A unique city

Why did you leave Cat­alo­nia?

I wanted to study Fine Art and the art acad­emy in Am­s­ter­dam was more in­ter­est­ing for me. I looked at the pos­si­bil­i­ties of study­ing in Cat­alo­nia and the pos­si­bil­i­ties in The Nether­lands where there were more pos­si­bil­i­ties to study and work at the same time, life was cheaper in Am­s­ter­dam than in Barcelona in those days. Not any more!

Why did you choose Am­s­ter­dam?

My boyfriend at that time came from Am­s­ter­dam. So it was easy to chose to Am­s­ter­dam. I came here and im­me­di­ately had fam­ily, friends and a house!

How long have you lived there?

Very long! In May it will be 25 years.

Are you happy with the job op­por­tu­ni­ties you found there?

Yes and no. As an artist it was not dif­fi­cult the first years but it got more dif­fi­cult later. There was a lot of com­pe­ti­tion even to find any job re­lated to arts that would give me a de­cent salary. Fi­nally I got a great op­por­tu­nity to study again, all paid by the city coun­cil, and to work as a civil ser­vant, which is what I do nowa­days.

What do you think is the best thing about liv­ing in Am­s­ter­dam?

Am­s­ter­dam is quite small and things are close by, you can be any­where within 40 min­utes by bike. This is fab­u­lous. All the streets have per­fectly de­signed bi­cy­cle paths and traf­fic lights which makes it a very com­fort­able city to get around.

What are the high­lights for a brief first-time visit ?

Apart of the canals, the Van Gogh or the Rijksmu­seum, I would rec­om­mend the mar­kets (Nieuw­markt on Mon­days and Sat­ur­days). There is a nice vibe. I would also rec­om­mend the Mu­seum Van Loon to ex­pe­ri­ence how rich peo­ple in the 18th and 19th cen­turies lived on the canals. Dutch cul­ture in the north has a protes­tant tra­di­tion and within this tra­di­tion it was seen as a wrong to close the cur­tains of your house (be­cause it meant that you had some­thing to hide). So many peo­ple still have them open. So I would rec­om­mend to dis­creetly look in­side the houses of peo­ple in the evening which is a great ex­hi­bi­tion of how the Dutch live.

And if vis­i­tors have more time or make a re­turn visit?

Am­s­ter­dam is also unique for its so­cial city plan­ning from the twen­ties and thir­ties of last cen­tury. They de­vel­oped an own style for this called Am­s­ter­damse School, it's well worth a look, for ex­am­ple the 'Het Schip' Mu­seum. It's a way of un­der­stand­ing the so­cial side of Am­s­ter­dam in those times. In the evening have a drink in a typ­i­cal Am­s­ter­dam 'brown café', such as 't smalle drinken (Ege­lantiers­gracht 12, 1015 RL Am­s­ter­dam) or café Wa­ter­looplein (Rapen­burg­er­straat 169, 1011 VM Am­s­ter­dam). I would also rec­om­mend get­ting out of the city. To bike around the area north of Am­s­ter­dam, Holysloot, Broek in Wa­ter­land, Zuider­woude, and dis­cover the an­cient is­land of Marken. The Film mu­seum 'The Eye' is a great build­ing, cer­tainly worth a visit.

What do you miss most from home?

The sun.

Do you plan to go back to Cat­alo­nia?

No. I don't like the work­ing hours nor the eat­ing hours in Cat­alo­nia.