SIX months after Belfast publican Pedro Donald’s mic-drop interview announcing he was deserting his “derelict” home city and two successful pubs for a new life in Amsterdam, the Irish News found out if the cycling and windmills of Holland were all he hoped for.
Just before the Stormont Assembly reformed, Pedro (58) told the Irish News in January that he couldn’t wait to get on a plane after selling the popular Sunflower and American bars.
While proud of his legacy in the pub trade, his frustrations included stop-start politics, drugs on the streets, a challenging business environment, a city centre filled with crumbling buildings and inadequate cycle lanes filled with broken glass.
“I feel really bad slagging Belfast though and I’m going to try not to,” he says from his new home in the suburb village of Vijfhuizen (which translates as five houses).
Ironically, his apartment sits directly above a pub where the staff can now be seen wearing Sunflower T-shirts.
- ‘It used to be bombs and bullets, it’s now just a dump and derelict’ - Sunflower owner Pedro Donald on why he’s escaping Belfast after 40 years behind barsOpens in new window
- The Irish News view: Why has Belfast been allowed to become a dirty old town?Opens in new window
- Why I don’t recognise Pedro’s view of BelfastOpens in new window
In April, the entire country took to the streets for “a different type of orange day” as part of the annual King’s Day celebrations.
“Everybody was head to toe in orange and it’s a proper fun, full-on festival. What I did notice the next day was that everything was tidied up, the flags were taken down, the streets were clean and life went back to normal after going bonkers for one day,” he said.
Having just finished a day of cramming for dutch lessons “to be polite,” he has two framed football shirts on the wall – Argentina for where he was born and the Netherlands, who he’ll be backing in the Euros in the absence of any Irish teams.
“Things are good overall, absolutely no regrets,” he said.
“The big two things that stand out compared to Belfast are efficiency and cleanliness. It’s really noticeable.
“Efficiency in buses and trains, they just constantly move . You never have to look at a timetable, just go to a stop and there’ll be a bus.
“The cleanliness of the place is unbelievable. I’ve seen kids and teenagers going to put stuff in the bin.”
He said bikes are at the top of the pecking order above pedestrians and motorists.
“It’s just geared towards them. I could cycle from where I am into Haarlem in about 15 minutes, and 99% of it is on proper cycle paths with no cars near you.
“Unlike Belfast, the cycle lanes aren’t strewn with glass and other debris.”
As an avid football fan, he said the cycling culture was most impressive at big games where hundreds of men, women and children got on their bikes afterward.
His adopted team, incidentally, is Koninklijke Haarlemsche (Royal Haarlem) Football Club.
“They’re not very good but I picked them because I support Cliftonville who are the oldest team in Ireland.
“They’re the oldest team in the Netherlands, formed in 1879, so I thought they have to be my team.”As a retired publican, he can’t help but notice beer is more expensive than Belfast where an average pint costs around £5.50 – but that locals tend to spend less by having one or two smaller glasses rather than multiple pints at the weekend.
Like many major European cities, the popularity of Amsterdam comes with a heavy price tag with average house prices of €600,000 (£507,540), over three times the most recent Belfast average of £164,000.
Living in the suburbs has offset this for Pedro and the easy links into town means he doesn’t miss out.
“The way it’s panned out I think I’m glad I’m not in the city of Amsterdam itself. It’s there, I can be there in half an hour if I want to be.
“But it’s nice not living in such a big city.”
Now paying water charges and health insurance, his local doctor is within a seven-minute walk and signed him up with a minimum of fuss even if he’s yet to need an appointment.
With most people bilingual, he said there has been no major language barrier and that locals are patient as they realise dutch is not an easy language to learn.
Recently returning to Belfast for the May Day weekend and the Irish Cup final, Pedro admits he was unsure how we would feel about going back to Holland.
“I knew this would happen. But I couldn’t wait to get back on the plane. Having said that, the weekend back in Belfast was absolutely fantastic.
“The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival and other festivals were on as well as the marathon.
“But all of those events are people doing things in spite of Stormont, not with the help of Stormont.
“The festivals have all had their funding cut, the football clubs are doing fantastic work in spite of Stormont.
“They’re still not getting the funding they were promised ten years ago.”
Keeping up with the news back home and glad that Stormont has returned, Pedro still fully expects the familiar politics of “themmuns and ussuns” to return before long.
“The only reason the paper’s aren’t full of bonfires at the moment is because there’s an election,” he said.
“But as soon as that’s done it will be back to groundhog day.”
Stormont politics, however, aren’t remotely on the radar of locals in Amsterdam and he has yet to meet anyone that’s visited Belfast.
“After being here for six months, the thing that still annoys me about Belfast in terms of things like cycling and cleanliness – is that now I’ve seen it can be done so easily, why don’t we just get on and do it?”
Looking ahead to the weekend, Pedro is volunteering at a music festival in Haarlem where his 40 years of experience in hospitality are being put to use.
“I offered to do anything from flipping burgers to taking tickets at the gate….of course, they put me on the bar.”
