Some backstory: why am I here?

I’m an urban girl. I don’t drive, and I want/need good transportation and easy access to all the goods and services I generally want, if I’m going to happily stay somewhere.

Due to one thing or another, I found myself staying near Roermond, outside a little village called Heel. But it was a challenge to find WIFI over there, all the cafes are closed on Mondays, there are a few little shops, but they are often closed on the weekends, and I was often thwarted in my desire to do and see things. So I found myself coming to Roermond more and more often.

At first glance, Roermond is really cute, and classically “European”, if that makes sense, even more than it’s “Dutch”. The narrow streets and thriving cafe life, clustered up in little squares at the foot of churches… it looks like something you might find in Germany or Poland or France.

Not only is it visually charming and have an appealing lifestyle, but, on further exploration, it has easy access to everything I might need or want. There are big and small shops, spas, tattoo parlours, outdoor recreation, a good variety of different cuisines, a couple Asian grocery stores… it’s not like my neighborhood in Amsterdam, that had Asian, African, and Brazilian supermarkets, but for such a small place, it’s fairly sophisticated. There’s a yarn shop called “Knit Happens”, local music and theater, and the ECI is a big warehouse/cultural space. Roermond doesn’t have the wide range of choices offered by a bigger city, but it has everything I would look for in a place to live. All wrapped in a cute, convenient, inexpensive little package. And I bet it’s absolutely adorable at Christmas. I can’t wait.

Image by Rebekah Villon, creative commons license please