Hello from the Netherlands!!
Posted by Nephtys80 on May 21, 2010 · Member since May 2010 · 75 posts
Just wanted to say hi!
I've been an ovo-lacto vegetarian for a long time, nearly vegan these days and waffling about whether or not to go fully vegan - full blah blah on this is in my profile if you feel like reading it... I should warn, I have brevity issues :)
I'm 29, based in Utrecht, the Netherlands (give us a shout if you find yourself in my neck of the woods!), I have a lot of vegetarian and friends and one vegan, but I figured more is better so I decided to come and meet you lovely people, steal your recipes and share some of mine - I just have one up right now, but there will be more, I promise.
ciao!
Charlotte
Hi! Welcome to vegweb!! I'm no too far away, in Germany, and I'd love to make it over to the Netherlands at some point. You know that going vegan is the way to go and I hope that you're able to commit to it soon. Hopefully it will become easier for you when you're not at home. In the meantime, enjoy all the recipes here and have fun in the forums!
I was "nearly vegan" for a long time myself. In the end I went fully vegan and never looked back. You'll be one of us soon I know. :)
Welcome!
OMG I just saw this: http://www.good.is/post/what-rush-hour-could-look-like-the-glorious-bike-traffic-of-utrecht-holland/
you live there?!!! incredible.
Hi Charlotte,
I live in Utrecht, too :) It's so cool that you know other vegans and vegetarians. Having a friendly base can help you to make the jump.
Cheers,
Janel
Awww thanks so much for the warm welcome everyone!
Algae, Grüß dich, Nachbarin! I've visited Germany a few times, but never Berlin - I really want to though, everyone keeps telling me how great it is!
Yep, that video was shot right next to the Central Station in Utrecht - there's about 18 million bikes in the Netherlands, for 16 million inhabitants :) Most cities are very bicycle-friendly with separate cycle paths - and it also helps that the country is so small, so the cities are compact enough that you can cycle pretty much anywhere.
And hi Janel, nice to see a fellow Utrechter here :)
ciao,
Charlotte
Wow, Utrecht looks wonderfull. I love bikes and always have. I'd say it was bike paradise but we'd need to throw in a few mountain bike trails and a hill or two . :)
Haha Stuck, we have something close by which we call the 'Utrecht Hill Ridge' - but I suspect that in any other country they would probably be the 'Utrecht series of barely noticeable bumps' :D Still a very nice area for biking though!
I personally love the flat nature of Utrecht given that I have no cartilage in one of my knees, so biking is actually doable for me here whereas it's not in any place with a hill :)
Janel
The netherlands!
My mum is dutch, so i often went there to visit my grand parents when i was a kid (in rotterdam, not as nice as utrecht i must say). Now i'm a little bit on the other side of the planet so there is no way i can go back there now.
My favourite dish at that time was "patat met saté sauce" hmmm leker.
Hello and welcome! Utrecht sounds really cool, whenever I see the name though I instantly think of the art store. :P
Hi Charlotte!
I'm from the Netherlands too, and I study in Utrecht and will probably move there in a while, so I'm more or less from that area! ;)
I'm mostly a lurker here, but I still want to say welcome! I hope you'll have a good time here :) And if you ever fancy meeting up, just let me know! :)
Groetjes, Claudia
Nice to meet you, would you say the Netherlands have a much higher ratio of vegetarians compared to other countries, I'm just curious. And yes my friend, going from ovo-lacto to vegan is great. It's like going from carnivore to vegetarian.
Oh, hello! I didn't realise this topic was still active :) Thanks for the new welcomes! Claudia, it would be lovely to hang out some time! Good luck moving closer to Utrecht, it can be really tough to find a place around here...
Skywalker, I don't actually know about percentages of vegetarians in NL compared to other countries: the dutch vegetarian association says about 4,5% of the population is fully vegetarian, the vegan association says about 0,1% is vegan, but I don't know what the numbers are for other countries, and I think it's quite hard to gauge anyway because it is something people self-identify as, and they might use different definitions. I know quite a few people for instance who identify as vegetarian even though they occasionally eat fish or cheese with animal rennet - I'm not sure whether they are included in the statistics in different countries. The percentage of my friends and acquaintances who are vegetarian or vegan is a lot higher, but that's because I work for an NGO and have a lot of lefty politically active friends (I'd place myself in that group too, not using lefty in a derogatory manner here!) and vegans and vegetarians are well-represented in those circles :).
I just read your profile. You like kayaking. You should tots be my bff.
(Also, the fingernails on my left hand are in your flag colors. The nails on my right hand are Spain. Once Germany was out, I decided not to show nail favoritism.)
Haha Humboldt, okies, we are now officially bff! :D
Have you gone all Spanish-nailed now to celebrate their win?
I was "nearly vegan" for a long time myself. In the end I went fully vegan and never looked back. You'll be one of us soon I know. Smiley
I was considering all Spain nails. In fact, I might do that tonight and be all Spain through the weekend.
Netherlands played so well, they should have won.
Netherlands were great but Spain superseded that! :D viva espanya!
Netherlands played so well, they should have won.
That would require a... you know... goal.
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