My friends and I went to amsterdam,Netherland for 4 days.Amsterdam is quite a small city,from one end of the city walk to the other end of the city takes less than 1hour.The main public transports in Amsterdam are bicycles,tram,boat and car(less),and the traffic system is totally a mess.The road is shared by bicycles,trams,cars and pedestrian.Sometimes we didnt know we were walking on the road of cars/bicycles until we were being hon-ed.There are alot of canals in the city,like one every 2/3 streets.Amsterdamm is famous for its cheese,wooden shoes,prostitution(legal),drugs(legal,sold in ''coffeeshops''),waffles,pancakes and bir.People in this country are quite friendly,their first language is not english,but most of them do understand and speak simple english,so its not difficult to backpack in Amsterdam.
We took plane to Netherland,guess what,I forgotten that I was going to the other country and containers more than 100mL are not allowed,i threw ALL my SHAMpoo,Body shampoo,lotion at the airport,ALL NEW!!!!!!! T.T Other friends of mine ''ping ming'' drank water to empty their water bottle at the check-in area,HAHAHA.
The journey only took 40minutes!!even shorter than the time we took to go to airport.Once we reached at the airport,we wasted quite a long time finding the way to buy train tickets/where and how to buy,and it took us another 20minutes to go to city central.
Ta-daaa!Double-storey train.From train station to our hostel was the toughest part.There are alot of tram lines,and we couldnt find the tram line we were asked to take to our hostel,our hostel wasnt near to the city central.My friend decided to ask the information counter for confirmation.At last we were able to sort it out and reached hostel in full piece although we stopped at the wrong station XD
We booked queen-sized bunk,the hostel was fully booked,4 people sleep on the double-decker bed and this room was shared with 4 other backpackers(from US,they were friendly XD)
Their bathrooms are even better than my hostel's one XD
Breakfasts were included,but in backpackers hostel you cant expect those 4/5 stars hotel's breakfast,their breakfasts were simple,like bread,cereal,milk,eggs,buffet style.
Okay,after arriving and settled down,we walked around the city(30 minutes walk to the city central),but our hostel was near to the old main city,which was quite meriah also.We visited Dam Square,Royal Palace(didnt enter,expensive-7Euro),Red Light District,tried pancakes,brownies and waffles.
Dam Square
Actually it's just a statue,similar to Trafalgar Square in London,perhaps,London's Trafalgar square is even better XD
Royal Palace under renovation,and Red Light District was the highlight.
I only manage to grap 1 photo of this,camera is prohibited in this place.There are rows of shops with big windows.Each window/room is occupied by girl(prostitute) with bikini and the guys can choose which girl they like as they walking along the street.There are red light on the wall of each room,red light= the girl is available.
We tried the brownies and pancakes at Renes' Restaurant.
This brownies was AWESOME!
And later,we tried the pancakes from ''The Pancakes Bakery'',recommended by tourists from internet.I think this shop was really well-known,when we reached there(5pm+),the waitress asked us whether we'd reservation or not,and the shop was crowded with people.She wanted to tell us there's no place for us,but my friend asked her how long we need to wait,she went back into the shop and told us to wait for another 5minutes when she came out.So ''da-pai'' huh.
Banana and Nutela pancake,one for 9.95 Euro.Nice but not impressive,i prefer Haegen Daaz's pancakes with ice cream XD
THIS WAS SUPERB!!!!Dutch Pofferjes with cranberries,whipped cream and Kirsch(cherrie liqueur),one for 6.95 Euro
We also tried Australian pancakes,went to Australian because the pancakes and chocolates were attracting!!! XD
Although it was waffle from ''Australian'',but I think it was assimilated with the waffle from Netherland,'cuz I tried a waffle(no photo XD) bought from the market,it has exactly the same texture.It is different from the waffle in Malaysia,more chewy,out-layer is crispy and sweeter,you can actually ''chew'' the granulated sugar.I like the texture,it will be purrrfecttt without the granulated sugar,haha.
We were mad about the ''I AMSTERDAM'' logo in the city.
Tadaaaa :)
We went for a bike tour on the second day.And that covered cheese farm,wooden shoes,windmill and countryside of Netherland.It was really fun,BUT,the tour guide zzz cycled sOOOOO fast and me,budak bandar,always the be the last one among the group members,LOL,AND I FELL DOWN.Luckily no1 saw that,they were far more ahead than me,HAHAHAHA.
Pity the guys,they were helping the girls to take our stuffs while we were craziee taking photos of the windmill.
The cheese was really NICEEEEEE <3
Wooden shoes ;p
Super exhausted after the bike tour,which took around 4hours+.Later we hang out at the bar.
This is much much better than carlsberg,haha.
It costs 4.40Euro.In restaurant,one glass of tap water costs 2.00 Euro,same with that of Heineken,unbelievable O.O
Third day rained!!We went to Keukenhof Garden,nice,lovely garden with tulips all over,but it will be much prettier in the end of April.
hah,we also tried the McD in Amsterdam--McKroket
It is beef at the outer layer,but inside,it's kinda like...mashed potato+mayo,quite nice =))
Fourth day!We went to Kinderdijk,it's at the outskirt of the country.
http://www.kinderdijk.com/index.htmAnyone interested can go to the website and have a look.My friend who found out this place,didnt know how long is the journey to travel there.Guess what,we took a train(30minutes) to another city and from there,took a bus(1hour 30minutes) to reach there!!But we stayed for like...30minutes then we went back zzzz 'cuz the wind was really really strong and we didnt know that,we only wore a thin jacket/coat,unbearable!
There are 19 windmills and in 1997 the mills of Kinderdijk were put on the World Heritage List of UNESCO.
I didnt count the number of windmills,my eyes were half opened all the time due to the strong wind,LOL.
Okiess,this was our last destination =)) On the last day,we were all SICKED of pancakes/waffles and other sweet desserts!!zzzz Craving for salty food although I used to love desserts for life XD
Overall it was quite FUN but abit tiring,haha,I ''collapsed'' for more than 14 hours the next day I reached London.When reaching London,I was really relieved:I AM BACK!!I cant believe London becoming so dear to me and wonder,next time when I'm back from Malaysia,will I feel the same,as in:I'm BACK to London again??Hahah.I took the wholeeeeeeee morning to create this blog ahh,EHEM,PHANG AMAK,U havent even post ur debate competition entry =P
Have a nice day ah maksss!! muacksss
