Places Around Maastricht: Koestraat

Type of Place: side-street of restaurants.

Location: Koestraat, near the Onze Lieve Vrouw Square and Cathedral; 6211 Maastricht

A little something different for this week’s “Places”, Koestraat is not a single location, but rather a short, foot-traffic only street lined with restaurants. If you’ve grown tired of the tourists at the Vrijthof and want something a little different than the classic Dutch fair on the Onze Lieve Vrouw square, Koestraat offers a quiet, more intimate setting for dinner or drinks.

Dan and I typically head to Koestraat to eat at Thai Ichi, one of our favorite Thai restaurants in Maastricht, but this narrow street has a nice variety of other eateries available. There is an Indonesian restaurant, tea shop, a couple pizzerias, and more. Of particular note, although we haven’t eaten there yet, is the Beluga Nxt Door. This cocktail bar and restaurant is the “little sister” of the Beluga, a well-known 2 Michlien Star restaurant here in Maastricht. Most of the retaurants also have a little outdoor seating, which narrows the cobblestone street further and keeps foot traffic slow and (most) bikes out.

At the end of Koestraat, you’ll find the Bisschopsmolen, an active water powered grain mill and bakery.  Pop inside for a tour or just to see the large waterwheel in the back. Seeing the mill is free, although the tour may not be.

Enjoy!

6 Websites The Maastricht Expat Should Know

I would have loved to start this list off with my own blog, but of course, you’ve already discovered it. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here learning about the sites that I always keep tabs on. So without further ado…

1. Crossroads: The first English language site I discovered about Maastricht, Crossroads has a great mix of local news, interviews, and longer cultural and social articles. Check out their great collection of resources for expats as well.
2. Maastricht Region: A general purpose site dedicated to introducing Maastricht and the other cities and towns in the region to new or potential residents. General information, housing for sale or rent, and a cultural calendar. The To Love blog is not to be missed (and you can also read To Live, which I write).
3. Expat Guide Holland: Not strictly about Maastricht, but this guide is the most comprehensive resource for the little things like how health care works, how to register your pet, renting, and other sorts of thing.
4. Random Walks in the Low Country: One of the other active Maastricht-based bloggers, Dave’s calm and thoughtful articles talk about the experience of living in Maastricht (and England) as well as being a business owner.
5. Maestricht.net/Mtricht.com: Update! Maestricht.net & Mtricht.com are two regional social networks for expats and locals that just merged. Sign up for Maestricht.net if you join as it has the larger community. The new combined site should be primarily in English. My.Mtricht is a small, regional social network for both expats and locals. In addition to articles about the area, they also have a nice activity calendar and blog posts by participants. You can “friend” all sorts of people in this Ning community.
6. Dutch News: This site compiles lots of Dutch news into short English-language articles for those of us who can’t read Dutch. Good for national news rather than local.

Typical Limburg? Typically Dutch?

People tend to talk about culture and countries as a one to one proposition, but anyone who takes a moment to think about it will realize that that couldn’t be further from the truth. Think of the differences between Northern and Southern culture in the US (separated by a huge distances as well as distinctive histories). Or even the linguistic differences between Boston and New York (which are only a few hours apart). It’s easy to see the cultural variations within your own country, but outside of that? It’s a harder task.

One of the things I’ve been told by Dutch people is that Maastricht (and Limburg in general) is extremely different from the rest of the Netherlands. In fact, they say, people living here only think of themselves as “really” part of the rest of the country during major holidays (Queen’s Day) or sporting events (World Cup). The rest of the time they regard themselves as separate.

Massive generalizations aside, I find this thought intriguing, and not just because I come from a very nationalist country (Americans are suppose to be Americans first). I can recognize distinctions on a surface level, such as preferred foods and architecture, but as an outsider it is harder to understand what makes Limburg, Limburg or Maastricht, Maastricht on more of a core identity level.

So this is a call out to anyone who might have thoughts on the subject. Can you explain to me what aspects makes Limburg so different from what the rest of the world sees as “Holland” or “The Netherlands”? If windmills and wooden shoes are emblematic (or stereotypical) of Holland, what symbolizes Limburg? Maastricht? One of the other towns in the region?

And for bonus points, what makes this region in the Netherlands different from Flemish Belgium just over the border? I’m told that the distinction is so great that you can tell the moment you cross the border, but as an expat it’s hard to see.

Update: Read the response post, Typically Limburgish.

I’ll be compiling the best responses and explanations in a future post. Thank you for helping out this ignorant, but curious expat.

Taking the “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” Challenge

Over the next 31 days I’ll be running Maastricht Minutiae through it’s paces with the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge (31DBBB) along with the other lady bloggers in the SITS community.  31DBBB is a eBook by Darren Rowse, the owner of the wildly successful Problogger and all the various products that go with it.  The book itself takes you through a series of tasks that force you to think critically about why you blog, how you write, and what you do to build a community.

I’ll probably be posting frequently about the challenge here in addition to my usual blogging, so if you have any thoughts or suggestions feel free to make them. Now with no further ado, my answer to the day one task.

Day One Challenge: Write an Elevator Pitch

“A spotlight on the adventure and realities of expat life in Maastricht.”

Are you a Lady Blogger?

If you’re a lady blogger, feel free to join me and 400 other bloggers at the SITS community as we work through these challenges. You can learn more about the 31DBBB book here.

Places Around Maastricht: De Slegte

Type of Place: Bookstore
Location: Grote Staat 53; 6211 CV Maastricht
Website

Books can be more expensive here in Europe than they are in the US and, at least here in Maastricht, comics can be hard to come by. That’s where the three packed floors of De Slegte on the main shopping drag comes in.

De Slegte is a large used and discount bookstore chain. The location here in Maastricht carries a substantial mix of used fiction and nonfiction books, including a small selection of used English-language texts. Fiction books are organized by genre, with a section for English titles seperate from the Dutch ones. The Dutch titles are all over the place, but the English titles are mostly mystery and romance. Nonfiction books are, naturally, arranged by subject and the languages are all mixed in. While the prices are not rock bottom, you can frequently pick up a (comparative) deal on all sorts of things if you look hard enough.

They also have a small selection of antique quality books which, naturally, are quite expensive.

For the expat population, De Slegte is also a good stop for your Dutch learning textbooks and language dictionaries. Since there are always people going in and out of the classes, you can sometimes grab what you need for significantly less that it would cost at a regular bookstore.

For comic nerds like me, De Slegte is also the only place in Maastricht with a decent selection of European and American graphic novels and folios. Mostly in Dutch and English, De Slegte has a good representation of comics, although they do not stock American-style floppies or current releases. We use it to check out European titles we’ve never heard of before.

De Slegte is open Monday to Saturday from 9:30 am – 6 pm (opening late on Mondays and closing at 9 pm on Thursdays) and is well worth the occasional stop in to see what’s new.

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