The Ancient City of Netherlands- AMSTERDAM

Hello backpacker mania! I would like to share whith you my journey to one of the captivating cities of the Netherlands; Amsterdam. My journey began from Gare du Nord Station Paris. My friend  from the Indonesian Embassy and I, led by a friend who helped at a free shelter, went hastily to the station by taking a taxi because we were almost late. Fortunately we arrived at the station 10 minutes before the train departed.

Windmills

windmills

Before entering the train, we had to print train tickets from an automatic machine at Gare du Nord  station,  It is important to get the ticket stamped in an automatic machine to validate them otherwise you will be charged inside the train. We deliberately purchased the tickets two months earlier to get a cheaper fare. It was only $40 for the journey from Paris to Amsterdam.

The train finally departed at 12:20 Paris time.  The express train left Paris very quickly. The view outside the window of was very beautiful but I got bored without internet. I remember that I’ve read blogs about other travelers who got free WIFI inside the train but unfortunately my ticket was only an ordinary ticket with no extra WIFI so I had to purchase an internet connection. They offered some kind of 1 hour internet connection package for EUR 6.5 or EUR 13 for unlimited internet connection.  I would not recommend this because the connection is very slow and lame! It can only can be used for Facebook or light websites.

Wooden shoes factory

wooden shoes factory

We spent about 3.5 hours on the train before we finally arrived at Amsterdam Central Station. The magnificent European building was welcoming us; it was a very enchanted building that I’ve never seen before.  In the station you can ask helpful people who wearing red jackets with an “I” mark on their backs.  They can give you information about any place, attraction or anything about the city. I got lost and asked them about my hotel.  They showed us a map and marked my destination. It was very helpful!  We arrived at Aviengo youth Hostel at 16:30 Amsterdam time, checked in and took a rest for a moment before continuing our journey. The Hostel atmosphere was good; there are two rooms with 20 beds in each co-ed room.

There were discount cards on the wall for travelers who have a limited budget.  These cards can be used for entering attractions. The discount is depending on the cards which varies from 20% to 50% discounts.

We took a walk and enjoyed the night view of Amsterdam,  The scenery was lively at the night! It was a view that I’d never seen when I was in Indonesia or even in Norway!.. The next day, We used the discount card and paid EUR 29 to travel to Volundam to see windmills, a cheese factory and the most famous wooden shoes factory. We used two kinds of transportation; bus and boat. When we arrived in Volundam there are lot of bars with drunk young people. 

The most impressing part of the journey were the windmills, very big! I had only read or seen them on the television but now I saw see real windmills with my own eyes and touched them.  I decided to visit Amsterdam again someday since I didn't enter the red light district.