Day 3 @ Amsterdam -the finale :')

Here's the last bit of my Amsterdam trip :)

So the 3rd day we started the day as usual with breakfast. Lupa plak nak cakap that breakfast is included in the accomodation price. Tapi breakfast biasa-biasa je lah. Not buffet pun. Just ada juice, tea or coffee, bun with cheese, banana and macam apple cake ke ape tah gitu je lah.

Before canal cruise, we went to NewMarket, a place where one of the big I.AMSTERDAM sign was. The first day we bumped into this sign, there were too many people on it. Pergi pagi tu tenang je takde orang pun so we get to camwhore around. Ngehngehngeh..

Give me an R- ARRRRR!

I Am....Who?

Lepastu we took Metro to Central Station and went for the one hour canal cruise which costed 7eu. Kan Amsterdam ni memang surrounded by canals kan so macam dia bawak pusing-pusing to see significant places around the city lah. It was relaxing and very laid back lah. Duduk dalam tu, and just dengar the explanations.

Boathouses along the canals. Memang ada orang yang duduk dekat the boat houses okay. Maybe not as their primary house la tapi memang ada je nampak orang tengah main laptop la apa la atas boat tu. Ada jugak they make it as museum. Tapi tak plak ktorang masuk

kredit to tripod

boat dia lebih kurang cam cruise kat Putrajaya tu la..

After the cruise ended, we then moved on to our next agenda - Museums visit. Oh no let me rephrase, more like touch base at the famous museums only. We went to the area where Rijskmuseum and Van Gogh museum are. Since both of us memang bukan jenis orang yg appreciate arts and not a fan of museums so we decided not to go in..But the area was so nice. And that's where we realized the second big I.Amsterdam sign is. I think the second one ni more like the main one la sebab the location is more....hmmm..appropriate, I guess? Lepastu kitorang lepak-lepak at the area near both museums. The weather was again, very...very nice! We stayed around camwhored again and again. Tangkap gambar lompat baring segala.

amik gambar buat cukup syarat je. masuknye tak pun. hihi

at Vondelpark. Ni pun tak masuk. Tangkap depan entrance je..

weeeee veli nice weatherrrr

lompaaaatttt

baringgggg

I amsterdam full with people.

We decided to go back to the hostel that afternoon sebab 3rd day memang dah tak fit dah. Stopped by at Flower Market again to look for souvenirs for the last time. Had lunch with our favourite fries with oorlog sauce.Headed to the hostel, checked in buat kesekalian kalinya (sebab kitorang buat private-dorm-private so tiap-tiap hari kena check in/out. hahaha sanggup tu demi privacy). Had a nap barang sejam lebih, prayed and went out again. Petang tu dah macam sangap-sangap tatau nak buat apa. The initial plan was to take a stroll down the shopping streets. Tapi macam tengah takde mood nak shopping sangat (more like takde duit nak shop sebnanye! haha...) so we ended up walking aimlessly dekat Kalverstraat.

oh we had pancake at this Pancake House dekat-dekat dengan the museum and HRC area. OMG DON'T GO HERE! THE WAITER WAS VERY RUDE! DAH LAH TAK SEDAP PUN!

Sebab dah boring sangat tatau nak buat apa, we decided to go to Nemo, the Science and technology centre. Takdelah nak masuk pun I just wanted to take pictures because dia macam ada area where u can climb up, nampak macam cantik for pictures. Unfortunately lepas dah jalan beribu steps, the place was closed already because it was pass 5pm. Took bus back to the Central Station, and started our journey to find the Red Light District!

muka dah penat at Nemo

On our way to find the RLD, we bumped into our favourite Wok to Walk restaurant and decided to have dinner first memandangkan dah menapak jauh gi Nemo tadi kan memasing dah lapar. We had difficulties to find the area, mula-mula macam dah pasrah je nak balik je sebab dah penat sangat but in the end we managed to find the street we accidentally went on the first day. Tapi takde ramai "displayed entities" at that time. Maybe it was still early ke ape tatau lah. Tapi adalah a few yang owhhhh....sedikit jijik disitu. Tergetik-getik didalam tingkap mengorat sekumpulan lelaki yang ada jalan close to us. Owhhh buta mata...tak nampak jalan diduniaaaa...

abang-abang penggoreng

teriyaki sauce ftw!!

Since no photography allowed at RLD, I have to settle with googled images je lah. This is how RLD looks like...

the displayed entities

the district

That night we went back to packing and do stuffs. The next morning disiplin habis ok memang on time as planned. Woke up at 6, check out at 6.50, took tram at 7.08 and took train to Airport at 7.25. Dekat airport we parted and went our own ways. I reached Cork at about 10.15am.

I'm glad everything went smooth with no delays or unwanted drama. A big thanks goes to my travelling partner, my beloved friend, Nabila for the company. This is certainly the best Euro trip I experienced so far...ngehngehngeh

Day 2 @ Amsterdam

The second day is quite a loooooooooong day. That morning we started of with a trip to Keukenhof. Oh before we departed from the city, we met a Malaysian family. Sempat lah borak-borak kejap diorang siap ajak kitorang makan dengan diorang lagi since they are staying in apartment and they cook their own food. Lured us with sambal sotong siapp...tau je kelemahan student Malaysia kan? :P

We left the city at 9.40. Took us about 45 minutes to reach Keukenhof which is situated in Lisse. The tourist guide kept us company with his interesting stories of Amsterdam. Thank God he's not boring unlike our second tourist guide. In Keukenhof, we were given until 1.10pm to tour around. So we have approx 3hrs gitu lah. Cukup ke? Hmmm...since we came early April and the tulip's field aren't that fully-bloomed yet I guess cukup kot.

map of Keukenhof

The theme of Keukenhof this year was From Russia With Love. Adalah patung-patung Matryoshka kat situ. The weather was sooooooooo nice. Warm. Bright and shiny. When you are surrounded with pretty flowers, nothing else matters. Tenanggggg je. Sumpah sangat best! I think 3 hrs tu just nice la nak cover almost all of the area. Dia ada jugak a few part for exhibition but we only went to the green house sebab that's where many species of flowers are. Cantik ohhh...cantik sangat-sangat!

first time pakai baju hijau, perasaan dia macam jadik kura-kura -___-"

tulips field. ini je yang baru tumbuh sikit-sikit

many species in the green house

red raaaawwrr flowers

tengoklah awan tuuu..tenang jeee...pasangan suami isteri yang suka bergaduh boleh datang sini, mesti lepastu tak jadi bergaduh dah

Quarter past one we left Keukenhof, and reached the city at about 2 gitu. Nabila pergi change for the boarding pass and I went to buy lunch. Pembahagian tugas disitu :P At half 2, we went for the second excursion which consist of trip to Cheese factory, Clog factory and the windmills, Volendaam and Maarken - fishermen villages. Our second tourist guide was..my oh my...cakap mendatar macam buat nak tertido...tapi the info was very interesting so I was fighting jugaklah not to fell asleep :P

Our first stop was at clog factory and the windmills area. Tengoklah how the clogs were made. Sekejap je 5 minit dah dapat satu. Clogs ni they claim kept them warm, tak basah etc. Boleh jugak nak beli the clogs the price starts from around 20eu kot gitu (tak ingat sangat) At the same place jugak, they were traditional windmills which are no longer serving their purpose. Kirenye they kept it as a replica je la tapi once in a while kenalah bergerak tak nak kasi rosak. Area situ pun cantekkkkk sangat.

kredit to a lady for the picture, background is the windmills, the traditional ones that is.

clog making demo

ze clogss

The next stop was cheese factory. I'm not a big fan of cheese but Nabila is. Sikit-sikit boleh tolerate lah tapi banyak-banyak memang tak la. Dia tunjuk lah how the process of making cheese segala. Lepastu ada kedai jual cheese and we get to taste the different types of cheese. Nabila borong cheese for herself, the family and keluarga mentua while I just bought one smoked cheese for my housemates.

say cheeeeeeeeese

After stuffing ourselves with different kind of cheeses the next stop was Volendaam, a used-to-be fisherman's village. Mula-mula the surrounding water was from the sea, kira air laut la kan tapi lepastu adalah they modify something the sistem pengairan tu and now dia dah jadi fresh water, kira macam jadi lake lah. So sebab tu diorang dah tak jadi fisherman dah sebab dah bukan laut.It's a small nice town and the souvenirs there are cheaper too. From Volendaam, we took a 20 mins "cruise" to another fisherman's village, Maarken. Rumah situ kocik-kocik ajo, memang kalau orang Malaysia anak 13 macam atok ngan nenet saya tak dapek lah nak duduk situ.

ini air tasik tau, bukan laut!

atas cruise. ceria-ceria je tapi lepastu sebab angin kuat tudung jadi cam hape je. nasib ada hood

the houses

Balik-balik we reached Amsterdam at about 7. We decided to check in first sebab the second day we moved from the private room to a dorm. Punyalah risau-risau duduk ngan orang putih mabuk-mabuk tapi Alhamdulillah, dorm tu okayyy jer. After Maghrib we went out for dinner and lepas tu pergi Hard Rock Cafe. HRC is situated at quite a havoc place. Macam famous for party peopleee gitu. Ada sedikit takut pun ada sebab kami kan cuma dua gadis suci...awhh..

Malam tu dah start nak cranky light-light dah sebnanye time tu sebab dah penat :P About 10.30 or so we went back to rest.

Day 0.5 and 1 @ Amsterdam

Oookayh. So here we go the first part of my Ams trip.

I departed from Cork Airport and reached Schiphol Airport at about 7.45pm. We planned to sleep in the airport that night to save up accomodation cost. It was Easter Sunday and the accom price was very very expensive that day at most of the hostels. It turned out, the airport's overnite was so good! Thanks to Nabila, we didn't go out from the immigration and stayed in the arrival hall. It is soooooo big and to my amazement, it it complete with necessary facilities like restaurants, toilets, PRAYING ROOM, SHOWERS and LAZY CHAIRS to sleep. So cool right?? If I were to compare Heathrow and Schiphol, tch, memang Heathrow kalah lah wehh..

muka excited on the lazy chairs. hoho..

at meditation room. not spesifically for muslim to pray lah dia mix with other religions. tapi kiblat ada telekung ada AlQuran ada semua lengkap dia kasi :)

So we spent a night in the airport. Pillow talk skit..The next morning we showered, had breakfast and took train to the Central Station.

nampak MAS time tengah breakfast :'( nak balik....tsk

The first thing we did when we arrived in the city was to book for the excursions. We just chose from the ones offered from tour agencies along the Damraak. After some discussions, we made our mind not to buy the I Amsterdam card and opted for the normal pass instead. Siap segala urusan beli-membeli and drafted out our plans , we went to the hostel to check in. LEPASTU SIAP TIDO SIKIT-SIKIT KONON-KONON PENAT. hahaha..

That evening we went around the streets. Went to China town to search something to eat and "accidentally" went to the Red Light District. Tak plan pun nak pergi on that day because it was supposed to be on Day 3 of our holiday (saya pergi dengan madam strict okay, kena patuh ikut jadual :P)...terkojuittt mak tiba-tiba ada perempuan berbaju kurang didalam tingkap. Ada yang muka boring je..ada yang muka pasrah dengan kehidupan..ada yang gobu-gobu and ada yang tak muda langsung!

sebab pakai tripod cinonet, jadi banyaklah dapat gambar angle-angle begini :P

For the rest of the day, we went to Flower Market. Dekat je dengan hostel kitorang. Ohhh so interesting! They sell souvenirs and flowers' seeds. Tulip's bulbs tu rupa dia cam bawang jee...Tapi keluar-keluar jadi cantekk gitu. Other than Flower Market, we also went to the S** Museum. It's Amsterdam people, Amsterdam...:P Ada apa in that museum? Nothing interesting pun. Geli lagi adalah. Nasib 4euro je ticket. We then toured around the Dam..Lepastu jalan-jalan cari makan..

Cannabis siappp. Everything is legal in Ams, remember?

tulips bulbs!

muka teruja tengok pretty flowers

*geleng kepala*

at one of the "shopping mall" tak best pon..

We called it a day quite early as we were quite tired (Nabila tak dapat tidur kat airport sebab lazy chair tu tak menepati cita rasa sleeping position dia) Lagipun the next day we'll be having a full day so kena dapatkan rehat secukupnya supaya tiada siapa-siapa cranky :P

Amsterdam - the overall review.

I'm gonna start off with the overall review of Amsterdam before I go with the details since a friend of mine is going soon. So here you go :

The city

This is from what I remember la eh I can't guarantee this is 100% true. Ingat-ingat from what the guides told us during the excursions je. Ada part of Netherlands is located below the sea level. The Dutch ni macam create a new land from sea adalah using their techniques. Google sendiri for the details. lols..One of the reasons there are lots of windmills in Amsterdam is for the land reclamation ni lah. Some of the area used to be watery area, and most of the part of the Netherlands ni flat. So nak naik basikal tadehal lah takde penat naik bukit.

Netherlands is part of EU, so the currency is Euro. Population tak sure, but ada banyak gak Muslims so we can find mosques in this country. They said there are a lot of Indonesian here tapi I didn't see that many pun maybe they live outside the city kot. Malaysian kat situ tak surelah ada berapa ramai tak pernah jumpa pun yang reside kat situ, tourists ada lah a few.

Transportation

Amsterdam, in my opinion is not that big. So kalau larat, you can rent a bike to get around the city. There are a lot of bicycle rental service in the city. At the central station itself, you can see about 5000 bicycles. Kalau lebih larat lagi, pun boleh jalan jugak. Takdehal...

You can travel to the city from Schiphol airport by train. It costed 3.80eu per single journey. If you are flying with Ryanair, you'll land at Eindhoven airport, dalam 1++ hrs from the city so kena la naik bas nak pegi central. Menyusahkan, so I chose to pay more for conveniency and flew with Aerlingus.

To travel within the city, other than bike, you can buy the city pass at the ticket centre. Unlimited rides of Tram, Metro or Bus. 24hr pass - 5.50eu, 48hr pass - 11++ eu, 72hr pass - 15.50eu.

You can also buy the I.Amsterdam card IF you are interested with museums and etc. Ada 24hr (38eu) pass, 48hr (48eu) pass etc. With that you can get free entrance or discounted price for museums, tapi tak boleh pakai for all museums, discounted price at certain restaurants, city pass and free 1 hour canal cruise. The main museums like Rijskmuseum (spell check, malas nak google) or Van Gogh museum tak boleh pakai in I'm not mistaken.

Accomodation

We stayed at Stayokay Stadsoelen Youth Hostel. Location not too bad and safe, like 5 minutes walk from the tram. Security - good, takde orang mabuk ke high ke apa. Since both of us has the Hostelling International card, we get 2.50eu off from the price of the rooms. So 3 hari stay dah bleh jimat 7.50eu not too bad la. We paid 25eu for the private room (2 nights) and 19eu for the dorm (1 night)

Food

Searching for halal food is not a problem. Ada je you can find big HALAL signs in the restaurant. One of the popular food in Amsterdam is french fries. Bunyi cam bosan je kan but I recommend you to try 'em. I was skeptical at first but actually it was so good. Makan pulak dengan the oorlog sauce fuuuuh terbaikkk..

Things to do

I recommend you to join the excursions offered by the companies. The tickets can be bought at Damraak (located like 2 mins from the Central Station, ada lagi tempat lain jual but that's the easiest place to buy lah) and from there you can choose from the many excursions offered. Buy online also cann..

We chose 2 excursions, the Keukenhof (tulips and pretty flowersss) and visiting cheese & clog factory, windmill and fishermen's village. Keukenhof excursion costed around 32eu, lasted for 4.5 hrs including the journey while the second excursion costed around 33eu, with the same duration as the previous one.

Banyak boleh dapat from the excursion because the tourist guide will explain/membebel non stop about the history of Amsterdam etc during the journey. Baguslah for people who are too lazy to read the history like me.

On top of that we bought a canal cruise ticket for 7eu. For an hour, the cruise brought us around the main canals of Amsterdam.

Other than that if you are art lovers boleh pergi to the museums there. Boleh jugak visit the Red Light District just for the sake of going lah :P Keep in mind you'll be seeing lots of nasty things jugak in Amsterdam so open your mind lah ye. Lepas otak dah rosak pergi tempat bukan-bukan pergilah tengok the tulips to clear up your mind :P Dekat area Van Gogh museum, Rijskmuseum semua tu ada park where you can just hang around.

Yang lain-lain, would be choosing a right time to visit. Pergi time spring, around mid April like that would be the best. The flowers pun mesti akan full bloom, and the temperature would be just nice for traveling. The people there can speak English so communication is not a problem at all.

That's all I can write about for the time being. I'm not at my best condition now coz I'm super tired so macam tak boleh nak come out with better ways to explain. Hope this helps :)

I Amsterdam-ed :)

I am back from Amsterdam ;)

By far, this is the best holiday I have ever went. Days full packed with lotsa interesting activities. Alhamdulillah, the trip went okay and the weather was being nice to us.

I definitely recommend Amsterdam for holiday. Not your typical the-only-attraction-are-buildings place. Amsterdam outdone London BIGG time baby! haha..exaggerate much?

I'm gonna come back and try to update as quick as possible as I need to rearrange my life back to normal again. So...stay tune people!