I returned back to Nijmegen after spending my Christmas holidays in Germany and there are some things that I already miss. Spending time with my family, my boyfriend and my cats, for example. I also miss clean laundry magically appearing in my room, to be completely honest. But even with university dates and deadlines all over my schedule — and laundry all over my room — I am glad to be back in the Netherlands. The different reasons can be very broadly summarised under the points: falafel, wifi and my best friend. And before people start believing that there is no falafel in the entirety of Germany, let me explain.

I spent 18 years of my life in a German village that counts around 300 inhabitants. Yes, 300. Not 3,000. Not 300,000. 300. There is no bakery. There is no proper wifi. There are cats, that is usually really nice. But there are also no delivery services. So, yes, I discovered the existence of falafel and the joys of having Facebook and YouTube open (and functioning) at the same time when I moved to the Netherlands. One can argue now that a little hiatus from social media can be quite relaxing. But, that’s the catch, being a music addict without functioning Spotify and YouTube in your old room really sucks.

I buy quite a lot of music as well and there are currently 1,437 songs on my phone that I very enthusiastically listen to, but I simply do not have the financial capacity to buy all the songs I really like. And here come YouTube and Spotify into play. And, during my internet-almost-hiatus during Christmas, they disappear out of the play right away. Because there is no proper internet. But so many songs. And me, really missing the Foo Fighters and all the other great artists, I usually listen to via YouTube.

There have been music-listening-attempts that I am not particularly proud of, but that are quite funny in retrospect. From searching all over the house for functioning internet, ending up with me hanging around in the middle of the staircase, listening to my Spotify-Christmas-playlist, to desperately buying an iTunes-gift card and using the internet in German trains for the mere purpose of downloading the 2013-album Vessel by Twenty One Pilots. It was a wild ride. And it provided for some anecdotes worth talking about with my best friend (who was eventually the only thing I missed more than the internet) over some falafels. And this — combined with the right soundtrack — is an excellent way to overcome all January blues and exam freak-outs.

Every two weeks, Antonia will add the songs she writes about to the Spotify playlist below. This way, she creates a soundtrack to her time in Nijmegen. Click left and right for more songs.