Holland was Lekker!

Showing off my tourist credentials...a photo in front of Centraal Station, Amsterdam!

In my previous post 'The Home Advantage', I raved on about how amazing it is to visit friends you met on your travels in their own country.  My trip to the Netherlands was great and fulfilled all the positive things, that come about from this type of travel, I talked about in 'The Home Advantage'.  Just catching up with Mitch and his girlfriend is worth the flight alone, but on top of that they planned a superb weekend of activities to show off their favourite places and some uniquely Dutch aspects of life.  Enjoying drinks at The Boathouse in Almere under the afternoon sun, a (rather wet) drive to the coastal resorts of Zandvoort and Bloemendaal, eating steak at another branch of my favourite chain of steak restaurants Loetjes and sampling the fun and festivities of the annual Amsterdam Gay Pride Boat Parade just added to my visit and further proof that you must play the home advantage, wherever possible.

It came to the point where I felt so familiar with so much about the Netherlands, following my numerous visits and contact with Dutch people, that when we were joined by an American relation of Mitch's family on his first trip to the country, I found myself extolling the virtues of Dutch trains, the Dutch honesty and how much I cannot stand Smartlap music, but love watching Dutch people melt into the cheesiness of this traditional music.

I must add, this is not a one way process.  Mitch has visited the UK on a number of occasions to be met with English food (well, a fantastic Leeds curry) and Yorkshire women calling him 'love' in shops.  So, to Mitch, thank you!  Long may this Anglo-Dutch friendship and cultural exchange continue!

The Home Advantage

A canal in the Jordaan area of Amsterdam.

I have mentioned before how great travelling (and, particularly, travelling solo) is for meeting people and making new friends.  As my travel experience and the number of trips I have taken has grown, I have seemingly developed a knack for spotting potential friends.  The kind of friend I would like to stay in touch with after spending some time travelling with them for a bit or sharing some kind of travel experience with that person via a tour, day trip, night out etc.  The Irish girls I met in New Zealand and my Dutch friend are just two such examples.  Mitch and I, both backpacking solo, hit it off straight away on a sailing trip, almost 7 years ago, round the Whitsunday Islands, in Australia.  We shared a similar sense of humour, tastes in music and enjoyed hearing about each other's travels and lives back home.  We also enjoyed partying together at the traditional post trip boat party in Airlie Beach too!  Making fun of his brilliant Dutch accent (via the Austin Power's character, Goldmember) also helped the friendship grow too!

This weekend, I make, what must be, my sixth or seventh trip to Amsterdam to visit him and his girlfriend.  Before befriending Mitch, I had visited Amsterdam with my friends from home and considered it 'ticked' off of my bucket list.  We had seen all the sights, been to a sex show, visited the Van Gogh and Stedelijk Museums as well as frequent both the Erotic and Sex Museum; all rounded off with a lounge in the sun in the brilliant Vondelpark.  So, when Mitch invited me over soon after both of our returns from Oz, I was a little trepidatious about going back to see the same old things and smiling politely (like us Brits do so well) at all the things I had seen before so not to offend Mitch and his love of his country.

I could not have been more wrong.  In every visit I have made, Mitch has been able to show me parts of Amsterdam and the Netherlands I would have really had to research in depth to find.  I have been lucky enough to meet and break bread with his fantastic friends and family, enjoy dressing up like a traditional Dutch person in Volendam and wander the beautiful quiet streets of the Jordaan (only a few parallel streets from all the other tourist madness).  On top of this, I have experienced nightlife like a local, in a traditional Dutch music bar, in the Jordaan area, that left me befuddled but filled with merriment at the thought that I was having a great time without knowing a single word being sung by folk superstar singers such as Walter Kroes.  Mitch and I have stormed house music festivals such as Sensation - White and Mysteryland, visited castles I did not know existed and eaten some food I would not have even thought of trying.

And, that's the key element to all of this; visiting a local means that they show you their neighbourhood, their country at its best, showing you things you did not know were there or taste things that you never thought possible.  I could write an equally lengthy passage in praise of Ireland and all the amazing things the Irish girls have taken me to see in their fair country.  So, if you can, take the home advantage, you won't regret it!

Going Dutch?

Photo: KLM planes (ANP)

I found this today and think this is truly inspired idea, especially for the solo traveller!


http://bemyguest.klm.com/en_GB/?utm_source=7th-C&utm_medium=armin&utm_term=INT&utm_campaign=BMG#vip-jeroen-krabbe
https://www.klm.com/travel/gb_en/prepare_for_travel/on_board/Your_seat_on_board/meet_and_seat.htm


What do the readers think?  Is this just the airline version of Internet dating?  Rather hide away in a book?  Watch a host of movies and TV shows?  Or, are you keen to meet fellow travellers, with a little something in common, as you while away a 14 hour flight?