I have been living in my new home on Keizersgracht for 3 nights now and every day I am getting more happy with the place. My three flatmates are all friendly professionals and we get along well. In the photo on the right you can see that my house (the one on the right) has a “neck” gable, which most likely means it was built in the 1700’s. Our part of the house is the top two floors and attic.
The true lessee of the house is Sebastian, a German in his mid-20s who works in advertising. He has the best room. I think that mine is the second best, but I haven’t seen any of the girls’ rooms so I can’t say for sure. In the attic live Nieve, an Irish designer and Julia, a German who works in finance.
The house is in possibly the best location possible in Amsterdam. The street/canal is quiet, yet it is 3 blocks from Leidseplein, 3 blocks from Koningsplein, flower markets and Kalverstraat, 4 or 5 blocks from the Jordaan and 9 Straatjes area, and I walked to de Dam in 12 minutes, including window shopping. Tomorrow I might walk the 5 blocks to Rembrandtplein.
I know that to most of my readers, all of this means nothing. In Sydney terms, imagine that I lived in a luxury harbourside house within 1 km of: the Opera House; Norton Street, Leichhardt; Paddington; King’s Cross; Cockle Bay; Bondi; Government House; the Toohey’s brewery; Centennial Park; and Central Station.
We have been babysitting Sebastian’s Boss’ dog, Funky, this weekend and I took him for a walk this afternoon. We walked along Keizersgracht in the direction of Brouwersgracht, Funky stopping to appreciate smells, and me stopping to appreciate where I was.
This is why I flew 21,414 kilometres from my home, to live in a place like this.