One fourth of my life

Today is an important day for many people. It's a day that is remembered about the past events of 9/11. However for me this day is important because it marked my move to the country I now call home.

A long eight years ago I packed all my belongings in one big luggage and moved to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. I don't regret my decision to move but I never expected that I would still be in the country after so long. 8 years is one fourth of my life!

Take a look at my thoughts on the past years on this same day:

• 7 years
• 6 Years
• 5 Years

I got engaged during this year

New Year's day

Rotterdam in winter

Scheveningen in summer

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.

Yet another restaurant week

This week is restaurant week. Whoever reads this blog regularly will know by now that I am a fan of this week. I get to try fancy restaurants all across the Netherlands. This year I have dinner plans at 2 restaurants one of which has a Michelen star.

So if you live in the Netherlands, book a lunch or a dinner with some of your friends, or surprise your better half and take them out to enjoy a romantic dinner.

You can reserve your dinner here.

[Image Credits: Pinterest (Sarah Wu) ]

Six Years in the Netherlands

September 11 2011 marked my 6 year stay in the Netherlands. I didn’t write on the day since it happened to be also an important anniversary of a tragic event. But there was nothing tragic happening to me 6 years ago. I had just moved to Amsterdam, assuming that in 12 weeks I would be going back to Malta. Boy I was so wrong!


1st year: The year I was a tourist. When you start living in a new country, you have a feeling of being always on holiday. You go to work 5 days a week but on your free time you keep visiting new places, meeting new people, trying different foods. It passes quickly on certain weeks and slow when you start feeling homesick. The first few months pass so quickly. I was still absorbing all the autumn colours when all of a sudden it was snowing and my stint in the country was possibly coming to an end. I asked to stay longer at my position at work and the request was granted. This is how my 6 year journey started!

2nd year: The year I became fresh local. After a year in a country you don’t really feel like a tourist anymore. You are still meeting new people all the time and seeing new places but now I wasn’t getting lost at every corner and I could at least understand a few basic Dutch words that were thrown at me. Still I preferred to stick with the expats, my community of people who understood what it meant to be in a foreign country.

3rd year: The year I began to be Dutchified. Amsterdam didn’t feel foreign anymore to me. I was going around with my bike, not really steady but I was on it and I had friends by then which I knew for a couple of years. Routine was setting in, life was easy going.

4th year: The year I fell in love. This particular Dutch guy entered my life and the rest was history. The year went by quickly and in the meantime I learnt most of the train schedules between Amsterdam and The Hague.

5th year: The year I moved in with my boyfriend. This was an important year not only because it was my first experience at living with someone (apart from my family) but also because I moved from the city I had lived in for 4 years. Getting to feel foreign in my new city was an interesting experience which wasn’t always easy. Humans adapt really quickly though and slowly the city of The Hague became another comfortable and well known city to me.

6th year: The year I bought a house. Being a home owner was a wish I had in the past years, the time and money wasn’t always right but I got to take the plunge. I am now a mortgage owner which is disguised as a home. This year involved a lot of hard work but living in a house that you turned to a home is wonderful.

I’m now looking forward to what this 7th year in the lowlands of the Netherlands will bring along.

Vacationing in the Mediterranean

I have watched all my colleagues going to their vacations as soon as the school holidays started. I watched them go and come back all tanned. Now it's our turn to a taste of sun and the Mediterranean sea, since this year we definitely didn't get any in the Netherlands.

We'll be headed to the Greek islands of Patmos and Kos, both islands which I have not visited in the past. Looking forward to taste red juicy tomatoes, eat just caught fish and drink a couple of cocktails while laying down on a sun bed.

 If you wish to visit some Greek islands but you are not sure what Greek islands to go to just check it out in the linked post.

Wishing you all a great week! 

[Image Source: Pinterest Akriti That's Life]

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)]

Five years in the Netherlands

Today is my fifth anniversary in the Netherlands. My move seems such a long time ago. If I was asked five years ago where I would be living in five years time I doubt I would have said Netherlands!  At the time I expected to stay in Amsterdam for three months, however once my stint came to an end I made sure to re-new the contract over and over again!

Five years ago I worked with an international software developing company. It's clients were banks and every now and again some of us were required to do 3-6 months stints at clients. In 2005 I had done a 6 month period at a bank in Munich, Germany and on my return to Malta I soon noticed that Malta wasn't enough for me anymore. So when I was offered the opportunity to go for a short period to a client bank in Amsterdam I accepted eagerly.

My three months were over quickly and I was just not ready to leave, so I kept extending my stay until I decided to find a job in the country to make my stay a bit more definitive.

These five years have been a very good five years and the best way to describe them is through pictures!

2005 - Flower Market

2006 - Bloemendaal beach

2007 - Windmills at Zaanse Schans

2007 - Queen's Day

2008 - Maltese fenkata

2008 - Lowlands

2008 - Halloween

2008 - Sailing in Markenmeer

2009 - Dance Valley

2009 - Sand sculptures at Texel

2009 - Michael became part of my lfe

2009 - Hot air balloon ride

2010 - Football at Ajax stadium

2010 - Royal Beach Concert

2010 - Efteling park

Tropical Weather

Hearing the radio in the mornings it sounds like I live in the Caribbean instead of the Netherlands. The weather report has been reporting tropical weather for the past ten days. In the Netherlands once the mercury goes above 25°C, the weather is considered tropical. This past week we've had great weather, so we made sure to use these tropical days wisely: by spending our weekend at the beach.

Kijkduin is just a ten minute bike ride away from home. Just after breakfast we geared up in swim wear and off we went to get our tan - safe tan, with protection cream added every couple of hours. You see, I need to tan up before leaving to my vacation Malta. Otherwise all my Maltese friends and family will think I'm sick. In many past visits I noticed that I can get so white that it doesn't look healthy anymore. And there I was thinking that as a Mediterranean girl I should have a natural tan.

Tips for going to the beach in the Netherlands:

• Bike or use trains to go the beach. The roads will be really busy on tropical weather days, you'll wish you never went to the beach after a long time in the queue
• If you want a sunbed make sure you head to the beach early. Or if you have in-laws make sure they go to the beach early so that they reserve extra sunbeds for you. Thanks W & A!
• Just because it's really warm, don't assume that the sea will be as well. The North Sea is still very cold. I only managed quick dips to cool myself.
• Stay to the beach till late, the sunsets are just beautiful. All the west-coast of the Netherlands is a long strand of beach which directly faces the setting sun.

• Many beach bars have parties on weekend evenings. Going to the bars early in the afternoon will give you free entrance to the parties in the evening.
• Some beach restaurants offer bbq service. You just book for a number of people and you'll get a started bbq and all the food required for the bbq. All you need to do is order your drinks and cook the meat!

 [Image Credits: Disney Clipart ]

Weather: Here and There

Having grown up in Malta, a tiny Mediterranean island, I spent my summers at my grand parents summer house. Every day I would wake up; eat breakfast; put on my swimming suit and just cross the road to reach the sea. Hours were spent daily playing in the water, only being disturbed for lunch and an afternoon siesta. I actually want my childhood back and am jealous of myself in those years.

When I moved to Germany and then later on to the Netherlands I realised that the summers I was so accustomed to were not the same further North. Winters are much colder so when spring arrives I’m already really waiting to be able to shed some of the layers of clothes. The hours of daylight start increasing and my mood starts getting better. Up till now everything feels like back in Malta, until come May the weather doesn’t continue improving to a scorching heat. Spring continues on well into summer and I doubt it ever backs away. You never know ahead of time how the weather will be. Bbq’s planned ahead might be carried out under the rain, days at the beach might turn out as a day spent in a pub. Summer is just a combination of seasons dispersed in a single day. You can wake up in the morning to gloomy weather and by afternoon their might be stunning blue skies.

Once you get used with this sporadic behaviour you can actually really enjoy the summer months. Sunsets happen at around 10 in the evenings, leaving you ample time to spend at the park or for romantic dinners in front of the sunset (which takes freakishly long to happen here!). Temperatures are in the gentle twenties so you can actually manage to do something apart from lie down under the air condition.

I miss the freedom of summers in Malta so I always make sure to have a beach holiday when it’s the hottest but I learnt to enjoy this gentler period here and it has made me become more spontaneous.

Who am I, what am I doing here?

Welcome to my blog!

After years of regularly details about my daily life on an online journal I decided to create another blog. This blog will contain posts about random information mostly related to my life, topics which you might or might not like.

I’m a 29 year old Maltese girl, who has moved from the lovely island of Malta to live in the Netherlands. Previously I had also lived for some time in Munich Germany but decided that even though I loved the scenery in Germany, the lowlands had something better to offer.

Having lived in Amsterdam for 4 years I got used to the international community and love the fact that it so easy to make friends. Last year I moved to Den Haag (The Hague) with my boyfriend and finally I’m back close to the sea. I had missed the sea (and the warm weather), now I’m just a bike ride away from kilometres long beaches. Just looking at the sunsets one will definitely feel happiness.



For a living I click-click-click with a mouse and tap the keys on the keyboard all day long. I’m a techie at heart, although I'm not the traditional geek; the ones with glasses, crazy hair who are never more than 2 metres away from their computer. Like a traditional geek I do wear glasses, but only when my clothes/shoes/bag matches with the frame; I also have crazy hair but mostly only right after I wake up; and also am never away from my computer, but that's due to the fact that our apartment is not that big!