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THANK GOD FOR FRIDAY

Forget Amsterdam, Haarlem is the place to be. In fact, Haarlem is the new Amsterdam. Okay, okay, okay, I might be a bit biased since I've been living in Haarlem for about five years now, but I must say that it is doing incredibly well in terms of shopping with ‘my’ city.

You might not find the flagship stores of the PC here, but there are plenty of boutiques with really nice clothing that might be just a bit more affordable. On Friday, I was at the opening of Friday (which is indeed no coincidence), a multibrand store with a really nice concept and the Abel taxi was right on time to take me from Amsterdam to Haarlem.

The idea is that they sell various European brands (Mads Nørgaard, Grace & Mila, CKS, Friday, MKT Studio, and a whole bunch of other nice brands from countries nearby) for different occasions. The basics you can never have enough of, that wonderfully soft comfort clothing, and that sexy top for a night out. Friday has the whole palette for a pretty good price.

Forget Amsterdam, Haarlem is the place to be. In fact, Haarlem is the new Amsterdam.

They also have gifts, so in the unlikely event that you don't need anything but still want to shop, you can buy the cutest post-its or various lifestyle products.

And also something like this, there is a Wall of Style where all kinds of tear-off pads hang with cool looks that the stylist of Friday has put together with items from the store. Suppose you only buy the pants, then you tear off a picture of the whole look and see if you can fish out the other items from your closet at home, and if not, you can come back next time to buy those.

And oh yes, oh yes, they also have really cute bags with clever and inspiring texts on them. Really nice. And oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, personal attention is priority number one at Friday, so when you walk in, you get a cup of coffee. And that's quite nice with autumn approaching.

Did I buy something, you want to know? Hey, you know me. Of course. A denim overall with a marine-striped body underneath, too cute.