Tempus fugit

My street approaching dawn

I’ve been meaning for a while to do a proper, “now I’m here a year post” but I’ve been putting it off for many reasons.

Some are obvious, busy, traveling, work… all that jazz, and some are less obvious, or maybe just harder to face and put in writing.

I moved here in a bit of a whirlwind to be honest,  I am a bit of a procrastinator, I like my rut, and am happy with the known. I’m certainly not a risk-taker. So when the job was offered, I said yes mostly as I had this “now or never” feeling, either I got off my ass and tried living, and earning my living (not just staying with family or studying) in another country, or I just shut up about it, stayed put and struck it off the list without trying.

I knew in my heart that if I was to sit and think to deeply about moving or its implications that I would find a million reasons not to do it, some real and some exaggerated. But they would build a wall in my head I wouldn’t be inclined to cross, so in all honesty, apart from consulting  the main players in my life and doing a few quick financial calculations, I really didn’t put a lot of thought into it.

Signs were, to be honest, when I think back on the first few weeks here I hardly remember them at all. I managed to source my lovely apartment on the internet before moving over, and a great friend of Catriona’s went to have a look at it for me, as she worked at the end of the street, and declared it reasonably sound. Like many of my decisions around this move it was snap and based mostly on whimsy. I loved the lamp in the sitting room and the colour of the wall in the kitchen. Having no photos of the bedroom or bathroom I was glad to be reassured by Prina that both did indeed exist.

I arrived on Easter Saturday morning in snow, as you do, to begin work on the Tuesday after Easter, with @fontfiddler leaving on the Thursday. Having never even come to Amsterdam on so much as a weekend break before, this was uncharted territory, but it was Europe not Outer Mongolia so I reassured myself with that and moved along.

Canalside Terasse of my fave Cafe & Eethuis

More internetting found various meetup and expat groups. With the summer starting to appear people were eager to shake off the winter indoors, and meet on terasses for beers and laughs. By May I had made a pretty neat core group of friends, most of whom I still count as good friends.

Mates from home and family came to stay, we had Queens Day and Canal Pride, and I was enjoying the freedom of beginning again, and the random beauty of the city.

Weekly trips to Nordmarket and my local bar(s) Cafe Chris, In de Wildeman and Cafe de Nieuwe Lelie. Along with meals in low maintenance eetcafe’s were fun and often wound well into the night. My core group of friends cemented and some new ones came along, it was getting to the stage where we all knew what the others were about and it was comfortable and fun. Not like at the beginning where it seemed like an interminable series of “first dates”, with the same questions, How long are you here?, What do you do?, Where do you work?. By July we all knew each other and it seemed as if I had always lived here in a funny way.

Work was ok, I knew taking on the job the projects would be varied, large and a bit tedious. Also that I would for the most part be working totally alone. I was finding that hard, having come from a close knit group in my last company with a real sense of family more than team. Early on I declared myself far more “work-sick” than “home-sick”, I think that is something that will remain with me, and some days it gets me down.

Being away from my family and friends, and especially @fontfiddler was the bit that I tried very hard not to think about. I called everyday and went home pretty much every 4/5 weeks. But I was missing seeing my nephew and having @fontfiddler there in the evening when I came home.

Our Hotel from Central Park

On the whole I find living here to be not much different to living in Dublin.  Amsterdam is small and easily navigated. The people are friendly, they all, much to my dismay speak brilliant English, so its easy to chat to people, if you are happy not to practice your Dutch  Service is woeful in most places, they are a bit blunt and pretty much all think they are right all the time.  I know these are generalizations, but they are the same generalizations many of my expat mates have come to, so I can be shot with the majority.

Throughout the Autumn, I was mostly looking forward to going to NYC with @fontfiddler in October, which was amazing and one of the real highlights of not just this year but many a year.

I had heard the Winter in Amsterdam was depressing, but mostly from Americans, so I thought, well perhaps they are just not used to it. I’ll be fine, after an Irish winter, after many winters as as student in Limerick, how hard can a winter here be?

Yeah it was pretty miserable.

Cycling was out for me as being honest, street lighting isn’t great here, especially along the canals, and fog is all prevailing. There is a constant dampness, that despite being Irish, was really tough, and when it rained …. yeah… lots. This winter was (as for everyone in Europe) a tough one. The nights seemed never ending, and no one wanted to meet up during the week, so it was Monday to Friday bed-work-home and repeat…

With the talk of recession and lack of prospects at home, and the never ending winter, I really found that isolation was creeping up. I’m glad to say that the spring has finally sprung, and things are on the move. While I may be here for another 12-18 months things will change over the next few and I hope that next winter will be easier.

All this said, I do like it here. I think winter ’08 took a lot out of me and it was hard for a while to see the wood for the trees.  The truths being, that I miss having my family nearby, I miss having  lots going on around me at work,  I miss my old work friends a lot, have not changed. I think this experiment has proven that I can live away and be relatively successful with it, but that there is no shame in saying that I like living in Ireland. For all its flaws.

Amsterdam is a great city to be in right now, and with open arms I welcome any bloggers or blog readers to come visit.

I am very proud of my foster city, and currently loving my return to biking after the winter. So don your cycling legs and put your beer drinking head on and come visit!

Beertje en Bitterballen!