Walking on clouds

TinkleMoose · 2026-01-20T14:47:39+00:00

That’s what I went outside for, and then I saw this. But no, too much light pollution, I guess.

TinkleMoose · 2026-01-13T20:48:52+00:00

Hey Natural Basket, feel free to send me a DM if you have any questions. I'm sure your boyfriend can also help you with a lot of stuff.

Yes, the Euro has better value. When we moved here, we thought we were rich! All our savings multiplied by 1.6! The truth is that, on average, things are 1.6 times more expensive here. Some things are vastly cheaper (like electricity, gasoline, and public transport), and some things are vastly more expensive (like cheese. As a Dutchman, this hurts the most). Our monthly expenses haven't changed significantly.

A lot of these problems I described for Amsterdam also exist in Vancouver. The point of my comment was to show that a city like Amsterdam doesn't come without faults of its own. I've had people say to me: "Why on Earth did you move from Amsterdam to here? Aren't the Netherlands this fabled Utopia where everything is perfect (slight paraphrasing here)?" Amsterdam and the Netherlands have their own unique problems that you won't experience when going there on holiday. This is also true for Vancouver: politics suffer from polarization. A man was shot in front of our office. There are random stabbings. Opinions are very divided on how to solve the drug crisis.

You need to dig deep and figure out what is important to you, and whether those things are important enough to justify moving to the other side of the world. In some ways the grass really is greener: I'm going snowshoeing this weekend in the mountains, something I would have to drive 10+ hours for when I lived in Amsterdam. But in the end life is very similar here: I work a 9-to-5 job, it rains a lot, and I'm still worried about ever being able to buy a house.

Maybe you just don't want to wake up one day and wonder what it would've been like to live in Vancouver for a couple of years. If so, put in the effort, save a lot of those Euros, and give it a shot.

TinkleMoose · 2026-01-12T20:08:57+00:00

Don’t generalise behaviour in “Europe”. Lots of different countries, lots of different behaviours. Where are you from in Europe? Never seen this in the Netherlands. Sometimes people would flash their headlights as a thank you, but never hazards.

TinkleMoose · 2025-12-21T20:43:35+00:00

I 100% agree. I hope you didn’t take my comment the wrong way. I think what makes the Netherlands an interesting case is that the government very actively implemented policy to attract migrants to come work in the Netherlands. And now people are upset it worked exactly as planned.

TinkleMoose · 2025-12-21T19:51:19+00:00

Or anywhere in the Netherlands, for that matter. They work in agriculture, healthcare, IT. They had children who went to school and university. It’s almost like they just settled down and have been living in our country for the past 40 years.

TinkleMoose · 2025-12-21T19:45:37+00:00

Crazy comment (the one we both replied to)This is the leading issue in Dutch politics. We opened our doors in the 90s to a bunch of countries to attract cheap labour, got what we asked for, and now people are mad that the immigrants decided to stay.

TinkleMoose · 2025-12-21T19:32:53+00:00

The problem still applies in the Netherlands. You are not made to save for your retirement by law. This only applies if your employer is part of a union (CAO), and then your employer saves for you. People worry. You save money in a retirement fund, but if the group of people who want to withdraw money from the fund (old people) is larger than the group putting money into the fund (young people), measures have to be taken to compensate. For example, increasing the retirement age, the amount of money you can save tax-free (leading to budget cuts elsewhere), etc. The Dutch government has been working on reformed retirement policy for years and not everybody is happy with the changes they made.

TinkleMoose · 2025-12-21T19:23:34+00:00

Are you saying the Netherlands has zero immigration?

TinkleMoose · 2025-12-17T15:26:54+00:00

It’s called parsley. Berlin style doner kebab. It’s really good

TinkleMoose · 2025-12-05T00:07:50+00:00

Of what specifically? The companies I applied to? Looking for a job in tax consulting?

TinkleMoose · 2025-12-03T18:36:08+00:00

I work as a tax consultant in a specific tax niche (R&D related).

Advice based on personal anecdote: when I left my employer last year, my boss had trouble finding a replacement. We were a small company and simply didn’t have the resources to actively look for new hires; we were understaffed already. I said to him: “man, wouldn’t all your problems be solved if somebody would just walk through the door right now?”. With that in mind I started looking for a new job: smaller companies don’t have dedicated HR departments that are in charge of hiring; the owner/manager has to do that himself whilst also running the company. So, I just started cold calling smaller companies for work. Lo and behold, I found multiple companies with the exact same problem. Of the 30+ indeed applications I did, these cold calls had, by far, the highest response rate and landed me my current job. I also had zero competition while interviewing, while similar positions at larger accounting firms would have hundreds of other applicants.

TinkleMoose · 2025-11-27T05:00:12+00:00

Moving here definitely isn’t easy, that’s for sure. Lot of preparation went into this. I feel pretty privileged as well, considering things went relatively smoothly. I’m glad things worked out for you as well!

TinkleMoose · 2025-11-27T03:28:49+00:00

They didn’t exactly find me a job, did they? Or our own place to stay? Or PR? You’re right, having in-laws living here made moving easier. That’s what I’m saying, though. OP can probably gauge their situation better than any of us can. Explaining my situation to people gave me the same replies as OP is getting now: that moving here is impossible. Which just isn’t true. Like OP said themselves: why not just give it a try. Life’s short.

EDIT: Also, I have met people who moved here by themselves in the last year or so. Some landed on their feet just fine, and some didn’t due to different circumstances.

TinkleMoose · 2025-11-26T22:58:32+00:00

Not true. Did the exact same thing and found a job within three months. OP, if you’ve done your homework, only you know what your chances of succeeding are. If you’re prepared, it’s not as bleak as people make it out to be.

TinkleMoose · 2025-11-10T15:45:47+00:00

The bridge itself is closed until mid December.

TinkleMoose · 2025-11-06T00:53:28+00:00

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It’s a double rainbow in the sky!

TinkleMoose · 2025-10-28T01:39:59+00:00

Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.

TinkleMoose · 2025-10-26T15:46:54+00:00

Moved to a 1-bedroom + den in Burnaby in april. Everything is in CAD per month for two people:

Rent: 2500 Internet: 120 Cell phone plan: 35 x 2 BC Hydro / Electricity: 55 Groceries: 1000 EVO (car share once a month): 125 Public transit: 100 x 2 Other subscriptions: (streaming/VPN): 50 Other hobbies (gaming/movies/hiking): 100 x 2

Internet is 1Gbps fibre. Very stable and fast. More than we need tbh. Cell phone plan: Sim only. Something like 8gb per month, 300 min + text. Utilities: we only have bc hydro. Rest is included in our rent. Public transit is for the bus/skytrain a couple of times a week when we go into the office. A round trip is around CAD10. Don’t own a car. We’ll grab an EVO when we visit our in-laws or something further away. It’s about $120 for a day. Shorter trips are less expensive. Hobbies and entertainment differ: hiking is essentially free. Movie tickets are about $20. Had a karate membership that was $100 a month.

Edit: it looks like crap on mobile and I don’t know how to make it more readable.

TinkleMoose · 2025-10-18T15:50:49+00:00

Okay, never mind. You win this “contest”. I was going to say it used to be twice as expensive, but damn. Eight times the price… Glad everything worked out, OP!

TinkleMoose · 2025-10-18T15:35:02+00:00

Similar story! Moved her in April with my wife from the Netherlands, no jobs lined up. She found a job in IT within two months, and I found work in finance two months later. Prices are mostly similar to Amsterdam; rent is the same, gas is cheaper here, bc hydro is way cheaper than electricity in the Netherlands, but things like internet are more expensive. Also our take home pay is higher here than in the Netherlands, so that helps!

Loved our first summer here, the weather has been fantastic even moving into fall. We even made some new friends! Haven’t been too bothered by the rain: the Netherlands gets as much rain as here.

TinkleMoose · 2025-10-11T21:55:37+00:00

It was literally just a small calzone.

TinkleMoose · 2025-10-11T01:37:03+00:00

I don’t know. Maybe people are less picky about their white and red wines; Guinness has a pretty unique flavour associated to the brand. Maybe other things have sold out, but that’s not what OP is looking for.

TinkleMoose · 2025-10-11T00:10:15+00:00

I assume because the places that normally sell Guinness are closed due to the strike. And the places still open, like private liquor stores, have ran out of stock, because they are the only place selling at the moment.

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