Living abroad teaches you lessons, and Amsterdam hands you a test before you’ve even found a place to live.
This city doesn’t come with instructions, just a steep learning curve, a stubborn attitude, and more personality than should be legal.
It’s unpredictable, occasionally absurd, and somehow still impossible not to love.
Here are 13 things I’ve learned while living in Amsterdam. 👇
1. If it has a roof, it will leak
Amsterdam’s buildings are charming, but did you know they also have surprise indoor water features?
Imagine this: it’s a rainy evening after work, you’re finally enjoying what you think is a quiet night on the couch, halfway through your favourite show, when your boyfriend says, “We don’t own a fountain, do we?” 👀
Suddenly, you’re deploying salad bowls like sandbags while your neighbour battles the rain with a broom on the roof.
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Living here teaches quick thinking, and that a pretty home doesn’t always mean a waterproof one. 🌊
2. Shared housing teaches you more than therapy ever could
Sure, this could happen anywhere in the Netherlands, but Amsterdam takes it to reality-TV levels.
Maybe it’s the housing crisis or the fact that rent costs more than your degree, but something about this city turns shared living into an endurance test.
One day you move in, the next, your roommate’s mum (who also lives with you, apparently) is collecting your shower hair and serving it to you on a plate. 🍽️
Forget therapy. THIS is where you truly study human nature. It’s character-building… or soul-crushing. 😬
3. If you can navigate a maze of sand, you can navigate anything
Amsterdam trains your reflexes better than any boot camp. 👀
A simple grocery run turns into an obstacle course — dodging cranes, sidestepping sandpits, and squeezing past six bakfietsen.
Trams vanish, buses reappear three blocks over, and sand in your shoes becomes your new keepsake.
But eventually, you adjust. You learn the streets by heart and master detours like no app on your phone ever could. You can troubleshoot, adapt, think outside the box — add that to your CV. 💪
4. You should fear fatbikes
Endless construction might build your sense of orientation, but the real test is the 14-year-old on a fat bike who nearly flattens you, and then has the nerve to call you clumsy (if they’re being polite).
These kids ride like traffic laws are vague ideas, and the sidewalk is their personal highway. Nearly 100 people learned what happens when you get in their way in one week.
Forget ClassPass, weaving around them is a full-body workout (cardio included) and an unexpected lesson in urban survival.
You’ll walk away with nerves of steel, unshakable instincts, and no fear of anything… not even death by handlebar. 🧘♀️
5. You’re not as scared of tetanus as you thought
Swimming in an Amsterdam canal sounds like a terrible idea, until your Dutch friend dares you on King’s Day and the orange chaos makes it feel like a rite of passage.
One shout of “Oranje boven!” later, you’re marinating in mystery soup: beer cans, questionable bubbles, a guy peeing off a bridge, and rats minding their business.
It’s gross, ridiculous, and weirdly empowering — your immune system is in overdrive. Even tetanus took one look and said, nah. 🦠
6. Your social life is at the mercy of a booking system
You think, “We’ll just grab dinner somewhere.’’ Adorable. In Amsterdam, every trendy restaurant is booked till July.
And the ones that don’t take reservations? You’ll be queueing like it’s a Taylor Swift concert, except no one’s singing, and you’re just hoping to score a pistachio cruffin.
This city hones your planning skills fast: if you want to eat, you need an agenda, a backup plan, and possibly divine intervention.
Spontaneity is cute, but in Amsterdam, strategy gets you fed. 💁♀️
7. Kalverstraat and Leidsplein are where hope goes to die
They lured you in when you were a lost tourist, still figuring out the city, thinking a stroll through Kalverstraat counted as cultural immersion. No judgement, we’ve all been there. 😌
Then you moved in and realised that those streets are just neon signs, sugar bombs, and a mild sense of existential dread.
Leidsplein? Only tolerable if there’s a concert — and even then, proceed with caution.
You learn fast: real Amsterdam lives elsewhere. Peace begins one street over, where locals sip oat lattes and roll their eyes at anyone still stuck in the waffle vortex.
8. One man’s trash is your new sofa
This city trains your eye. Blink, and you’ll miss a vintage armchair lounging next to three broken bikes.
Yesterday’s garbage? Today’s chic sofa. In Oud-Zuid, the curb is a showroom: velvet couches, designer lamps, a coffee table that whispers trust fund.
READ MORE | Furnishing your house in the Netherlands: the ultimate guide
Soon you’re judging your friends’ interiors like, “Ugh, retail?’’ Because in Amsterdam, taste isn’t bought — It’s recycled two streets over on a collection day. 💅
9. You are paying hipster prices for basic human needs
Living in Amsterdam teaches you that basic needs like bread and coffee can become a fashionable, minimalistic experience.
You walk in craving something simple and end up in what looks like a Scandinavian concept store. The menu is barely readable, except for the prices, which practically scream.
At first, €5.20 for a coffee with milk and €7 for sourdough feels outrageous, especially from a painfully angular chair.
Next, you’re chatting with the barista about vanilla bean notes and calling it all aesthetic. ☕
10. Date too many people, and this city will haunt you
This city might be international, but the dating scene? Tiny.
You go on a date, it fizzles, maybe you ghost… It’s a classic scenario. Then you hit a bar and boom: they’re there, on a date with someone else, staring right into your soul.
A bottle of rosé later, you’re wishing them good luck while casually plotting your escape… through the restaurant window (yes, that’s actually happened). 🫠
READ MORE | Finding love in the Netherlands: 5 ways to meet your very own ‘shatje’
It doesn’t take long to grasp: social circles here are tight. Shame? Honestly, it’s not even part of the vocabulary anymore.
You learn to embrace the awkwardness and always scan the room before you sit down.
11. You can master the art of saying what you mean
Maybe you arrived in the city saying “sorry” and “please,” all soft-voiced and overly polite. But a few years in Amsterdam has changed you.
When a friend suggests a techno night, you tell them, “I’m saving my heartbeat for something with melody.”
And if you get invited out on a Sunday, but your soul’s craving incense and a quiet evening with your book, you simply say so.
No drama, no guilt. Just the Amsterdam way: honest and unapologetically direct. 😌
12. You will get randomly stopped, and it’s never boring
Walking in Amsterdam is rarely just walking. It’s an experience.
You might be on your way to meet a friend when a woman stops you mid-step to say she loves your hair. And just like that, your day is made. ✨
Slowly, you learn the art of complimenting strangers, too — maybe it’s a jacket, maybe an exceptionally handsome dog.
Of course, it’s not all warm and fuzzy; this is Amsterdam, after all. Don’t be surprised if the compliments come with a side of unsolicited life advice (usually about your biking technique).
13. When the sun goes down, Amsterdam glows up
One thing you figure out in this wonderful stad is that no matter how often you tell yourself this is the last one, you’ll never get tired of Amsterdam at sunset.
You swear off canal photos (again), but then golden hour hits the grachten just right, and suddenly you’ve taken 47 pics with no regrets. 📸
“Just one more’’ becomes a mantra. Spoiler: it never is.
Some lessons never stick. But you’re happily failing whenever it comes to this one.
From murky canal swims to near-death bike rides, this city throws you into a crash course in resilience, unexpected confidence, and the fine art of brutal honesty.
And at some point, without even noticing, you realise: you don’t just live in Amsterdam — you’ve become part of it. 🧡
Got your own stories or lessons? Share them below, because in Amsterdam, everyone’s got at least one. 💬
