Going to Amsterdam for a long weekend

UPDATE ON HOSTELS!

Currently, (international) students in Paris are planning weekend trips to other European cities. The first leaves are falling, but it's not cold yet, so this is a good time to pack your bags and discover Europe. Many choose to visit Amsterdam (the capital of the Netherlands), because it's relatively close to Paris and there are several inexpensive options to travel to Amsterdam. As a Dutch person I would like to help you with planning your trip to Amsterdam, so it will become an unforgettable experience!  

Transportation

There is no need to step on a plane to go to the Netherlands. It's pretty close to France and you can travel to the Netherlands by bus or train for little money.

Bus
When I travel between Amsterdam and Paris I take the bus, because it is the least expensive option. I have tried 3 coach operators and all of them take you to Amsterdam in 7 hours.

Megabus is the cheapest coach operator you'll ever find in Europe. A ticket Paris-Amsterdam (roundway) costs only € 30. There is a toilet with a mirror and a sink to wash your hands on the bus. The seats are comfortable. Megabus makes one stop at Brussels, the Belgian capital. I have taken the night bus several times. It's safe.
uk.megabus.com/routemap

iDBus is my favorite coach operator, because it offers free WIFI on the bus and each row of seats has an electrical socket. There is a toilet with a mirror and a sink to wash your hands on the bus. The seats are more comfortable than the seats of Megabus. However, it's more expensive than Megabus. The lowest price for a ticket Paris-Amsterdam (roundway) is € 78. iDBus makes one stop at Lille (Northern France), but will also go through Belgium.
www.idbus.com/map

Eurolines is the most expensive coach operator, but it also has most travel options. There is a toilet with a mirror and a sink to wash your hands on the bus, but when I took the night bus the door was closed, so the toilet could not be used. The bus stops several times before arriving in Amsterdam. Eurolines charges different prices, depending on the day and time of your departure. Check out the website to find the lowest fare: www.eurolines.fr/en/destinations 

Train
Traveling to Amsterdam by train is more expensive than traveling by bus, but it takes only 3 hours. The cheapest train ticket (roundway) Paris-Amsterdam costs € 70, whereas the cheapest bus ticket (roundway) Paris-Amsterdam costs € 30. Train tickets for €70.00 can only be purchased 3 months in advance. The later you book, the more you will have to pay. I once booked a train ticket (roundway) 1,5 weeks in advance and it cost me € 180. Check out the website for more information and current fares: http://www.nshispeed.nl/en/france  

Accommodation
In general, most hostels and hotels in the Netherlands are clean and safe. The Dutch have a high standard when it comes to hospitality.

However, the country attracts drugs tourists who come to the Netherlands specifically to buy marihuana. For the people who didn't know: some drugs can be legally purchased in the Netherlands, most notably cannabis. Drugs tourists often make a mess or behave badly, so personally I wouldn't like sleeping in a hostel that is full of drugs tourists.

Therefore I advice you to go to one of the Shelter Christian Hostels in Amsterdam, even if you're not a Christian. Smoking, alcohol and drugs are not allowed inside these hostels. They have a courtyard-garden where you are allowed to smoke normal cigarettes, but drugs and alcohol are not tolerated. 

I understand that there are people who prefer to stay at a hostel with more freedom. For them, I recommend Stayokay Amsterdam Vondelpark. The location is magnificant. This hostel is situated in the middle of the most famous park of Amsterdam.

If you prefer to stay at another ho(s)tel, book a private room. Don't safe money on your safety! I think Amsterdam is a safe city (I never had a problem being in the city centre at night), but even in safe cities you can come across untrustworthy people. However, don't let drugs tourists stop you from visiting Amsterdam. Amsterdam also attracts many tourists who are interesting in art, architecture and culture. Furthermore, the Dutch state invests a lot in the safety of its citizens and tourists and besides police officers there are always volunteers who walk through Amsterdam in groups to make sure everyone is okay. We call these volunteers ''street coaches''. You can recognize them by their jackets with the logo of the municipality of Amsterdam. 

I normally book a hostel through Hostelworld.

Weather

Amsterdam enjoys an oceanic climate that features two major seasons, a mild summer and a cold winter.

 

Summer

During the summer months, from late May till early September, Amsterdam remains enjoyable enough with the average high of low twenties. Although the season gets a moderate level of rainfall, as August receives more than 80mm of precipitation, it is the best season to visit Amsterdam. The average low temperature, especially in the evenings, stands around 12°C. The city gets a great level of sunshine throughout the season, more than 200 hours per month.

Winter

Winter weather in Amsterdam is chilly and somewhat uncomfortable. The average high temperature falls dramatically as winter appears and stands at 9°C in November, 6°C in December while January, the coldest month of the year gets not more than 5°C. The low, on the other hand, fluctuates between -1°C to 3°C. Moreover, a little rainfall and very poor level of sunshine, 60 hours, may not allow you to be fixed with your plan.

 

What to do in Amsterdam?
Click on the link for an English-language list of Amsterdam's best attractions. My personal favorites:

Rent a bike!
Dutch people are keen cyclists. A Dutch person rides his bike to go to school, work, the supermarket etc.. You will see people riding a bike everywhere in Amsterdam. The narrow streets make it difficult to go by car or taxi, so often going by bike is a more efficient way to discover Amsterdam. Check out the following website (available in several languages) for information on renting a bike in Amsterdam: www.iamsterdam.com
The bike rental corporations and tourist offices sell cycling guides and maps of Amsterdam and its surroundings. If you Google ''bike tour Amsterdam'' you will also find guided bike tours.

 

Visit a museum
There are over 50 museums in Amsterdam, so there must be a museum that interests you. Here is a list (in English) of the most popular museums. I advice you to go to the renowned Vincent van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum (here you will find the best works of Rembrandt) and the Anne Frank House. Beer lovers should visit the Heineken Museum, for football fans the Ajax Museum is a must-go and kinky people might find the Erotic or Torture Museum interesting. After all, you're visiting Amsterdam, the capital of one of the most liberal countries in the world. The Netherlands was the first country in the world where gay people could marry and I'm pretty sure there are not many countries with the same drugs policy. (Note: I'm more conservative than most Dutch people. Just because I write about the Dutch culture doesn't mean I like everything about it.) 



Canal cruise
The world famous Canal Belt (a section of the historic city centre) was placed on the UNESCO  World Heritage List in 2011. It's a Dutch tradition to treat visiting royals and other VIP's to a cruise on the canals. Famous visitors like Winston Churchill, the Beatles and Nelson Mandela became acquainted with Amsterdam from the deck of a canal cruise boat. Some canal cruise operators give you a discount if you book a ticket in advance.
List of canal cruise operators.

Tulip fields
Spring is the best time of the year to travel to the Netherlands, because of the magnificant tulip fields that attracts tourists from all over the world. From the end of March until the second week of May the flowers in the fields bloom. It goes without saying that the exact period depends on the weather. Generally speaking, the best time is the second half of April. It takes only an hour (max. 1,5 hours) to travel from Amsterdam to the tulip fields by public transportation, so you could easily make it a day trip. The buses that take you to the tulip fields leave from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Please keep in mind that the buses are only available during the tulip season, so in spring!
Here are some websites with practical information on visiting the tulip fields:
Guide to Seeing the Tulip Fields
Keukenhof, the world's largest flower garden
Private tour to Keukenhof Tulip Gardens and Tulip Fields

Food and Drinks in Amsterdam

A ''coffee shop'' in the Netherlands is a place where you can purchase drugs legally. People who want to have a cup of coffee or tea don't go to a ''coffee shop'', but to a restaurant, tea house, bar etc.!

Supermarket
Go to Albert Heijn, the best supermarket of the Netherlands.You can find Albert Heijn at several places in the city centre of Amsterdam. Many products have an English-language label, so you know what you're buying. Besides regular products like bread, milk, fruit and vegetables, Albert Heijn offers organic and vegan products, fresh sandwiches, salads, muffins, donuts etc. I miss Albert Heijn now that I live in Paris. The Parisian supermarkets don't have the quality or the diversity of Albert Heijn. Albert Heijn can be cheap or expensive, depending on the product you're buying. However, the expensive products are often still cheaper than what you find in Paris or are special, like organic.

Restaurants
To be honest, I almost never went to restaurants in Amsterdam, because as a student I had a limited budget and I could cook at home. But from my limited experience I know the following restaurants are worth trying:

Ron Gastrobar (scroll down once you entered the website)
This restaurant is led by a chef who once had a restaurant that was awarded two stars by Michelin. He voluntarily gave back the Michelin stars to start a new concept: Ron Gastrobar. Here you can eat a dish for only € 15. It was the dream of the chef to serve people high quality, but simple food for a reasonable price. He feels like too many Michelin restaurants try to impress, instead of focusing on what people like to eat.

Hard Rock Cafe Amsterdam
Best hamburgers ever and the only place in the Netherlands where you can get a free refill!

La Place (inside V&D)
La Place is a chain of restaurants that you can find inside V&D, a Dutch department store. Here you can buy sandwiches, soup, cakes and warm meals like steak with fries. For € 5 you can get the ''meal of the day'', served with fries or rice. I like their wok, but it's not available at every La Place. Dutch people like to come here for the sandwiches.

Vegetarian/ Vegan
Every restaurant in Amsterdam has at least one vegetarian course on the menu. Many Dutch people are vegetarian, so you will have no problem finding delicious vegetarian meals.

Vegan people should take a look at this website which shows the location of vegan restaurants in Amsterdam. For example, there are four branches of Maoz Falafel in Amsterdam. Maoz was founded by Dutch people, but also has branches in e.g. France (Paris) and Australia. Another vegan restaurant in Amsterdam that is not on the list of the website is Mana Mana.

Dutch specialties
I love the Dutch pancakes and pastries. Go to a pannenkoekenhuis (pancake house) to eat a gigantic pancake with a topping of your choice. The favorite pancakes of the Dutch are either with ham and cheese or with apple, raisins, cinnamon and sugar. But there is an endless list of options. A gigantic pancake at a traditional restaurant costs between € 7 and € 15, depending on the toppings.
The Dutch also like to eat poffertjes, a portion of tiny pancakes covered with butter and sugar.

For some people a surprise, for others a well-known fact: Indonesia used to be part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The colony became independent in 1949. The Indonesians influenced the Dutch cuisine. Dutch people love Indonesian food and you can find Indonesian restaurants everywhere. We specifically like the sweet peanut sauce (satésaus) from Indonesia, in combination with meat and (fried) rice. The Indonesian restaurants are usually not expensive.

For more information on the Dutch cuisine, read the article on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_cuisine

Let me know if you want to visit other parts of the Netherlands. I could give you advice on that as well!

Making scans and copying in Paris

Need to make scans in order to upload documents for the application for CAF or Imagine R? Or do you want to copy documents? Office Depot is a copy and print shop for consumers (similar shops in Paris sometimes work only with businesses). Office Depot has 20 stores in Paris, so you're sure to find one close to your house. Making scans is easy. Just bring a USB stick and an employee will make the scans for you. You'll be done before you know it.

If you click here you'll see an overview of all the stores in Paris.

Practical information
Price

Around € 5 for 20 scans.  

Website

http://magasins.officedepot.fr/fr/ile-de-france/paris (overview of the 20 stores in Paris)

Supermarkets in Paris

In France there are two kinds of supermarkets. A supermarché is what comes up in most people's mind when they think of a supermarket. A hypermarché is a gigantic store that combines a supermarket and a department store. Besides food and drinks you can buy e.g. clothes, books, kitchen equipment, suitcases, office supplies and computers at hypermarchés. 

The following supermarché chains can be found at different locations in Paris:

Lidl
Lidl is the cheapest supermarket in Paris. Besides food and drinks, you can buy detergents and toiletries at Lidl. The disadvantage of Lidl is the lack of choice. You can buy three
different kinds of soap. That's it. However, soap costs € 0.80 at Lidl, whereas you would
pay € 1.50 at other stores. Another example is olive oil, which costs € 2.75 at Lidl and
€ 3.85 at some other stores. And a fresh pain au chocolat costs only € 0.35. If you want to
save money, I advice you to try to find what you're looking for at Lidl. If you can't find it there, go somewhere else.

DIA
DIA is a Spanish discount supermarket chain that has 90 stores in Paris. You're more likely to find a DIA in your neighborhood than a Lidl, the other discount supermarket chain. The difference with Lidl is that DIA comes up with great, but temporary (!) discounts, while Lidl has mostly fixed prices. DIA is slightly more expensive than Lidl, but sells a wider range of products. To give you an idea of the prices: 1 kilo of nectarines costs € 1.99, one lemon costs € 0.59 and a bottle of sugar free lemonade costs € 2.09. DIA's cheese is € 0.50 more expensive than Lidl's cheese.  

Carrefour City
Carrefour is a chain with both supermarchés (called ''Carrefour City'') and hypermarchés. Carrefour City can be found everywhere in Paris. In most cases it's a small store with a limited amount of products. Unlike Lidl, this is not reflected in the price. Carrefour City is the most expensive supermarket in Paris. You pay for the convenience of having a quality supermarket nearby, even if you live within walking distance of the Eiffel Tower. If you don't want to spend too much money on groceries I advice you to look for another supermarket.

 

 

Monoprix
Monoprix is somewhere in between a supermarché and a hypermarché. It combines food retailing with hardware, clothing, household items and gifts, but the stores are not as massive as the hypermarchés and can therefore be found in every arrondissement. In case you don't want to leave your house you can even buy Monoprix's products online and have it sent to your house. Monoprix is not a discount supermarket. The prices are similar to Carrefour City. People with a limited budget are better off going to Lidl or DIA, unless they need a dish brush or other household products.   

 

Franprix
There are regular sized and small stores of Franprix in Paris. In general, Franprix charges less for products that you could also find at Carrefour City and Monoprix. Lidl and DIA are cheaper though. A white baguette costs € 1.00, 3 big bananas cost € 1.40 and you pay € 2.25 for chorizo (100 gram).   

There are only two hypermarché chains that can be visited by metro. Most hypermarchés  are situated outside Paris, because the hypermarché chains are not allowed to have a store in the city centre due to the size of the store.  

Carrefour
Carrefour is a chain with both supermarchés (called ''Carrefour City'') and hypermarchés (called ''Carrefour Auteuil'', named after the neighborhood). The Carrefour hypermarché that can be visited by metro is situated in the 16th arrondissement. Carrefour is one of the more expensive stores, but the quality of the products is excellent.  

Practical information
Address

3 Avenue du Général Sarrail, 75016 Paris

Arrondissement
16^th

Website

http://www.carrefour.fr/
Metro
The nearest metro station is Michel-Ange Molitor (red circle below).

 

 

 

Auchan
Auchan is cheaper than Carrefour. The food and drinks are more expensive than at Lidl and DIA, but at Auchan you have an endless choice of products. There is even a salad bar. To be more specific about the price differences between Auchan and Carrefour I'll give you an example. The cheapest plastic bin at Carrefour cost me € 7.50. One day later I found a similar plastic bin at Auchan for € 2.50. I regretted buying the plastic bin at Carrefour! Also, Auchan is a lot bigger than the Carrefour hypermarché. 
 

Practical information
Address

26 Avenue du Général de Gaulle, 93170 Bagnolet
Arrondissement
20^th
Website
http://www.auchan.fr/
Metro
The nearest metro station is Gallieni (red circle below).

 

 

''Poilâne'', the best bakery in Paris

Thanks to the Poilâne family, the traditional French sourdough bread has stood the test of time. After World War II, the white baguette (which was brought to France from Austria in the 19th century) became more and more popular and ousted the French sourdough bread. Lionel Poilâne, son of a baker, resisted the trend of baking baguettes and he kept baking sourdough bread according to old French traditions. Nowadays, the bread is sold under the name Miche Poilâne. The Poilâne empire has three stores in Paris, two stores in London and its bread is sold in 1500 stores and served in 1000 restaurants in e.g. Brussels and Tokyo. American celebrities like Steven Spielberg and Johnny Depp order bread from Poilâne regularly.   

In 2002, Lionel Poilâne and his wife died tragically in a helicopter accident. Their daughter Apollonia, at that time only eighteen years old, took over the business and expanded the Poilâne empire while studying economics at the presitigious Harvard University in Boston, USA. She flew often between Boston and Paris in order to do so.

Besides the Miche Poilâne bread, you can now buy pastries, cookies, marmelade and cutlery at the stores.
If you ask me, going to the Poilâne bakery and eating Miche Poilâne bread is an absolute must if you are in Paris!

Practical information
Address

38 rue Debelleyme, Paris 75003 (3^rd)
8 Rue du Cherche-Midi, Paris 75006 (6^th)
49 Boulevard de Grenelle, Paris 75015 (15^th) 

Arrondissement
3^rd , 6^th and 15^th   
Price

€ 4.45 for half a Miche Poilâne bread (1 kilo), which is enough for two people for two days.  

Website

http://www.poilane.com/index.php
Metro
The nearest metro stations are Filles du Calvaire (3^rd), Saint-Sulpice and Sèvres-Babylone (6^th) or Dupleix  (15^th) .

 

Florist ''Les Jardins d'Ilham''

As a girl who lived within walking distance of the colorful tulip fields that come up in people's minds when they think of the Dutch landscape, I like giving flowers to people. Flowers are an appropriate gift on any occassion, ranging from your grandmother's birthday to your friend who just graduated from law school. Luckily I found a florist in Paris who doesn't charge € 20 for a decent bouquet (unless you purchase online). ''Les Jardins d'Ilham'' offers flowers that are already arranged, but you can also ask for a custom made bouquet.       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Practical information
Address

30 Boulevard Diderot, 75012 Paris

Arrondissement
12^th
Price

€ 5 for a flowerpot in one color.

Website

http://www.interflora.fr/cadeau/sommaire.htm 
Metro
The nearest metro station is Gare de Lyon (red circle below).