Hi trv,
I'm Dutch, and for a project I'm trying to collect opinions from foreign people who have visited The Netherlands. I'm interested in what you guys did here, why, where you stayed, which places you visited, what you thought of the Dutch as a people, what you liked, what you hated etc etc etc. Help me out and let loose!
I did a short trip by car to Netherlands and Belgium recently. Been to Amsterdam, Hague, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Maastricht. I've slept in a tent in Amsterdam and then rented bungalows on various campings 20-30 km away from the major cities. Moved strictly on foot through the cities, it's tiring but the best way to get the feel of a city.
Random observations:
- piss easy to communicate in English, pretty much everyone speaks it well
- the bikes are a pain in the ass and you constantly have to watch out for them. Impressive how popular they are though.
- how can you live with no drapes in your windows?
- those omnipresent Ja/Nee stickers on the mailboxes, do they really work? I can't imagine leaflet spammers care much.
- let op! Drempels! Holy fuck stop putting those everywhere. Also they're all really high and kept scratching my poor car's belly.
- stroopwaffels are God's gift to mankind
All in all, it was a fun trip and I liked it there.
>>1042750
>Ja/Nee stickers
Companies have to comply with them. The delivery guy would get fired if he just ignored them all the time.
>>1042411
everything in the netherlands is overrated as fuck
>>1042759
Could you expand on this well-balanced argument?
>>1042750
Cool to hear!
Next time, rent a bike yourself and immerse yourself in the chaos.
I never even thought about the drapes thing until it was pointed out to me! Apparently, we have little to hide.
The stickers work. It's great.
And yeah, a lot of those bumps are made to take with 10 km/h. They're annoying as fuck and local governments really overuse them.
Stroopwafels are God's gift, I agree. But stroopwafels freshly baked on the market and put together with syrup that's still warm is the food of the Gods themselves.
leuk man!
Veel succes met je project in ieder geval,
Aantal vrienden van mij zijn hier geweest vanuit het buitenland, ze vonden vooral de regels hier interessant, alles is zo gestructureerd en gebonden aan regeltjes. Ook vonden ze dat hier niet heel erg een luxemarkt bestaat.
>>1042787
>Ook vonden ze dat hier niet heel erg een luxemarkt bestaat
Kwamen je vrienden uit een relatief arm land? Ik heb zo de indruk dat Belgen en Hollanders niet echt veel interesse hebben in het hele luxe shoppen, merkkledij etc.
Komt waarschijnlijk door onze hoge scholingsgraad denk ik zo.
>>1042411
Hi op!,
been to Amsterdam 3 years ago and liked it so much that me and my girl are trying to come and stay there permanently.
Amsterdam is beautiful but too touristy and expensive to live in. The architecture is stunning, the rivers are so nice and the bridges are mesmerising. It's a delight just walking around the city. And holy shit the people are beautiful, I live in a land where obesity rate is at 74%...seeing all the thin beautiful people running around on their bikes relaxed my mind.
beautiful country.
I got the fried donut with icecream in the middle.
What do you call it?
i was in Amsterdam twice and then i cycled through Holland in summer when i was doing euro trip.
My opinions could be summed up like this:
1) great for weed/ truffles and for drugs in general, but then those Romanian street dealers selling baby powder on red light its rather shit. and lets not forget the white heroin fiasco. But i guess you need to know your connections to get the best.
2) night life is very good. one of the best in europe i think, Trouw was great.
3) Seen the country side - its very flat. The country is really tidy too.. I came from Germany- Bremen direction to Belgium way, turnhout i think. I couldn't find much of natural nature in Holland, like forest/fields and etc. everything is put to use. That's what stood out the most in the trip, everywhere else there were fields and fields of unused, untouched land and in Holland i couldn't find that anywhere
4) Great bicycle roads - but fucking mopeds man fucking mopeds.
5) People are nice in general, actually, that can be said for every single country i been too while on that trip. everyone is kind. Big plus is that peeps speak English in Holland(well most). So communication isn't a problem, asking for directions/help its easy. There also a lot of people who chatted me up asking where i'm coming from where i'm going and etc.
6- Cities are great, very laid back, Visited the windmills in asmt, and other cities and their landmarks, Utrecht their cathedral is fantastic! Small villages are really tidy and you cant find that many canals anywhere else in Europe!
7- Festivals - Awakenings.unreal.
Don't get me wrong, its a great country and people are great and infrastructures are fantastic. But if it wasn't for loose drug laws in Holland, personally for me it would be a one time visit kind of job. I think that's highly based on the fact that i'm in that "Love techno and ecstasy" stage in my life. I'm 22
Had to edit out the post because of limits
>>1042411
Where I stayed: the airport for 3 hours
What I liked: super tall & MILFy KLM stewardess
>>1042854
het heet een 'tokamak'
M'n vriendin uit Zuid-Korea vond de huizen ook zo apart. Over het algemeen redelijk groot.
En nog een paar dingen wat ze me vertelde:
- G en R pronunciation was raar en niet te doen voor haar. (Niet dat ze Nederlands kan, maar zelfs met moeite, kan ze die klank niet maken)
- Stroopwafels, elke buitenlander vindt het lekker, drop (licorice) aan de andere kant, vindt bijna elke buitenlander om te kotsen.
- Door Amsterdam rook je de lucht waar het om bekend staat
- Veel fietspaden en overal fietsen/fietsers
- (Wind)Molens vond ze een mooi gezicht
- Het land dat zo plat is en geen bergen kent en je dus heel ver kan kijken als er niks voor je staat.
- Echte kaas, geen cheddar kaas, maar gewoon echte goeie en veel diversiteit in kaas.
Andere buitenlandse kameraden die hier ook niet wonen, vonden het zo apart dat er met ziektes gescholden wordt.
Ze gingen helemaal stuk om "Krijg de kanker" (Get the cancer), wat voor een Nederlander heel erg kwetsend kan zijn, maar hun konden niet begrijpen dat het een scheldzin is, ze zagen het meer als een grap ofzo. De betekenis zou niet tot hun door kunnen dringen.
Misschien hetzelfde als dat hun met "neuken" schelden en dat als bijvoegelijk naamwoord gebruiken; wij dat ook niet kunnen begrijpen als we het vertaald zouden gebruiken.
>>1044051
Belg hier
drop is echt om te kotsen man
>>1044053
Ik vind het zelf wel lekker af en toe, maar het is inderdaad, je houdt er van of ook gewoon totaal niet.
Meeste mensen die het "lekkerste" drop niet lusten, lusten geen enkele soort drop (zoet, zout, Engels en wat heb je tegenwoordig nog meer)
Ik ben overigens nog niet iemand tegen gekomen die walgt en kotst van de stroopwafel.
Die dingen zijn zo gewild.
>>1042411
Canadian here. Stayed a week in total in Amsterdam and The Hague before moving on to Belgium and Germany. Did the museums and the touristy stuff during the day, went drinking with strangers at night. Also rented a bike and visited the windmills in Zaandam.
Loved Amsterdam.Very easy to get around. I spent hours just walking around and admiring the canals and the parks. It felt very laid back. I never felt like I was in a "big city". It's a sight to see how normal riding bikes is, especially coming from a place where the car is king. Also having weed and hookers nearby is quite convenient.
I stayed with a Dutch couple in The Hague and they were very nice. It was very easy getting directions from bus/tram drivers and random people on the street.
Kroketten, kapsalon and stroopwafels are the shit.
Why are ov-chipkaarts so complicated? I have one sitting in my drawer with some extra money in it because I didn't have the 20 euros minimum to take the train to the airport.
I would definitely return.
I went to Amsterdam for a week.
I thought it was boring. I wouldn't consider coming back. I'd rather go to Berlin.
I had a nice time in Amsterdam, the Hague and some seaside town nearby. The Dutch people were friendly and the food was good. I'll definitely visit again some time.
Used to live there. Pretty leuk, but Germany (where I have also lived) is actually better.
The Indonesian food is a pretty decent budget meal. Roti and stuff.
Window shopping for hookers is fun. Especially those streets that have special features. Like that one north of Nieuwmarkt that mainly features old Surinamese women.
The flatness is fkn depressing. And how nature is so curtailed. Barbed wire in Zandvoort to protect those dunes for example.
You guys are pretty much bourgeoisie incarnate. House proud about your shitty little dwellings. The countryside is the worst. If everything is designed, the entire purpose of countryside is wasted.
Also, some of your ghetto designer suburbs are real eyesores.
The coffeeshops are sometimes run by the shittiest people ever. Numb 30-55 somethings that you can't put an age on, or ascribe a human emotion. Just the same emotionless faces shaded by baseball caps.
Those TV bimbos on RTL and Veronica are extremely fapworthy. At least they used to be. Katja Schuurman still holds a dear place in my heart. And Daphne...
You guys must really hate the stoner tourists. I remember how much I hated them.
FEBO and frikadellen and stuff really is the lowest of the low in culinary experiences.
No matter how educated you are, and how large your English vocabulary is, you guys pretty much never lose that annoying accent. Some other nations do not have those problems.
No wonder you gave up Anne Frank. She was competing with you in acting Jewish. You do like doing business.
Even though you are so fond of your liberalism you do not really enjoy seeing people doing those actions outdoors. If I wanna smoke a spliff in the open, or do coke from a naked hookers bum in a city park in daylight, I'd go to Berlin.
Merdeka!
>>1042838
>too touristy and expensive
dude try out Utrecht. imo it's more beautiful than Amsterdam, very few tourists, though relatively expensive for the Netherlands it's much cheaper than Amsterdam.
It's like a smaller, more peaceful Amsterdam
I hitchhiked to amsterdan a couple summers ago
i lived in a squat for like a month and i'm a bit hungover rn so all i can remember now is:
>everyone is so goddamn friendly
>jobs are so goddamn easy to find
>if you're from spain or poland it will take you 0 time to find more of your people and get into a group of them and forget you're not even in your own country
I really like The Netherlands, i've been to Amsterdam a couple of times and i really like the city. The people are really friendly in general, i have also met a lot of dutchies while traveling around Southeast Asia and they became bros.
>>1046438
Leiden & Delft fall in the same category.
>>1046466
Personally never been to those cities but (as a student) I hear they're nice. However I also heard that if you're not a student, Delft(and I figure this goes for Leiden as well) is pretty boring. Not sure though
>>1044174
>Why are ov-chipkaarts so complicated? I have one sitting in my drawer with some extra money in it because I didn't have the 20 euros minimum to take the train to the airport
The system works with credit, you can check in anywhere if your balance is positive. That means if your card is charged with €3 and you take a bus trip costing you €7, you end up with a negative credit of -€4, to be deducted if you charge it again. You need to have at least €20 on it for train travel to prevent people from buying an anonymous chip card for €7, charge it with €5, and subsequently use it to make a €50 train trip and discard the card afterwards.
Just left after a 5 day stop in Amsterdam on my first eurotrip. Did a day trip out to Utrecht as part of that. Without a doubt my favourite country Ive ever been to. The architecture and the people are stunning, their english is impeccable and their food while quite basic is tasty as hell. Stroopwaffels my god. Also those deep fried sweet balls with the raisins in them hnnggg.
The bikes were a bit chaotic in amsterdam with the tiny streets but you get used to it.
The coffeeshops and smartshops are just icing on the cake
Would move there / 10
I've been to the Netherlands 3 times, just returned on Monday from a Weekendtrip.
-First Time: Houseboat trip from Loodsdrecht, Amsterdam to edam, gouda, etc.
-Second Time: Houseboat Trip up to Amsterdam and Alkmaar
-Third Time: Weekend Trip to Utrecht plus a half day in Amsterdam.
I love the Netherlands. The people are so open and friendly. I had hardly any negative experiences. This time a girl offered some help cause we looked lost!
My Dream is to live there for some time on a Houseboat or these water houses.
Amsterdam is a bit too touristic, i prefer the smaller Cities/towns.
Obviously one important reason to visit is the Drugs, but you can feel a downfall of cannabis culture and weed quality really bad.
>>1045978
u rekt dem dutchies, bwoy.
But I still think weed is better in Amsterdam than Berlin though, and you don't have to buy it off some Arab/Nig who's trying to upsell you on coke or whatever he's calling his talcum powder.
Visited Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Zeist. Stayed in Zeist.
We were there to visit a friend.
I was impressed with how clean most places were, how unique and aesthetically pleasing houses were (especially in zeist).
Everything was beautiful, people were friendly, everyone seemed to speak at least Dutch and English.. which is impressive compared to where I am. I really enjoyed my time in The NL and I'll be back visiting at some point I'm sure.
also, stroopwafel = THE BEST
>>1048362
Didn't mean to rekt anyone. I like NL. It is just that my cynical disposition shines through.
I had the best sources in Berlin. Equal quality of weed, but of course not 100 strains to choose from. That is really not a big deal.
