An Amsterdam Good Time

Yes, it’s every student’s dream; splifs, space cakes, sex shows, sex museums, cycling bars . . . all the things that aren’t quite yet mainstream in the UK.

Get There

I went on my first trip to Amsterdam with my halls. There are loads of advantages to this: it’s easy to organise and you make great friends - especially in first year! Going on an organised trip was fun, but the coach trip took up two of the four days away, so organising your own travel can be well worth it. From Manchester you can expect to pay around £100 for return flights out of school holidays. Once landed, you can taxi, train or bus it into the city without breaking the bank.

Stay There

I stayed in the Hans Brinker hostel, where you can stay for around £10 - £15 per person per night. I’m going to be honest with you, this is no Hilton. However, it’s infamous for good reasons: cheap, central, free breakfast (from which you obviously make your lunchtime sandwich), and a cool underground bar complete with global randomers. It’s accessible for everyone on wheels and makes a great base for seeing the city. Alternatively, there are many other hostels dotted around the city, or you could push the boat out at the real Hilton from a mere £250 per night.

Be There

My advice: hire a bike, get lost.  Just make sure you know the name of where you’re staying, it’s not easy trying to mime a loose description to a local. Get yourself to one of the many bike shops in the city and hire a bike from about £10 per day, with better deals for longer stays, and get going. Some of my best finds were while totally lost. There’s lots of markets with great bargains (heavy duty bike locks for just €15 for all of us who have had their bikes nicked from campus), a great range of vintage clothes and some pretty weird jewellery that looked suspiciously like it fell out of World of Warcraft.

Better than hiring a bike is hiring the cycling bar. Little word of warning though - cycling anything while drunk (or under other influences) isn’t as easy as it sounds, and you’ll get a lot of (understandable) pissy looks from the locals. Shouting sorry in English doesn’t seem to help as you career down a no-cycling street. Cheaper than actually hiring the bar, make friends with the punter/cyclists at a red light and score yourself a free pint.

Visit one of the famous cafes on your travels and you’re probably going to work up a bit of the munchies, but worry not. Food in Amsterdam may not be ridiculously cheap but can be very, very good. Pop into Los Pilones (down the road from Hans Brinker) for the best Mexican food ever. Massive portions of great food washed down with tasty but strong margaritas makes for good times. If you fancy something a bit more local, pop into one of the many Flemish pancake shops; just avoid tourist traps that charge far too much for average food. 

So, hunger satisfied, you’ll want to hit the town for the night, and that means only one thing in Amsterdam. Now, call me naïve, but I didn’t realise that sex shows in the city involved actual sex. So, into the Moulin Rouge I went like a lamb to the slaughter. It’s alleged to be the best show in Amsterdam and I can see why, with unusual cigar smoking, inventive banana eating and some serious KY usage on a rotating stage. Still want more? Get yourself to the Sex Museum. Among other exhibits are a giant cock bench and a (visual) history of porn.

There’s so much to do in Amsterdam, this is just a wee snippet. Visit the Heineken brewery, go on a bike tour, shell out for a boat tour, educate yourself at the Anne Frank house, or do family fun at the Van Gogh/Rijksmuseum.  Whatever you do, this is a great place to escape the Manchester blues.