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How I Stopped Feeling Lonely Abroad by Learning Dutch Gezellig
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items If you moved to a new country and your weekends are just you staring at your phone in a quiet apartment wondering why everything feels so isolating — I was right there. It took me almost a year of awkward attempts before I cracked the code on gezelli...
Map
Sections
6
Café Culture That Pulled Me Out of My Apartment
Markets Where I Finally Felt Part of a Neighborhood
Dutch Comfort Foods That Made My Kitchen Feel Like Home
Cozy Dutch Traditions I Accidentally Fell In Love With
Warm Dutch Spaces That Felt Like a Hug
Things I Brought Home to Keep the Gezellig Going
Café Culture That Pulled Me Out of My Apartment
I was spending entire Saturdays alone scrolling Netflix until I forced myself into these spots. Something about the way Dutch cafés are set up — the lighting, the long tables, the fact that nobody rushes you — made me actually want to stay and talk t...
Grab a slice of their apple pie on a rainy Tuesday afternoon and just sit by the window. I went alone the first time feeling weird about it, and within twenty minutes the couple next to me started chatting. Perfect for anyone who needs a low-pressure...
Winkel 43
Try their hot chocolate when you're wandering Delft and your feet are freezing. This tiny spot seats maybe fifteen people and that's the whole point — you're basically forced into conversation distance. I met two friends here who I still text regular...
Café de Blonde Pater
Snag a seat on the canal terrace before the afternoon crowd shows up. The building is from 1786 and it feels like drinking coffee inside someone's living room. For anyone who thinks they hate small talk — this place will convert you.
Café 't Smalle
Use this as your remote work spot when you need humans around you but aren't ready to be social yet. Big windows, good wifi, and enough background noise that you don't feel like you're sitting in silence. I went here every morning my first month in A...
Morning Brew Co
Switch to this when you want actually excellent coffee and not just atmosphere. Their flat white fixed my snobbish complaints about Dutch coffee and the baristas remember your name after like two visits. For anyone who bonds over being picky about th...
Official Milwaukee Brewers Website
Markets Where I Finally Felt Part of a Neighborhood
Nothing made me feel more like a local than showing up at the same market stall every Saturday until the cheese guy started saving my favorite gouda for me. These are the ones where the gezellig feeling hit me hardest.
Get there early on Saturday morning before it gets packed. The organic farmers market side is where I started recognizing faces and having actual conversations with vendors. Took about three weeks of showing up consistently before someone remembered ...
Nordstrom Rack
Swap Albert Cuyp for this one if you want something more multicultural and less touristy. The Surinamese food stalls alone are worth the trip. I brought leftovers home every week and it became my comfort food when I was homesick.
Dairy Queen
Toss your assumption that this is just a tourist trap — go on a weekday morning and actually talk to the vendors about which bulbs survive in pots. I killed three rounds of tulips before one guy patiently taught me what I was doing wrong. For anyone ...
BYU Football | Schedule, News, Roster, Stats, And More
Try this massive market in The Hague if Amsterdam markets feel too curated for you. It's loud, chaotic, and genuinely diverse. I accidentally bought way too much Turkish bread my first visit and the vendor laughed and threw in extra hummus for free. ...
De Haagse Markt
Dutch Comfort Foods That Made My Kitchen Feel Like Home
Cooking Dutch recipes in my tiny apartment kitchen was the first time my place stopped feeling like temporary housing. Something about the smell of stamppot filling a cold flat on a November evening rewired my brain into thinking okay, maybe I live h...
Grab one of these smoked sausages and throw it into mashed potatoes with kale on a night when you're too tired to think about dinner. It's the Dutch equivalent of mac and cheese — zero effort, maximum comfort. For anyone whose homesickness peaks at d...
UNOX / XEFR-04EU-ETDP / BAKERLUX Rosella Touch 4 ...
Keep a roll of these crispy rusks in your pantry and load them with butter and hagelslag for breakfast. I thought it was a kids' thing until my Dutch colleague looked at me like I was crazy for questioning it. Now it's my Sunday morning ritual.
Bolletje beschuit kopen & bestellen
Use this to make hot chocolate from scratch when the instant packets taste like sadness. Two spoonfuls, hot milk, tiny bit of sugar — done. I made this every single evening in January and it was genuinely the highlight of my day during the darkest mo...
The Great Cocoa Powder Showdown - by Megan Cho
Get the medium-aged one and just eat it with mustard on bread for lunch like every Dutch person apparently does. I resisted the simplicity of a cheese lunch for months because it felt too plain, then realized I was overthinking everything about livin...
Henri Willig Gouda Matured Wheel 48+
Try making these Dutch doughnuts yourself on New Year's Eve instead of buying them. My first batch looked terrible and my neighbors smelled them cooking and knocked on my door to check on me. That led to my first Dutch New Year's party invite. Someti...
Oliebollenmix kopen bij Baktotaal | De beste oliebollen mix
Cozy Dutch Traditions I Accidentally Fell In Love With
I rolled my eyes at a lot of these at first because I was being a stubborn expat who thought I didn't need to participate. Turns out showing up for local traditions even when they feel silly is exactly how you stop being an outsider.
Bring a small handmade gift and a funny poem to a Dutch friend's celebration on December 5th. I had no idea what was happening my first year and just watched, but the second year I wrote a terrible poem in broken Dutch and everyone loved it. For anyo...
Sinterklaas Welcome Parade Amsterdam
Keep an eye out for when conditions might trigger this legendary ice skating race — it hasn't happened since 1997 but Dutch people talk about it like it could happen any winter. Join the speculation at any bar when temperatures drop. Instant conversa...
The tour
Ditch your comfort zone and run into the freezing North Sea on January 1st with ten thousand strangers. I did it hungover and screaming and it was the most alive I'd felt in months. For anyone who needs a hard reset on a new year in a new country.
Scheveningen
Switch your after-work routine from going straight home to saying yes to every borrel invite — it's basically casual drinks with snacks and it's where Dutch people actually open up. I turned down five invitations before accepting one, and I still reg...
Dutch borrel culture explained
Warm Dutch Spaces That Felt Like a Hug
When my apartment felt too quiet and cafés felt too public, these places hit a middle ground that kept me sane. Warm lighting, slow pace, the kind of spots where you exhale and realize you've been tense for weeks.
Try this art deco sauna when you need to completely shut your brain off. I was skeptical about the whole Dutch sauna culture thing but spending three hours here on a grey Wednesday afternoon genuinely recalibrated my stress levels. For anyone who car...
A nude romp through Sauna Deco. Amsterdam, Netherlands
Pair a glass of wine with a bench near the pond when the weather is just warm enough to sit outside with a jacket. This was my solo decompression spot every Friday evening. Not fancy, not trying to be — just exactly enough.
vondelpark playground
Use the top floor of the central library for the best free view in Amsterdam and a surprisingly good café. I spent entire rainy Sundays here reading and people-watching and it never once felt lonely, which is saying something for someone who was very...
OBA Oosterdok - Public Library
Toss your guidebook expectations and visit this hidden courtyard on a weekday morning when it's empty. Walk through the narrow entrance and suddenly the city noise disappears. I found this place by accident during a bad week and sat on a bench and cr...
BYU Football | Schedule, News, Roster, Stats, And More
Things I Brought Home to Keep the Gezellig Going
When I eventually had to leave the Netherlands for a stretch, I panicked that the feeling would disappear. These are the physical objects I carried back that kept my apartment feeling like that warm Dutch evening energy even when I was thousands of m...
Grab the one that smells like fig and patchouli and light it at 4pm when it gets dark early. This specific candle is what my friend's apartment in de Pijp always smelled like and now one whiff puts me right back on her couch eating bitterballen. For ...
Amsterdam Collection Car Air Freshener - car perfume
Use these oversized floral mugs for your morning tea instead of whatever sad plain mug you've been using. They look ridiculous and cheerful and that's the point. My Dutch roommate had a full set and drinking from them made every morning feel like a s...
Pip Studio Mug
Keep this in your backyard if you have one — it's a Dutch-designed outdoor fireplace and pizza oven in one. I used my neighbor's in Utrecht and we'd sit around it on cool evenings with blankets and cheap wine. It recreated that gezellig circle feelin...
Serpentine | Outdoor Shower
Throw this over your couch and suddenly your living room feels like a Dutch living room in November. Heavy enough to feel like a hug, warm enough that you stop cranking the heat. I bought mine at a market in Haarlem and it's the single best purchase ...
Klippan Wool Blanket - Cream/Red
Swap your ratty kitchen towels for these and notice how your kitchen immediately feels more intentional. Sounds ridiculous but this Dutch homeware shop understood something about making everyday objects feel warm. I have four of these and guests alwa...
Tea towels