Lovely old lady tries to get her car into a much too small space. Proceeds to smash into the car behind so hard that it actually moves the car. She doesn’t get out to check the damage, just starts to drive off.

My honking makes her stop. Long story short, her reasoning is: “It’s Amsterdam, it doesn’t matter” and she drives off. Likely to cause more damage to other peoples property.

I leave a note on the windscreen with her license plate and my contact details, then go to park around the corner.

When I’m walking back along the street she happens to be in front of me, zimmer framing up to the car. She lets the frame bump into the car while leaning over and removing my note.

Guess it did in fact matter enough for her to come back and take the note off.

Foto’s die stuk voor stuk mooie herinneringen oproepen: sneeuw die de stad stil maakte, bevroren grachten, de mooiste zonsopkomsten en ondergangen, maansverduisteringen en nog veel meer. Wat het extra bijzonder maakte was hoe dichtbij alles voelde. Ik stapte op de fiets en stond vaak binnen een kwartier op de juiste plek.

Sommige beelden maakte ik tijdens COVID, een vreemde en onwerkelijke tijd. Ik herinner me nog goed hoe de stad compleet leeg was. Ik fotografeerde de Dam met tulpen, het Red Light District en de Amstel, zonder mensen en zonder verkeer. Momenten van een stilte die je in Amsterdam zelden meemaakt.

Amsterdam is een prachtige, fotogenieke stad. Een stad waar ik met veel plezier heb gewoond — en waar deze fotos me altijd weer even naar terugbrengen. 

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Over mij zelf: Als professioneel fotograaf maak ik foto’s op vele mooie plekken van de wereld. Die doe nu zo’n 15 jaar. Maar ik heb toch altijd een zwak voor Nederland. Het is de eenvoud die het zo mooi …

Over the last 10+ years I have photographed 1000s of different bicycle bells in Amsterdam. Any Creative ideas of what I should do with this project next are welcomed @amsterdambells

I don’t know if it’s just me, but lately I’ve been noticing more and more dog poo left on sidewalks and green areas, and honestly I’m kind of shocked.

Did something change? Are people just not bothering to pick it up anymore? I feel like it used to be basic dog-owner etiquette, but now I see it almost every walk.

Genuinely curious — is this happening elsewhere too, or am I just suddenly hyper-aware of it?

Zie r/vaderlandsehistorie voor meer Nederlandse geschiedenis

Gotta love Grok making our leaked data easily accessible for anyone to download.

Source: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-eurostat-news/w/edn-20260227-1

So we have a new cool young prime minister and an energetic cabinet. Yay!

For anyone who thinks this will only affect high income people, think again. High income people do not need these benefits to begin with and are more likely to be making money through their investments.

The maximum dagloon for maternity pay (paid for 16 weeks) is currently around €6700 per month. Which is quite attainable for a woman of childbearing age and has 5-10 years of experience. After taxes this is around €4500.

A person with this salary pays €10k the social security system per year and after this ‘money-saving’ measure by the new government they will receive €3800 during maternity leave.

Great move for enabling women’s participation and equality in the workforce.

Will this mean that taxes are lowered or tax brackets increased because social security costs are decreasing? Of course not.

I thought it would at the very least be a B

The Netherlands is a great place to live. Sure, the weather isn’t great and it is difficult to socialize, but overall this is one of the best places to live on Earth. I have had mostly positive experiences with everything that expats tend to hate on, like getting adequate healthcare etc.

However, I do feel like I’ve reached the ceiling of my abilities in the Netherlands as a Eastern European migrant from a lower socioeconomic class, and I am starting to regret moving here 5 years ago. I got a BA from a research university, which was a mistake to begin with, but with my inadequate high school diploma, only an art degree was a possibility. Nevertheless, I worked throughout my studies and got B2 in Dutch. Couldn’t really afford a master’s because I want to pivot into business, and I need to do a pre-master’s first. I am saving up for that while trying to get more relevant job experience. I’ve started to notice however that getting any relevant job …