Many years ago on my first visit to Western Europe, Amsterdam captured my imagination. The beautiful architecture, the bikes and lively culture generated a feeling of aesthetic fulfilment. No other European capital I visited managed to do so.

Last year, after spending two years traveling as a digital nomad, I decided to settle down for a while. Naturally, Amsterdam was near the top of my list of potential places.

Considerations

Visiting a city is not the same as putting down roots, even temporary ones. As a visitor, unless you spend a long time in a place, you tend to have a curated experience that is largely none intersecting with the people who live there full time. Ultimately however, the following reasons put Amsterdam on top (for me):

Visa/Bureaucracy Considerations

I was Born in Bulgaria and still retain my Bulgarian citizenship. As such, I had a right to work and got to skip any visa issues that could arise for other other non-EU countries outside of the US. Moreover, my research indicated that the Netherlands had a well functioning bureaucracy and any paperwork I needed, was unlikely to be stuck in processing for more than a few weeks.

Bike Culture

Growing up in Baltimore (US), I got my driver's license at age 16. Since then, I have put in over 200k miles on the road. I drove to college for my classes, I drove to the gym and I motorcycled to my job. A large portion of my life was spent inside a car. Because of this, the allure of a car free, bike friendly life was significant for me.

Not just Amsterdam, but the entire country of the Netherlands is geared toward bike transportation first. Youtube channels such as Not Just Bikes had a significant hand in driving my interest as well.

Airport

I often end up having to fly for work or to visit friends. Residing next to a hub airport cuts down on connection time. Moreover the quality and efficiency of the airport reduces the risk of delays and cuts down on my house-to-gate travel time.

Schiphol is one of the largest airports in Europe, with over 300 direct destination (including east and west coast of the US). Moreover, Schiphol is consistently ranked one of the best Airports in the world and satisfies this requirement nicely.

Job Market

As a software developer, I do have the option of working remotely. However, since I was looking for a place to settle down for a while, I wanted to experience the local office culture. The software engineering job market in Europe is not as good as in the US. Salaries are lower and there don't appear to be as many companies looking to build software products. In Europe, Zurich in particular seems to be a popular hub.

However, there are smaller hubs in Munich, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Berlin and Paris. Southern Europe is a better option if you are looking for remote jobs.

Language

Just about every country in Europe has its own language. As an English speaker, I wanted to immerse myself in a new culture, but also was a little afraid of the difficulty of integrating on day one. After all, I was moving together with a young family and was likely to have to deal with far more of the country's systems than if I was a solo traveler.

On this regard, Amsterdam won out compared to every other city. English is widely spoken in Amsterdam (and beyond). It is rare to find non English speakers, as learning conversational level of English is mandatory in the Dutch education system. Even most of the government services are offered in English.

My experience while traveling in other European countries was that English is well spoken in popular tourist areas, but stepping out of the beaten path often leads to a need for a local language. Since learning new languages is difficult for me, I knew that the prevalence of English in the Netherlands would give me the time to adapt.

The Decision

Working through the list of considerations, I narrowed down my interest in two cities in particular:

• Munich
• Amsterdam

I had visited both cities as a tourist and wanted to experience more of the culture and the environment. Amsterdam, inched out Munich in two categories:

• English Language

English is widely spoken in society, not just at work.

• Job Opportunities

The job opportunities in Munich seemed to be fewer and clustered around automotive, which is not a specialization I have.