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Living in Amsterdam, I get a lot of questions from friends of friends about where to go, and what to do while in Amsterdam. I’ve added my tips to my blog, partly out of my own selfish convenience so I don’t have to always rewrite them, and to help you out!

Without further a-do here some tips what what not to miss out on when you visit Amsterdam. 

1. Gezelligheid : Yes, a word that is nearly impossible to pronounce by non-Dutch speakers, this is the main thing to experience. Gezelligheid means coziness. This can be experienced a lot of ways, but the best is to sit on a terrance in the sun (in the summer) with some friends, or head to a brown cafe lit by candle light in the darker months, order some bitterballen (a must try), and a few biertjes (beers) and spend your time unrushed, chatting, watching the world go by. Gezellig!

2. Rijksmuseum : Yes, this really is a must see. It is very impressive and very much worth the visit. Download the Rijksmuseum App on your phone to listen along to the guided tour (make sure to bring your headphones), so you don’t have to buy the audio tour. Try to book tickets in advance online.

3. Rijks Restaurant : feeling a little swanky after your visit to the museum? Check out the restaurant next door. They make the best Dutch food I’ve ever had… and that is really saying something. Its probably safe to book in advance on this one. Check out my Yelp review for more info

4. Van Gogh Museum : Also a must see - book tickets in advance and make sure to get the audio guide. 

5. Vondelpark : A huge park in the center of Amsterdam. As my mom described it “everyone is so happy there!” Its a great location to sit and have a picnic in the summer - if you visit then, you’ll wonder if Dutch people actually work, since so many people will be sitting out on the grass drinking wine in the summer sun. 

Below: Vondelpark

6. Boating along the canals : Weather permitting, I really recommend renting your own boat and touring the canals. It is really easy to steer the boats yourself, and you can go where you want, bring snacks and beer, and the company will provide a map for you. This is really the best way to see the city, you can really experience the canal houses in all their splendour from the low perspective on the water. Plus you’ll probably pass a lot of other boats with music and drunken revelry, so that’s an added bonus.  There are many companies you can rent a boat from - most cost about €90. A few companies you can rent with are listed below

    - Boats4rent.nl

    - Boaty.nl

    - mokumbootverhuur.nl

Below: a sunny day on the canals

7. Watch out for cyclists! and taxis! and buses! and trams! and cars! : Most visitors to Amsterdam are not familiar with the amount of bike traffic they will experience as a pedestrian. Please, for the sake of me and all the other bikers in Amsterdam, look both ways several times before crossing the street. And unless you are a very alert and good cyclist, do us all a favor and don’t rent a bike.

8. Drugs : If you want to hit up a coffeeshop and smoke to your heart’s content, go for it! Ga maar lekker roken! Most people in Amsterdam don’t really smoke weed regularly, but you’re on vacation, so go for it. Just whatever you do, don’t buy drugs from people on the street. Your mom was right when she said don’t talk to strangers. In the past people have died in Amsterdam from trying white heroin thinking it was cocaine - and that’s not a good way to start your trip!  

9. Tipping : This must be the most practical question I get. We Americans (well not so much me anymore since I’ve lived here too long), are accustomed to leaving hefty tips of 15-20% for waiters, bartenders, etc. You will be happy to learn that in the Netherlands this amount is not necessary! Wallets everywhere rejoice! After a meal its fair to leave up to €5 as tip, but I wouldn’t go too much over that unless you’ve dropped over a hundred on the meal. Don’t worry about how the waiters will survive - they don’t have the poor pay that ours in the states have - they get by on a salary that can support a decent living standard!

There is, from what I can tell, a phenomenon of animosity among Americans. I don’t mean for political reasons, although obviously there’s enough of that going on. When you live abroad, there is something distinct that you feel when you talk to other people back home. When you come home people treat you differently. 

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Post 11 of a multi-part series on the quirks that set Dutch society apart from American society

When I was a naïve 19 year old ready to study abroad in Utrecht, I made a promise to myself that I would have as many foreign and Dutch friends as possible, since this experience was about experiencing other cultures and meeting people different from me, not a 5 month party with Americans in another country. In the end I actually ended up having very few foreign friends, and the people I got closest to were other Americans, with the exception of one very sweet Dutch boy who was a first year at the school where I studied. I didn’t expect to make friends with students younger than me. This afterall, was my third year of college, and I felt much older than the first years at the university. But in general very few older students, students my own age, seemed interested in getting to know me. I was slightly disappointed, but I guess now I’ve more than made up for missing out on getting to know a lot of Dutch people when I studied abroad, since I now have the unique experience of being the only foreigner at family parties in rural villages across the Netherlands. Or at least one last weekend.

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With my master thesis closing in on me, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much has changed since I moved here in September 2010. When I first moved to Holland I was really excited. So excited to be with my boyfriend again, and to be able to live with him. So excited to be living in Europe again. So excited to start a whole new life in a new place. What I didn’t realize is how tough it is to start all over in another country where you essentially know no one, other than your significant other. Studying abroad here had been the best time I had ever had, so I figured moving here couldn’t be much different.

The problem was that I was essentially in one of those post-summer romance relationships that you hear about ending badly. With Holland I mean, not with my boyfriend.

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One of my friends from my master program asked me about how people here treated me, as an American. Thanks for the great blog post idea

During the 2008 presidential election I was studying here in the Netherlands. Those were the last few months of the Bush Administration, and many Europeans were (understandably) happy that Bush would be leaving office. What I experienced as an American abroad was not what I expected. As an American I usually wanted to paint a picture of my life back in the states as either involving a Gossip Girl-style school where everyone dressed in designer clothes, or involving a life on the streets where I pulled myself up out of the ‘hood through hard work, and a little bit of hustlin’. In reality, I’m just a girl who grew up in an upper-middle class gated community in Sacramento who rode shotgun while my older brother bumped the original Chronic album by Dr. Dre through our 'hood, so I guess I was a wannabee of both worlds, who was oblivious to the fact that many people I would meet would dislike me just based on my birthplace.

Anyway, I didn’t think people would actually take their anger toward the US out on me. I had just come abroad to travel, meet new people and have fun, not to be bombarded by questions about my political beliefs. (To see a re-creation of my study abroad, watch this video where Tina Fey plays me and speaks German instead of Dutch.)

People were constantly telling me how they felt about the US. They would always ask if I was a good American (democratic) or a bad American (republican). I didn’t want to be judged based on what political party I was registered with, obviously. People would give me a laundry list of reasons why they hated the Bush Administration (again, understandable) but I had to remind them that I wasn’t old enough to vote for Bush, so they were really just preaching to the choir. Everyone was quick to tell me how much they loved Barack Obama, and I even witnessed a Dutch person crying when Obama was elected – talk about American pride.

At that time, and when I moved here again in September 2010 I felt like I needed to defend myself as an American. I felt it was my duty to show people that Americans are great and have more depth to them than the political party they align with. I thought that by showing people that I actually was informed that maybe their opinion of Americans would change, and they wouldn’t be so negative. It’s true, a lot of Americans have no idea where the Dutch come from, but a lack of geographical knowledge should not be mistaken with malice or stupidity. By the way, the Dutch come from that country near Denmark called Amsterdam, right? Where pot and prostitution are legal? I’ve always wanted to go party there.

– SIDE NOTE– Advice to all Americans who might live in or visit Europe: when a European asks you what political party you align with, tell them you are Republican, even if you’re a Democrat. They will be so horrified and bewildered by the presence of a living, breathing Fox News viewer standing right in front of them that they might have no idea how to respond. When I first meet people I sometimes like to remain politically ambiguous just to see how it plays out as people awkwardly test the waters to see if I’m a Democrat or Republican.

For so long I felt like it was I needed to somehow defend myself for being an American, and to explain to people that in a country of 300 million people, not everyone is the same.

Now my mind is changed. Honestly, I just don’t care anymore. If someone is genuinely interested in engaging with me in conversation about US politics, that’s one thing. When people want to talk to me about US politics just to get their moment to bash the US to an American, I really don’t have time for it. I can usually filter out those people pretty quickly now, because they get a twinge of disgust on their faces when I tell them I’m an American. I’ve learned that there is no point in defending myself. The people who want to bash me for being an American are just as ill-informed and narrow minded as they claim Americans to be, and frankly there is no point in wasting your time trying to convince people who are determined to hate you and your country. 

Post 10 of a multi-part series on the quirks that set Dutch society apart from American society

In a couple weeks I’ll be going skiing again with the Dutch boy’s family in Austria. Before I begin, let me start by saying that Dutch people are always very skeptical that I have ski experience. “But you’re from California!” they always tell me. Yes, I am, and just to prove it to you that we have mountains in California, here is a map:

Now that its settled and we can all clearly tell that California has a huge mountain range, I can continue (I’m from the middle valley of that map, so now we also know that I do not spend all of my time on the beach, nor did I ever surf to school, despite how surprising this might seem).

Like I was saying, every year his family goes skiing in Austria during the south of Holland’s carnival break. We’ll drive there this year, just like they do every year, and it takes about 11-12 hours. I did this trip last year, and didn’t really understand why we would leave at midnight to start driving… until we got on the road. Then I got it.

To get from the south of the Netherlands to Austria we have to drive across Germany (that’s about as far as my geography skills go), and in some parts there is bumper to bumper traffic with only Dutch license plates, even when we’re in Germany. Cars stretched as far as you can see, all headed in the same direction (toward the Alps), and mostly with Dutch license plates. That’s why you have to leave at midnight. To try to beat the traffic from the other 16 million people from the Netherlands who are all skiing in the same area.

Last year when we arrived to our hotel in the Austrian Alps after our drive that made me realize I need to buy a portable DVD player, and I was pretty excited to be spending a week out of town. Until I saw the license plates on the cars in front of our hotel. Dutch license plates everywhere. In the restaurant of the hotel the only German you can hear is that spoken by the workers and the rest is Dutch. My escape had failed. I was basically in a Dutch ghetto of another country. No, make that a Dutch vacation ghetto.

I’ve been explaining this to some friends and family lately, and I can’t think of anything Americans flock to the way that the Dutch flock to this ski area. In a couple of weeks, I will be part of a mass exodus from the Netherlands to a ski resort. Sometimes I have to take a step back from the life I’m living here and just think, how the hell did I end up here?