#6 Random Thoughts

Two months from the day after departing the US, it’s time for a few random thoughts about living in Europe so far:

- I don’t mind techno/house music, in fact, I even kind of like it. But for the love of God, must it really be played 24/7 on 80% of the radio stations?

- It’s amazing what a little investment in your infrastructure can do for your quality of life. Headed home from the airport at 11pm? No problem, you’re there by train in 15 minutes. Riding your bike a few miles? You’ll do it on a bike path separate from cars for 95% of the way there. Seattle (or just about anywhere else in the US), take note.

- You can call it KFC, but if you don’t serve biscuits or mashed potatoes/gravy, isn’t it a bit disingenuous?

- Want to go to London and feel like you’re in a budget-destination? Go there immediately after visiting Denmark.

- If you type “customer service” into Google translate, it gives you a Dutch phrase. However, this must be a mistake because clearly the concept does not exist in Holland. The latest event occurred when I went to the parking office to add my name to a waiting list for a permit in my neighborhood (currently 7 months). As my forms were being tossed back at me, I was informed that one cannot begin waiting for parking until one has a car (I guess I can just put leave the flashers on for a year until a permit is available).

- Bar hopping via bike will NEVER get old.

- I get it that Europeans like eating al fresco, but someone needs to tell the Dutch that a) they don’t live on the Mediterranean, and b) you can pretend all you want that you’re enjoying yourself as you’re drinking your beer huddled under an awning during a rainstorm, but the shivering, gloves, hat, and scarf kind of give you away.

- All the awesome imported foods I paid way too much for in the US (Belgian beers, chocolate, etc.) are now 50% off. Score!

- Law & Order, the Simpsons, and Everybody Loves Raymond: I’m ready for something new.

- Dutch people are actually pretty friendly and are happy to speak English (and they all do). No language barrier here at all.

- Reading about the Cougs big loss each week is better than having to watch it.

- Profanity is rarely edited out of TV shows and it’s common to see nudity on television, even commercials. Guess what? The children are okay!

- After two months, I’m still looking for this guy:



No luck yet.

#5 - A stroll around the block

I'm getting adjusted quite well to my new neighborhood. I live in an area called "de Pijp" which is pronounced as "the Pipe" (very fitting for Amsterdam, I know). Traditionally this has been a younger neighborhood and has gentrified over the last 20 years or so. It's an area with lots of nightlife, cheap eats, and lots of everyday stores too. Time for a quick tour.

First, leaving my apartment, check out the mailboxes for my building. See those stickers? You put these on your mailbox to tell the postman whether or not you will accept junk mail. If you say "nee", you won't be given any mail that isn't addressed directly to you. Pretty nice!






Walking down the street you can see the parking situation. For my neighborhood there is a 7-month wait for a parking permit. So far I'm enjoying the hassle-free options of biking, walking, and public transit:




As you can see, bikes are a very popular option:



About two blocks later we arrive at the Albert Heijn, which is basically the monopoly supermarket chain in the Netherlands. Notice the parking lot in front:



A few blocks north in the opposite direction, you can see the bane of many Amsterdammers' existence - construction for the North/South metro line. It will be awesome once it's done ... in 2017. They realized that building a new subway under an 800-year old city built on wooden pilings wasn't the best idea after some historical houses started tipping and sinking, but now it's too late to stop:



About 5 blocks further north (and a 5-min walk from my apartment) is the Albert Cuyp market, which is purportedly the largest street market in Europe. Great place to come for french fries served in a paper cone, produce, cheese, clothes, just about anything.



Back near my place, here's a canal view a view to the northwest and the Rijksmuseum. This is basically Amsterdam's version of the Louve:



Typical Amsterdam street - notice the part of the sidewalk that is a different color. This is the bike lane - walk in it at your own peril. At best you'll be greeted by angry bell-ringing, and at worst you'll be plowed down (as witnessed by the unfortunate timing of three hot girls riding by while a dirty old guy headed the other direction turned back to look and plowed right into somebody who stepped in front of him).



Finally, this is about 20 minutes away in the center of town, but a nice canal shot on a relatively sunny fall day:


Want to see more? Come and visit.

#4 - Welkom bij mijn appartement

After three full weeks of living in Amsterdam I’m finally settled. The landlord is done with the touchup painting, the IKEA furniture is put together, and there are no longer piles of random stuff everywhere. You can read all about the search in my previous posting.

So with that, time for a tour of my crib:

First, an exterior shot. This is a very modern building for Amsterdam, where many of the buildings were built somewhere between 1600-1700. I do not know how old it is, but I would guess 20 years or so.



I am fortunate to have an elevator, and a large (aka “normal” sized one for the US) elevator. Many apartments require you to climb 4-5 flights of narrow spiral stairs in order to get to your place. Also, I’m lucky that the elevator is big enough for my bike.


Speaking of which, here is my parking place right out front. And check out that sweet ride!

Headed into the apartment, see the long hallway. The door at the end is the entrance to the living room. In general, Holland and especially Germany have lots of doors in the homes… often separate doors for the kitchen, living room dining room, etc. I always thought this was to add privacy, but also was used to keep in heating back when they mainly used fireplaces.





Here’s the living room – check out all that IKEA furniture I put together. Also notice my state-of-the-art TV. Anyone who visited my place in Seattle knows that I always must have the newest TV technology.


Next, the “dining room” and my make-shift office. Perfect poker table!
Nice windows in the main living room; here's the view to the left:
And to the right:
And here's a pleasant little coffee shop right across the street:


Here’s the laundry room. Luckily I have a separate washer and dryer. Many apartments have a combo washer/dryer that doesn’t work well and takes about 3 hours per load.


Next up, the kitchen. This is a bit small compared to some of the places I looked at, but I have everything I need.



Check out the refrigerator – basically just a tad bigger than what a college kid would have in their dorm. Notice that there’s no freezer really either – you can make ice cubes but that’s about it. In general, people here do not “stock up” Costco-style, but rather go to the markets or grocery stores every couple of days. The frozen food section at the grocery store is comparatively small and there’s really not much there worth eating anyways. This is the typical size here, although there are places with larger ones. Also notice the “combi” microwave and oven above the fridge. Those are common here too. It seems to work ok, but neither the microwave or the oven is exactly stellar.




Here’s the “guest” bathroom, which seems common even in small apartments such as this. I guess it’s another privacy thing because people wouldn’t want their guests using their master bath.



Here’s the regular bathroom.



Here’s my bedroom. Pretty small compared to home, and definitely not much closet space. However, this is larger than some of the rooms I saw on my apartment hunt.




Balcony off the bedroom – not a great view other than the church tower, but facing the courtyard keeps the room nice and quiet.




Finally, the storage room. I may get a rollaway bed for when guests come, but for now it’s pretty much just a bunch of junk.


And one last pic: the building has a parking garage, but I don't use it since I don't want to pay $400 a month for the privilege. Notice the metal ramps that the cars are parked on ... these actually move up or down and have additional cars parked underneath:



Hope you enjoyed the tour. Will take you on a tour of the neighborhood in the coming days.

#3 – The Apartment Hunt

As mentioned previously, I stepped off a plane at 7am in Amsterdam. It was a sunny, gorgeous day (which apparently is rarer here than in the Pacific Northwest), and was off to relax … for a whole three hours. I had a full day of apartment hunting ahead of me – about 10 places in 5 hours. It was going to be a long day.

PwC set me up with a “Realtor” to show me apartments. I’m not sure how it works for the Dutch, but for expats, renting an apartment isn’t unlike buying a house in the States. I had an agent taking me around and showing me properties. Often times the landlord had an agent to show the property. Once you make a decision, the agents battle out the terms. Rent is negotiable – to the effect of several hundred Euros per month in some cases. And you can negotiate for things like cable/internet included in the rent, a better TV, new paint on the walls, etc. Apparently I also was in luck – given the economy, lots of companies are actually sending people back to the States. Nike’s European headquarters are in Amsterdam, and they’ve sent lots of people home. Same with IBM and Xerox, and some of the other accounting firms even. That means there was lots of selection, as others haven’t been lucky to have so many places in their price range, and just the sheer number of places to choose from, not to mention the extra bargaining power. This aspect was a refreshing change from my condo purchase in 2005 where there was no selection and everything was a bidding war.

By coming to Europe, I wanted to experience Europe. I decided early on that I wanted to live in Amsterdam, preferably on a canal but if not, within walking distance of the canal zone. I wanted to be able to walk to the pub, the butcher, the bakery, cafes, etc., and all that other stuff that they do in Europe. That meant sacrificing some of the things I’m used to at home to get more from the experience. First of all, space. As you can imagine, apartments here are a lot smaller than at home on average. In some cases, ridiculously small with a terrible floor plan. This isn’t the case in the outlying areas or the suburbs of course, but it’s a fact of life in a city built hundreds of years ago. Second of all, access. Looking at all those cool pictures of the skinny houses in Amsterdam is cool, but then you realize that means each floor is very long but not wide, and the floors are connected by narrow flights of spiral staircases. Elevators are a rare luxury in the city center. Third, parking. Almost no buildings have a parking garage, and street parking is a joke. There’s a waiting list just for a parking permit, which can be years in some neighborhoods. Of course you can just feed the meter rather than buying a parking permit, at the tune of about 40 Euros a day, or $60US (yes, that’s for street parking!). All these inconveniences aside, I was going from a 2-story townhouse back to a one-bedroom apartment, so there would be a change regardless. The good, the bad, and the ugly were awaiting me on my hunt.

I thought I was in trouble the first place we saw. After climbing 3 flights of stairs (each flight was spiral, and the stairs were about 3 inches wide, so anyone wearing an adult shoe-size had to walk sideways), I arrived on the first floor of the apartment, which had two bedrooms. The first bedroom you had to walk sideways to get into. The closet was a small armoire with room for about 10 shirts. The bed took up the whole room with the exception of about 3 feet of clearance on either side. But, this was the master bedroom. The guest bedroom had a double-bed in it, but that was a bit much considering that you couldn’t fully open the door. Then, another spiral flight of stairs to the modern bathroom. Another flight of spiral stairs, and you’re in the living/dining/kitchen area, which was the full top floor of the building. This was really nice, with all brand-new appliances, TV, etc., but I couldn’t get over the stairs, the small and practically worthless bedrooms, and the short ceiling on the top floor. Hopefully the day would get better, especially since the jetlag was really starting to set in.

It did. The second place was modern – with an elevator, big (relatively speaking) bedroom and living area, and modern kitchen. Others had more room, and even if they had stairs, the entire apartment was on one floor. One even had parking available. By the end of the day I had a couple of good candidates. I looked at several canal-side apartments (including the one with the rope ladder to the top-story loft). I have to admit that the idea of looking out of your front-window onto the canals would be pretty amazing. But, I also wanted practicality in a neighborhood – easy walk to the supermarket, stores, easy public transit, and without the hordes of tourists and other inconveniences (think all-night partiers roaming the streets, harder to get to the office, a much smaller space and a lot more stairs) that go with living right in the canal zone.

After two days, I made a choice from several good choices. I was luckily able to get most of what I wanted without too much inconvenience. The layout is good – a decent sized 1-bedroom apartment even by US standards. I have an elevator, and can bring my bike in, which is a luxury. I have a newer building in an old part of the city, and all the modern conveniences that go with it. No parking permits are available – I’m on the 7-month waiting list - but honestly, the driving here just brings problems. You’re going to be dodging streetcars, bikes, and pedestrians everywhere you go. There’s only so-many bridges over the canals, and many are one-way. All the roads are only one-lane each way and there’s backups at all the traffic lights. Then when you get to your destination (supermarket, etc.) there’s no parking anyways. Within a 3-block radius I have two supermarkets, three bakeries, two butchers, about 10 pubs, about 20 take-out places (including McDonalds, Subway, and Dominos), a branch of my bank, post office, three streetcar lines, a large park, and much more. Oh, and by walking to these places I’m not paying $9 a gallon for gas. Yes, that’s not a typo – gas really is that expensive here.

So in short, after a couple of long days I made my choice. And I think it’s a great one. Pictures and more details in the next post.

#2 - Month Off

I got the news in mid-June that I’d be moving to Amsterdam on a 2-year contract. I was, of course, thrilled given that it was my main focus the last 18 months (and I could finally stop being an email/phone stalker), but the clock started ticking. I had three months (more or less) to get everything ready. Oh, and to enjoy my last summer in Seattle too. What an amazing summer it was … I crossed several things off my Seattle bucket-list, such as hiking near Mt. Rainier, seeing Seafair (from a sweet boat at that!), eating at all the places I’d wanted to try and never made it to (Salumi and Betty topping the list), and reconnecting with some old friends. Went off to Maui for a week, Vancouver BC for the weekend, and the multiple happy hours, grilling nights, and just enjoyed the great weather (and very slow last couple months of work). My last day at PwC Seattle came around the end of August, and I have to say, it felt much better than I was expecting.

But, I was just starting to get busy with packing, last-minute paperwork, and of course, my little bro’s big wedding day. Early September was a blur of a bachelor party from which my liver still hasn’t recovered, packing/selling/donating all of my stuff, seeing friends and family before I leave, and wedding preparations. The departure date came on September 16th … felt like I could have stayed another week … but with a big move, it always comes faster than you expect. I have to say, buying a one-way ticket to Europe is a strange feeling. But getting on the plane (after arguing for 20 minutes about baggage fees in both Portland and Seattle) really hits things home. Luckily “the Hangover” was one of the movie choices, so the flight went well (although the lady next to me may disagree since I think my constant laughing woke her up more than once).

About 9 hours after leaving Seattle I grabbed my three enormous suitcases, found the driver, and the adventure began. Let’s just say, a full day of apartment hunting after stepping off a plane at 7:00am = not fun. More about the search in another post, but let’s just say it was a two-day marathon. I found a place (the second I looked at, out of around 16 or so), and then headed off on the other big event of the month: my decision to add more stress by adding a 2-week holiday to Turkey in the midst of everything else.

Turkey = amazing. Great decision. Don’t regret it at all. Not only was it my first time there, but also my first time “backpacking” solo. I use “backpacking” in quotes because it’s really more like luxury backpacking. I stayed at hostels, but in private rooms. I wanted to relax this trip amid all the other stuff going on, and didn’t want to do the dorm thing (I’ll pay $20 a night rather than $10 if that’s the cost of a private room!). Rather than 12-hour bus rides I did one-hour flights. But backpacking is also a mindset – to be a traveler rather than a tourist. To mingle with other travelers and the locals, rather than riding around on a huge air-conditioned bus and be herded through the sites by some obnoxious guide holding an umbrella. To want to experience a place rather than just see it and check it off some list of places to see. After my 12-days there (about a month too short), I travelled rather than toured, experienced and saw everything I wanted to, met some awesome people, and learned a lot about myself too. And now I have a place to stay if I want to go to Dubai or Australia. After seeing 3 parts of the country (Istanbul, Cappadocia, Aegean Coast), I’d put Cappadocia at the top of my list. Amazing hiking and scenery, genuinely friendly people, great pension where I stayed, just amazing. Istanbul is a must-see European city. And anyone interested in roman or even biblical ruins should see Western Turkey. Turkey is safe, you won’t get sick from the food/water, and the locals are genuinely friendly. Highly recommended.

So then it was back to Amsterdam. I have to say – it’s pretty awesome to step off a plane at midnight, and be at your destination by train in 20 mins. I’m going to get used to that quickly. But I couldn’t get too comfy at the temp apartment – because the next day I moved into my new place (again, more about that in a later post).
My month off was coming to a close, and it was great. On one hand I could say that I’d enjoy a few more months off – to travel, spend time with friends, etc. On the other, I was slightly looking forward to starting my job and meeting some folks here in Amsterdam. 32 days off was just about right.

#1 - Welkom!

Welcome to StromBlog. Great name isn’t it (thanks Vinh)? So apparently once you become an expat you need to have a blog. That’s a requirement, or so I’ve been told by the other expats I know. I’ve read some others’ blogs and enjoyed ‘em, so here it is … the place where you can read about all my exciting misadventures in Amsterdam. Hopefully it’s interesting – otherwise that probably means I’m not getting the most out of this experience. So I’m hoping you’ll enjoy it. If not, you can always click the big X at the upper right-hand corner of your screen.

Let me know what you think – shoot me an email every now and then.