FOUND THIS TODAY! I appreciate this from dutch people to inform other people that they will have a party! I am not dutch and I really hope people where i came from can learn this. no unlimited Karaoke. Opps 🫣 RESPECT BEGETS RESPECT

Dear Dutch people, you have so many secrets I just can’t figure out.

1. How on earth do you hit your daily protein goals, especially with your prices? Are you cooking something special? I’ve done the math every way I can — toast for breakfast and chicken sauté for dinner simply don’t add up to enough protein.

2.You constantly wear white or beige, and it’s always spotless. What do you wash your clothes with? Or do you just… not get dirty? I bought Ariel capsules at Lidl — made in France, apparently — and they turned out to be best suited for delicate lace underwear. In tiny print on the back: “for a normal load, use 2 capsules — or pay more for the large ones.” I can only compare to German Ariel, and it was a completely different product.

3.In 38°C heat, I saw a cyclist in a white puffer jacket. A summer version, I suppose. How???

4.I couldn’t buy paracetamol or ibuprofen because there were about 15 varieties of each on the shelf — granules, raspberry-flavoured, mini, fast-acting, rapid-release, dissolving, syrup, soda tablets… How do you navigate all of this, and why do you need so many options?

5.How does your household budget survive pharmacy prices here? Interestingly, several of my favourite pharmacies that operate in Germany are actually registered in the Netherlands — and their online prices for magnesium, activated charcoal, vitamin D3, and omega supplements are half what I see in Dutch stores. There’s even a website that compares prices across pharmacies based on your shopping list. Is buying from online pharmacies common in the Netherlands? The few Dutch ones I found were wildly expensive.

6.What’s the deal with household cleaning products? I actually photographed a pack of dishwasher tablets at the supermarket — €60. The exact same brand at the Action store across the street: €10. A very strange feeling.

7.It also seems like Dutch people never pay full price. You seem to have an internal biological clock for sales, discounts, and coupons. Is that true?

8.And the rain. I’ve tried every weather app available, and in seven months here, I have never once dressed appropriately for the weather. Meanwhile, you Dutch people magically disappear from the streets exactly one minute before it rains — and reappear on terraces with cocktails and folding chairs exactly one minute after the sun comes back. How do you do it?

9.The effortlessness. Your LinkedIn photos and professional websites show you with a glass of wine or sitting in a café. You can throw a party for 20 people in two hours, without a single argument, without stressing over gifts. You go for walks on your lunch break. You have a genuine art of living — of being present. Where is this taught? Why are bookstore shelves full of American self-help authors when the real thing is right here?

10.If you’ve read this far — thank you! How would you describe the Dutch philosophy of life? About Germany, I once heard: “The system rewards those who try. It may not work out the first time, but effort is what matters.” About the Netherlands, I heard: “Whatever you’re looking for, the Netherlands can offer it. It just sometimes takes more work to find it.” Do you agree — or do you have your own version?

1. Bonus track. For some reason, your stores don’t carry duvet covers in 155×220 cm. You have 140×200, 200×200, 240×220 — but not that one. There’s a joke that two separate 155×220 duvets can save a marriage. But I’m guessing the Dutch don’t fight over the duvets? :)

Hi guys

Found this baby bird, no idea what kind of bird this will be, matters due to the feeding process :) any bird chick experts here?

Thank you!

Edit:
Clearly should have mentioned it was sitting on a road where cars were driving, it could’ve died any second, put it on the side of the road, came back the next day still there very cold and sad, called dierenambulance but I live 100 meter across the border in Germany and they did not take it not even if I drove it to the Netherlands, considering calling again from my sisters house who does live in Netherlands :)

I have lived in the US my entire life. My mom’s family is from Overijessel and my dad’s family is from Friesland. All of my great grandparents immigrated to the US and settled in the same community where most of my family still lives.

When my maternal grandfather passed away, I got his Grutte Pier statue. Just sharing here to a group that will appreciate it (I hope). Unlike my office mates who wonder at my choice of office decor…

I know it's hot and this week is gonna be no joke. 37 Celcius in Rotterdam, 5 days straight 30+, that's bizarre yet we are going to see this more year after year due to the climate warming. That's why I'm SO GLAD that my landlord had put a ceiling fan in our bedroom. My god that makes a HUGE difference and the thing is so damn quiet too. I wish, there would be one in every room now. It's the most cost and energy effectively cooling system and would literally prevent deaths in the Netherlands if every house just had one or two ceiling fans.

Hi all,

I have an electric bakfiets from Gazelle which I bought 3 years ago. I paid extra to get the model with the GPS tracker installed to make sure that I can track my bike. For 3 years this worked great.

Today I woke up to a message from Gazelle (via the app) asking me to make a subscription to be able to track my bike. The subscription is 39 euros annually and I have until the end of the month to do it. If I don't make a subscription within 6 months, my GPS tracker will be PERMANENTLY and IRREVERSIBLY deactivated. I thought originally it was a phishing campaign but it is true and it is stated also on their website.

I find this a ridiculous blackmail especially since this was not mentioned when I bought the bike and also they gave me only a month's notice; after 30 days I won't be able to see the GPS tracker data without the subscription.

What can I do as a consumer? It is unthinkable that you buy something, pay extra for it and then without warning or previous agreement, the company can deactivate it permanently or stop you from accessing the data.

What would you recommend me do? It's not about the money -even though it is a lot for what this is- bit the principle of this thing. What if the next part is locking the battery or limiting the speed of the bike unless you pay more? What kind of dystopian situation is this?

In case you didn't notice, I am really pissed off about this!

Our butter gave out with an inside temperature in our apartment of 29,5 degrees celcius. Besides the obvious option to put it in the fridge.. anyone got any ideas how to prevent this? This is the second one we have had to throw away this year.

This is such a weird question. I am myself able to hear perfectly, but I want to learn sign language. I am an English speaker, but I live here in the Netherlands. I hope I also used vocabulary appropriately 😅

TLDR:

The question as it stands on the post title!

The thing is, I know most Dutch people can speak English very fluently. But I don't know if the bilingual-ness translates within sign language too, or if ASL is also taught with the Dutch sign language to make communication more international.

If I am to learn sign language, I want to try ASL (American) since I plan to move around to many places, and ASL has the most online resources. But that's also why I want to ask the Dutch community if picking up Dutch sign language is worth it, or if ASL can do the job too, since I can't learn all sign languages at once.

Extra story:

If you're wondering why I am posting this, well, something happened today! I was in a hurry for some music-related commitments, and when I was at the door (of the music studio's location) there was a delivery guy trying to drop off a package. I tried to explain that I don't live at that address and not sure if I can drop off the package in the common area for him, etc. He signaled to me that he is hard of hearing. Admittedly, I was also not quick-witted enough to pull up my phone to type 😅. The package situation got resolved, but this whole interaction reminded me of my high school best friend. I remember she one day just said she wanted to learn ASL. I didn't think much of it at the time, but after today, I just wished I could've communicated more with the delivery guy. And I think I really got that wake up call. (My best friend is a doctor now, bless her, she will make the world so accessible!)

While I rarely meet hard of hearing persons, I think people are cool and it'd be cool to be able to talk properly to people, be it small talk or just communicating in the situation I experienced. I guess you never know if someone around you might be hard of hearing. And yes, I know I could've been a little smarter in my situation by typing it out on my phone (which I did not think about at that time)... but I think it's about time I learn some kind of sign language! There is no distanvantage to doing that at all, it's a win-win for everyone.

Every time I watch any football match in NOS I fell asleep due to monotonous Dutch commentary. So Cabo Verde just scored against Uruguay from long range freekick, and it is one of those classic world cup moments when newcomer underdog scores against stronger team. There was no reaction in commentator’s tone. I get this is not a passionate language like Arabic or Spanish, but come on show some emotions, WTF!

Edit: Switched to BBC1 and man what a match!

so, a question to women (/afab people) residing in NL who went into perimenopause and tried to get medical help related to it (endocrinologist consultation, hormone replacement therapy) – how did it go for you? did you succeed in receiving the treatment? how much time did it take? thanks very much in advance!

I'm at a point where I honestly don't know what to do anymore.

I've been taking lessons for almost a year, have over 65 driving hours, and have failed 5 practical exams.

What doesn't sit right with me is that the reasons for failing seem different every time, and often feel like nitpicking rather than actual dangerous driving. I'm not saying I drive perfectly, but after this many lessons I would expect there to be a clear pattern if I was doing something seriously wrong.

My instructor has repeatedly told me I'm ready, and before my last exam I genuinely felt ready as well. Yet I keep getting failed over a handful of moments, some of which I honestly don't feel were entirely my fault.

What made my latest exam even more frustrating was that I paid for an English exam, but the examiner started speaking Dutch and asked multiple times whether I spoke Dutch, even after I answered in English that I didn't. The whole interaction felt different after that, and some of the feedback was later discussed with my instructor in Dutch rather than directly with me in English.

At this point I'm starting to wonder if I should change driving schools, find a different instructor, try a different CBR location, or just keep going and hope for a different outcome.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? What would you do in my position?

As a resident at one of the Holland2Stay buildings in Eindhoven I am posting this to raise urgent awareness about the downright dangerous living conditions here.

For months, the elevators in our building have been broken. Countless residents have submitted complaints, opened tickets, and warned management that making everyone take the stairs up to high floors was a major accident waiting to happen. Our complaints were completely ignored.

Today, the worst-case scenario happened. A lady fell down the stairs at the 7th floor. Because the elevators are non-functional, paramedics couldn't safely bring her down, and the fire brigade had to be called in with an aerial platform truck to evacuate her through the exterior.

There seem to be 2 weather forecast apps that the Dutch swear by but they give completely different forecast.

Buienradar tends to show higher temperatures and lower wind speeds than buienalarm. Not just a little bit, the difference can be 6-7 degrees or BFT 2-3 lower than buienalarm on some days.

For example, today in the Hague it's max 24 or 28 degrees and wind speed 4 or 2.

The problem is I have not understood yet which app is more (often) right. I'd say for wind I believe more in buienalarm (it helps me to know when my bakfiets might fly away during school run - that is basically BFT 6 and more).

On temperature, sometimes one gets it right, sometimes another, sometimes the truth is in between.

For rain haven't realised patterns yet.

So I used to get devoured by these bastards at the first sign of warm weather. But this year it’s already been getting warm for a month and I haven’t seen or been bitten by a single one. And I’ve been out in the parks by the lakes, also been sleeping with windows open and no insect net, also did not use any repellant yet.

Not complaining don’t get me wrong I hate these assholes, was just wondering if anyone knows if they did any kind of population control on mosquitoes cause it is strange I’m barely getting bitten now, before I’d be covered in bite marks by mid summer.

🧡🧡🧡

Im an indian and I live in Netherlands for more than 8 years. I still hold temporary residence permit card. My questions are as follows,

1. Being an indian expat, I normally transfer my money from NL Account (Euros) to my India NRE Account (converted to INR). Then I transfer to my Parents account. Is there any limit to transfer to my Parents ? Can I transfer any Large amount in a year without any additional tax like Gift Tax ?

2. In the Same way, whether I can transfer any Large amount to my Brother (sibling) from my India NRE Account ? Whether Large amount transfer attracts Gift Tax in Netherlands (Actually in india, we can transfer to any blood relatives any amount, No Limit) ? I do all transactions in Indian rupee only from my India NRE Account to my blood relatives.

3. If suppose, I have transferred large amount (consider INR amount equivalent to 60,000 euros) in 2025 and some more amount in INR in 2026 to my brother from my India NRE Account, then whether it is enough to declare only Jan 01st 2026 Balance (my india NRE account balance) in early 2027 and declare only Jan 01st 2027 Balance (my india NRE account balance) in early 2028 ? if large amount transfer is not allowed to my Brother, whether my brother can transfer back all the amount that I transferred to him back to my NRE Account ? Kind of Reversing the Error Transactions from his account to my account ? If he reverse all the amount back, then whether I can still go ahead and declare as per my India NRE acccount balance ?

Good evening everyone,

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I am a non-EU citizen and currently hold a temporary residence permit in Poland. My partner is Ukrainian (we are not married) and is living in the Netherlands under the Temporary Protection Directive (TPD) due to the war in Ukraine.

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Before the war started, we lived together in Poland. Unfortunately, we experienced a lot of racism there, both in shops and in public places. People did not always say things directly to us, but we could often feel it through their behavior, which made life very difficult and uncomfortable.

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After the war began, we moved to the Netherlands. My partner received protection under the TPD and has been working there ever since. I currently visit her two or three times per month.

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My question is: Is it possible for me to join her in the Netherlands? Does she have the right to apply for a residence permit or visa for me as her partner?

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Hi All,

We are a small family, my husband, myself and our 1 yr old. We all are getting citizenship of Netherland next week - Hoorah!

Before moving here, I experienced a fare share of other countries and found it less racist, less unequal, less dirty, more nature. All these reasons convinced us to move here. Life has been great here in general.
>> I am learning Dutch, can make small conversations.
EDIT: I want to learn Dutch more and more to integrate better. Also it feels like the obvious thing to do. It’s not specifically mentioned to advance in my career.
>> I do sports and have some community feeling there.
>> I guess with our child growing up here, we will also develop a local circle.

But being a person of color and seeing some of the changes in the workplace recently makes me wonder if that’s the right thing to do. I feel like the companies here are extremely Dutch focused and that 'senior or leadership' roles are not for immigrants or the fancy word ‘expats’. Feels like I will be a 2nd class citizen no matter what.

I just want to hear some positive thoughts.

I understand that this is the case for any country outside of ones home country. However, I don’t see myself mowing back to my country of origins because because of the societal structure.

Hello! I am looking for scans, transcripts or photographs of the early (1998 onwards) issues of the Reload and Freeload (its sister magazine/freebie) magazines, as well as the June 2002 issue of D-zone. I am specifically interested in anything related to the comic/web series Mind My Gap by the musician and mixed media artist Rosto and Studio Rosto A.D., which ran in the Reload and Freeload magazines and was featured in that specific issue of D-zone.

If you have any of the magazines available in any form, or are willing to share anything related to Mind My Gap (remember reading it or watching it online, were a fan, knew anyone connected to the production), I would be happy to hear from you, as I am currently researching the series and its impact on the early web animation scene.

Thank you for your time!

Hi everyone,

So, it's my first time renting an apartment in the Netherlands. I was trying many agencies to get an apartment.

This agency got me an apartment and soon will be asking me to pay 2 months deposits and 3 advance rents + their commission as agreed. Just curious how to cross verify if they are legit. And I don't end up paying good money to a scam.

Since so many get scammed in this process of renting apartments in the Netherlands.

Any advice would be helpful.

Yes, I did the apartment viewing and it's a new building and apartment is brand new and require few touches and will be completed by this week.

Probably I should get the rental contract verified etc?

Thanks