Background: normal indian software dude mid 20's. Always wanted to go abroad from childhood but poverty.

Recently got the urge to do something with my life (probably because the whole pandemic situation was really monotonous). Tried hard and got an opportunity to move to Amsterdam and I took it. I went with almost zero preparation because, I mean its a first world country, I can buy everything there and what could go wrong?

Its been more than a month and here are my thoughts. Abroad is good, its definitely not India, things actually work. Public transport works! If you want to reach anywhere within Netherlands (or even in EU), google maps will show you the correct route for public transport and the timings will be correct to the minute. It's really convenient.

All the laws here make sense and you feel like some one has put some thought into it and the people making the laws are competent. There's no pollution whatsoever and the air feels clean. It feels almost exactly like the time I travelled across Himachal and Uttarakhand, but this I feel everywhere in the city.

I can see that there's a lot of trust put into people, for example, in grocery shops, you can buy your stuff and scan them on your own and pay them on your own and take the stuff outside. Literally no one checks (or if they do discreetly, I'm not sure). And on a related note, compared to India, very few people work to "serve" you. In the sense that in a huge decathlon or a grocery shop there will be like 2-3 employees only and even they don't do much. Everything works by card and almost no one takes cash (save for one haircut I got).

Now to the "bad" parts.

The place seems a bit dead, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not great at socialising but I don't absolutely suck at it. That said, it is very hard to mingle and socialise with people. Having come alone to this city, man... its so hard to get stuff done when you have no friends. There's no soul in any conversation, people will help you but that's it. Don't expect friendship with the locals at all. In fact I'm finding it hard to make friends with anyone. Where am I supposed to find them? And the worst part is, office is closed due to covid so that's one door closed. I have gone 3-4 days where I literally talked to no one. It does get creepily lonely sometimes but I have learned to deal with it.

Everything is soo costly here, think 5 to 6 times that of India on average. I literally spend 2 euros on a 20 minute bus ride. 2 euros will get me a private Uber in India. I cry every time I buy vegetables and don't get me started on the fruits. I know I earn in euros but still, I'm not used to caring about grocery costs. Ironically, I'm saving less money in Europe than in India even with the Dutch 30% ruling for skilled immigrants.

Overall, I honestly think abroad very overrated. Once you actually start experiencing day to day, you will eventually realise this.

I had a comfortable life in India. I was earning enough, I had no struggles and I had my family and a few friends. I don't know what the fuck got into me but here I am. I hope things get better but I won't bank on it. I have made a plan to come back to India every 3 months or so and to come back permanently by 2 years in the worst case.