10th issue and trip to Utrecht - Issue #10
Hey!
We reached a small milestone - it's a 10th issue of my newsletter! 🥳
🇳🇱 Stuff I’m doing in The Netherlands
Nothing much happen since the last week. Mostly trying to get back to my routine and experimenting with it. So far so good, I'm managing to spend around 1-1.5 hours editing videos before work. Wednesday and Saturday spend working on my side projects. I like this regime.
We have plans of buying a house next year. Hence, we decided it was time to start exploring the Dutch cities and their residential areas. This Sunday we made a trip to Utrecht and the city is amazing. Let's get to it in the travel section.
Also, I can't stop enjoying the weather in the Netherlands. Everyone was saying the only downside of the country is the climate but it's amazing. The fall started at the end of October and the temperature is around +12 - +15 every day. We couldn't even dream about this warmness back in Russia. It doesn't rain as much as people were saying, maybe we're lucky though. Let's see what Dutch winter feels like.
🧳 Travel
Utrecht is somewhat in the middle of the country and Randstad (is the most populated region).
We traveled there by train which took us around 30 minutes from The Hague central station. The city is absolutely beautiful. It has canals like in Amsterdam but also many modern buildings like Rotterdam. In my personal opinion, its canals are even better than Amsterdam ones. They have two levels and some people even live right on the first level.
The city center is very vibrant, there are hundreds of cafes and bars everywhere. It's so hipstery compared to the Hague.
Utrecht has made our list of cities for a potential move. We went to explore different areas with the housing app in the hand. But the city turned out to be quite expensive in the central areas. Next time we visit, we need to explore more areas with affordable housing.
In general, I would recommend people visit Utrecht instead of Amsterdam if they want to enjoy the Dutch city.
PS I even published my first Reel on Instagram about Utrecht.
📺 YouTube
This week I published a new video. It's my last video about Georgia and I'm comparing the two largest cities in the country - Tbilisi, and Batumi.
I spend some time coming up with this thumbnail but it turns out to be worth it. The video so far has one of the highest click-through rates on the channel (7.3%). And in general, it is performing well, sitting in second place among the last 10 videos by views.
💻 Cool purchase
I've already been raving before about the Terraforming Mars board game but we bought another one. It is Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion and it's even better!
It's a so-called "dungeon crawler" which reminds me of D&D games but still a bit different. The game is so well written and has so many interesting mechanics you can't stop playing. I would recommend it, especially if you like Fantasy or RPGs.
🎁 Content I’m consuming
📺
We completed all the series we wanted to watch on Apple TV+ so now picking the ones with good scores. We started watching Long Way Round. A documentary about Ewan McGregor and his friend doing a trip around the world on motorbikes.
The show is quite interesting, more than I expected. I had this dream for a while to make a trip around the world without planes. So it is interesting to see the challenges they face.
Especially because the vast majority of the trip goes through countries with the Russian language. So I can understand what the locals they met are saying and they don't 😀
👾
We completed Mario and started playing Crush Bandicoot 4 on PS5. It's not as good as Mario but still fun. It also has a mode where you pass the controller to your partner after an unsuccessful attempt. It reminds me of the old ways of gaming.
📚
I started reading my first book from Brandon Sanderson "Elantris" and I am hooked. The story is so dripping but also written in a quite simple language so you can dive deep into it.
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As usual, hit me with any questions/suggestions by clicking the reply button in your email client, and have a great week!
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Written in my mini office in The Hague, The Netherlands 🇳🇱