Wednesday 25 January 2012

Amsterdam :)

Okay, I've been neglecting this blog for a while now, mostly because I'd submitted it to Indiblogger and was waiting for the approval. Well, now its done! So, yeah!! :)

Coming back to my list...

Next on our agenda was Amsterdam!

Amsterdam, the devil's paradise. Drugs are legal, prostitution is legal. For fucks sake, the red light area is their main tourist attraction. I was jumping to go there. Did it live up to the hype?..

Before I tell you about Amsterdam, let me tell you about what happened on our way back from Cologne to Frankfurt. The great German train was late due to which we missed a connecting train and we were stranded in a village where they were around ten houses at 11 o clock in the night. Not one soul knew english and the next train to FF was at 8 AM next morning! It was freezing like hell.

Fortunately, one of my friends who studies in Germany was with us, and he'd learnt some broken German (I stress on "Broken") and thanks to him, we got to know that there's a fast train from cologne to FF at around 12:30 AM so we had to go back to Cologne and take another train to FF. We reached FF at 5 in the morning and we slept in the railway station.

The moral of the story is: Don't blame Indian railways and next time, someone praises the German Bahn, throw this story at their face.

Ok so, next night, we took a Eurolines bus to Amsterdam from FF.

Number 1 thing to remember:

DO NOT take the Eurolines bus. It is horrible, it looks like a Volvo, but it is not! It is congested, absolutely no leg space, and very very bad.



2) There are lots of discount cards like I Amsterdam card, museumkaart card etc. Buy it only if you are into museum, art and stuff like that. We bought it for around 50€ and it was a big waste as we just went to the Van Gogh museum and yawned all over the place.



3) Amsterdam is a bloody sex haven. Women beckoned to us when we were walking in the Red light area, sex shops all over the place, sex museums, an exciting place to be.

4) Drugs are legal!! We bought weed for around 4€, but it was a waste. I didn't get high at all even after smoking that and stuffing myself with a hash brownie.



5) Yes, cycling is very popular in Amsterdam as it is very flat city, but we preferred trams. The IAmsterdam card comes with a transport pass and that covered our expenses.


6) We gawked at a woman performing a table dance. 



7) There are a lot of canal cruises, this is also included in the IAmsterdam card. If not, it can be bought from the ticket counters.

8) Keukenhoff or the famous tulip gardens (Yes, the Silsila gardens). Go there only in April, because we wasted 34€ on it. It was like Lalbagh!

9) If you are a football fan, visit the Ajax Arena. There's a walking tour for 12€, I guess. Its fun.


10) This point had to be on the top, but I forgot. So here it is. We stayed at a hostel called Damrak Inn, it is
bang in the centre of the main Damrak street, very convenient, cheap (we paid only 15 €) per night. The only drawback is the narrow staircase, its a little difficult to pull your bags up. Check the link below:

Damrak Inn

Amsterdam is a very nice place. More than all the darker stuff, I loved the liveliness of the place. People here were friendlier than all the other places we went to.






























9 comments:

Saru Singhal said...

My husband wants to go to Amsterdam from a long long time and now I know the reason why...Those discount cards are good for art etc even in NYC...I think for the sake of everything illegal, I must plan a trip...:)

Deepak Karthik said...

MUST VISIT PLACE !

anatreek said...

@Saru- Yes, you must..its an awesome place

@Deepak- Hehe :D

Teamgsquare said...

Lovely virtual tour ..

RiĆ  said...

Plan to go there sometime soon!! :) Thnx for the tips.

anatreek said...

@Team G square- Thanks!

@Ria- You'll love it :)

Unknown said...

You been tagged! he he !

visit
http://pagesofflife.blogspot.in/2012/02/lets-play-tag.html

and get your lovely set of questions! he he have fun!

love Rupertt!

Sujatha Sathya said...

a very tempting place by all counts :DD
can see that this was quite an experience

Jenny said...

Hey wow!! I have been to amsterdam.. and pleaseee do read my on account exp of the red light area!

http://www.jennyshetty.blogspot.com/2012/01/amsterdam-rld_12.html

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