Las Palmas

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Living in Las Palmas for half a year

14 October 2016 - 585 words - Adriaan van Rossum

In this blog post I will explain the lessons learned form my half year living abroad. I write in English so my foreign friends can read it as well and my Dutch friends read and write better than I do, so they will be fine. It is not my native language so feel free to correct my grammar with the top right button (on GitHub).

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Before going into all the things I learned while living in Las Palmas I want to go into the first blog post I wrote on this subject. Before I Go, you can read it here. I wasn’t going to Las Palmas to find a great new future, but I kind of found a great of living my life. Now I just can go anywhere in the world and explore which the knowledge that it will be alright. Maybe for a year, maybe for a few years, maybe forever, either way this is how want to live now.

The most amazing things I did where the trips to hidden beaches and riding a motorbike on the island. It was so beautiful…

What did you learn?

My prediction came true. Spending money on a bigger house makes it more open to friends and new friends. A lot of people visited Las Palmas and I could offer people from there a room when they needed it.

Next to learning about living I also learned how to travel in a practical manner. I started this blog post two months ago on an airplane which flew to London. With my golden 12” MacBook on the table, my Bose QuietComfort 35 connected to my iPhone SE while playing some offline Spotify playlists, somewhere in my backpack I’ve a battery pack which can charge my MacBook or iPhone and to finish it of I travel with a Kobo e-reader with my Pocket-account connected to it. Never a dull moment on an airplane ever.

The funny thing about going abroad in the summer usually means that the place you go to has a winter like climate. I made “the mistake” to leave in the summer. In the summer it’s often cloudy in Las Palmas. They even have a name for it: the Donkey belly. You know it’s for real when they are making up names for it. So next time I will check a little better what the weather will be at my new destination.

It does not feel like the end of something, it feels more like the start. To be continued…

Thanks to

I want to thank Sander for making this possible. While a lot of tech companies have a remote friendly company culture, it’s is quite rare in the Netherlands. A lot of companies just require you to be in the office. With Sander supporting me I probably will expand this adventure into other parts of the world.

Next in line is Marleen, she is the founder of GoldRepublic and Nxchange. They flew my in a few times to work on their project, which is awesome. And I can stay at her beautiful apartment in the center of Amsterdam, even when I’m not working. Thanks Marleen.

So what are you next plans?

At the moment I’m in Amsterdam and I’m planing to stay here for two months. While I’m here I will try to buy a house somewhere in the center. My budget is € 275.000,- so if you hear something, give me a ping.