Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Amsterdam Travel Guide: What to Eat, Drink, See, and Smoke

Episode Date: August 17, 2018

Amsterdam is more than hookers and weed. In fact, only 10 percent of Dutch people say they smoke marijuana. Want a more authentic Netherlands experience? Follow the advice of Audrey Sykes, author of the Amsterdam edition of the Moon Travel Guides (Don’t worry, we’ll still tell you the best places to smoke weed). On this episode, we talk to Audrey about her life in Amsterdam and get all her best insider travel tips on where to eat and have fun, from coffee shops to cozy brown cafes. You'll also learn the difference between Holland and the Netherlands, plus lots more. For photos and links to the places we discuss, go to https://sarahmikutel.com/freedom/amsterdam-best-insider-travel-tips-expats-nomads  Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

So when we go back to the red light district now, you're not going to see as many windows illuminated with women, but it is still there. It is the main attraction of Amsterdam. I thought the tulips were the biggest attraction. I'm so innocent. Welcome to the Postcard Academy. I'm your host, Sarah Mikital, and I want to thank you so much for listening and subscribing to this travel show. Last week, we talked about a few places that are great for freelancers working abroad, and today I am speaking with an American who opened her own agency to represent artists in Amsterdam. Not only that, Audrey Sykes is also the author of the Amsterdam edition of the Moon Travel Guides. On this episode, we talk about how Audrey, as an expat, can legally work in Amsterdam,

and of course we get into all of her insider travel tips on the places that you must check out when in the Netherlands, from coffee shops to cozy brown cafes. This podcast is brought to you by Audible. Not a member yet. Postcard Academy listeners can get a free audiobook and a 30-day free trial if you sign up via the link. Audiblerial.com slash postcard. Now into my conversation with Audrey. Welcome, Audrey.

Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Thanks for having me. Nice to meet you. So you are an American living in Amsterdam. To be honest, I avoided Amsterdam for, quite a few years because I felt like because I didn't go there during university, I missed the boat because I didn't want to just hang out with a bunch of drunk like weed smoking college students. But then like over the last few years, I would even say like the last two or three years,

I know so many people have gone and just talk about how laid back it is and lovely and, you know, beautiful and just enjoying the nature and riding around. And yeah, so I can't believe I haven't been yet, but I'm definitely going to come soon. Yeah, I think that one of the biggest reasons why I stayed here was very similar. I thought that Amsterdam was just about weed and hookers, and I wasn't going to be able to connect with that, or it sounded like kind of a gritty, dirty city to me. And then when I got here, it was so incredibly charming and it was the total opposite from what I expected that I really just was eager to know more about it.

And now I guess I'm hooked. Where did you grow up? I'm originally from a little fishing town in southeast Florida called Jupiter. And I grew up there as a kid. And then when I was about 13, I moved out to Colorado when I lived in Boulder and Fort Collins for about 10 years before coming out here. So was this your first trip abroad? Oh, I had done the cliche backpack around Europe when you're in college thing with some friends. and when I was young, my mom took me out to Italy, Switzerland, and London.

So I had maybe a little bit of a taste of Europe beforehand, but it was really, I had some sort of sense of trying to get out of the U.S., trying to see a little bit more of the world on my own, and I got out here for grad school. And so why the Netherlands? You went to grad school in the Netherlands? Yeah, it was, it was, the beginning of a program that was subsidized by the European Commission called Erasmus Mundus.

And I graduated Colorado State with a bachelor's degree in journalism. And I knew I wanted to go to grad school. I wanted to be out of the country. Canada seemed a little too close. Australia was a little too far. UK was a little too expensive. And I had a professor that told me about this program. program where you go and study in Europe for two years at three different universities, and then you get a double master's in international journalism and communication. So that seemed like exactly what I wanted to do. So it started off in a town called Arhus, which is in Denmark, that nobody's ever heard of, but it's the second largest city in Denmark.

And so you were there for a semester. there was a group about 25 of us from all over the world. Then you came over to Amsterdam and you started at the University of Amsterdam for a semester. And then you headed towards your specialization. And for me, that was the University of Hamburg and Germany. So I kind of came back to Amsterdam eventually. And I've been here since roughly 2008. That's so interesting that Erasmus has a grad program.

And that Americans can participate in it. I say all the time that it would be so wonderful if Americans could participate in Erasmus because I know I have friends, European friends who've done it. And they've met people from all over the world. They've maintained these friendships for years. As far as diplomacy goes around the world, I think it's one of the best things that we can have. Whereas most American programs, you study abroad, you're studying with all Americans. from your same university and you really don't get that experience to interact with people from other countries.

So that's great to hear about. Yeah, it's a program. I think it keeps growing in different departments. We were the first year for international journalism, but it's been running strong and expanding ever since. Ever since 2005 was when it started. They have a couple hundred now that come out for that program. And I think Erasmus in general, you're right. Most of the Europeans that go to Erasmus, they keep their friendships going.

And it's a really unforgettable study abroad program for them as well. But Erasmus Bundas is more so for the non-Europeans, and it gives them a chance to go to European universities and experience that culture, but as well as having a very international identity. I mean, the people I studied with were from everywhere, from China to Kyrgyzstan to Peru and all over Europe. It was great. So as an American, how are you able to stay and live and work in Amsterdam? I began with a series of student visas. Once you graduate from a graduate program here, you have this sort of grace period to find a job. So I tried to extend that as much as possible. And then when I wasn't able to do that anymore, I had a visa with a business that was a

news and information outlet for expats living abroad. And then when that ended, I decided to start my own business. I don't think the Netherlands is the only place, but I know for sure that this country has something called the Dutch American Friendship Treaty, or Daft, for short. And Daft is an opportunity for Americans to start a business in the Netherlands. And if you come up with a good business plan and it's convincing and you can keep it afloat, then you can stay here for five years and then eventually apply for permanent residency. And ideally, the Dutch can do the same in the United States. That's a pretty cool treaty. So what's your business? So I started a business in 2012 called Stick Together.

And Stick Together is an agency that represents artists that are perhaps emerging artists or need business representation to sort of advance into more of an established career. It really wasn't in the cards. I was out here as a travel writer and a tour guide for the longest time, but I had a good friend who became an overnight success story. And he needed a manager. and it was after the recession and journalism was going digital and I started to be in front of my laptop more than I liked. So maybe a change of pace sounded like a good idea and I'd always been into street art and urban art anyway.

So that's how it all began. And from there it really evolved into a project gallery, a management agency. It's kind of like a record label for bands, but it's a record label for artists and you do what you can to make them. as successful as possible. Very cool. So are you talking about Max Zorn? Max Zorn, yeah. He was the one who kind of started at all.

Yeah, I saw your TEDx with him, and he was creating these really beautiful portraits with layers of translucent packing tape. I will have to link to it because it's hard to describe, but it was so cool. Yeah, he started as a street artist for the night around Amsterdam. So Amsterdam is a very nostalgic place and it has a very historic romantic setting. And a lot of artists, I think, are inspired by that. And this one in particular saw the way that the lanterns were reflecting off the canals. And he felt compelled to make some sort of art for the nighttime.

And he originally climbed up street lamps all around the city and put little pieces of art made out of tape on the actual lamps. So when they were glowing at night, all the tape layers would create these sapient tones that could create these little faces. And then it just kind of launched from there. Talk to us more about the visual snapshot of Amsterdam. Where is it geographically? What does the postcard look like? I think something really spectacular and unique to Amsterdam is that it's still very much rooted visually.

in the golden ages of its history, which is the 1600s. And I think for especially people coming from countries like the US, that's a pretty brilliant thing to see. A lot of these houses and even the whole sort of structure of the city with the canals, there's over 60 miles of canals running through the city. And then you have these narrow houses. They're all about three or four stories tall.

They're all made out of brick. But they all seem to have their funny little facades that are special to them. And they almost seem to look like faces. A lot of the canal houses are leaning a little bit here and there. So it's got this sort of charming, cozy character to it. And I think the biggest postcard of Amsterdam are probably the streets themselves, which is basically the entire central part of the Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is a very compact town. It's very walkable. it nearly has to be walkable because it's hard to fit anything else besides pedestrians and bicycles around here. Lots and lots of bikes, yeah. That's what I always think of when I think of Amsterdam these days. What's the difference between the Netherlands and Holland? So I think that's a question I get a lot.

The Netherlands is the Dutch term for lowlands. And lowlands refers to an area around here that includes. It's included Belgium. And so Lowlands means just basically a region that's more or less below sea level. A third of the country of the Netherlands is reclaimed land from the sea. So nowadays, the Netherlands is the actual name of the country. Holland is sort of a nickname. There are provinces in the Netherlands, just like there are states of the United States.

And there are some provinces here that use the word Holland. Amsterdam, being the capital of the country, is in North Holland, and right below us is another province called South Holland, but nobody wants to get too picky about it, so you can say Holland, and it's no big deal. So people are using the Netherlands and Holland sort of interchangeably these days? Right. Okay. Well, I would love to get some Amsterdam travel advice from you.

You wrote the Amsterdam Guide for the Moon Travel Guide series. So if I were coming to visit you for a long weekend, what would be our must-sees? Okay. Well, it depends on the time of the year, but it's the summertime. So maybe we can roll with time of the year that has great weather. So that means we're outside quite a bit. Like I said, the city's walkable. And it's really the main attraction itself.

The city center and all the canal rings that they're famous for is a UNESCO World Heritage site. So ideally if I have a friend coming into town on the weekend We'll get usually them on a bike on a bicycle That kind of ups the fun element pretty much But it makes it really easy to get around And usually on the weekends You do as the Dutch do There are some of the most beautiful parks in the country

You go for a little bike ride in the daytime Maybe down the Amstall River See some windmills Or maybe you kind of walk along and peruse the canals, hit up a couple terraces outside, order a drink, watch people walk by, or you go to the park, back to the parks, and you have a sort of Alfresco picnic.

I think the main attractions, as far as museums go, are definitely the Rijks Museum. The Rijks Museum is the National Gallery of the Netherlands. So that's where you have all the big Dutch master paintings, by Rembrandt and Vermeer. And then right next to it is the Van Gogh Museum. So you have the largest collection of Vincent Van Gogh paintings in the world there. And both of those museums are pretty fun.

They're displayed in chronological order. So it's kind of easy to go through. You get a good history of the country. And then you go get a very interesting history of one-of-a-kind artist. And it's so different seeing Van Gogh, or I guess any artist, person. But for him, especially for me, like when I was in college, I had, you know, a Van Gogh poster, like many students on my wall. And, you know, I liked it. I thought it was cool. But I didn't realize how amazing he was until I actually saw the, like, the layers of paint on the paintings

hanging in the museums when I finally got to Europe. Yeah, Van Gogh has one of the most, I think, incredible stories to come out of the history of art. And, you know, what's so spectacular about is that he created almost over 2,000 pieces in a very short time span, seven, eight years maybe, and his career started when he was so late. I mean, he was almost over 30 when things really started to roll for him on canvas. And so not only do you get to see some of the most spectacular paintings he created, but you get to really understand the story of this artist who was never going to be a success, never going to be rich, always depended on the support of his brother,

and yet he never stopped creating. And it's a beautiful tale. So let's see. What else would we do? My favorite thing to do with my friends is rent a boat and cruise around the canalways. We have a few companies here where you can be the captain. You can bring your good friends and bring whatever food and drinks and music you like and rent a boat for a few hours.

It goes very, very slow. And there are buoys that are all over. the outside of the boat for your own safety, but it's a spectacular way to see the city, and it's always a blast no matter who's on that boat. Wait a minute, so we can just rent a boat. We don't need a boating license or anything like that? You don't need a boating license, I think, if you're going the speed of a turtle, to be honest. Okay. And it's pretty easy to get around the canals here. I mean, it's pretty straightforward,

and I think it was one of the most original ways to see. the city. Wait a minute. So I'm sorry, tell me again what kind of boat this is. Maybe I didn't understand. We're talking about a boat that could fit maybe eight to 12 people. It seems a bit unsinkable. It's almost like a bathtub boat, so it's very low. And it's got an electric motor, so we're not dealing with anything too dangerous here. Okay. It's a blast. It's very fun, and I think it's a business that's really growing. Is there any particular company you would recommend? I always go with some guys called Mokam Boat, M-O-K-U-M, which is the Yiddish nickname for Amsterdam, and then the Dutch word for boat is B-O-O-T.

But there are quite a few others. That sounds super fun, so you just pack a picnic and cruise around all day? Yeah, and it's really amazing. And especially in the summertime, because we're so far north, we have a long period of daylight, I think the sun starts to rise, it starts to rise now around 5.30 in the morning, and it sets 9.30. Maybe it's still twilight around 10 or 10.30. So it's a long period of time to be outside, and the boat rides are just the best. What are some other hidden gems you would take me to? Well, we haven't really talked about anything to do at night. Yes. And you actually are

the author for something called Party Earth. Is that right? What is that? Oh, party earth. Yeah, party earth was a guidebook, and now I think it's all online to the best party places in some of the top spots around Europe. And years ago, when I was a freelance travel writer, I started to be a bit pigeonholed into being more of a party writer about Amsterdam than anything else. And somebody who's in their mid-20s, that's sort of the person. job. And so my job to author that chapter to Amsterdam meant that you go to all the bars, all the clubs, all the concert venues, all the coffee shops, even the sort of sultry corners of the red light district, and then you pick your cherries and then you include it as the places to go, depending on what you're in the mood for. It was a blast. So what are your favorite places to go to now? Well, you know, nowadays I think the neighborhoods just outside of the city center seem to carry a lot of nightlife and fun for the people that are living around the city. When I have friends in town, we'll usually start at one of the microcraft breweries that are now around here.

And my favorite is the brawerei hetai, which is underneath an old Dutch windmill that has also a beer garden outside. and is flamed with beautiful canals so you can have a bit of a cultural experience as well as a beautiful scenery and you can be enjoying a craft beer from one of the original craft breweries in Amsterdam. I also like just going to different cafes here. We have a particular kind of pub

just like you do in the UK. They're called brown cafes and brown cafes have a lot of just sort of cozy charm to it. There are usually really stained wooden walls and wooden tables and bar stools in the bar and the floorboards. And it's got this sort of feeling where you can feel warm on a cold winter's day, these large windows overlooking the streets where people walk by. You can enjoy a Belgian beer or a nice glass of wine. Those places, I think, carry a lot of charm as well.

But if we wanted to go a little bit more into the fun scene, I mean, I also feel like Amsterdam brings an amazing roster of musicians to their venues. And I think one of my most favorite venues is Paradiso. It's an old church from the 19th century that they turned into a music venue. And it's just gorgeous. You have stained glass window behind the stage. You have these wraparound balconies, and it's like everybody wants to play it in Paradis. So you'll even have bands like Prince or Patty Smith when they come or when they used to come play, they'd rather play their three or four nights in a row than a big arena.

So it's a really special place. Yeah, it sounds like a beautiful place to see a favorite artist. What is the state of weed tourism these days? How has it changed over the past few years? Well, let's think about it. In 2005, 2006, you were able to still walk into coffee shops and people were smoking weed, cigarettes, and drinking strong Belgian beers that had 9% alcohol, all in the same place. So things could get a little out of hand pretty quickly. And so nowadays, you fast forward to 2018, and things are a little bit more regulated there. I think a lot of Americans are afraid

that you are not even allowed to go into coffee shops as foreigners anymore, but that's just a miscommunication. That has to do with another town south in the Netherlands, south of the border here. In Amsterdam, the mayor would never, the mayor would always make sure that tourism was running at 100%. And most of the coffee shops here survive because of the tourism industry. One of the interesting things I used to tell backpackers when I was a tour guide was that less than 10% of Dutch people even say that they smoke weed.

So if we have some 100, 200 coffee shops in Amsterdam, they're making all their money through tourism. So if you come to Amsterdam and you want to dive into the coffee shop culture, you're going to be just fine. The interesting thing about it is that it's regulated. So you have to be 18 or over to go in a coffee shop. You can't, of course, bring any hard drugs or weapons in a coffee shop. The shop itself is only allowed to stock so much weight or so much weak in any given day. And a customer is only allowed to buy so much at a time. And these are the ways that the government tries to regulate it,

but at the end of the day, it's still part of the black market. There's only so much you can do. Are these cafes sprinkled all over the place, or are they, in the Red Lake District? They're more or less all over Amsterdam. However, I'd say the majority of them are in and around the Red Light District. I would say your safest bed is the city center itself. The better coffee shops are probably not in the Red Light District.

The more authentic ones will be along the Canal Ring and other parts of the city center. Do you have any ones that you recommend? Well, there are quite a few that want something called the Cannabis Cup Awards. There used to be a contest called the Cannabis Cup where coffee shops would enter to win awards having the best supply. I don't think they have that anymore nowadays, but some big winners were definitely the greenhouse, the original Dompring. What's the one Snoop Dogg used to go to a lot? The gray area. Amnesia. Those are those are sort of the ones that I think have won the most awards for the best quality of cannabis.

And so back to the Red Lake District. So I read that it was disappearing. So this is the area I think most people know where it's like, you know, the prostitution district and women were sitting in windows. And I was just reading an article recently that this was like a failed experiment. and it just led to a lot of bad sex tourism and Amsterdam is trying to do away with this. What is the story? The Red Lake District is still such a political issue

and it's changing all the time. You know, go back to the idea that the Netherlands is a place that tries to regulate something like the black market. So as much as they try to do that, it can only go to so far. I think with prostitution when it became legal in 2000, they had every intention for, the government had every intention to offer security and safety and regulate this business, but you can, again, only go so far. So they were able to make prostitution legal. Women could sign up for a union. They had health care benefits.

They had security. They were able to get their own tax number. But there's always going to be this sort of deeper underbelly of it all. And unfortunately, as much as you try to regulate it, it's not going to stop human trafficking and women going to the red light district and working in windows or in prostitution as a sex worker against their will. So they tried to shut down a lot of the buildings where they knew illegal activity was going, such as modern day pimping. to speak, but I think you can't only control it so far. And now we're at a point where as much as it's amazing to have something like the Red Light District because it has so much history

behind it, you can't ignore the fact that sex workers and human trafficking is still an issue there. So what I'm, where I'm leading at is that if you were to be here 30 years ago, the Red Light District was a shady place to be. And it wasn't only because of the sex workers, but it was also because there were a lot of hard drugs running around. There were a lot of junkies on the street, selling people cocaine and heroin. And I feel like maybe that's the stereotyping cliche that people still have of Amsterdam nowadays. What the government tried to do was clean everything up by saying, okay, let's put all our money towards fighting hard drugs

and getting rid of the junkies and the drug dealers in the Red Light District, trying to regulate the cannabis and soft drugs, trying to regulate the sex worker and prostitution industry. And so they more or less cleaned it up in one way, but it's never going to be totally sparkling clean. So when we go back to the Red Light District now, you're not going to see as many windows illuminated with women, and it is going to be a little less,

but it is still there. It is the main attraction of Amsterdam. So I think every year they go back to the drawing board and trying to figure out what to do. I thought the tulips were the biggest attraction. I'm so innocent. Maybe for two months out of the year. Mid to late March, it starts. Then you have all of April and probably till the end of May. I mean, there's still tulips all around here. And, you know, the number of grow houses or greenhouses all over the country,

they kind of make sure that tulip season keeps running at least until Juneish. What's the history of tulips in Amsterdam? Oh, right. So tulip mania is a pretty interesting phenomenon. I think a lot of people don't even realize that tulips, they're not even native to Europe. They're not even native to the Netherlands. They were brought over by a botanist from the University of Leiden in the 1600s. His name was Clausius. And Clausius was kind of like a mad scientist. But he was more of like an adorable mad scientist. He found these tulip bulbs from the Turkey, Afghanistan region. He brought him back to the Netherlands. And he started sort of cross-breeding them together and injecting them with viruses and illnesses to see what sort of effect they'd have when they bloomed. And the effect that they'd have would be he'd have tulips that were changing different colors. He had tulips that were kind of red and white or multiple colors. And he had petals that were sort of fraying on the outer edges. And people just went crazy about it.

I mean, this was the golden ages. It was the time when there was no Mardiqi in the Netherlands and everybody was making a whole lot of money because of Dutch East India companies, sailing all over the world. So I guess if you have just a lot of money to spend, you start sort of collecting or being into cute things like tulips. So people started investing or putting down deposits to have the latest creation that Clausius was going to create with tulips. But you have to wait for them to bloom, right? So people would come up to Clousies and say, oh, listen, I really want to, I want to have first dibs on what you're going to grow next year. You know, here's a hundred bucks. And then that turned into 10,000 bucks, which turned into people putting down their property cards, people investing in their livestock just so they could have the rarest craziest tulips that that mad, clausious scientist is going to come up with next.

And eventually it cowed up to everybody. And all these rich people had a bunch of adorable amazing tulips, and they lost their properties and their livestock and a lot of their money. So a lot of historians say it was the first bubble burst in stock market crash in history. Yeah. And last year, when everyone was going crazy over Bitcoin and it got super hot and overinflated, people were comparing it to tulip mania. So I think that's just such an interesting comparison.

If you go to the Kokenhoff, which is one of the main attractions during tulip season, where they have over six or seven million flowers, you'll see just thousands of people there. So there's a part of tulip mania that hasn't been totally lost yet. It's still on my list. Let's talk about food. So what food should we try when we're in Amsterdam? Well, it depends on what kind of taste you have. If you like sort of the bland, hardy farmer taste, then the Dutch is where it's at because the Dutch roots is a lot about farming.

It's a lot about, and we're kind of up north, so it's hardy cabbages and meats and potatoes. But the good news is that since the Dutch sailed around the world and dominated trade for almost 200 years, they brought with them a lot of interest and spices back to Amsterdam. So the sort of remnants of Dutch colonies like Indonesia and Suriname, you can still see it in a lot of the restaurants here in Amsterdam. We have our own little Chinatown that has a whole street full of different Asian cuisines. And I love Indonesian cuisine, of course, just coming back from there, Surinamese food is really unique. I don't think people even know that Suriname is a country that exists. So if you like those sort of exotic flavors, maybe a lot of spice, you can find that here too.

But the Dutch cheese is also amazing. Don't ever underestimate that. So is there, aside from the cheese, is there a typical Dutch dish? Well, there are quite a few traditional Dutch snacks. I mean, this is the place of, of course, French fries and mayonnaise. So if you're coming here and you want to get some freshly cut potato fries, don't ask for ketchup. It's going to be a huge, hearty dollop of mayonnaise on top. But give it a go because I know it sounds gross, but it's really not as bad as you think. I think it sounds amazing.

Where can we get that? You can get that in a lot of outdoor stalls around town. These outdoor stalls can also carry, I think, a lot of other traditional Dutch food, such as herring. which is a small fish that's usually just been soaking in brine, and then they kind of slice it in half, and then they cut it up, and they put little pickles and raw onions on top, and then they give you a toothpick with a little Dutch flag on it.

Fowl's kind of gross, but just think of it as like a Dutch sushi, and then it starts to seem a little better. I like it. So you mentioned different stalls. What are some good food markets we should check out? Well, I think if you want a food market where you can really taste the traditional Dutch food, what we're talking about with herring and cheese and fries, and of course the desserts like the Strope Waffle,

which is this delicious waffle cookie with this caramel inside, the market you want to go to is the Albert Help Mark, Albert and then C-U-Y-P market. That's in a little neighborhood called DePipe. That's the oldest running. outdoor market in Amsterdam and it has a lot of different stalls for you to try a lot of different foods but it also has a lot of fresh produce it has the flowers it has good deals on clothes i would say even if you want to go souvenir shopping that's a good place to look but then there's also always the

wotterloat line market but that's more for the vintage clothes and collectibles the first market you mentioned or actually both of them are they open every day the albert count market is open but I don't think they're open on Sundays. I know the Waterloo Pline Market is not open on Sundays but all the other days of the week from about nine to four-ish they start packing up around four-430 but it's a weather's nice they might stay open later but I would say going to an outdoor market is definitely one of the top things to do in Amsterdam if I had my friend here for the weekend we'd definitely check out one of the markets. And so you mentioned like it would be a good place to get a souvenir. Is there

something like typical that would make a good souvenir? When I want to bring back souvenirs from my friends, I honestly will go to the supermarkets or go to these outdoor food markets and bring back amazing Dutch cookies, chocolate, candies. I'll even bring back Dutch craft beer. If it's tulips season and it's the right time to buy tulip bulbs. I'll bring back tulip bulbs. And I'll breathe it. And you can also get small, you can get small wheels of Dutch cheese. You don't have to go for the Dutch cheese wheels that weigh 20 pounds. You can get the smaller ones that are a reasonable few pounds for just a few euros. So I would say some of the best Dutch souvenirs, I think, are the foods themselves, and not so much the Rinky Dink magnets or postcards.

Right. Okay. What are your favorite neighborhoods to wander around in? Well, I love the neighborhoods that are in the east. Plantage in particular, I think, is a neighborhood that goes overlooked a lot because maybe everybody pays more attention to the Red Light District, the museum plying where the museums are, and then the canal district. where, for example, the Anne Frank House is. But the plantage, which is right on the east side, used to be the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam. And then after World War II, they really did a good job

at devoting the whole neighborhood into this more green, leafy part of Amsterdam. It's where the botanical gardens are. It's where the zoo is. It's where a lot of Jewish memorials are. The Holocaust Memorial, the Dutch Resistance Museum, the Portuguese Synagogue, the Jewish museum in a lot of water.

I think it's a beautiful neighborhood to cruise around in and beautiful cafes as well. That sounds like a great place to hang out. Well, you're very much into the art scene. Where do you like to go and see art, whether it's museums, galleries, street art? I work as a private guide for the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijks Museum every summer. So I find myself amongst the Dutch masters and the Dutch impressionists nearly almost every day. But if I wanted to see art for myself, I would probably see what's going on in the north part of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Nord. That's just across the river that's behind Central Station.

If you take one of the ferries to the NDSM area, then you'll see one of the few areas that urban artists can go, and paint fresh murals. And there's a lot of different artists that go over there on a weekend basis to paint new things. So I'm always checking that out. And then there's New Spiegel Ha'cht.

That's a place where there are a lot of traditional galleries. And then there are some really great urban galleries out here, like the Go Gallery, the original Downcreen Gallery. So they have a lot of great young and emerging urban artists there as well.

Amsterdam never runs of places to go see art, that's for sure. Are there any weekly or monthly events that happen around the city? Well, now we're in the summertime, and so there's always something going on on the weekend. There's always a festival somewhere around the city. There's always going to be a big music festival happening somewhere in the country. So it's a lot of celebrating and embracing arts and culture here. I personally love the gay pride weekend.

that happens at the end of August or early September. And that's just a huge party in the city. It's really celebrated individuality. There's a huge boat parade, and everybody's just so happy in the streets. I feel like it's even a bigger holiday than Kings Day, but I don't know if I should go that far. Well, it's getting big in Rome as, well, it's nice that pride is spread out different times of year around the world. we can just go party having.

Would you say Amsterdam is a good place for expats to live? I think Amsterdam is a good place for expats to live. Yeah, every year the HSBC bank comes out with a survey that rates in how far and how great particular countries are around Europe and around the world for expats. and the Netherlands always seems to be in the top 10 of places to live as an expat in terms of your quality of life, in terms of family life. And I can see that because I think one of the attitudes of Dutch culture is don't work too hard. I'm not saying being lazy, put your hours in, but also be sure that you can enjoy your quality of life. And you can see that when you come to the city, when people are hanging around in the parks and the terraces. catching up with friends, enjoying meals and friends' houses.

If you get off work, you get off work at five, don't work any later, enjoy the rest of your day, just be back there by nine the next day. I mean, this is also a place that has, you know, on average, 25 paid holidays a year if you have a job here. And that's just in the beginning. And plus, you know, your maternity leave is like six months, I think. But then you have paternity leave, which is maybe another six months. And then you have your education for your kid usually is going to be fantastic and people don't have to pay for university education here.

So I think the Netherlands has a lot to offer for expats here, especially now because a lot of international headquarters in Europe are moving from the UK and London to Amsterdam. You see more of an international group expanding in Amsterdam, which I like to see. plus everybody here speaks English so if you're not good at learning another language maybe you can find it a relief to be here at Amsterdam but I loved it

I personally never expected to live in Amsterdam someone who came from Colorado who loved the mountains and snowboarding or that used to live in Florida and loved surfing and snorkeling as being here for 10 years and I'm still not tired of it I think that speaks quite highly of the city

It sounds like a great place for anyone, expat, or not. Are there any challenging parts of living there? Oh, sure. There's tons of challenging parts I think about living as an expat. I think a lot of it's just getting used to a different way of life. Don't expect to live in Amsterdam and have a dishwasher, a very large oven, a bathtub, stairs that are not so narrow, you feel like you're walking up a ladder. Rarely do you have air conditioning.

Your refrigerator is going to be quite small, things like that. And then there's the Dutch mentality that you have to work with, and sometimes that's a lot different than people would expect. What's the Dutch mentality? Let's see, what's the Dutch mentality? you know something i find very interesting about the dutch is that they are the largest bone structured caucasians in the world they are the largest white people in the world so to speak do you mean tall i mean tall and i i mean kind of just um in size if you come they're not

overweight right we're not talking about a population that has a sort of weight problem i know what you mean I've seen, yeah, I mean, I've worked with Dutch guys before and they were, yeah. Yeah, they're all quite large, large people. I mean, the south of Holland is maybe a different story, and a lot of it has to do with roots of immigrants coming or migrants coming from Scandinavia. So that being said, you're in a population with a lot of really large people, and they're doing a lot of things at the same time where this is the most densely populated country in the Western world, something like 17 million people living in a country, maybe the size of Connecticut.

So you're really living on top of each other, which means that you're always kind of together in a sense, and you're going to have to be able to tolerate each other, even if everybody's taller than you. So if I'm going to a concert, I know that I'm going to have to get up to the front or else I'm not going to be able to see anyone. So it's not a matter of complaining that people are taller than you, but it's just a matter of tolerating sharing your space with everyone. And maybe that's not for everybody.

You know, the place where I live, I can hear the lady above me walk upstairs in her high heels. I can hear the family across the, I can smell the spices from the family cooking dinner next door. I can hear the laundry machine running on the woman who lives below me.

You can hear the trams go by. You can hear the ambulance cross. You're never alone in a way. but I think you can get used to it. And there's a phrase going Dutch, which I believe is people each paying like their fair, like paying for themselves and not like treating others, I guess. Go mean Dutch. Is that going Dutch?

Is that something like very near and dear to them? Like everyone just pay their own way or? Going Dutch is a real thing. Ladies, let me tell you, if you're going to go on a date with a Dutch guy, you're going to be paying, your half. I think one of the most interesting stories that I've told that I think has maybe circulated around the world was when I went out on a date with a guy, we went to the beach, which isn't too far from here, and we went surfing together. We had this great day. We went in for this cafe for lunch. We got sandwiches. I got a beer. He got a glass of milk because the

Dutch are really into dairy, and they all have to drink the milk and eat their cheese. Anyway, The point of the story is, we had this great time together. Oh, what's your favorite kind of music? Oh, mine too. And la la la la, la. We get back to Amsterdam, Central Station, and he looks me deep into the eye, gives me a deep look in the eyes. He gives me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. And he says, I had such a good time with you.

I can't wait to surf with you again. And I'm going to send you my bank account details on Facebook so that you can pay your half for lunch. And then he just walks away with his surfboard. and his blonde hair and his tan skin out the door and just leaves me just sort of awestruck. And sure enough, the next day I got a Facebook message from this guy telling me that 11 euros and like 12 cents was going to make him a happy man. And I said, well, if that's all it takes, then see you later. Yeah, that's an adjustment from a lot of places.

It's not so bad. I think when you get used to it, especially nowadays. I think people don't mind splitting the bill and going Dutch, especially when it comes to, you know, casual drinks or just a normal meal. And that's totally fine. But it's something you should know. Okay. Before I let you go, can we do a little lightning round of your favorite places in Amsterdam? Sure.

Okay. How about bakery? Ah, bakery. I love going to. There are a few of them in town, but to me, the best one is. is at a Wester Park. You should go there, order some scones, and just enjoy and absorb the park outside.

Coffee shop. Coffee shop has to be the original dump cream that's got this great, chill, hippie sort of vibe. The owners, especially a good friend of mine. You have a lot of celebrities and musicians that went in there, but not pretentious at all, very open and friendly. got to try it there. How about lunch?

Lunch, I would take you to Chinatown to this great Thai restaurant called the Bird. On one side of the street there's the Bird Restaurant but we're not going there or going to the other side which is sort of their smaller kitchen takeout cafe.

You order the food there you either sit outside on the bench and eat it or you walk down the street to New Market and you sit out in the sun amongst all the people on the terrace. And how about dinner? Dinner is going to be one of two places. My personal favorites that are really a staple to Amsterdam

is Cafe Bern, in Bern, Switzerland, where a scientist perfected the recipe to French fondue cheese, as well as this sort of steak entricote that served on a platter of herbs de provence that sort of sizzles and cooks your meat for you, and then you wash it down with a glass of their house wine. Or we go to Cafe DeClos, which is the best place I've ever had ribs in my life. There's usually a long wait for it,

but you just go across the street and you wait at their brown cafe, have a few drinks, and eat some of the best ribs you've ever had. Is there a veg-friendly restaurant you would recommend? There's these new places called the vegan junk food, bars but I haven't gone under yet so I don't know what it's like but if you want to go vegan I would say that there's these amazing vegan restaurants around DePipe I can't think of one in particular what the neighborhood is DePipe DePipe is yeah sort of they call it the Latin Quarter but I think it's just

more of a place where a lot of a younger student generation are and they have a very expansive eclectic list of different sort of things people can eat, different cuisines, whether it's vegan or Indonesian or burgers from America, it's all there. Do you have a favorite bar? Besides the windmill brewery, I really love going to a bar called Cafe Belgique. It's really tucked away next to the Dom Square. That's really good for Belgian beers.

If you like cocktails and just your sort of run-of-the-mill beer, I always like Cafe Brecht. Cafe Brecht has sort of an Eastern German vibe to it, but it's got a really great atmosphere. Otherwise, I also like going to Cafe to Spout. And right next to it, that's a beer bar, but right next to it is the L&B whiskey bar. They have over 2,000 whiskeys tucked in this tiny little cafe,

very cozy, very charming, probably from the 16, 1700s. It feels like they've never really left those centuries. The Netherlands is known for their Yaneifer, which is also a Dutch gen. It comes from juniper berries, and they've been able to make a lot of different sort of liquors and brandy wines off of that.

So if you look really carefully, you can find a few of these Ynafer distilleries. One of the more authentic ones is called the Vinen, W-Y-A-M-D, and then Falkink, F-O-O-C-K, I-N-K. And they're also tucked away near Dem Square, down a little alley. You walk in, and the people that work behind the bar will educate you about the history of Yaneifer. Everything looks like it's still in place from the 1600s. And they have a very special way of serving this liquor and these tiny little tulip glasses

where you have to bend over and sit from the bar table before you can lift it up. That's always fun to do. I'm definitely going to head to the whiskey bar for sure. What's the tipping culture in Amsterdam? Tipping isn't really a big thing. If you're going out for drinks at a bar, you're not really going to tip. If you feel guilty about it, sure, you can drop them a dollar at the end of the day. But most people pull their tips in bars and then they use them for Christmas parties later on.

When it comes to restaurants, the norm is to usually tip about 10% of the bill. Okay. Other than going Dutch, is there any other culture tips we should know about Amsterdam before we go? Any other culture tips to know about Amsterdam before you go? If you hear a bell, you run like hell. That's the bicycle bell, of course. Okay. There's also something called Dutch courage, which means that after you,

you've had a few too many drinks, you're a lot more confident and you're drawing a lot more attention perhaps than from before. So that's a funny thing. When it comes to living in Amsterdam, I think you need to be open to new things. I think you need to be ready for spending a lot of time outside. I think you need to be tolerant of how other people live their lives. And depending on who you talk to, you need to learn how to cook. I don't know if it depends. I don't know if a lot of people like the cuisine options here so much. But I got used to it and I think it's pretty great.

But definitely get a bike, especially if you're going to live here, you don't want to be taking the tram all the time. And biking is the way to live in Amsterdam. Well, this has been really fun conversation, Audrey. Where can people find out more about you? Well, I guess you can find out more about me and about how I see Amsterdam with the moon travel guides. I don't really have a blog or anything like that. What about stick together? What's going on with you guys right now?

Is there anything you want to share? Well, my business is stick together since it's pretty much art-oriented. We've got some projects lined up, but nothing too much in Amsterdam. However, what I can tell you as somebody who works in street art and urban art from Amsterdam is there's going to be the world's largest street art museum opening within the next 12 months or so. So keep on, keep a lookout for that. And this is in Amsterdam? It is. It's in the Amsterdam north. Okay. Well, will you be giving tours or are you involved in that? Oh, I'm involved. I'm a huge supporter of. of the guy who's running it. He's been spending the past few years really dedicated. But this collection of art that he has will be artworks from artists that are all over the world.

Gigantic pieces, almost the size of billboards. And a lot of the artists that I work with and represent have pieces there as well. Okay. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for these tips, Audrey. Thank you for writing the Amsterdam Moon Guide. So I will be linking out to that for everyone. and yeah, I can't wait to come visit your city.

Thanks so much for reaching out and for doing this. It means a lot. It's really awesome. Aw, thanks, Audrey. All right. Yeah. Thank you very much. Have a good night. Cheers.

You too. Bye. I cannot wait to get to Amsterdam to hit up the vegan junk food bars and brown cafes. Are you coming with me? Where should I go next? What city do you want to hear about? Visit postcardacademy.com and let me know. And when you're there, you can also find photos and link.

to the places we spoke about today. That's all for now. Thanks for listening and have a beautiful week wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarahmicatel.com slash blank no more.