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The Dutch staff of Andalucía Tours and Discovery
As many of you may know, Andalucía Tours and Discovery is a very international company. We are originally founded by a Spaniard but if you visit our shop you will soon notice that there is almost nothing Spanish to be seen or hear. The office language is mainly English and Dutch because most of the employees and interns are from Holland. For us that is a good thing because we have a lot of clients from Holland or Belgium and they like to speak their own language when they are on a holiday. But what do all those Dutch people do at this company? Why are there so many Dutch people over here? Why did they move to Seville and what are the pros and cons of living here in Seville? That is something we are going to take a look at this week. Via a couple of questions we are going to find out how the Dutchies at our company feel about living here and why they moved to Spain.
Eduardo
Hola a todos,
My name is Edu, tour guide at ATD Spain in Seville. Like many of the people working at ATD, I’m from Holland, although Seville is now my home and it’s also where my heart is.
Nearly seven years ago I came to Seville and started a new life here. During the younger years of my life I had travelled a lot in countries all over the world: Asia, Australia, America and Africa (many times by bicycle). I usually went to countries with a hot climate as I really love the heat (and I hate the cold) and I love the corresponding warm cultures of those countries. And I always had the dream to not only visit an exotic place as a tourist, but also to actually live and work there, blend in with the people and get submerged in the life and culture of the country. As I already knew some Spanish and I had visited Spain so many times I decided to try to find a job in Spain and despite its huge number of unemployment (nearly 20% by then) I found a job within a couple of weeks. I didn’t really have any preference for any specific region or city in Spain, but the job just happened to be located in Seville. Soon after I moved here I realised that I had been very lucky, because Seville is an incredible place to live.
When I just had arrived, of course I struggled with the language. The Spanish I learned during some courses in Holland were definitely not enough to neither speak nor understand enough, and the Andalusian way of speaking made it even more difficult (people here “eat” many letters at the word endings and they speak loud, fast and a lot). But after half a year or so my understanding and fluency of speaking the language had improved significantly and now, another six years later, it is hardly ever a problem for me.
Apart from (and due to) the hot weather, there are many differences between life in Seville and life in Holland. Whereas in Holland most of the (social) life takes place indoors, in Seville people love to go out, stroll through the city and eat and drink on terraces in the street. In Holland, especially in autumn and winter, there is nobody on the street after six o’clock in the afternoon. But in Seville, life goes on until midnight and even more in summer and even more during the weekends. As any visitor to Seville will notice, the times for breakfast, lunch and dinner are quite different from northern Europe or the US and it is quite common to have dinner at eleven o’clock at night. Eating is an important thing in Seville: the day usually gets planned around the meals and the Spanish cuisine is excellent.
Of course even in Seville life is not just a bed of roses. Sometimes I miss my dear Amsterdam (another marvellous city), although the good news is that now I can go back as a tourist. I miss the way things in Holland work and the discipline, openness and respect of the Dutch people. I have a small dog, but many people in Seville suffer from dog-phobia. Also, Seville can also be a very loud city: noisy traffic, loud music and people talking to each other as if they were at least 20 meters apart. And whereas the historical centre is beautiful and clean, most of the suburbs are ugly and not clean at all.
But despite this, I really enjoy living here Seville and I’m very happy here. There is just so much to enjoy! Being a city with nearly 3000 years of history, it is literally packed with amazing monuments. From the first day on these monuments, their history and their relation with the actual life in Seville has fascinated me. I can’t stop exploring the city and reading about everything it has to offer, and the best of all is that now, as a tour guide, I can actually share my interest and knowledge with hundreds of visitors from all over the world.
Rosalie
Rosalie has been living in Seville for almost 8 years now. She lives and always have lived in the neighbourhood of Triana, which isn’t really Seville of course she says whit a wink. She found a tall, ‘’good looking and cooking man’’ from Córdoba who was living in Seville already and that is the main reason she stayed.
She likes the working experience here in Seville as the way of working is more relaxed she says. If something goes wrong, we will do it better tomorrow.
For Rosalie the biggest difference between Spain and Holland is the great weather when you go to work in the morning that you have here in Seville. I think in the Netherlands, things are so improved and efficient that life can be stressy se says.
PRO'S of living in Seville for Rosalie: the biggest Pro’s for living in Seville for Rosalie are the great weather, the really nice food that they have here, the fact that there is a lot of nightlife, talkative people, a very relaxed atmosphere in the city itself and the kind and helpful people. Seville is like a little village sometimes she says.
CON'S of living in Seville for Rosalie: the biggest Con’s for living in Seville for Rosalie are the burocracy, the fact that you have to be very patient sometimes, that some working places are very strict and hierarchic and the thinks that the government has to put some (more) money in creating work and innovative plans for the community and the inhabitants of Seville.
Lucia
For Lucia it is a bit of a different story. She is one of our amazing guides but unlike most of the others she is from Seville and not from Holland. Nevertheless, she lived in the Netherlands for her study for about a year. But if she had to choose, Spain or the Netherlands?...
Lucia is born a raised in Seville and both of her parents are to, so you can say she is a 100% Sevillian. Nonetheless, she loves travelling and discovering new cultures and places. She lived in France for a scholarship and next to that she also lived in the lovely city of Amsterdam one year!
The next thing we asked is, Why Seville? Why not Madrid or Barcelona? She said: Why going there if I have Seville? We may not be as big and multicultural as those places, but that is also an advantage! We are not as crowded as them, we are more authentic and we have a few things to be extremely jealous about, why don't you go to have a look at our beautiful Cathedral, the biggest one in Spain! Or, why don't you go to the Alcazar with its palaces and wonderful gardens? I want to quote a Spanish writer because in that way I think I will sum it up in a better way, so, as Antonio Gala said: "Lo malo no es que los sevillanos piensen que tienen la ciudad más bonita del mundo… Lo peor es que pueden que tengan hasta razón” (What's bad it is not that Sevillians think that they have the most beautiful city in the world...The worst part is that they may even be right").
The Biggest differences for Lucia between Spain and Holland is mainly the food. If you want to be one of her favourites during her tour, you can bring her: bitterballen, poffertjes, pindakaas, or kruidenboter... Nevertheless, Spanish food is also amazing should not be complaining she says.
Apart from the fact that living in Spain is very different from the Netherlands, or at least Southern Spain, as I cannot tell you from the other side of Spain. We can say that we almost live in the streets. We spend plenty of time in the bars, having fun, drinking with our friends and family. We love talking even though most of my fellow countrymen do not speak a word of English. Dutch people are really friendly but you have it difficult to spend your spare time outside. We have plenty of good weather, and there, I was delighted if I came back one day at home and I was not soaking wet! Therefore your beer time is spent inside of a ‘’kroeg’’, what I love, because even if you don't notice, it has its own charming. And, something I really appreciated there is that, here in Spain we have plenty of acquaintances, that is due to our busy social outside life, and sometimes it might be difficult to get to know who you real friends are, but in the Netherlands, it is difficult to get to your heart, but once there, you know you have a friend forever!
PRO'S of living in Seville for Lucia: everything! First one, you will get the chance of getting to know me...just kidding! hehe. My city has so many good things that I can talk and talk but I will not be able to explain how great it is as it deserves.
CON'S of living in Seville for Lucia: Summer! It is the warmest city in Europe and that makes that even Sevillians want to run away from our city as one hour standing at the sun or sunbathing will turn you into a tomato or a shrimp! But you know, that's not too bad if you have one of our refreshing tinto de veranos or sangrias! ;)