04/04 Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Before taking the bus, I realised that I only brought again 80 Euro and I could not find ATM machine the bus station. So, I tended to withdraw money in Amsterdam. Me, Santiago and Anson took the Euroline bus at 2245 on 03April. Euroline sucked. It should arrive at the busbahnhof at 2245. But, we had waited till 2300 but no bus came. Santi called the Euroline hotline to ask what happend to the bus and the lady asked us to wait for 15mins. And eventually, it came at 2320. The seat was fine, but there was no plug for me to charge my stupid phone. This was my first time to take Euroline, which I thought was a bad experience. The bus went to Frankfurt and luckily that bus going to Amsterdam also waited for us. Totally it took 7 hours to get to Amsterdam.

We got there at 0630, which was very early. we waited at the train station till 0730. There were ATM machines but I could not withdraw money but I was sure I entered a correct pin. So, I had to borrwo money from Santi if  I spent over 80 Euro. Because I didnt know much about whether ticket officers always checked tickets. Therefore, we bought tickets to Amsterdam Central.

The Amsterdam Central station was beautiful but the weather was quite cloudy. There were tremederous numbers of bicycles in Amsterdam, which I started to feel annoying because there was little space for pedestrians on each street.

Anson went to meet her friends in the Netherlands and we went to our hostel, which was near the Central.  When I checked where it was on google map, it was on the water which made us surprised. Once we were getting closer to the hostel, we could say that we were going to study inside a boat!! We felt really surprised!! This was our first time to live in a boat. This boat was used for hostel when it was not in peak season. We got inside this interesting boat and checked in. We lived in a tiny room which was really only for two people. There was a circle window and a light with metal net coving the light, which were really like sailors' bedroom. The door was blue in color. This hostel was really cool!! I really like it. There were many discount card for us to take and we found one that offer cardholder a free syrup waffle!!!! We took a lot of it. But two bad things were that the wifi there was weak and there was only one steckdose in each room. We needed to take turn to use it.

We walked back to city centre first. On our way, there were canals surrounding each street and many boat cruise on the water and between each street, there was a bridge connecting them. With beautiful buildings on each side of the street, it constructs a beautiful picture of Amsterdam.

We then took the train to Zaadijk where windmills were located. Anson joined. We arrived at Zaadijk. And there were five mills in total some are oil mill, some are saw mills. And there were also some houses in the village. We entered into the first mill where exhibited the mill machine and a video introducing the mill history here. We walked through the footpath to see all 5mills, which were very nice. There were some souvenir shops which sold many cheese, waffles and chocolate. We tried different types of cheese which were delicious, even to me who do not like eating cheese alone. The syrup waffles and chocolate were very good too. We ate a lot of them and we even went to there twice just to eat them hahahh.

We then went back to Amsrterdam Central and did some sightseeing. We went to Dam square where a churhc and royal palance and some other unique biuldings were located. Near the Dam square, there was a gift shop where we could get a free waffle, which was really delicious!!! 


































We then walked to Van Gogh Museum. On our way, We passed through "I Amsterdam" . I really liked it. Then, Van Gogh ticket costed 15 Euro, which was quite expensive. compared with Germany and photos were not allowed to be taken too..... But the museum collected really a lot of his paintings, all of which were really beautiful and really Van Gogh style. Finally, I could admire his paintings personally. We spent almost 3 hours there and buy Van Gogh postcards there. But one thing was that there were a band inside the museum which played quite loud musics. Shouldnt a museum be quiet for people to admire the paintings of Van Gogh? I did not get it. Afterthat, we ate doners as our dinner and went back to our boat.