but slightly off city centre. It was a ground floor apartment in a block of apartments that used to be storage space in the past. Being on ground floor meant that I had a little garden, perfect for many evenings spent BBQ'ing.

I didn't spent a long time at this apartment since I met my boyfriend at the time and my life with him continued in yet another apartment this time in a city called The Hague. The year in our third floor apartment was one full of love. This was the year in which I learnt to share my space again with somebody. Once you spent many years living by yourself you get used to your space and it's not always easy to give this space to someone else. Obviously being in love helps with the sharing!

Somehow though I started wanting to live in a house with a garden and that's how we ended buying a house on the islands of The Hague. The Hague doesn't contain real islands but a decade ago 6 fake inland islands were built to generate a neighbourhood of around 500 houses. This place became our home and finally it looks like I'm not going to move around again so soon.

Queen's Day

Once a year on April 30th the Netherlands pays it's respect to the Queen. The country is in celebration and I'm usually part of that celebration. This year we headed to Amsterdam, strolled around the canals and the outdoor corner dance floors and along the free markets.

The weather was fantastic, it was actually the best day in April. Blue skies and warm temperatures were what everyone had wished for but didn't really expect.

Pictures are most probably the best way to show you the atmosphere.

Unusual accomodation in the Netherlands

After reading Clare's post about strange hotels around the world, I started to wonder what Netherlands has to offer in terms of strange hotels and houses to live in. Netherlands is a country which is quite liberal and crazy so I was sure that I will find a lot of original places that you can lodge at while visiting.

Apart from sleeping in a harbour crane as mentioned by Clare (I hope you're not afraid of heights if you do that!), you can also sleep in a lighthouse in Harlingen. Imagine sleeping in a unique place that was so useful in times without modern technology.

This is not where it ends though. You can spend the night in a former lifeboat. You can sleep in the harbour or ask the caption to cast away the lifeboat.

While in Amsterdam you can decide to sleep on an altar! There is surely no comparable accomodation to be found in Amsterdam since the bedroom is located in what used to be the chapel. This house was a shelterchurch for roman catholic people who were persecuted in the 18th century.

Otherwise you can decide to sleep in a concrete bunker which are built into the earth of a working farm in Woudenberg.

If you're not a tourist and want to live for a longer term in the country maybe you should try to find a boat house to live at. They are all across the waterlands of the country. Some of these boat houses can also be more modern than the traditional boxed shaped boat houses. Such as this boathouse on the Amstel river.

Another option is to live in one of the Cubic houses in Rotterdam. These houses are quite disorienting from the outside but inside everything is in the right place and every nook is utilised for something.

Geography of the Netherlands

I lived 4 years in Amsterdam. In those years I was cocooned in the grachtengordel (the canal belt). Everything I needed was in this canal belt, biking around was the best method of transport.  There was never the need to leave this area until one fine day I met a particular Dutch man who showed me the rest of the Netherlands.

I have seen more of the Netherlands since I met him than I did before. My geography of the country is so much better now. The fact that I drive around 150kms up and down two regions on a daily basis might have helped as well! He on the other hand, in the last few years got to visit many tourist attractions and great locations in the country that for him were either first time visits or past school excursions. Being local sometimes you forget to appreciate the things that you own country has to offer.


So I propose that you think of a place that you have never visited, or only went years ago and a plan a trip to go there!

[Image Source: Pinterest.com (Jonathan Moy)]

Restaurant Corner: Sa Seada

This week together with my colleagues we went to the Italian restaurant Sa Seada in Amsterdam. The owners are from Napoli, so most dishes offered were traditional dishes from the locality. I have a soft spot for Italian food and I'm always on the lookout for good Italian restaurants.

Throughout the evening I got to brush up my Italian, something I love doing when I have the opportunity.

Dinner consisted of a 4 course set menu. There was large quantities of food and all of us got full before the main course reached our table. Thus if you plan to go there make sure to have a light lunch.

The mixed starters we got were abundant and with a great selection. The vogole were lovely as well as the parmigiana. The rest of the food was also very good, mostly presented in a slightly non-traditional way, such as a Dorade fillet wrapped around a king prawn.

All food was served at the same time, even though we were a large table. The only downside was that we had a very long waiting time between each serving.

Unluckily the restaurant doesn't have it's own site which I think at this day and age every restaurant should have even if it is a rudimentary one.

[Image Credits: Accademia Del Giglio]

Gay Pride BBQ

The Amsterdam Gay price is the annual gay festival celebrated in Amsterdam which happens in the first weekend of August. The event has been organised for 15 years and each year there are more activities than the year before. The highlight of the weekend is the boat parade along the canals, as well as several street parties on Friday evening.. What's crazy about this event that most boats in the parade have themed boats, which range from the expected to the very unexpected themes. It's kind of a mini-carnival meets a mini-Queen's day.

Unluckily this year the weather was horrible and even though the festivities continued there were less people around the streets.  A friend of mine had planned a bbq on his rooftop from where we would have been able to view the busy canals. However the plans had to be modified due to the incessent rain; the bbq was still held on a covered balcony. The other guests and us were all tucked in cosily in the living room.  It was a great afternoon, catching up with some of my friends who I see less often now that I don't live in the neighbourhood. I also got to talk with other people, some who are new to the Netherlands. What impressed me was that a few of the guests who had never met my boyfriend swore that he didn't look Dutch, or from other nothern European countries. Some even thought he was Maltese! It was hilarious since to me he really has a typical Dutch physical appereance. I guess it's easy to think he was foreign seeing that there were only 3-4 Dutch people in the apartment of 30 foreigners!

Saturday also marked the annual Dance Valley festival. Last year I went to the festival and had a blast dancing to music during a nice warm summer day. Rain though ruins some (or most in my opinion) of the greatness of the festival since most stages are on the outside. The few indoor tents cannot hold all the people, so they will be too full to enjoy them either. So all in all  I didn't regret that I wasn't in the valley this year! It surely was a mud-fest! On the train back home we did see some people returning back from the festival and they were indeed completely covered in mud!

The photos are all from previous years since I didn't have my camera with me last weekend!


[Images Source: Your Personal City Guide, Zimbio]