Berlin, Germany I: Around Alexanderplatz

By the time I reached Berlin, I was burned out. I reached the hostel in the morning but my room wasn't ready yet.. so I glued myself to the sofa in the lounge and stayed there till 3pm when my room was finally ready. Then I took a shower and wandered around my neighbourhood. I don't know what I saw and honestly I can't say I've been to Berlin because I didn't see anything symbolic to Berlin, except the Alexanderplatz TV tower..

Amsterdam, Netherlands III: Zaanse Schans

When I first heard the name of this place, I thought the two words were the same haha. Go on, try pronouncing it! Zaanse Schans is quite small, there are a few restaurants, cheese museums (VERY YUMMY CHEESE), windmill museums, etc. Half a day here would be sufficient.

I went there with two other Singaporeans. They were on the same bus from London but I didn't know they were from Singapore. They saw me at breakfast in the hostel and approached me to say hi. :)

We had a lovely walk around the place on a pretty gloomy day. The fields of tulip I had been hoping to see were replaced by grass and wild flowers. But I must say, the wild flowers were really pretty! There were different species and I think if you randomly grabbed a bunch and bundled them up, they would make a lovely bouquet to decorate your house with. Hilariously, J said "Only we find this pretty. This is weed to them!" Quite true haha.

Then my friends decided to take a puff so I wandered off. I sat on a log and enjoyed the peaceful and beautiful view, it was really calming for the soul. Then I decided to have a little lie down and as I watched the clouds drift past and felt the gentle caress of the wind, I drifted off to sleep. Yes.. I fell asleep on a log.. When I woke up, I saw my friends approaching me anxiously. They thought that I was offended by them for taking a puff or I got lost or something bad happened.. when in fact, I merely fell asleep on a log 10 steps away from the bush where they were sitting at. :p

How to get there?
Take a train to railway station Koog-Zaandijk which is four stops from Amsterdam Central Station and takes about 20 minutes. From there, you need to walk around 10 minutes through the village of Zaandijk to get to the windmills (lots of signs pointing you in the right direction, don't worry).

Then I rushed back to the hostel after dinner and a stopover at I AMSTERDAM. The metro was down so I had to take a bus to Amstel station where the coach station was. I didn't have small change with me but luckily I met two lovely girls who were going to Amstel station as well (to take the same coach haha) and one of them gave me her coins to pay for the bus fare. Even though it wasn't much but it was so incredibly sweet of her! Or else I would have been stuck at the bus stop and missed my coach or something. They were from Finland and Berlin and I had a nice chat with them on the way. Found out that they didn't get the chance to try stroopwaffles, so I gave them the pack I bought. They kept saying that it's fine but I insisted. It's really awesome to meet kind hearted people during your travels, they just make your days so much better. :)

Amsterdam, Netherlands II: Some things about Amsterdam

Besides canals, I'm sure you know that Amsterdam is known for their bicycles and you see them EVERYWHERE. The walking guide told us that the canals in Amsterdam are made up of mud, water and bicycles. They fish out hundreds of bicycles out of the canals every year. I don't find that hard to believe, seeing that there are tons of bicycles chained next to canals. And according to him, there was a tradition in some universities where freshmen threw bicycles into the canals for celebration??





Do you notice anything (three things actually) about the houses? I'll give you a minute to ponder. Firstly, houses in Amsterdam are all very narrow but tall, the rent/tax/something depends on the width of the houses so people tend to make it as narrow as possible. We visited the narrowest house in Amsterdam, do you see it? ;) The poor owner though, his house became a tourist attraction and many even knocked on his door to ask be shown the interior. Secondly, it's the hooks at the top (I think the first picture gave this one away). Almost all, if not all, of the houses in Amsterdam have these hooks which makes one wonder about their purpose. Someone wanted to trick me and told me that they were used to hang meat in the winter so that the owners don't have to put it in a fridge. *skeptical look* Well, the real reason for those hooks is that because the houses are so narrow, it's very hard to get furniture up to the upper floors. Thus, they would pulley the furniture up and bring them in through the windows. Pretty innovative don't you think? Thirdly, do you realise that the houses are tilting forward? It has something to do with the second point. That's right! It's tilted forward so that the furniture don't smash into the windows while swinging. And lastly (well this is a small point which I don't know if it's apparent in the photos), the houses are all built by different designers and architects so that explains why their designs are varied and they don't line up nicely beside one another. There are gaps in between houses and also some houses are leaning a little to the side. It's pretty cute how they are so un-uniformed.





Vending machine burgers! There are other snacks inside too. I didn't try it though because the guide said that there's a running joke about these burgers. Since there are so many flocks of pigeons in Amsterdam, people joke that the burgers are made of pigeon meat. :S





It's pretty common to see chairs in cafes facing the streets instead of each other throughout Europe. But the first picture is pretty funny, the first row of chairs are without tables! So do people literally just sit there and people watch?



"Coffee shop" in Amsterdam around every corner. No, you can't find lattes, Americanos nor cappuccinos here. These places sell weed. And in case you're wondering if I tried it, no. The smell gives me a headache, or maybe a light-headed feeling which I did not like. I was rather happy to leave Amsterdam to escape from the smell. Oops.



There's this special type of fries that is quite popular in Amsterdam. The fries are nothing new, it's the sauce that came with it. The one I had tasted like a peanut and curry mix with mayonnaise and onion. Worth a try if you're in Amsterdam!

Amsterdam, Netherlands I: The city of canals

I arrived at Amsterdam and suddenly, NO MORE ENGLISH. I was just growing used to having English all around me in London.. Amsterdam is beautiful and tranquil. But a place where you could easily get lost, because all the canals look roughly the same! It's a maze I tell you. Go take a look at the map of Amsterdam, it looks like the seating arrangement in a theatre.

The journey to Amsterdam was pretty fun. I was next to a 19 year old English boy who said he was going to Amsterdam just for weed.. oh dear. We made friends with an American and a Taiwanese sitting near us. The four of us hanged out together when we had to leave the coach and get on the ferry to cross the English Channel. It felt as if we were on a day trip on a cruise! There were arcades, restaurants, etc etc. We went up to the deck and admired the night view which almost blew me away, figuratively and literally. It was fantastic, if not absolutely freezing because of the strong wind.





We arrived at the coach station and then needed a way to get to Amsterdam central. So I went up to someone to ask and he asked 'Parlez-vous français?' I'm like 'Un peu..' then all I remembered hearing was 'la la la.. à droite.. la la la..' but with his gestures and insertion of English here and there, I figured out what I was supposed to do. We bought the 1 hour ticket for 2.80 euros which allowed us to take the train to Amsterdam Central (where we bid each other goodbye) and then the tram to our individual hostels.







Amsterdam library has a very modern, simple and open design. Even though I prefer old Victorian libraries, this library looks really comfortable and conducive for group meetings and doing work. The art installation is really creative too. It's made up of socks which have lost their partners. And look! there's a cute baby sock in the midst.







Climb to the top of the library and enjoy a free view of Amsterdam! The top level is a buffet restaurant and they serve the most delicious smelling food!!





Red light district is a place where most people would visit when in Amsterdam and it's not like hidden away in a secluded area. It's right in the middle of the city center! Beside this lane is Chinatown. Photography is not allowed. The guide told us that if you take a photo of the girls, they might step outside and grab your camera. Furthermore, because they had to pay for the rent of each window on a per hour basis, they would sometimes pee into a cup so as to save time running to the toilet. So if you offend them, they might throw that cup of piss at you.. You've been warned!

I met a Couchsurfer here and we had Thai food. In Amsterdam. Expensive Thai food, mind you. The Dutch restaurants were mostly closed when we were hunting for a dinner place apparently. But oh well, I missed rice so it was still a good meal, albeit the high price.