Joey's 28 Days in Europe | 3 days in Amsterdam

Worth a look | I amsterdam City Card 

Transportation | Bicycle | Bus | Tram | Ferries

Bicycle 

Full day (return by 7pm) - 7€ onwards

24 hours - 9€ onwards

2 days more - 12€ onwards

Prices above only applies to StarBikes Rental, different shops may differ.

Bus or Tram

OV-Chip card (for whole Netherlands), use on GVB/Connexxion/EBS/NS

Card fee - 7.50€ per card per person, valid for 5 years

Per trip - 0.88€

Per KM - 0.15€

Basically it just means that you have to pay 7.50€ for the card that is valid for 5 years then you have to top up credit inside (min 4€) and you pay by km. Let's say you need to travel 2 km, the calculation goes like this: 0.88 + 0.15*2 = 1.18€.

There are also many other type of tickets to choose from (ie 1 to 7 days ticket, 1 hour ticket, Region ticket and so on), so you would have to see which suits you best. Important! Check whether if your travel ticket can be used on which transport company (eg. GVB, Connexxion, EBS, NS).

Ferries

Free of charge!

Useful App (iOS) | Ulmon (Offline map) | Pocket Amsterdam

What to eat! | Patat (fries), Kroket (Croquette), Erwtensoep (traditional split pea soup with other veges and pork), bitterballen (beef ball snack), hollandse nieuwe haring, stamppot (mash potatoes, vege, sausage). Poffertjes (mini pancakes), pannenkoeken (pancakes crepe), stroopwafel (thin chewy waffle like biscuits), limburgse vlaai (pie), hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles on sandwich), dutch cheese.

Info added are found in official website and is true as of July 2015, please check the official website again to make sure the information you have is the updated one!

*Note!*

 Recommended place to eat 

 Recommended place to visit

 Find the compilation of tips I have to offer at the end of this blog posts! 

All I see is canals.

While travelling from Bruges to Amsterdam, we encountered this extraordinary view at Antwerpen Centraal train station. Just thought of sharing it with my readers. 

Anonymous OV-Chipkaart

Each of us bought an anonymous OV card for us to travel around Amsterdam (can be used in Netherland as well). We bought this because we had to take EBS transport to our B&B. The normal day ticket doesn't allow us to travel via EBS. Using this is much cheaper than buying a single bus ride ticket. 

Stay | Nice B&B

The B&B was situated 8km away from Amsterdam city but it was easy to get there as the bus stop was just in front of the house. The room definitely felt very homely and Els (the owner) was very friendly too. The bed was super comfortable and we slept like babies for those 3 nights. We also had access to the fridge and microwave which was a huge plus for us. Although it is a B&B, breakfast is not included, you will have to request it beforehand.

The view behind the house

Around the neighbourhood

and this was taken early in the morning just outside of the B&B. 

Picture from http://www.dreamstime.com/

One thing that I learnt from my travel there is that a coffeeshop is not a shop selling coffee. It is where you buy and smoke cannabis. I'm not sure why they name it coffee shop. A cafe is where you find food and drinks. Although marijuana is legal here, there are rules to be followed. It is illegal to smoke them out of a coffeeshop but I always see people acting like idiots on the streets. 

We did try some, but we bought them back home to experiment instead of trying them in the coffee shop (those place are smoky as hell), I didn't really get to experience much of the effect as I was "controlled". -.-

Anyway...

Stubbe Haring

They say we could get the best haring here but it wasn't it for us. I mean I like sushi and raw fish but this... what is this? I didn't like it. The only exception was the pickle which was really crunchy and yummy.

Spuistraat 
We tried to hunt the street arts here but our effort was in vain. We didn't really found any interesting murals like the ones we saw online. Maybe we weren't looking at the right place. The street of Spuistraat is very long. After walking for quite awhile, we gave up and went to the next destination.  

Did you know? Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands, has more than one hundred kilometres of canals, about 90 islands and 1,500 bridges.

Houseboat Museum 
We get to experienced how it's like to be inside a houseboat. Do you know how hard it is to maintain and renovate a place like this? The house can't actually move around because it doesn't have a motor. So, the only way to make changes and maintenance is to call for another boat to drag the whole house to the workshop and make changes there. In the mean time, the owner have to find somewhere else to sleep for a few days.

 Anne Frank House

Like I heard, the queue is always very long, this remains true even though it was already 7pm. We had to wait an hour and a half for our turn. A recommended thing to do before visiting is to watch an Anne Frank movie to get a better sense of what happened to the little Jewish girl during Hitler's reign of terror. If you could then it's a good idea to download the movie beforehand and watch it on your phone or tablet while waiting in the queue. Being to this museum has made me realize how brave and strong this little 13 year old girl was. Her writing was very haunting as well. Could you imagine? Living in a limited space for 2 years with 7 people, without knowing when it would be safe to come out, they couldn't make a noise during work hours as the office people cannot know of their existence, they can't even peek out the window to avoid the risk of being seen. If it were to happened to me, I think I will go insane.

The view just outside of the main train station

Delicious Indon food

 Aneka Rasa

It is said that one of the must-do when in Amsterdam is to try the Indonesian cuisine there. I don't understand why but heck, the food was damn delicious. We fell in love with the peanut sauce that was used as a dipping for our keropok appetizer. I'm drooling right now while reminiscing the taste. Though, I think the layer cake was a bit off as they paired it with strawberry jam (which is not a very Asian thing to do. Hahaha).

More bikes than people.

Went straight to rent bicycles the very next day. We got ourselves some classic Dutch bicycles (with no handbrakes!). It was very tricky to use the brake pedal but we prevailed. Though cycling in the city is not an easy task, as the city is full with bicycle riders! 

Magere Brug

A tourist attraction that.... doesn't interest us. LOL. Just went there for the sake of visiting it.

 Albert Cuyp Markt

I think I can say we had the most fun here in the market. As we found loads of interesting food and items. Who doesn't like food? I went totally crazy for the stroopwafel, waffles, and the cheese sandwich here. Especially stroopwafel, omg that wonderful creation.

Cherries, strawberries and peaches! All my favs!

 Malse Haring

Couldn't help but order a few fried food as they looked absolutely gorgeous sitting on the metal pans. But we didn't order the haring, avoiding it because our first encounter didn't went that well. Hahaha.

Macam pasar malam leh

Urgghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... I want one now. 

So sexy... I mean the Croque-monsieur. Look at that stringy cheese. 

Was very fascinated by the auto orange juice squeezer. Therefore, this picture 

Mini pancakes was nothing to shout about. You can make it at home. It just taste like regular pancake with icing sugar on top of it. 

The world-famous IAmsterdam Sign

After filling up our tummy at the market, we cycled around the Rijksmuseum area.

Europeans really like the sun huh? 

De 1200 Roe

Somehow we cycled far far away to see this water mill/windmill. 12km back and forth to be exact, it was our exercise of the day. Since we're in Netherland, why not aye? I don't think many know of this place or they didn't want to come as literally, not a single soul can be seen there. HAHAHA. Don't let the picture fool you, it isn't as green as you think. I just cropped out the part where the shops and houses are.

But we bumped into another windmill during our journey back to the city. Don't even know where this is. XD

Best. Ever. Dutch Apple Pie. No. Kidding.

 Winkel 43

 My mum, a baker enthusiast, sang praises for the apple pie and until today, she told me she still yearns for it. Winkel 43 truly lives up to it's name. Ladies and gentleman, the best apple pie in the city.

Sex museum

Where else would you find a museum about sex?? I'm a bit disappointed though because a lot of renovation was going on when we were there so there are a few areas that we couldn't visit inside. In there, you'll discover 1950's porn (or even older), story of Marilyn Monroe and her affairs, and many other statues that was collected over the years that looks like a dick or a pair of boobs. I thought people were more sacred in the olden day?

There's Mr. Jack's hand.. jacking off... gedit? gedit??

In front of the Royal Palace Amsterdam

De Krijtberg Church

Dinner time at Mother's

Finally, we get to eat some traditional Dutch food

 Restaurant Moeders Thuis

Excellent choices of Dutch food and they were absolutely scrumptious. The place was practically crowded! So, we had to settle for outdoor seatings even though it was so very cold when the sun sets. Reservation through their website is highly advised if you want to secure a place without having to wait too long.
Short story time. When we were waiting for our table, there was a couple waiting for tables as well. But turns out, both of them are actually waiting for their individual table (that means they are not a couple at all!). A girl was dining by herself, and the other guy was as well. Both of them quite plump and it seems like they really like good food. Somehow, both of them and us were seated next to each other. I'm really impressed by how friendly the westerners are some times, both of them started talking to each other and kept on talking even until we decided to leave the restaurant. #veryrandom #storytime

 Red Light District

I'm sure this place will be on top of almost everyone's head when they think about Amsterdam. It is truly surprising as I never seen anything like this. The girls were actually on display (like glass display) like an item. LOL. Prostitution is a career here okay, plus I can see that all of the girls are in really good shape, like super hot and sexy those kind. Not those "whatever" type. We even saw one dancing seductively to a guy. Woohoo, free show and dayum. Please take note that it is not okay to take picture of the girls, they will look pissed off at you and will cover their body with the curtains if you do that. If you're lucky, you'll even encounter a bouncer. Prepare to face death. Naw, just kidding.

To the Nord!

Can't see nothing

We decided to travel to Amsterdam Nord with the free ferry service the next morning to check the place out. The city of Amsterdam is so generous.

We're gonna eat our brunch in there. Yeap.

This is called "don't judge a book by it's cover". 

 Pllek

They call it a "hipster" place. I don't really know how to read Dutch but I think they do yoga classes and also "eat & dance" events some times. It was raining that day, so we didn't have the chance to eat outside. The outdoor seating place looked really cool. But oh well. As for the food, the burger was delish, the cold soup was.. interesting (first time drinking cold tomato soup), and the apple crumble was just mediocre. But the place truly deserves points for their deco.

 Vondelpark

One of the biggest park I've ever seen. The park was 2km long and has a lot of swirly lakes. We went cycling around the place and relaxed for a good few hours. It seems like there were a lot of events happening during summer time, as we saw concerts held at the park. There's even a schedule that listed who was going to performing on which day.

Manneken Pis

Snack time at this pee-pee boy's place. Seems familiar? It's the famous Brussel statue. My bf loves potatoes and he misses Belgium fries, so we decided to visit this place. Turns out, the fries was as delicious as the ones we had in Belgium. Better when dipped with mayonnaise!

 Barco

This place was recommended by the owner/staff at the Starbikes Rental. He was quite delighted that we asked him where we can find really nice food near there and didn't hesitate to recommended this place to us. Barco is a small boat restaurant and offers a one-paged menu (limited choices but very satisfying). Food was definitely really good but pricier than normal. Quite reasonable as we get to enjoy the beautiful view outside. 

 Joey's Amsterdam Travel Tips!

1. Amsterdam is home to over 50 museums and many popular ones can be found here. If you're into museums, it's a good idea to invest in the I amsterdam City Card.
2. A coffeeshop is a place where they sell drugs and a café is a place to eat and drink. Click for more info on Amsterdam Drug Policy.
3. Highly recommended place to visit is the Albert Cuyp Markt. Be sure to go there with an empty stomach to fully the experience. 
4. You absolutely have to try the Stroopwafel. And also the dutch apple pie at Winkel 43. Best. Desserts. And Snacks. Ever. 
5. It's a good idea to book a dining reservation through the restaurant's website (if you could) to avoid having to wait too long. (especially if the place is very popular)
6. Do not take pictures of the girls of the Red Light District. Let's be respectful okay. Click for more info on RLD.
7. Ferry service in Amsterdam is free. Why not make use of it??
8. There are lots of events held all-year round in Amsterdam. If you are searching for something special, why not check them out and join in the fun? Check out the calendar here

Places I think worth visiting!

Attractions and recommended places to eat

Anne Frank House
Albert Cuyp Markt
Red Light District
Vondelpark

Aneka Rasa
Malse Haring
Winkel 43
Restaurant Moeders Thuis
Pllek
Barco