I boarded my flight in rainy Canada yesterday evening (Wednesday) and had a red eye flight direct to Amsterdam. The flight took approximately 6 hours and 45 minutes, it actually went by pretty fast, despite the fact I hardly slept.
I landed in Amsterdam at Schipol Aiport bright and early Thursday morning, only to find more rain with a temperature of only 6 Celsius. I retreated my luggage and headed to a yellow train ticket booth to buy my train ticket (have spare change- only costs 3.90 euros) into the city centre, which to my surprise was very easy to do & had English instructions. The hard part of hopping the train into the centre was that the ticket doesn’t actually tell you what train to take, so after searching on signs of different trains departing I found the Amsterdam Centraal Station train on platform 1 & 2. The thing was it was a Fyra train which is a high speed train & costs more money then the regular tickets you buy out of the machine (I had rad this before my trip). After trying to figure out what train I was supposed to take on my own, finally I asked and to my surprise it was the Lelystand Centrum train, which I would’ve never guessed. The train takes about 15-20 minutes and Central Station is about the third stop, they announce the stops in Dutch so make sure you’re paying attention.
I finally made it into the city centre of Amsterdam without getting completely lost so it was on to my next challenge, finding my hostel! I don’t know if you’ve ever stayed in a hostel or low budget hotel but they’re usually hole in the wall small places that are hard to spot. I did have directions printed out from the trains station to my hotel but it can get confusing if you’re directionally challenged like me! After roaming around aimlessly for a bit and getting caught in a rain storm, I finally found my hotel, Hotel Pax. After reading several reviews online I wasn’t surprised when I opened the door to the hotel & was greeted by A LOT of steep, narrow steps. Thankfully I brought a backpack and not a suitcase. It was too early to check in so I left my bag there and went out walking around town. I was super exhausted from the plane ride and couldn’t really comprehend what was going on around me but I managed to try some French fries with spicy mayo for lunch (common street food here) and kill enough time to get back to my hotel for 1:30, when my room was ready. By this point I was running on no sleep, was soaking wet & frozen.
My room is a private room (there are dorms available) with a shared bathroom. It was a sink, fridge & kettle which comes in handy! I was happy to have a place to settle into for the next few days, so I curled up under the covers to try & get warm and had a quick power nap. After my nap, I went to explore some more. I found a grocery store where I bought some stuff for my fridge, so I don’t have to eat every meal out & finally the sun was out which made walking around SO much more enjoyable.
withlovexo
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