Give it another life it’s in Sloterdijk ! I was doing my first bike packing trip with my first ever bike across the netherlands. I took it from Paris on the flixbus and everything went well until I had to come home and the bus driver prevented me from bringing it with me. He wouldn’t even want to hear a word from me. I left it at this location : 52°23’23.1”N 4°50’18.6”E
It’s not a good bike tho, it’s an old decathlon bike from 96’ that I bought second hand at the beginning of summer to discover more places around my home and i decided to try to tour the netherlands with it. I’m so proud of it for holding on until the end of the trip and it’s bringing a tear to my eye to have to abandon it now.

So please, even if it’s not a really decent bike, feel free to try to give it a better end ! (careful with the brakes tho they’re noisy and not really reactive)

A few months ago I started working as an electrician in Amsterdam. I’m a woman, I’m not Dutch, and before this I spent more than ten years in corporate jobs. I have a degree in electrical engineering, which helped, but the corporate track and the trade are very different worlds.

Some specifics, because when I was deciding I couldn’t find anyone writing plainly about this:

• I did a certification course taught in English, here in the Netherlands. You don’t need fluent Dutch to start, though it helps a lot on site.
• There was work almost immediately. I won’t promise anyone a job from day one, but demand is high and I haven’t struggled to find customers.
• I earned back everything I’d spent on tools and equipment within two months.
• Most of my small jobs — installing a lamp, a fan, an induction hob — came through one of the job platforms. That’s where the volume was.
• I built my own website for almost nothing and asked every single customer to …

Hallo allemaal,

ik kom uit Duitsland en hoop dat jullie mij kunnen helpen met een heel persoonlijke zoektocht.

Op 5 oktober 2024 rond 23.30 uur was ik met twee vrienden als toerist in het prachtige Amsterdam. Helaas werd ik die avond aangereden door een auto en raakte ik ernstig gewond aan mijn voet. Ik kon mijn voet helemaal niet meer belasten. Helaas kon er geen ambulance naar de plaats van het ongeval komen.

Als vreemdeling in Amsterdam was ik op dat moment volledig overdonderd en wist ik door de pijn en de situatie niet goed wat ik moest doen. Gelukkig kwam er een riksjachauffeur voorbij en hielp hij mij. Hij bekommerde zich om mij en nam mij en mijn twee vrienden met zijn riksja mee weg van de plaats van het ongeval.

Ik ben op zoek naar deze goede Samaritaan. Helaas weet ik alleen dat zijn riksja een opvallende Spider-Man-deken had, zoals jullie op de foto kunnen zien.

Nadat de eerste schrik voorbij was en ik sindsdien meerdere operaties heb ondergaan, zit ik nu hier in …

@amsterdambells

Everytime I visit your beautiful city, I’m warmed by your hospitality and inspired by your beauty. Genuine conversations I strike up with strangers linger with me long after. While I’m glad to be back home, your amazing city has filled me with beautiful moments that I’ll cherish until I’m back!

Bedankt, tot de volgende keer.

Mijn hobby is tekeningen en illustraties maken, volledig met de hand en vooral op papier. Mijn inspiratie haal ik uit de stad, plekken die me aanspreken. In dit geval is het garage Ruimzicht aan de Zamenhofstraat in Noord. Het is een garage die gespecialiseerd is in onderhoud van 2CVs, eendjes. Geen perfect opgepoetste klassiekers, maar auto’s met karakter. Ik vind dit een heerlijke plek, maar ook het soort wat helaas steeds vaker uit de stad verdwijnt.

Edit: dank voor de reacties! Leuk om te lezen!

I’ve lived in the Netherlands for quite a few years now, and there’s something about Dutch culture that I’ve never quite been able to understand.

Everyone knows the Dutch reputation that people are extremely direct. No beating around the bush, no unnecessary politeness, just say what you think. And honestly, I like that. I’d much rather someone tell me directly that they disagree with me than smile, nod, and complain about me later.

But, I’ve also noticed that the Dutch have a hard time handling directness. Even amongst themselves compared to, for example, a foreigner.

I’ve had quite a few situations where someone will make a very blunt comment or criticism and it’s considered completely normal because “that’s just being direct.” But if you respond with the same level of bluntness, suddenly you’ve crossed some social line. In work situations, there are countless times where I’ve experienced Dutch colleagues …

I have traveled and worked around the world. Gym memberships in Taiwan, Dubai, Ukraine, America.

Yes this gym I am at right now mandates you bring a towel but you don’t sit on it.

Yes this gym I am at has cleaner and paper towels available to clean your ass sweat streeks off of the equipment, but you don’t use it.

We are by far the grossest people on the planet. All the tools are their, why is doe normaal in this culture result in such disgusting and inconsiderate hygiene.

p.s. washnyour hands after taking a shit. Especially if you prepare food.

p.p.s. expensive gym

Watching this unfold is honestly fucking surreal. Farmers are setting hay bales on fire beside motorways, sending thick smoke across traffic. Today it happened along the A2 near Breukelen, and Farmers Defence Force had apparently announced the burning of hay bales beforehand. How does anyone look at a busy motorway and decide that deliberately creating a smoke hazard is a reasonable way to make a political point?

Then there’s today’s railway sabotage, with pipes and other objects attached to tracks across the country. Responsibility hasn’t been established. FDF denies organising it, but its leader explicitly says he cannot rule out farmers being responsible, and describes “wild actions” as something that was to be expected because nobody listens. That response does absolutely nothing to reassure me. Whoever is responsible, deliberately interfering with railway infrastructure is an outrageous thing to do to people just trying to get somewhere.

And we already know how serious the …