Amsterdam

[heganboy]

Amsterdam,

oh wise members of the board- I would appreciate any information about Amsterdam as a working location for ex-pats. A Yank friend of mine has been offered a position there for a year, and before he commits would like to hear a bit about it.

If you want to respond here or PM me I'd appreciate it.

HB

[An Fear Rua]

Its a ballache to get decent accomodation and its exp, make sure you have a look well in advance. Dont use the agencies if you can help it as they charge huge premiums. There is a thriving independant property rental and room share scene. Have a search for classified ads .

[Canalman]

HB, spent a summer there as a student . Would recommend your mate to snap up the job. A really beautiful place to live imo and not too dear to live there if you choose the Lidl/pushbike lifestyle.
A while since I was there but I believe the sharing of  a house with strangers is still the norm there and can be arranged easily enough (not immediately though) if you are working there and ask work colleagues if they know somebody. From what i heard from others these arrangements are strictly run with cleaning rotas, fridge rules, no noise rules etc but a great way to make friends as the Dutch are big into visiting each other and are generally a friendly bunch (despite imo being a tad on the serious side in an innocent type of way). Getting buckled and waking everyone up as you get home will get you turfed out immediately.

Hope it is of some help to your mate.

[Tyrones own]

A friend went out during the summer on a job placement for 2 yrs, She loves it..great spot.
A lot of the ground work was done though by the people she's working for so a fat lot of good that is to you,
I hear it's booming at the minute, must be one of very few places that is in this climate

[winsamsoon]

  classic drici. If all else fails lads the women are all good and mad for it. Well the ones in the windows anyway

[Tyrones own]

Not for long by all accounts

[heganboy]

Folks,
thankyou muchly for the help, the guy is late 30s married with a kid, and the corporate folks will be doing all of the apartment finding etc etc for him.
My poorly worded posted above was really about what the city was like to live in, is there much to recommend it as a place to stay?

[Dubh driocht]

Heganboy
My time in Amsterdam was a long long time ago (May-September 1981-came home prematurely for Down's defeat to Offaly!) but it is still a wonderful city.
The only way to get to know the place is with the natives- the red light/tourist stuff is far from the real city.If he has a young child, I would recommend Amstelveen - 45 minutes away by bike - a lovely spot to raise children and still enjoy the benefits of a fantastic European city - also , at the heart of a VG transport network for mainland Europe

[Tyrones own]

I only visited it for a week about 8 yrs ago, mighty spot, lovely European feel to it,
Fine dining and great museums... How do the locals find their bikes though when they come back after an hour
there'll be 2 or 3 hundred of them parked on top of yours, maybe ye just hop on the one closest to you
I don't know
Anyone who's been there will know what I'm talking about.