Dese Weer is zo slecht!

Or, in other words, this weather stinks! How many times was I warned by European friends before moving here full time about the terrible winters? Did I believe them?  Yes, sure, but I thought they were referring to the charming picture-postcard days  of sun and snow, where I would be throwing snowballs in the street , wearing  fur coats and drinking hot cocoa in between moments of kissing a very handsome tall blond stranger  ..

Nobody told me that "horrible winter" meant exactly that ; miserable, cold , cold to your bones, windy , below zero wind chill , frigid, lonely, dark, damp depressing LOOONGGG days where you just don't even feel like leaving the house. What? Who sold me this terrible bill of goods? Where is the warrantee? And whose idea was it to make winter six months long? Or should I say, in Amsterdam, five months of pre and post winter and maybe one or two days of snow and genuine frost?

Every day it's a massive effort when one has to do something, anything outside of the house-  just dressing to leave for a short dog walk feels like preparing for an Everest expedition ;every piece of clothing chosen for practicality and warmth on the bike, topping it all off with a Woolrich coat with fur collar , gloves, boots, hats. Even skiing in the Rockies I have never had such a cold head as when I forgot the hat here, there is something devilish in the winter winds of the Netherlands.!
Annoyingly however, you don't see many fur coats in this very down to earth city, and so mine stay in the closet, waiting for the trips to the mountains and other European cities where women can dress up with impunity..

I find myself fantasizing about moving to a tropical island full time, I even think fondly of a place I really have no desire to ever live again, Southern California . I imagine buying a house in Miami, a beach hut in Tahiti, I dream of renting a station wagon and putting all necessities and my dogs inside and driving to the southernmost tip of Portugal or Spain. Is it freezing there too? Is there any Continental escape ?
I will become a winter bird,  I will fly away.

Oddly, I went even further north last weekend, I flew to Helsinki for the birthday party of a new friend. The city , in the middle of the coldest deepest midwinter frost, was completely cheerful! I woke the first morning to the beauty of the northern sun beating down on the snow covering the city's center park, the Esplandi. The sky was gorgeous,  and even all the normally serious Finns (or so is the reputation) were smiling and warm . I didn't care one whit about it being cold. it gave me heart, I thought, I  do love the winter, I have always loved skiing and snow and to be bundled up , and snowstorms and saunas and fur coats  and all these delicious winter things, I just don't like fake winters!!! Amsterdam has a lot of fake winter- long miserable wet or freezing windy days that never see snow , or sun, and sometimes even or rain, just coldness, greyness, wind. If not for all the gezellheid, the concentrated interior cuteness,coziness and warmth of interior decoration the Dutch cultivate, I'm sure the alcoholism rates would be off the charts.
How do they make it?Sun beds and coffee and .?
So many ads for "Winterin" in Portugal, Spain, etc..next year I go too, but I think it's going to be a hut on a french isle and a surfboard..maybe I'll start next year's Wintering next week come to think of it..BRRR!

Though they do say the canals might freeze in the next week, and then I can do this from my boat:)