During fall of 2014, I spent a semester abroad in Leiden, the Netherlands. I went there not knowing any Dutch and having never previously visited there, and I lived there for four and a half months. The end of August will mark two years since leaving for the Netherlands and I miss being there every day. Here are some of the top things that I miss about living among the Dutch.
1. Saturday Markets
There was also a market that took place on the canal on Wednesday, but that is a much smaller one. Saturday was the big market where you could get everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to flowers to secondhand clothing and shoes. Even if you don’t go to buy things that you need for the week, it’s always really great to go look around and people watch.
2. Biking Everywhere
And more importantly, having the infrastructure to bike everywhere. It was nice to bike to my classes each day, which was just a short distance from where I lived, and also bike longer distances, like the beach in Katwijk (COT-vike).
3. Stroopwaffels
These are delicious waffle cookies with a sweet syrup or honey in the middle of them. They’re really great on their own, but even better when you put them on top of a cup of hot tea, because then the syrup layer melts and Oh. My. God. It’s just really delicious and it’s readily available in every shop from Hoogvliet to Albert Hijn to Aldi. In the United States, I’ve only been able to find them in Aldi and in Iowa Dutch bubbles.
4. Speaking Dutch
I am nowhere close to being a fluent Dutch speaker, but I never hesitate to boast that I came to the Netherlands not being able to speak a word of Dutch and within the first couple of months, I was able to walk into the Dutch grocery stores, read the labels and make my purchases without speaking a word of English. I think that Dutch sounds really nice and even though there are sounds that come from the back of the throat that can be hard to make, it doesn’t sound harsh. I loved speaking Dutch whenever I could, even when I had to stop and switch to English partway through my attempt. In the U.S., unless you go to places with a really strong Dutch heritage (like parts of Michigan and Iowa), there really isn’t a place you can practice speaking Dutch.
5. Having New Things To Discover Every Day
Living in a place that I’ve never visited before, there was something new to explore every single day. Even if I didn’t want to stay in my small town of Leiden, the next town was just a short train ride away and I could easily go visit and spend the day exploring there. I wasn’t limited to the Anne Frank House, but I could go and visit Het Dolhuys in Haarlem (museum of psychiatry), go on a shrimping boat in Texel, visit the art festival in Breda, and see the summer palace of the Dutch Royal Family in Appeldoorn. It’s hard to be bored.
6. Living Near An International Airport Hub
Schipol Airport is often the place where flights stop before moving on to your final destination, especially in Europe. Living thirty minutes away by train from this airport was magical because pretty much no matter where I wanted to go, I was only one flight away. I traveled to Morocco, Germany, England and Italy by plane and each time, the flights were as little as 45 minutes to just a few hours. And I never had to stop at another airport to transfer flights. It was awesome.
7. The Canals
There’s something about living near water that’s just calming. Not only is it calming to hear water when you cross the bridges, but it’s also beautiful to see the flower-lined bridges and to see those canals open onto a harbor for boats to enter. Living in an urban area in Minnesota, there are lakes and rivers, so it was, in a way, a nice reminder of home, but better.
