A dedication to Amsterdam

I've decided to make this post a bit more personal, by dedicating it to my city: Amsterdam.

I've lived here for half a year now and the city has never let me down. It is a bit risky though, since there's so much to do and I am really bad at saying 'no' since I love doing a lot and, how cliché this sounds, you only live once ;) So I've been to too many expensive concerts, have eaten outdoors too often and have shopped a bit too often in 'The Negen Straatjes' as well. They say everything that follows on 'too' isn't good, but I don't agree: Amsterdam gives me so much energy.

 

As you may know, I live in a place you could call a suburb of Amsterdam. It's next to a hospital and it's south-west of the centre. I cycle to the university every day and that's a pretty long way. But I can't say I really care, since I am lucky enough to cycle through the 'Vondelpark' (our most famous park, comparable with Central Park in NY or Hyde Park in London) and through the vintage area, which is a two minutes' walk from the university.

So I'm in the centre almost every day and, though I think this post is going to be way too happy, which definitely isn't me, I am so extremely blessed by this! Furthermore, I go out often in the centre, where you meet the weirdest and coolest people. Lots of tourists, especially in the weekends, which can be really nice cause you meet people from all over the world. I've met a few Canadian fellows last night, that was pretty great. Tourists can be damn annoying as well, since they have no idea how the traffic works in Amsterdam. I know, it is quite chaotic every now and then. I've fallen between tram lines too many times already (and this time 'too' is definitely not a good thing!) and I'm a real asocial cyclist. I think I'm the centre of the traffic and both walking people and cars have to make place for me. Which they obviously never do.

Anyway, you can definitely say I have never had any regret about moving to Amsterdam. Of course, I've always known I was going to study in Amsterdam but you sometimes hear the step is very big or people can't get used to the crowded city, where you can feel a bit anonymous from time to time. That was never a problem for me (and I hope that will stay this way!) but that's also due to the fact I have fifteen amazing roommates (yeah, this is really turning out to be too positive, of course I like one better than the other) and I've made a lot of new friends, so it's never dull or depressing here. Amsterdam, I love you.