Monday, February 7, 2011

One of those things I really miss from Iceland (and I knew beforehand that I would miss it) is the water. The water here is "really good, straight from the tap" but there is some taste to it that I don't like. I plan on getting waterfilter but the question is should I get the one I left home or buy one from Amazon (like this)? I'm living in an apartment that my employee provides, see here. I can use it for few months but should be using those few months to search for a place of my own. This is a really nice apartment, I could easily see myself living here. It's big enough to be really roomy yet small enough that I wouldn't feel guilty about buying it. That is to say, if I could get it at about 60% of the asking price. I like the layout, but there are few "issues". Nothing big, but the fit and finish of basically everything gets on my nerves, more on that at a later time. I've been looking for an apartment to buy, the payments are usually lower than rent. Interesting thing about the Netherland real estate market is how common those loans are where you only pay interest but don't pay back the money owed. That will be paid in one sum in, up to, 30 years (kúlulán). According to some sources nearly half the market has those types of loans. Another interesting fact is that if you pay enough interest on your loans you get up to half your taxes back. What does that mean? Well, the average Dutchman only pays interests on his loans, gets half the interest back and invests it. Can anyone say Iceasave? My coworkers are telling me that to fit into Dutch society I need to buy bicycle (Fiets). Everyone and their grandmothers are using bicycles here. As a matter of fact the most common bicycles are called Granny-bikes (Oma-fiets) and most people have 2 or 3 of them. They have no gears, are almost as heavy as a train and last forever.

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