Return to Rotje

Discovering Rotterdam's Vibrant Urban Pulse

Have you ever wandered a new city and felt an unexpected spark of belonging? Whether you're a long-time local or a curious explorer, share your cultural adventures below!

I’ll go first…

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When William and I first landed in Rotterdam (AKA “010” for the dialing code or “Roffa” for…absolutely no idea), we were rather focused on trying to make heads of tails of this new life we’ve chosen: the cats needed litter, I needed to cut my hair, and William needed to keep us on track for official residency. In the month we spent there before moving into our own apartment in The Hague, most of our trips through the city focused on getting from one place to another, with seeing the sights being a happy accident, rather than purposeful.

Thanks to the magic of Substack, I learned about the Rotterdam Illustration Festival from

Sevgül Sümer Dielemans

who was planning to be in attendance. Right up both William and my proverbial alleys, we thought it would be nice opportunity to return to the city, see & discuss some art, and maybe even connect with a new friend.

Owing to a rail disruption that narrowed our options for arrival, we showed up halfway through Hayfaa Chalabi’s talk on the importance of feminist and post-colonial education for illustrators. A fascinating look at how often marginalized communities are represented through the lens of their oppressors, further obscuring the truth of their experiences while simultaneously encouraging the same points of view that perpetuate the systems of oppression. 🤯

Held in a gallery space named “Roodkapje” (Little Red Riding Hood), the festival also featured a lovely exhibition from a variety of artists and illustrators, some inviting participants to create right there in the room.

I said “maybe connect with a friend” because I wasn’t sure if I’d overstepped by inviting myself to join Sevgül at the event since we’ve only met through Substack; however, I had nothing to worry about. You’d be lucky to spend time with the Evil Strawberry: she is a true delight and I am thankful for the festival that brought us together the first of (hopefully) many times.

Over mint tea and vegan gingerbread, more than an hour passed in a matter of moments as we shared how we’d found our different ways to The Netherlands. Her life’s journey is amazing, her positivity utterly infectious, and William and I were both delighted to have definitively made our first friend in our new country.

In addition to regaling one another with the twists and turns on the road to who we are today, Sevgül shared more about the first day of the festival, telling us about how participants were paired and given a speed-dating prompt like “if the person across from you were a dessert” and encouraged to draw their responses over quick conversation…a far cry from the traditional icebreakers. Parting all too soon so she could attend her final workshop, William and I decided to go off in search of a landmark she’d told us about: Depot Boijmans.

Nearly every museum in the world has a collection that vastly outnumbers its available display spaces, resorting to storage facilities often far from the main attraction. The Smithsonian’s Museum Support Center is hardly eye-catching, despite its appearances in fiction. By contrast, Depot Boijmans turns its parent museum’s excess into an artistic experience in itself. Had we planned ahead, we might have gone inside to see the collections on display in climate-controlled storage, but we settled for gawking at the optical illusion that reflected the whole of Rotterdam’s skyline.

Heading northward from Museumpark along the streets we’d walked in search of shops and services only a few weeks before felt like a funny homecoming. We’ve been in The Netherlands for nearly two months and, in that short an amount of time, we’ve grown infinitely more comfortable here. Navigating the turns and crowds felt less foreign (watch out for trams and bikes!) and, instead of the worried tension I remembered from our first weeks, it felt wonderful to leisurely stroll in the sunshine, appreciating the art that adorns the city.

Even though we’d wandered a fair distance south of the train station to see the depot, we headed even further north to visit a food hall with a cheesecake stand I’d learned about from a friend—thanks Joe! Hint, hint: if you hear of something cool in The Netherlands and wish you could check it out, let me know!

A vast improvement over the American mall’s “food court,” we’ve visited similar foodhalls in Amsterdam and The Hague, as well as Rotterdam’s architecturally renowned Markthal. Station Bergweg is nowhere near as impressive from the outside, but perhaps more delightful inside since it is not jam-packed with folks looking skyward; the crowd at Bergweg is there to eat and enjoy one another’s company.

With everything from fine Italian to sushi & dumplings, we each had an incredible Guerrillah Taco in addition to the most delectable Basque-style Dulce de Leche cheesecake from Kenny van Loon’s Burnt Cakery…which I inhaled too quickly to photograph!

From there, it was a short walk back to Centraal where the rail disruption hadn’t resolved, so we sandwiched ourselves into the subway with all the other displaced travelers trying to reach their destinations. While scouting and setting up the apartment, we made the same trip several times but now, we weren’t exhausted. Instead, we were both enervated. After weeks of building IKEA furniture and trying to feel like we know what we’re doing, it was a delight to connect with a new friend, engage with the arts, and relish the pace of life we hoped would await us here in The Netherlands.

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