The Dutch Tales #1: Sorry, I don't speak bicycle

This week the first “unit” of my masters in the Netherlands ended and so I guess it’s about time to start writing down the impressions about my new home. Even though you most likely won’t experience a culture shock if you’re moving to a place reachable within two hours by a plane from your home country, you will always encounter differences and bump into things that surprise you. But that’s fine - or what’s more it’s actually amazing!

You get to learn about the country that you’re in even when you expect it the least - like for example while grocery shopping. I have been spending ages in supermarkets even when I only need a bread, because I am simply fascinated by some of the stuff they sell. I have learned that the Dutch love their carton boxes - back home we put milk in them and that’s kind of it, but here… Here they put everything in them! They have a box with 1 litre of yoghurt of any flavour you could possibly think of and as if that isn’t enough, you can even buy sugar in a carton box! Not gonna lie though, I do find that pretty handy. :)

The university logo "sculpture" on campus and a throwback to when I still had blonde-ish hair and my Asia tan.

Leaving supermarkets aside, probably the most significant thing about life in the Netherlands is (yes, you guessed it) the never ending biking. That might not be that much of a big deal for most people, but as a person who hasn't ridden one in about 15 years I did find that pretty challenging. (In case anyone is asking how did I transport myself up until now, the answer is trams. We have loads of them in Prague, they’re amazing, you should try them.) However, I was well aware of the fact that owning a bicycle is more essential than anything else in here, and so I didn't wait too long and got one less than 2 hours after my arrival to Tilburg and I basically haven’t gotten off of it ever since.

‘I got this,’ I was thinking. ‘Biking ain’t rocket science,’ I was telling myself. Yes, the act of sitting on a bicycle and moving forward is quite intuitive, but trust me, there are lots of questions arising. If there are bike lanes on both sides of the road, does that mean I have to go on the right? If so, why are people not doing it?! How do I lock the goddamn bicycle properly? Where can I (not) park it? And most importantly, how do I remember where the hell did I park it?! My bike - even though it’s not in the best condition - has been a loyal partner to me though and I’m pretty sure after two months I even look quite confident while rushing to school every morning. It did fail me once though, which ended up in me taking it to the closest repair store with the words: “My bike is not working.” Apparently it was just a fallen-down chain, but hey, how do I know? I don’t speak bicycle. :)

Had to take a picture of the bike for my grandma who wanted to see it so I might as well post it here hahaha

Now when it comes to getting “officially” settled in the Netherlands, this was a real struggle. You can’t get a bank account without a citizen number, but it will take ages to get a citizen number, also you can’t get a SIM card (at least one with decent prices) without bank account, but you can’t get a bank account without a Dutch phone number. What a vicious circle. By the way, I managed to get all of those ready after 42 (!!!) days in the Netherlands. You might be thinking that you don’t really need to be an official citizen and you can survive some time without a Dutch bank account. Well, you can’t. The Dutchies hate foreign cards. Mastercard? You can leave it at home. Visa? No-one cares. Maestro is the only option in most places here, which I find extremely weird as in any other country I have previously been to it was the complete opposite. But no-one tells you that and the way you find out is this awkward situation in a supermarket when you keep wondering why the hell does your card keep getting declined and end up returning your groceries because you just don’t do cash.

However, the life in The Netherlands sure makes up for the bureaucratic struggles. Even though everyone says that Tilburg is not exactly the prettiest city in the Netherlands, it’s for sure pretty enough for me! I fell in love with the city, the people in it and also the university. Speaking of the people, I knew that they’re pretty good English speakers here, but when a cashier in a supermarket started speaking some basic Czech to me, I was left speechless. Like hey, I live in your country and I can’t even say “goodbye” properly, shame on me! The only thing I am not loving is the prices for beer. My Czech-experienced friends know the blessing of my country where you can buy half a litre of draft beer for 1€. Well, that’s not quite the case here. Not only will you pay like 3 times as much, BUT THEY WILL BRING YOU A 200ML GLASS. Like, why would you even do that?!

I didn't have the heart to add a picture of the over-priced beer so here's a picture from our study-trip to Utrecht instead. Canals everywhere!

I know this last part is a lot to handle (especially for fellow Czechs haha), hence I will end this article here. The next time I will tell you something more about the university and the way it works here, if you read all the way through here - thank you and see you next time!

Katerina