AMSTERDAM

The last stop on my secondment - Amsterdam. Coming here, I was excited to learn  about the tax strategies Netherlands is famous for. I'm sure there are a lot of other 20 somethings out there that travel to Amsterdam looking for the same thing..

Amsterdam is the first location on my secondment where English is not the native language. With only a few months to learn the complicated Dutch language, I was pretty hopeless. Thankfully, the office is accepting of my incompetency and everyone speaks very good English here. Things I take for granted, operating a copy machine, using the phone and even reading daily emails is complicated by language. Grocery shopping takes twice as long and if the meal requires instructions I lean on google to translate -

Everyone in the office has been very welcoming, I have already been party in a number of projects throughout the international tax team and thankfully everyone is eager to get me involved. The structuring and tax advisory work here is interesting and the advisers are top notch. The tax attorneys at Mazars Amsterdam have impressive backgrounds, many of them leading large U.S. multinationals as they enter Europe with tax efficiency. I am grateful to have the opportunity to learn alongside them.

The streets and sidewalks of Amsterdam are unlike any I've ever seen. First you have the canals, which dictate everything in this city, where the people can live, where you can drive. The transportation on these passages is crowded. You have a walking lane, a biking lane, a car lane, and tram lanes all within the area of an average two lane street in the states. Bikes are the main mode of transport here - by far. Rain or shine they're out riding, hear a ring and you're getting passed on the left. In a way that's indescribably European, I love that there are so many bikes here.

The canals, which shape this city along with the people that live here, give it a certain uniqueness. I have heard people say before that Amsterdam is the Venice of the North. I have never been to Venice but I can only hope it has as much beauty and charm. The city was founded and still is to this day as a trading center. On the banks of the river Amstel, it is strategically situated on the most traveled waterway of Western Europe. It's name, even originates from dams (dykes) that were built along the river Amstel to protect the city against frequent flooding. Amsteldam, later Amsterdam was born. Now you know where Amstel beer is from if you didn't already.

 

The bridges and many churches all provide for great photos, surprisingly, most all of the churches here are not in service. Amsterdam, like much of Europe is primarily non-religious. When I asked my landlord about churches, he said there are only a few left open. Hard to believe for a city of over 750,000. I can understand the jaded perspective considering the continents contentious past but it is still hard to see these great structures empty. 

For the romantics - symbolize your commitment with a lock and throw away the key..

This picture was taken using a watercolor setting on my camera - no photoshop I promise!



Emerald Isle

2 weeks after arriving in London I jumped on a plane to Dublin. I'm lucky to know a family there because one of my best friends in Charleston calls Dublin home. Over the years I've gotten to know his family during their long summer holidays in Charleston. My visit was nowhere near long enough but I felt like I got to experience life in Ireland in my short time there and I will always be grateful for the White family who welcomed me into their home. 

When I arrived, we went strait to a 6th century monastery called Glendalough, the Gaelic name translates to “valley of the two lakes". . It was like stepping back in time, the site was the epitome of what I imagined Irish Gothic would look like. Seeing the construction, it was hard to believe much of it was 1500 years old.

Some goats nibbling in the mist

A valley in the Wicklow Mountains

A rainy day in the hills!

The Whites took me for a lovely meal my first night and then we went out on the town. The strangest encounter of the night was a double decker bus converted into a food truck with seating on the upper deck. Someone with a double decker in Charleston, I hope you are reading this - make it happen!  It was nice to catch up with Ciaran White and I got to meet his girlfriend Erna, from Iceland.
 


Big Blue!



Old Friends and New

The next day we went over to see the Arthur Guinness brewery to see where the black stuff has been made since 1759.

No way I was moving that door

It is never a good idea to take a picture of a picture, but it was the only way to capture an old photo I found at the Guinness brewery. It's hard to imagine, all those barrels were carved by hand at the Arthur Guinness factory.


Pyramid of Guinness

My last, and favorite stop of the trip was to a small pub up in the Wicklow Mountains right outside of Dublin called "The Blue Light Bar". There was live music that consisted of a couple guys with only a guitar and a banjo playing some classic tunes. It was perfect. The bar overlooks the city of Dublin right down to the Irish Sea, definitely a great setting to commemorate my trip to Ireland. Even an Irish Rainbow -


I ate the Skittles on the flight back