Coming Home: Feeling Like Locals in Alkmaar

Themi Alexandra
4 days ago
5 min read

So the lady at the gate wasn’t wrong…Amsterdam was the coziest city in the world. Its reign lasted two whole days. After our brief stay in Amsterdam, Mary and I headed to the newly crowned coziest city I have ever visited - Alkmaar - 25 miles northwest of Amsterdam, where we stayed for the remainder of our time in the Netherlands.

Alkmaar made me feel like I was in “Belle,” the opening number from Beauty and the Beast, in the best way! I felt like I was in a storybook, surrounded by the same charms as Amsterdam, with canals veined among the city and gabled townhouses nestled next to each other, the only difference being the smaller scale. At just over 100,000 people, Alkmaar’s population is roughly 1/10 the population of Amsterdam.

When traveling alone I prefer staying at hotels over an Airbnb for both accessibility (elevators, yay!) and the comfort of knowing other people are around in case of an emergency. This may sound dramatic but it’s an experience I have lived and learned from. While in Berlin I moved from an Airbnb to a hotel when pain from a broken rib became unbearable and physically impossible to use the bed embedded in the floor, which looked really cool in photos but the reality was très uncool (see Falls So Hard). I also appreciate the creature comforts a hotel provides like room service if I’m feeling too tired or sore to venture out for food. More than that, I like knowing that if I need help getting to the hospital there are staff around to not only call a taxi but able to speak the local language if needed.

However this wasn’t a solo trip. Mary would be my trusted travel companion in the Netherlands. I met Mary in 2018 on Remote Year. We’ve been Ohana ever since and have grown to become the best of friends. I had peace of mind knowing that I had Mary for support if I needed help along the way. For example, my dear Mary was willing to lug my suitcase up the notoriously steep Dutch stairs. Between her assistance and the hosts sharing photos of the stair railings, I agreed to an Airbnb for our time in Alkmaar. I felt confident I would be able to manage the stairs with these two accommodations in place.

A staircase without a railing is what my nightmares are made of! It’s not that I cannot climb stairs. I can. However I require a railing for added stability and support since balance is not a factory setting for me. Not to mention I have PTSD from a fall I took down a staircase that ended at urgent care because my head was bleeding. You don’t know panic until you’ve touched your head and brought back bloody fingers. A feeling and experience I never wish to relive. I went in knowing the Netherlands are inherently inacessible given the way their townhouses and staircases are built and I prepared myself for the climb.

The Airbnb was the right call for Alkmaar and not just because we got our own bedrooms, but because we got the kitchen and lovely living room overlooking the canal that made it feel like home for those five nights.

The feeling of home doesn’t just come from the additional space, but from the ability to integrate into a neighborhood. We never said more than hello (hoi) to our neighbor in the mornings and good evening (welterusten) upon return, but those few words and the nod of acknowledgement were enough to feel like we belonged.

Our first morning in Alkmaar we ventured out for coffee and found it a few doors down at the Kowalski Comfort Store, one of many curiosity shops we stumbled into but quite possibly the most curiously awesome of them all. A thrift shop with everything from clothes, to decor, to music, that also had a full coffee bar. As we sipped our flat whites we looked through the bin of 45s and had a blast commenting about each cover. The women working gave me elder hipster/Miss Havisham vibes. I imagined her living among all these oddities and sharing her stories of a life well lived with the knicknacks and upcycled concert t-shirts. That day she graciously let us look as long as we liked and would wave to us as we walked by each day after.

If there’s something I love when traveling, it's finding a regular spot. Usually it's a coffee shop. Shout out to Felix Felicis in Buenos Aires and Reykjavík Roasters (where else, Reykjavík) two of my favorite coffee houses in the world! Somewhere I can go daily for a sense of belonging however short term.

We both love coffee but Mary really knows her beans as a former Seattleite and Starbucks barista no less. So we were both keen to find our coffee shop, I mean cafe. In the Netherlands “cofeee shop” is code for cannabis shop and a cafe is what we consider a coffee shop. Unfortunately we didn’t find our cafe until our penultimate morning. If you’re even in Alkmaar, the good coffee is at Groenlokaal or Green Room.

We traded coffee for cocktails by happenstance. Our first night in Alkmaar we had dinner at 1480 FoodBar and got blown away by their cocktails. Mary is both a barista and an amateur mixologist. I don’t know anyone who knows as much about blending spirits that isn’t a bartender. She loves it and loves talking about it even more. After a lovely dinner we moved to the bar for our second round so she could get a closer look at how they made the donuts. The bartenders immediately picked up on Mary’s interest and were quickly offering to make her drinks not yet on the fall menu.

We made it a nightly thing to stop in, chat with some of the best skilled bartenders anywhere, and try their inventive, off-menu concoctions. Pretty soon we were on a first name basis with the head bartender Finn. I told him I wanted an autumnal gin cocktail. With those two cues he created the most delightful cocktail I’ve ever had. The dangerous kind of cocktail where you can’t taste the alcohol. It had saffron that when mixed with gin tasted like sour apple. The flavor profile was so pitch perfect I could imagine it equally at home as a syrup in a coffee drink. I enjoyed the heck out of that cocktail, but I realized my enjoyment went beyond the ingredients.

I love giving someone the freedom to do what they love, to create. It’s a delight! I only know what tastes good to me, but Mary is a connoisseur. So for her to say that these were some of the best cocktails she’s ever had, told me that Finn and friends were in a class by themselves. Not only did they make a delectable drink, but they warmly welcomed Mary and I to the bar each night, making us feel like regulars.

The warm smile, the friendly wave, the good evenings, these tiny things add up to a big feeling - belonging - that I love to experience when I’m somewhere new.

It's a reminder that home is a feeling, not a place, you carry with you whererver you go.

Perhaps it's why I love to travel so much because I feel at home most of the places I go. There was something special about Alkmaar, this darling town known for its cheese, that made me feel so safe, so welcome, that it was hard to leave.