I AMsterdam Part Een

The one thing on my mind as I stepped on the streets of Amsterdam Central was "Abah would so enjoy this city", but only because of the bikes. This is by far the only city that I know of that provides many guided bicycle tour of the city.

But Amsterdam, I would say, is a city where the young and wild would truly enjoy themselves. I would not actually recommend my parents to come here, although I'm not sure if they have been here or not.

 My friends and I, we had planned for this trip since July and had the tickets booked way back in August, with Aerlingus. We got a pretty good deal at 100euros return on a bank holiday. Anyway, we arrived in Schipol airport  about 930am local time and took the train to Amsterdam Central, with a one way ticket costing 3.70euros.

We had to take a tram to get to our Hostel. Just a quick tip, if you are going to be there about 3 days, it is recommended that you buy the 3 days GVB card that costs 15.50euros but it will allow you access to trams and buses.

Anyway, the morning that we arrived, it was drizzling, and  it got heavier towards lunch time. All of us weren't in the mood to really tour the area in such a condition, plus the weather was extremely cold. Colder than Dublin, in fact.

But hey, if you've got friends like I do, we'd pose at any opportunity, come rain or shine!

Since we hadn't eaten anything solid since our departure, we were looking for Halal food to eat. In our itinerary prepared by Naem, we were to have lunch in Wau, a Malaysian restaurant. And luck really wasn't on our side. The place was closed, and only starts operating at 1430 hours. Oi, orang belanda, korang tak makan tengahhari ke???

We spotted a temple along the street, and decided to pose, since it is possibly the only or oldest temple in Amsterdam.

We didn't waste much time around that area as everyone was HUNGRY. Guess where Capek's GPS brought us? KFC Halal yo!!

Ana enjoying her fried chicken.

The rest of us enjoying our meal.

After lunch, we visited the "Birds and the Bees" museum. Some pictures are a bit explicit, so I cannot show them all here. But if you know how Amsterdam is like, you'd understand what I mean. Red Light Districts and Coffeeshops are among what attract tourists. Never trust a rombongan sambil belajar sekolah anak-anak ke Amsterdam.





Guess what?  







20 cents ice cream. LOL



Made out of steel aitellyew!


After tour of the museum and a bit of the areas around the central, we headed back to the Hostel for a quick refreshment and prayers.

Finding food/dinner was an easy task. There were abundance of Halal shops around the area that we were staying. Plus, they are not your typical Kebab Shawarma meals, but Italian meals which are Halal. How do we know? Because there was a sign outside of the restaurant.

Sesi melantak No 2



Seafood Pizza.


After dinner we walked towards the famous Red Light District. Ok, for those who aren't too familiar what the fuss is all about, and was lazy to click on the link provided above, let me sum it up for you. It is an area, where Prostitutions and Sex Oriented Businesses take place. You've got prostitutes standing by the window display , and you pay them a minimum of 50euros and it gets you in the window. Well, they call it windows, but it looks more like a door. Around the time that we went, the streets were already busy with people walking by, tourists and even "customers".

Paling tak boleh bla is when a few Arab Men went like "Qalqolah, haqq haqq, Ya Habibi, haqq haqq, Ya Habibi" Ok, I was just imitating the sounds that they made because I can't speak Arabic. It just feels weird because I tend to associate the language with religion. If you know what I mean?

You can't take pictures of them, so we did not have any pictures in that area, out of fear that the Gardai would snatch our cameras. So the only pictures we have for that night, were of us in front of Dam Square.

Suguides or Cold in English.

In one of the coffeeshops drinking tea.

Oh sorry, this picture is meant for the next entry,

So that basically sums up our first day in Amsterdam