Although I’ve made my way through Holland a few times before, it was never to explore. Despite being over 5% Dutch, I never knew much about what that meant or even the place I partly come from.

Recently I went on my first trip to Amsterdam, the second I saw land, I knew it was about to be a life changing experience. Everyone’s down to earth and very chill, their priorities in life are completely different. They choose comfort.

Not even joking when I saw how clean it is, not a bit of litter anywhere. They have recycling bins everywhere, you can recycle bottles of water for money back too at local super markets. They use recycling to make statues and art work. They have wind turbines all over to generate renewable electricity. They mostly cycle places, if not that, electric little cars or trams. They have their own lanes too, separate from main traffic. There’s transport links everywhere including boats.

Everyone is free to follow what they want and aren’t shamed for it. You can support Palestine freely and fly the flag without being arrested. You can go to the red light district without judgement at all (it’s not my scene.)

LGBTQ+ are embraced, not attacked for existing.

They have coffee shops, herbal and mushroom shops which are complete alternatives for the profit pushed conventional medications. Actively jealous to say the least. Forever waiting for legalisation or at least decriminalisation, it would save so much policing time.

They’re absolutely not afraid of history, yes, it can be complex but it is there to learn from not repeat. Holland has the right idea. All of the historic buildings are in beautiful condition. It’s all preserved in a way that doesn’t take away its original identity.

Not once did I feel uncomfortable for existing, the way I do at “home.” You just do your thing without a care in the world and nobody is judging as they’re doing their thing too.

I’m sad that I never got to see some actual windmills, they’re so beautiful there compared to here. I would live in one, the weirder the better. Although when I climbed one before, it was scary. Like very, very scary. It’s like an old wooden ladder but I assume if you lived in one, you’d have a staircase haha.

Also, they have automatic flood gate protection to protect the landscape, there’s a lot of canals, ports and water.

Safe to say that coming back to England is very depressing. It’s like going back in time.