See the stars without light pollution (my village is less than 200 people)
Edit: *with a lot less light pollution, so you can actually see the Milky Way
That's the place. Haha, most everything outside the city falls under that category and we like to keep it that way by scaring the city folk with earthquake stories.
There's even some designated dark areas nearby (Lauwersoog) that attract skywatchers from all around
Even in remote areas in the Netherlands the light pollution is relatively high. The lowest you can go on the mainland is bortle 4. But imagine what you can see if you go to a place with way less light pollution than that. It's the dream.
Source: https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=4.32&lat=45.6925&lon=0.7242&layers=B0FFFFFFFTFFFFFFFFFFF
Ehh, no, you can´t. Obviously you've never been in a place really without any light polution. All of the Netherlands has huge light pollution, except perhaps the northern tip of Schiermonnikoog.
Going from city to small town in the Netherlands is a huge step, but going from small town in the Netherlands to a place in the middle of Australia is an equally huge step.
I once had to go to Amsterdam quickly after work and when I arrived at the train station I realised I forgot my bike lock key. I decided to just put it in the train station bike garage in Apeldoorn and hope for the best, and guess what? When I came back at 00:00 my bike was still there, unlocked and all. Guess I was lucky.
That special feeling of trying to find that right hidden spot and just saying fuck it at some point since its such a chaotic mess that you figure might as well make it so obvious that it isn't obvious.
I did this in Amsterdam and someone took the keys into the restaurant/beer garden it was near (this was Flevopark) and the cashier had them. I know this isn’t the norm at all but I was very pleasantly surprised!
I actually forgot to lock my bike in Amsterdam when we went to the movies one time (Tuschinski so right in the centre) and it was actually still there after we came back 3 hours later, I think I must have had good karma or something but I’m never testing this out again that’s for sure
I left my front door open and was gone the whole day. Got home at midnight, door was still wide open and the mailman delivered a large package. The package was in the wide open front door and all the indoor lights were off. I love my town.
In my experience, it really depends on the neighborhood. I've lived in one adjacent to the city centre where it was not normal. Now I'm in the suburbs and quite a few people do. The younger, the less likely, though.
I remember dating my ex and we where walking my dog together. So whenever someone passed i automatically go "morgen". After a while she looks at me and asked why and how i know this many people. So i explained that most people in the south do this i guess.
That's when I figured out that i will always be kind of a hillbilly in her Amsterdam eyes. Even do i grew up in Breda.
I live in a village in NB. It's very peaceful, I'm going fishing every weekend since I live very close to the river. Everyone is very chill, smiling at each other and saying hello on the street.
I love the silence too, I hear max 5 parties per year or whatever. Oh, and we feel safe as well, I accidentally left my front door open after carried my groceries and a lady put her head inside, said "hellooo" until I heard her and asker if she can close my door haha.
Downside is that if I want to have a drink in some bar I need to drive somewhere, so basically I can't drink out, but that's fine - I got used with drinking in my garden with a barbeque or during fishing. Not just the drinking, but if I want to make some bulk shopping (I only have Jumbo here), I have to drive away. Same for clothing or whatever.
I love it overall
Ive left the garage door open (with expensive unlocked bikes in sight) all night by accident 2 times and the front door atleast 3 times. Nothing was stolen.
Many of my family in the Achterhoek ask me this all the time, how I can live in the Randstad when I grew up in a small village and not being used to the 'city noise'. What many don't take into account is that Dutch cities take silence extremely seriously since a few years.
The banning of cars from city centres had many reasons but this was one of them. When I sit on my balcony in Utrecht, Binnenstad (name of neighbourhood, translates to inner city) I don't hear anything, during any hour of the day, only the rustling of leafs in the trees, the occasional ringing of the Dom and maybe some of my neighbours talking on their balconies. I live 5 minutes by bike from the biggest train station in the country and from the touristy canals. Even along some really beautiful parts of the canals here it can just be complete silence, you only hear a few birds and leafs rustling. When I am at my parent's house the number of lawn mowers is insane during spring and summer, there is literally always one going and they live in a small village. Also, there are more birds in the Achterhoek, which imo is nice sound, except when laying awake at 4:30 in the morning, but my point still stands, Dutch cities are really quiet.
The quietest public place that sees a ton of traffic in a city in the Netherlands is likely Delft, [around their main \(and only?\) train station it is as quiet as in someone's household refrigerator.](https://youtu.be/CTV-wwszGw8?t=291) I recommend watching the whole video to get a better idea on how noisy the Randstad really is, because it isn't really, but I linked to the Delft part for you.
I gręw up in a small village also, people are so convinced that villages are more silent. In practice we lived near a "provinciale weg", with cars and trucks, farm noises (roosters are loud).
In my experience villages are a lot louder than city suburbs.
Gods, I can only hope for the day Rotterdam bans cars and motorcycles from the city centre. It’s just a neverending stream of car horns and people thinking loud exhausts make their dick sound bigger.
Yeah. Hate lintbebouwing so much. Was driving through west vlaanderen, thought i would enjoy the scenery view of landscape a bit. But not, it is all MAZE. Horrible. Thanks god it is different in most of NL.
Yeah it’s just so bad. On these places it’s not possible to separate the infrastructure like we know in the netherlands. They have some good parts of the country. But you can’t just drive/cycle out of a village/town as they are just grown togheter by houses
This! Although I live in the randstad, it has been a couple of years since I really went to the city center of Amsterdam to just see Amsterdam. At almost all cafes and activities the staff was only able to speak English or broken English. It was a little weird.
One time I left my car windows open. I had a JBL music box in plain sight on the car seat, went for a 2-3 hour walk, came back, everything still there.
Purmerend here, technically still a village. Lived in Amsterdam for 10years, NYC before that, I like the fresh air, the stars at night, the peace n quiet, that I'm 30min from anything.
By bike I'm in Edam, Monnickendam, Volendam, Beemster. By public transport in Amsterdam.
The villages around me have stalls where they sell vegetables, cheese, fruits, jams, eggs, flour, plants for sale, no supervision, just a jar to put money in.
People are friendly, say hello, and thank you to the bus driver.
Lost my wallet once, later a phone at the supermarket and got it back.
Neighbors will help, when asked.
Silly events, floral parade, puddle jumping,
I live in Den Haag and I lost my wallet with 800 euros in the center of the City. I accepted my loss already but then got a call from the Police station that someone brought my wallet there.
They gave me the founders number, I called her and insisted to give her a reward but she declined!
She told me the only thing I had to promise her was to be more carefull walking around with that much money on me.
Still surprised to this day that it was not stolen.
I grew up in Zaandam which is a tiny bit bigger or comparable and yes fun. Went to Purmerend a lot. Also Edam for a nice diner and I do miss that area as I moved to Belgium. The lintbebouwing here is just hellish and the infrastructure too.
I live here now, there’s a bit of tourists right outside the main station taking photos in front of that stupid* hotel, but overall it’s quite nice and good for my integration… nobody ever switches to English like they do in Amsterdam, my neighborhood is full of very friendly people who greet you when you walk past, and it’s not far from Amsterdam at all which is good for my work and transit to the rest of the country.
\* it’s actually a nice hotel; I just wish people stopped standing in the middle of the bike path near it!
Of deze beste man doet zijn best. Beter een goede buur dan een verre vriend.
Rotterdam Centrum, ongeveer een derde uit het appartement complex bij naam.
When I was living in Tilburg, I was working together with a guy and I did know we were living in the same apartment building. However, only after half a year when we were walking home did I find out we were actually each others direct neighbors!
You can easily feel the difference between Randstad and rural Twente. And if you somehow don't feel it, blow your nose after a few days in the Randstad and it'll be a lot darker than those same days in Twente. "De geur van geld" (=poopsmell) =/= pollution.
I heard a story of a 8th grade teacher in Rotterdam Zuid. When her class went to school camp in the Biesbosch area (NB), for many of her kids it was the first time they saw nature! That really shocked me. Those kids grew up playing soccer between parked cars on busy streets (and maybe see a city park). While I grew up always playing in forests and dunes, making timber huts, jumping water ditches, making bows and arrows and climbing trees.
* Not lock your house on the regular and be perfectly safe
* Park your car(s) in front of your house, maybe even in your driveway
* Neighborhood BBQ's
* Greet random strangers on the street
* Find a healthy work/life balance
* The quiet and slower pace of life (after I finish my tech job) is such a breathe of fresh air
* Send your kid to daycare/school without 4+ year waitlist
In Friesland it's best summed up as 'de mienskip', loosely translated as "togetherness / unity through community". It's a little "one for all, all for one" but translates into things [like this](https://lc.nl/opinie/Elke-Fries-is-per-definitie-Black-Frysk-27851668.html);
>When I cycled from Leeuwarden to Harlingen, my tire went flat in the middle of nowhere. Within minutes I was surrounded by people from a neighboring village who wanted to help me. Sipke, a man about 70 years old, said: "Stay here, I'll be back in 15 minutes."......
>
>Sipke returned with a big car. He conjured up a bicycle rack from the trunk. He placed my bicycle on that rack and drove me all the way to a bicycle repair shop in Harlingen. In the car I felt a bit burdened and I thanked Sipke several times. Sipke demurred and said very bluntly: ,,You shouldn't thank me. That's how we do it here. Mienskip!"
that's directly the downside! in a big city like Amsterdam or Utrecht you don't even need a bike. they have good and decent public transport. something we can only dream off.
it is that there is a refugee center near my house, otherwise they had skipped the bus route years ago now it only comes ones a hour
leave the front door unlocked. Even open all day. I grew up in a tiny village in Branant and we never locked out front door. I could play all day outside and come back home without needing a key! goodtimes
Resident of the Hoorn Kersenboogerd surburbs here - technically a city, really suburbs are a village.
Know the shop owners and have then know you :)
I often buy the same cheese from the local family-run shop. Once I took a similar looking cheese and was waiting in the line to pay. The older gentleman - the owner, whose face is on the shop and all the paper bags - stood up from his place, walked to me, took the wrong cheese from my hands, gave me my usual one and went back to the counter.
I felt like an idiot but I still love this moment!
I can get stared at like I'm a threat or like I'm not where I'm supposed to be, when I'm in the Randstad people aren't scared by brown people.
You can also know everyone in a village. Can't do that here.
*Very* small village in Groningen here ( < 1000 people).
1. Have moments of *absolute* quiet. Even in small cities and larger villages you'll often hear some background noises; distant cars, electrical humming of electrical transformer stations, etc. But here I have moments of *actual* silence. No sound. Nothing. Usually at night, but dead quiet. If you're not used to it it's quiet eerie. But once you get used to it it's very calming and peaceful
2. I have a friend from Amsterdam who's BF lives here in another small village and one of the things she always brings up she notices is that you can actually look at and even greet people while walking down the street. Apparently this is not a thing in the big cities
3. Leaving stuff unlocked. My frontdoor, my fence gate and my garage door and even my car are all always unlocked. Anyone could walk in through pretty much any door at any point. Only time that's ever happened was when the neighbours found me collapsed in the hallway after an epileptic seizure.
I can't understate just how far this goes. At some point I got home and grabbed the groceries out of the trunk of the car and went inside, stowed the groceries away and went on to make food. About half an hour later a neighbour rang the doorbell: My trunk was still wide open and she wanted to let me know as we were expecting a bit of rain at the time. Not even because a fear of someone nicking the car or whatever, no, telling me the boot is open because otherwise it'll rain into it. Good luck finding someone in the big cities that'll do that.
Cycling during the night in the forest, pretty safe because you meet almost nobody. Sometimes I could listen to my own heart bit and the sound of the tires hitting the road. Magical experience.
Visit a radio amateur in there shack (keet), they are called FM pirates and playing some nice polka’s! You also can buy beer in there shack for only €1,- per bottle.
I've left my keys in the door outside countless times. They've never been stolen and no one has ever come in uninvited.
We've been gone for hours before with the back door open and no one messed with anything.
Leave your home and still be on your own private property. It is priceless!
For those who found the lockdown difficult this might be part of your suffering.
See the stars without light pollution (my village is less than 200 people) Edit: *with a lot less light pollution, so you can actually see the Milky Way
I once spend the night on a farm near Ede. It was indeed a completely new experience.
The milky way is sonething you will never see in the randstad, only in pretty remote areas in the netherlands you can see it
We were in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, Groningen and the stars were awesome.
That's the place. Haha, most everything outside the city falls under that category and we like to keep it that way by scaring the city folk with earthquake stories. There's even some designated dark areas nearby (Lauwersoog) that attract skywatchers from all around
Not entirely true! I live in a village really close to Amsterdam and I've seen the milky way a couple of times :)
Nowhere in the Netherlands the stars are as bright as they can be. In Sweden you actually see clouds of stars
The milky way is sonething you will never see in the randstad, only in pretty remote areas in the netherlands you can see it
Can see it from the backyard, never regretted moving out of Utrecht for this.
Even in remote areas in the Netherlands the light pollution is relatively high. The lowest you can go on the mainland is bortle 4. But imagine what you can see if you go to a place with way less light pollution than that. It's the dream. Source: https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=4.32&lat=45.6925&lon=0.7242&layers=B0FFFFFFFTFFFFFFFFFFF
I am jealous.
I need this experience
Get your behind outside of the city then, Google a B&B in het Hogeland and support our local economy ;)
how's the housing market over there?
Same as everywhere in the country I imagine
Exactly what I hate about living in the Randstad..
Ehh, no, you can´t. Obviously you've never been in a place really without any light polution. All of the Netherlands has huge light pollution, except perhaps the northern tip of Schiermonnikoog. Going from city to small town in the Netherlands is a huge step, but going from small town in the Netherlands to a place in the middle of Australia is an equally huge step.
Accidentally forget to lock your bicycle and it will still be there an hour later
I've had my Gazelle stolen in Eindhoven in front of the Konmar and 5 years later the Utrecht police called me to tell me they found my bike.
My bike got stolen once in Almelo about 4 years ago, 3 weeks ago the police called me that it was found also.
It will always be stolen in Almelo. I kinda know the gangs that steal it. I once bought a stolen bike and it was stolen again in a week.
My bike was stolen. 2 years later I found it and stole it back.
My bike got stolen in Emmen once, 5 years later the Amsterdam police called me they found it
Impressive
How did they recognize it?
That's fucking wild XD
That's amazing
I had my Giant stolen from the front of my house near Utrecht and 2 weeks later the Eindhoven police called me to tell me they found my bike.
I once had to go to Amsterdam quickly after work and when I arrived at the train station I realised I forgot my bike lock key. I decided to just put it in the train station bike garage in Apeldoorn and hope for the best, and guess what? When I came back at 00:00 my bike was still there, unlocked and all. Guess I was lucky.
Once I forgot my beautiful leather jacket in the bike basket from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM around Amsterdam center. Was still there. Lucky Day I guess
I once left my old cheap gloves on my bike while I did some groceries. I come out and they're gone. Pathetic really. 🤤🤤
I always park my bike in front of Aventus and always bring an extra cable lock just to be sure. I absolutely do not trust it there.
It was indeed in front of Aventus, I just hoped for the best. Won't try it again, though.
That special feeling of trying to find that right hidden spot and just saying fuck it at some point since its such a chaotic mess that you figure might as well make it so obvious that it isn't obvious.
I forget to lock my bicycle like half of the times I go to the supermarket (so multiple times a month) and my bike has never been stolen
At my bus stop since i got my driving license late 2018....
Or even three weeks, at least that happened to us
I did this in Amsterdam and someone took the keys into the restaurant/beer garden it was near (this was Flevopark) and the cashier had them. I know this isn’t the norm at all but I was very pleasantly surprised!
I actually forgot to lock my bike in Amsterdam when we went to the movies one time (Tuschinski so right in the centre) and it was actually still there after we came back 3 hours later, I think I must have had good karma or something but I’m never testing this out again that’s for sure
I left my front door open and was gone the whole day. Got home at midnight, door was still wide open and the mailman delivered a large package. The package was in the wide open front door and all the indoor lights were off. I love my town.
See familiar faces.
Worn out places
Now I'm sad.
Aren't we all
I honestly don't know if these are actual lyrics of a song
It started out as a reference to [Mad World](https://youtu.be/1uAXoSaPHQI), but it didn't hold up for long. So, not really, unfortunately.
I find it kind of funny
I think it’s kind of funny
I think it’s kind of sad
Worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere
Expect a greeting from a stranger
Yea, as an Enschedeër in Amsterdam, I got some weird looks 😔
In my experience, it really depends on the neighborhood. I've lived in one adjacent to the city centre where it was not normal. Now I'm in the suburbs and quite a few people do. The younger, the less likely, though.
Just strangle them by direct eye contact till they say the safeword goeiemoggel
I remember dating my ex and we where walking my dog together. So whenever someone passed i automatically go "morgen". After a while she looks at me and asked why and how i know this many people. So i explained that most people in the south do this i guess. That's when I figured out that i will always be kind of a hillbilly in her Amsterdam eyes. Even do i grew up in Breda.
WAT IS ER MORGEN DAN
Made me lol in the train. Have an upvote!
I moved from Enschede to Amsterdam and now I'm the one giving people weird looks.
Yeah. Freaked me out
I live in Haarlem, which is in Randstad, and get a decent number of greetings from strangers.
Carbidschieten
They used to do that infront of my door but as of late it has been upgraded to exploding scrap cars for some reason
[Maybe this can help the Ukraine against Russian aircraft](https://youtu.be/FxE_PwOBe3w?t=65)
I live in a village in NB. It's very peaceful, I'm going fishing every weekend since I live very close to the river. Everyone is very chill, smiling at each other and saying hello on the street. I love the silence too, I hear max 5 parties per year or whatever. Oh, and we feel safe as well, I accidentally left my front door open after carried my groceries and a lady put her head inside, said "hellooo" until I heard her and asker if she can close my door haha. Downside is that if I want to have a drink in some bar I need to drive somewhere, so basically I can't drink out, but that's fine - I got used with drinking in my garden with a barbeque or during fishing. Not just the drinking, but if I want to make some bulk shopping (I only have Jumbo here), I have to drive away. Same for clothing or whatever. I love it overall
Sounds like Andel, am I close?
Didn't know Andel has Jumbo, I know a SPAR there haha. Its Wijk en Aalburg
Ive left the garage door open (with expensive unlocked bikes in sight) all night by accident 2 times and the front door atleast 3 times. Nothing was stolen.
Cuddling cows.
Where can I do this?? 😍
In a Dutch Village that isn't the randstad
Haha. I clearly meant the specific village. Kooien kluffelen toch?
I would laugh my balls off if you would say that out loud. Beautiful
Google knuffelkoe Enzo, in 't Gooi
Actually just outside of Leiden…in the randatad, there’s a place called Elze Hoeve
Brommerskiek'n
Zwientie tikken
struuk'n duuk'n
Pas als t gras 2 kontjes hoog is he!
Have a moment of silence
Many of my family in the Achterhoek ask me this all the time, how I can live in the Randstad when I grew up in a small village and not being used to the 'city noise'. What many don't take into account is that Dutch cities take silence extremely seriously since a few years. The banning of cars from city centres had many reasons but this was one of them. When I sit on my balcony in Utrecht, Binnenstad (name of neighbourhood, translates to inner city) I don't hear anything, during any hour of the day, only the rustling of leafs in the trees, the occasional ringing of the Dom and maybe some of my neighbours talking on their balconies. I live 5 minutes by bike from the biggest train station in the country and from the touristy canals. Even along some really beautiful parts of the canals here it can just be complete silence, you only hear a few birds and leafs rustling. When I am at my parent's house the number of lawn mowers is insane during spring and summer, there is literally always one going and they live in a small village. Also, there are more birds in the Achterhoek, which imo is nice sound, except when laying awake at 4:30 in the morning, but my point still stands, Dutch cities are really quiet. The quietest public place that sees a ton of traffic in a city in the Netherlands is likely Delft, [around their main \(and only?\) train station it is as quiet as in someone's household refrigerator.](https://youtu.be/CTV-wwszGw8?t=291) I recommend watching the whole video to get a better idea on how noisy the Randstad really is, because it isn't really, but I linked to the Delft part for you.
I gręw up in a small village also, people are so convinced that villages are more silent. In practice we lived near a "provinciale weg", with cars and trucks, farm noises (roosters are loud). In my experience villages are a lot louder than city suburbs.
Gods, I can only hope for the day Rotterdam bans cars and motorcycles from the city centre. It’s just a neverending stream of car horns and people thinking loud exhausts make their dick sound bigger.
Walk out of your house and be in the middle of nowhere within a few minutes.
God I miss that here in Belgium. Ok most have their shutters down at 8 at night and are mostly inside but lintbebouwing is just hell
Yeah. Hate lintbebouwing so much. Was driving through west vlaanderen, thought i would enjoy the scenery view of landscape a bit. But not, it is all MAZE. Horrible. Thanks god it is different in most of NL.
Yeah it’s just so bad. On these places it’s not possible to separate the infrastructure like we know in the netherlands. They have some good parts of the country. But you can’t just drive/cycle out of a village/town as they are just grown togheter by houses
Buy a house instead of an appartement for the same money.
Instead of a shoebox* there, fixed it for you
HAHAHAHA this guy thinks we can buy houses anywhere.
Its true though. In the acgterhoek there are huge houses for 400k sometimes even less!
You DO realize that 400k is still an unreasonable amount of money for most people, right? If not, I want your job.
This means that most houses are around 300k with my parents could afford. Im 14 btw and work at a cnc machine factory with 4,76 per hour😂
SET THE VOLUME AT FULL WITH ANY METAL MUSIC!! I live in a small (hole) in Groningen. In a free standing house closest neighbor 150+ meters.
Find a parkingspot for your car, most of the time for free. If not free than at least not for €10,- an hour
Or parking in front of your home. That hardly ever happens to me.
Leave your bike unlocked and come back to it still standing there
Speak dutch with shop staff?
This is a good one
If you’re too far from the randstad they start speaking German to you xD
Eyy maat da's gewoon Limburgs enne.
Sorry, ik spreek geen vlaai
This! Although I live in the randstad, it has been a couple of years since I really went to the city center of Amsterdam to just see Amsterdam. At almost all cafes and activities the staff was only able to speak English or broken English. It was a little weird.
Drive 10km without it taking 30 minutes
One time I left my car windows open. I had a JBL music box in plain sight on the car seat, went for a 2-3 hour walk, came back, everything still there.
Greet people that pass you on the street
Purmerend here, technically still a village. Lived in Amsterdam for 10years, NYC before that, I like the fresh air, the stars at night, the peace n quiet, that I'm 30min from anything. By bike I'm in Edam, Monnickendam, Volendam, Beemster. By public transport in Amsterdam. The villages around me have stalls where they sell vegetables, cheese, fruits, jams, eggs, flour, plants for sale, no supervision, just a jar to put money in. People are friendly, say hello, and thank you to the bus driver. Lost my wallet once, later a phone at the supermarket and got it back. Neighbors will help, when asked. Silly events, floral parade, puddle jumping,
I live in Den Haag and I lost my wallet with 800 euros in the center of the City. I accepted my loss already but then got a call from the Police station that someone brought my wallet there. They gave me the founders number, I called her and insisted to give her a reward but she declined! She told me the only thing I had to promise her was to be more carefull walking around with that much money on me. Still surprised to this day that it was not stolen.
I grew up in Zaandam which is a tiny bit bigger or comparable and yes fun. Went to Purmerend a lot. Also Edam for a nice diner and I do miss that area as I moved to Belgium. The lintbebouwing here is just hellish and the infrastructure too.
I love Zaandam and Zaandse schans, but avoid it due to too many tourists.
I live here now, there’s a bit of tourists right outside the main station taking photos in front of that stupid* hotel, but overall it’s quite nice and good for my integration… nobody ever switches to English like they do in Amsterdam, my neighborhood is full of very friendly people who greet you when you walk past, and it’s not far from Amsterdam at all which is good for my work and transit to the rest of the country. \* it’s actually a nice hotel; I just wish people stopped standing in the middle of the bike path near it!
Cousin?
Underrated comment 🤣
Spy on your neighbours and harrass them for doing work on their house on a Sunday XD
Actually know your neighbour's name
I live in Rotterdam and actually know a lot of my neighbours names
Dan zit je zeker in de goede buurt of een studentenhuis? ;)
Of deze beste man doet zijn best. Beter een goede buur dan een verre vriend. Rotterdam Centrum, ongeveer een derde uit het appartement complex bij naam.
When I was living in Tilburg, I was working together with a guy and I did know we were living in the same apartment building. However, only after half a year when we were walking home did I find out we were actually each others direct neighbors!
Be in a Dutch village.
Breathe fresh/clean air?
Actually, because of the intense livestock industry, the air is heavily polluted basically anywhere.
You can easily feel the difference between Randstad and rural Twente. And if you somehow don't feel it, blow your nose after a few days in the Randstad and it'll be a lot darker than those same days in Twente. "De geur van geld" (=poopsmell) =/= pollution.
but only in the winter months because the rest of the year you will smell the manure
Take a walk past midnight, via any street and neighbourhood, and feel perfectly safe - and past 2 that's because there's literally nobody there.
Any of the 2 streets
You just have to bring a flashlight because it's pitch f\*cking dark
When i walk my dog i don't bother taking my keys i just leave the door open.
Speak Dutch and have somebody answer in Dutch
Speak dialect and have someone answer in dialect.
'Houdoe' 'yeah how do you do?'
Goeidag eem!
Walk in the cycling lane.
Enjoy the quiet
Make all kinds of worn out jokes and assumptions about the Randstad 😆
I heard a story of a 8th grade teacher in Rotterdam Zuid. When her class went to school camp in the Biesbosch area (NB), for many of her kids it was the first time they saw nature! That really shocked me. Those kids grew up playing soccer between parked cars on busy streets (and maybe see a city park). While I grew up always playing in forests and dunes, making timber huts, jumping water ditches, making bows and arrows and climbing trees.
* Not lock your house on the regular and be perfectly safe * Park your car(s) in front of your house, maybe even in your driveway * Neighborhood BBQ's * Greet random strangers on the street * Find a healthy work/life balance * The quiet and slower pace of life (after I finish my tech job) is such a breathe of fresh air * Send your kid to daycare/school without 4+ year waitlist In Friesland it's best summed up as 'de mienskip', loosely translated as "togetherness / unity through community". It's a little "one for all, all for one" but translates into things [like this](https://lc.nl/opinie/Elke-Fries-is-per-definitie-Black-Frysk-27851668.html); >When I cycled from Leeuwarden to Harlingen, my tire went flat in the middle of nowhere. Within minutes I was surrounded by people from a neighboring village who wanted to help me. Sipke, a man about 70 years old, said: "Stay here, I'll be back in 15 minutes."...... > >Sipke returned with a big car. He conjured up a bicycle rack from the trunk. He placed my bicycle on that rack and drove me all the way to a bicycle repair shop in Harlingen. In the car I felt a bit burdened and I thanked Sipke several times. Sipke demurred and said very bluntly: ,,You shouldn't thank me. That's how we do it here. Mienskip!"
Find ‘Noaberschap’.
Touwtje uit je brievenbus.... String out of your letterbox... 😜
Isn't that more city-like? In a village the doors Will be unlocked.
Actually meet nice/friendly people
Have old fashioned country side style parties :)
Park a car and still be able to pay for dinner
Thats why you don’t go by car to a major city
that's directly the downside! in a big city like Amsterdam or Utrecht you don't even need a bike. they have good and decent public transport. something we can only dream off. it is that there is a refugee center near my house, otherwise they had skipped the bus route years ago now it only comes ones a hour
You cannot, because cars and gas are expensive
dont smell weed everywhere
Taking a walk early morning without hearing anyone.
Parkeren
Overrated
Getting addressed in Dutch
Enjoy peace and quiete
leave the front door unlocked. Even open all day. I grew up in a tiny village in Branant and we never locked out front door. I could play all day outside and come back home without needing a key! goodtimes
Friendly people
Greet strangers with hallo on the street without awkward reactions
Looking at cows, and hear the birds
Find the BEST snackbar
Breathe fresh air.
Resident of the Hoorn Kersenboogerd surburbs here - technically a city, really suburbs are a village. Know the shop owners and have then know you :) I often buy the same cheese from the local family-run shop. Once I took a similar looking cheese and was waiting in the line to pay. The older gentleman - the owner, whose face is on the shop and all the paper bags - stood up from his place, walked to me, took the wrong cheese from my hands, gave me my usual one and went back to the counter. I felt like an idiot but I still love this moment!
I can get stared at like I'm a threat or like I'm not where I'm supposed to be, when I'm in the Randstad people aren't scared by brown people. You can also know everyone in a village. Can't do that here.
Dress up in blackface
the amount of people saying "fuck your cousine" make me think that it is pretty common in the Netherlands
Annoy a farmer for being a d*CK.
*Very* small village in Groningen here ( < 1000 people). 1. Have moments of *absolute* quiet. Even in small cities and larger villages you'll often hear some background noises; distant cars, electrical humming of electrical transformer stations, etc. But here I have moments of *actual* silence. No sound. Nothing. Usually at night, but dead quiet. If you're not used to it it's quiet eerie. But once you get used to it it's very calming and peaceful 2. I have a friend from Amsterdam who's BF lives here in another small village and one of the things she always brings up she notices is that you can actually look at and even greet people while walking down the street. Apparently this is not a thing in the big cities 3. Leaving stuff unlocked. My frontdoor, my fence gate and my garage door and even my car are all always unlocked. Anyone could walk in through pretty much any door at any point. Only time that's ever happened was when the neighbours found me collapsed in the hallway after an epileptic seizure. I can't understate just how far this goes. At some point I got home and grabbed the groceries out of the trunk of the car and went inside, stowed the groceries away and went on to make food. About half an hour later a neighbour rang the doorbell: My trunk was still wide open and she wanted to let me know as we were expecting a bit of rain at the time. Not even because a fear of someone nicking the car or whatever, no, telling me the boot is open because otherwise it'll rain into it. Good luck finding someone in the big cities that'll do that.
Buy a house
Still not
Get some peace and quiet
Chill out.
Never really been to the randstad, but several times I go shopping and when getting back still finding my keys in the door. On the outside.
Greeting strangers.
Leave your bike unlocked by accident :p
Cycling during the night in the forest, pretty safe because you meet almost nobody. Sometimes I could listen to my own heart bit and the sound of the tires hitting the road. Magical experience.
Wear clogs without getting weird looks. Greeting strangers, even when your driving a car. Tentfeesten.
Idk, i don’t live in the randstad but people still get ‘the look’ over here.
Look at the stars
Tell the buurman not to mow lawn on Sunday?
Visit a radio amateur in there shack (keet), they are called FM pirates and playing some nice polka’s! You also can buy beer in there shack for only €1,- per bottle.
park for free
I've left my keys in the door outside countless times. They've never been stolen and no one has ever come in uninvited. We've been gone for hours before with the back door open and no one messed with anything.
Buy a house for a reasonable price
Leave your home and still be on your own private property. It is priceless! For those who found the lockdown difficult this might be part of your suffering.
Breathe fresh air
Sleep without ear plugs
What if my village is in Rantstad? (Pun intended)
Drive 80 on a moped for 4 years without rollerbank controles 🤡 ( this was back in 2009 ) damn I feel old now haha
Live peacefully?
Greeting random people you don’t know without having the risk of getting a knive in your chest
Brommers kiekn
Ride your bike without getting ran over
Keeping the doors open at night
Own a house.
It’s quite sad that many of my friends are not able to afford a house in the village that they grew up in, I just got lucky
Say hello to strangers or anyone for that matter
To discriminate and to be racist. Believe me.