I first published these routes three years ago. Yes, Amsterdive started back in 2013 but somehow it took a Cinderella nap until 2016 when I decided to just go for it. ‘Gewoon doen’ was the actual kick-start of this blog. In 2013, I was living in Amsterdam for one and a half-year and thrilled about touring my beloved ones around the city. Moving to Amsterdam meant starting to have people over very frequently. Think of family, friends, high school former colleagues, couchsurfers, you name it.

I wondered much if I should erase the ‘Routes for you to get lost in Amsterdam’, for a number of different reasons. If I were to write such an article today, I would just cover alternative routes. Those are the areas of the city I am most passionate about (if that’s your case too, scroll down to routes 6 and 7, in the end of the article). Furthermore, I feel there’s a sort of saturation in the media covering the main routes of Amsterdam, and there are enough websites doing a great job in that manner. My goal with Amsterdive is not to extensively cover the city but rather selecting and highlighting the places I find unique, and ultimately make me happy. While doing this I want to tell stories about the possibilities of life over here, from my personal perspective. Since I am very interested in arts & culture, tradition & crafts, vintage & second-hand places as well as biological & vegetarian ones, you are going to find much of it here.

My contribution as a blogger should be as original as possible, that’s how I believe one can enrich this whole ‘Amsterdam conversation’. It is possible that my blog reaches people interested in exploring the city, whether travellers or locals. In this sense, I would feel happy to inspire people to dive into the authentic life of the city, which is something that manifests itself in plentifully different ways. If, through my own experience, I can trigger someone to discover less mainstream places, off-the beaten tracks and hidden gems in the city, all the better.