My favorite Dutch cities: Rotterdam

Having been born and raised in this beautiful Dutch city and I can say that you will never experience a dull moment when visiting it. In my personal experience there are usually two camps when it comes to liking the city: you will absolutely love or hate it. Without any doubt I belong to the ones that cherish it and wants to promote the beauty and creativity to everyone. Everything is within arm's reach in Rotterdam: art, culture, clubs, parties, pubs, festivals, architecture – you name it.

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Rotterdam is a harbor city in province of Zuid-Holland and has about 630. 383 inhabitants. Rotterdam is remarkable in a way that it doesn't resemble any other Dutch city. Or with other words, the biggest part doesn't has the typical town houses next to cute canals. Instead of this the city has very futuristic modern look. In the second World War a big part of the city got destroyed and therefore it needed to be rebuilt again. This led to innovation in terms of architecture, especially in the city center. That is the main reason why someone wouldn't like it. Some would say it looks too modern. One of these buildings is the recently opened central station, probably the most modern train station in Europe. This building looks very futuristic, representing the city in an unique fashion.

Rotterdam central station

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Apart from just having modern buildings the city is very alive. It is an active student city with many international students from all over the world. Here you will find the famous Erasmus University. And if you didn't know it already, Desiderius Erasmus was a Dutch renaissance humanist from the fifteenth century. Obviously this is what gave the student exchange program and this website its name, thank you Mr. Erasmus!

If you want to meet up with friends, have a beer first and dance into the night then Schiestraat is the place to be. Here you will find three bars loved by locals: Annabel, BAR and Biergarten. These places hold a shared terrace that is always full of cool people. Biergarten is an only outside bar where you can, obviously, have beer. During the day you can catch some rays while having a cold biertje. Next to being a bar Annabel is also a music venue at night. From silent discos to a Justin Bieber tribute, here you can find all! On Thursday night you go R&B dancing in BAR.

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Rotterdam just opened a huge market hall and this place is a must-see. In this impressive hall you will find restaurants, bars, fresh fruits and most importantly Dutch cheese. On the inside you see huge photos of products that are sold in the hall, a colorful sky of vegetables, meat, flowers and bread.

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Just on the other side of the market hall you will spot some other odd-looking buildings. The structure in the front side of the photo is the train station called Beurs. Behind on the left side you see a building with yellow tubes, this is a library that the locals call the "vacuum cleaner". In the middle you see a building that's called "the pencil", obviously due to its shape. When I was little I thought it looked like a witches hat. Another interesting sight are the cube houses on the right. They look like as if you would fall when entering but fortunately the floors are straight.

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If you are into electronic music than you shouldn't miss Expedition Festival on 16 of July. This festival has been my personal favorite the last years in Rotterdam. The atmosphere here is very relaxed but outgoing at the same time. Names such Âme, Dixon, Mano Le Tough and Henrik Schwarz have played previous years. Be prepared to be carried away by the melodious tracks that keep you want to dance non-stop.

Âme having fun. Link for tickets.

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