Moving from Las Vegas to a tiny village outside of Amsterdam called Hoofddorp was quite a shock. After spending the last days I mean weeks hitting all my favorite bars and clubs in Las Vegas with my buddies before I flew to the Netherlands. I arrived in Netherlands at my hotel on a Saturday night and got settled in. After taking a shower I thought I would take a stroll around town and see what was happening. Still rocking my American style with a big fat goatee, Airwalks, baggy Jeans, Ray Bans, and a baseball hat turned backwards. I stood out like a sore thumb and received quite some interesting looks. The shell shock started settling in that this is nothing like I was prepared for. Welcome to Europe!
Living in The Netherlands
So after living in this hotel room off and on in Hoofddorp for close to 6 months I finally moved out into the wild. I found a room for rent in Amsterdam by a really cool British girl. She showed me around town and introduced me to some cool places and people. My job kept me on the road so I didn't spend a lot of time in The Netherlands the first year. I was travelling around Europe working in casinos in various amazing locations that I would have never imagined or thought of traveling to. What struck me instantly was the laid back attitude, slower pace of life, and people really just seemed to be taking time to enjoy life. A huge emphasis is put on holidays even though it always felt like The Netherlands has the least amount of public holidays in the world! What I started to learn from living in The Netherlands and travelling Europe/World is to accept new cultures, open my mind to new ideas, and of course try all sorts of new cuisines and beers along the way. The Dutch are nice people and The Netherlands was perfect introduction to European living. I knew once I spent sometime in The Netherlands that this was not a place I would spend the rest of my life. I particularly didn't care for the horrible year round weather, I missed the outdoors, mountains, and was not a big fan of the extremely high taxes. Next stop Switzerland!