I have a love/hate relationship with Amsterdam. Because to be honest, I’ve been in very few places in Amsterdam where I felt at home. I love staying there, going to museums, gigs and plays, but I’ve not fallen in love with it as I have with some other cities (as I have explained here)… You can do so much fun and amazing stuff there, but I have yet to find evidence that I could make it my home. Of course, the only way to be sure is to actually try. But yeah, for now, I don’t mind not living there.

Still, Amsterdam SHOULD have something. After all, it’s the biggest city in The Netherlands. And it captivates the minds of hundreds of artists throughout history. For example, there’s this beautiful song by Gregory Alan Isakov. It has a beautiful video too with Dutch canals and windmills in paper-form, so I recommend you watch and listen to this several times:

Another great song about Amsterdam is Cayman Islands by Kings of Convenience, although you’d think it’s about the islands in the title, in fact the title refers to a bearded man in the song who looks as if he has come all the way from the Cayman Islands.

I know we’re supposed to hate Amsterdam, but… I said to friend while sending her the first song… Because the songs are both beautiful. In fact, they make me question whether I’ve just been unlucky with my experiences in the Dutch capital (and too influenced by the places I grew up and the way they view Amsterdam). It’s not that I never had a fun time there, quite the opposite. I want to give the city a fair chance at winning me over, I guess. Right now, Amsterdam is just a city I’ve not fallen in love with yet. Perhaps a prolonged stay will change that. Or maybe I should idealize it in a song?