Why being autistic has made me fall in love with Amsterdam
I know this might sound dramatic, but I genuinely cried leaving Amsterdam, and I have never cried leaving a place before. I’m autistic, and for some reason Amsterdam felt like one of the first places where my nervous system just… relaxed.
I think a huge part of it was how diverse and accepting everything felt. Not just culturally, but in terms of lifestyles, personalities and people just existing without constantly judging each other. It felt like there was space to be a little “different” without it becoming a problem. This might be controversial, but I also weirdly felt safer there than I do in parts of my own county in the UK. Walking down a street where half the people are baked honestly felt less intimidating than walking through groups of drunk, aggressive people at home. The vibe just felt calmer to me. Less judgemental. Less confrontational. More “live and let live.” And before anyone says I’m romanticising it, obviously Amsterdam has problems like any city. But the overall quality of life felt noticeably better to me. The walkability, public transport, cycling culture, beautiful buildings, slower pace, cafes, green spaces, the feeling that people actually get to enjoy life instead of just surviving it. It felt like society was built more around humans rather than than a need for shareholder value.
Amsterdam was the first place where I didn’t feel like some sort of criminal or bad person for using something that genuinely helps me regulate and decompress. Back home, there’s such a weird culture of judgement around anything outside the norm, and I didn’t realise how heavy that feeling was until I went somewhere where I didn’t feel it as much. I genuinely left feeling emotional because for the first time in a long time I thought, oh… maybe there are places in the world where my brain actually fits better.
It feels like the only county where i feel okay to pay for things that are clearly overpriced because the country itself is so good.
Has anyone else, autistic or not, ever had a city/place make them feel like that? Or am I completely romanticising Amsterdam because of post-holiday sadness? I did go on the holiday 4 months ago, I think about it every day and it’s even come up in my dreams a few times lol