I had merely arrived in Stockholm for attending the Karolinska institute and its magnificent global masters program in toxicology, before I decided that I should do one semester abroad from Sweden. However I was a little too late in finding that out to do any actual courses abroad and so it became that I had to do my thesis work abroad, if I was ever going to go. It all began with investigating the opportunities Karolinska Institute could already offer, which is not a lot for such a specialized field as toxicology. Nevertheless they could offer three partner Universities, all in the Netherlands for some reason, with already established Erasmus exchange agreements and so I finally landed on Utrecht because every single Dutch person I met said I should do so. The information about the University of Utrecht that the KI exchange office could offer was not too detailed, but they were always helpful in guiding me towards finding that information and were always available for visits if I had some questions or needed help navigating through forms and such. Other stuff to take into special consideration before travelling to the Netherlands and a Dutch university is not much as a EAA citizen, and the host university has a nice equivalent of the KI exchange office that will help if further issues arises. In short you merely need your passport a few times and a EU health insurance.        

One thing I could very much recommend beforehand is to part take in one of Utrecht Uni's summer school before going on the exchange. Summer school is help for a couple of weeks during summer (obviously), but not only that, it is the time which the Netherlands is at its most beautiful as it is a very lush country with people always looking for an excuse to celebrate or make up a festival. Not only that, it will give you a little preparation on what to come, it will help you in finding the subject for your masters project (if applicable) and get to know people within your field of research at the host University. 

In my case I went on exchange for my masters thesis so it was not necessary to complete any courses and I could start away immediately upon arrival, however my colleagues arranged for me to be taken around town and getting introduced to the facilities and local surroundings. As I had been prepared by arranging housing almost a half year in advance my arrival on a Monday and made made it possible to be full operational in the lab in the same week at Thursday so things progressed rather quickly for my sake. Also since I had already been there for summer school some months before I had some contacts and  a bike (65 €) which is an absolute must when you are planning to stay in the low countries that allowed me to settle in rather quickly.

Some musts in the Netherlands that will help you on the way:

Get the app 9292 for route planning with public transport!
Get a Maestro card with Chipknip, you can't pay anything with VISA or Mastercard anywhere but Schipool and Amsterdam because the Dutch have just as a weird relationship with money as the Danes have with their "Dancard" , ING bank is the only one that will provide this for foreign exchange students.

Speaking of the economics, the Netherlands is as expensive as Sweden but in a different way. In the Netherlands, be prepared to pay a lot for housing, student dorms are conveniently 1,5x the price for foreign nationals exchange student as compared to Dutch students, also if you don't want to live far out in a semi-bog cow field you have to pay up, if you want to live decently in a dorm it will probably cost you around 600 euros monthly, same as if on the private marked which can have varying quality depending on location. On the other hand you will get to know that food and groceries/alcohol are really cheap in the Netherlands which makes up for the cost of housing. Conversely, eating in restaurants can get pricey , but you can pick and choose as you like since it is fully possible to get the "City Wok" delivered at your door for a laughable 7 €!! Don't expect to spend anything on public transport except getting back and forth to the airport since you are going to go anywhere with your bike, cause you are getting a bike, right?!

I stayed with http://www.sshxl.nl/shortstay/ Short stay solutions which provides housing for students in the Netherlands, there is probably a whole range of student dormitories to choose from, but this one worked out just fine. Also Marktplaats.nl is a great site equivalent of Blocket.se which will provide you with everything second hand from apartments to fridges and bikes and so forth. For staying in Utrecht I would suggest to stay within the city borders, but at the west side of the city center which is closest to the Uni campus and in the lesser dodgy areas of town (though being the netherlands nothing is really dodgy).

The education system you will find in the Netherlands is very much alike the one you find in Scandinavia, however they emphasize practical work much more than you would find at KI or anywhere else in Scandinavia. Per se, it means in the master's program they have only 8 weeks of lecturing while the rest of the two years is practical work in two big projects. IMO this is better because it does resemble and prepare you better for real life work situations more than passivelyparticipate in lectures, although it is not a one sided coin. The hierarchy is very flat which is a blessing when composing emails and approaching senior staff, everything is just easier this way. Another thing is the Dutch way of work, they emphasize gezelligheid (read fika and mys) while paradoxically everyone I met is at the same time achievers on a high level. It is kind of intimidating how knowledgeable and accurate they work but at the same time enjoy themselves so to the fullest. Apart from these minor differences it is very much the same as Sweden in every aspect and they seem to share the socioeconomic model commonly found in the Nordic countries. One Major difference is the ability to speak your mind, in any situation where Medelsvensson would nicely shut up and burn with his rage on the inside (As nicely illustrated by the SATW comic http://satwcomic.com/) the Dutch equivalent, Jan Jansen, would speak his mind with few filters applied to let people know that they are being an ass, this also applied to politics and talk shows with varying success. This can be a relief for some or a bit crude for others, I like it being Norwegian and somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. 

The Dutch people are very fluent in English, much because of their shared history being always next door but also the linguistic similarities and last but not least all the Americans coming over to smoke weed and British bachelor parties in Amsterdam. Me on the other hand did not participate in any language course, I would probably have enjoyed that a lot since Dutch is such a simple language to learn being one of the Germanic languages and all. Corollary, it is easy to learn  for me already mastering the most of the Germanic languages to some degree. Basically, Dutch is a composite of German, English and Norwegian (yay!) with the pronunciation of the letter G from hell (Or was it Spanish, at least it is somewhere warm) so it was incredibly fast to take on for me and I could almost make out everything from a conversation right from the start, this might not be the case for everyone from Scandinavia, me being from Stavanger (that has a neighboring town called Hollenderbyen, Dutch City) Norway with traditionally a lot of tight relations with the Netherlands and thus a lot of common language. Take for example the word Snoep, which means candy. I had never heard this outside of Stavanger before going to the Netherlands. Or the fact that I could go to a café and order hot chocolate in my own mother-tongue without people even suspecting that I am foreign and would just continue to bable on like nothing.
As for culture shock besides the already mentioned directness, must be the liberal views on sexuality and alternative drugs and general tolerance for other opinions (Looking at you Sweden ಠ︵ಠ凸, with brotherly love) lets just keep it at that it is a relief and the system works very well for everyone.

I could highly recommend Zwembad de Krommerijn, Parnassos and Olympos to work out and have a laugh, also if you just hit the streets anytime you will not be let down. There is always something going on to entertain you. The city has a lot to offer and the best way to get around besides the all meaning bike, is by kayak, the canals are as many as the scenery is romantic so this is a must and a good workout. Aside from that it is easy to get accepted into the warmth by the Dutch, the language barrier is non existent, the social norms are the same as back home or at KI. However I am left with the impression that it helps being from certain origins when doing so. The guy on the picture may be one of them sadly.
There is a lot of small parks and nature reserves but be prepared to dodge people, people everywhere.