“I arrived here in the middle of the pandemic, without friends, without work, and in a neighborhood where I didn‘t feel at home,” says Thea. She was born in Bologna, Italy, where her parents lived for twenty years. “So I feel a bit Italian, even though I have Icelandic nationality.” When she was nine, the family moved back to Iceland. “I feel predominantly Icelandic… Yet I have lived outside Iceland for more years than I have lived there.”
She moved to Munich to study. There she met her partner, who found a job in Rotterdam. After graduating, the dancer decided to move in with him in Rotterdam. But it was 2020, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. In a city full of closed cafés, empty dance studios, and a curfew at 9 p.m., she felt isolated. “It was a difficult start,” she says.
Discovering the Oude Noorden
She only learned to appreciate Rotterdam when she moved from the Feijenoord neighborhood to the Oude Noorden. There she discovered the charm of the city: cycling past cozy cafés, neighbors drinking coffee outside, and the conviviality of the Noordpleinmarkt. “We now have neighbors our age with the same interests. That makes such a difference.”
Diversity as enrichment
Rotterdam’s diversity is a breath of fresh air for her. “Munich was very white and conservative. In Rotterdam, I’m sometimes the only white person in my dance classes.I live next to a street full of halal shops and Islamic bookstores—that was new to me, and I love being part of it.
Homesick for rugged nature
Still, she misses Iceland’s rugged nature: the ocean at the doorstep of her childhood home, the emptiness of vast landscapes. “Here, you always see people living along the way, but there, you can drive for hours without encountering anyone.”
Icelandic customs in the Netherlands
She has brought her Icelandic customs with her: cooking with lamb, baking traditional pastries, and reading Icelandic novels. But she has also embraced something typically Dutch: the bicycle. “That was a turning point. You immediately feel freer and more connected to the city.”