Trip to Utrecht and a small milestone
Hey!
We reached a small milestone — it's the 10th issue of my newsletter! 🥳
🇳🇱 Stuff I’m doing in The Netherlands
Nothing much happened since last week. Mostly trying to get back to my routine and experimenting with it. So far so good — I'm managing to spend around 1–1.5 hours editing videos before work. Wednesday and Saturday are for side projects. I like this regime.
We have plans to buy a house next year. Hence, we decided it was time to start exploring Dutch cities and their residential areas. This Sunday we made a trip to Utrecht and the city is amazing. Let's get to it in the travel section.
Also, I can't stop enjoying the weather in the Netherlands. Everyone was saying the only downside of the country is the climate but it's amazing. Fall started at the end of October and the temperature is around +12 – +15 every day. We couldn't even dream about this back in Russia. It doesn't rain as much as people were saying — maybe we're lucky though. Let's see what Dutch winter feels like.
🧳 Travel
Utrecht is somewhat in the middle of the country and Randstad (the most populated region).
We traveled there by train which took us around 30 minutes from The Hague Central station. The city is absolutely beautiful. It has canals like Amsterdam but also many modern buildings like Rotterdam. In my opinion, its canals are even better than Amsterdam’s. They have two levels and some people even live right on the first level.
The city center is very vibrant — hundreds of cafes and bars everywhere. It's so hipstery compared to The Hague.
Utrecht has made our list of cities for a potential move. We went to explore different areas with the housing app in hand. But the city turned out to be quite expensive in the central areas. Next time we visit, we need to explore more areas with affordable housing.
In general, I’d recommend visiting Utrecht instead of Amsterdam if you want to enjoy a Dutch city.
PS I even published my first Reel on Instagram about Utrecht.
📺 YouTube
This week I published a new video. It's my last video about Georgia and I compare the two largest cities in the country — Tbilisi and Batumi.
I spent some time coming up with this thumbnail but it turned out to be worth it. The video so far has one of the highest click‑through rates on the channel (7.3%). And in general, it's performing well, sitting in second place among the last 10 videos by views.
💻 Cool purchase
I've already been raving about the Terraforming Mars board game but we bought another one: Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion — and it's even better!
It's a so‑called "dungeon crawler" which reminds me of D&D games but still a bit different. The game is so well written and has so many interesting mechanics you can't stop playing. Highly recommended, especially if you like Fantasy or RPGs.
🎁 Content I’m consuming
📺 We finished a bunch of Apple TV+ series, so now we’re picking by score. Started Long Way Round — a documentary about Ewan McGregor and his friend riding around the world on motorbikes. Surprisingly interesting. I had this dream to do a trip around the world without planes, so it’s fun to see the challenges. A lot of the route goes through Russian‑speaking countries, so I understand what locals say — they don’t 😀
👾 We completed Mario and started playing Crash Bandicoot 4 on PS5. Not as good as Mario but still fun. It has a pass‑the‑controller mode after each unsuccessful attempt — very old‑school.
📚 Started my first Brandon Sanderson book — Elantris. I’m hooked. The story is gripping and written in simple language so you can dive deep into it.
As usual, hit me with any questions/suggestions by clicking the reply button in your email client, and have a great week!
Written in my mini office in The Hague, The Netherlands 🇳🇱