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Orange

Well... seems I've quite a sticky situation in my hands

some weeks ago there was a birthday of our country's airline and tickets to different European cities were 50% cheaper than usually. The only catch was that U could book tickets only on 1 day and U couldnt change dates or sell them back later (but this was my only chance to afford my dream trip to Amsterdam).
One of my friends has several contacts in Amsterdam and although he was unable to come along this time, he was sure I could stay at some of his friends place so I bought 2 tickets - 19.01 to Amsterdam & 26.01 back from paradise.

Now the bad thing is that my friend has been unable to contact his friends in Amsterdam.. 10 days til flight and the clock is ticking.

Well... If I was rich Id stay in a hostel/hotel of somekind.. but my budget is limited to like 20euros/a day.
that includes herb, food, everything... gotta pay extra attention to avoid buying unneccessary junkfood & sweets... coz we all know how it is on munchies

so.. if my friend wont get ahold of his acquaintances (and I have a bad feeling about this), Im going there without a place to stay at

so... people who have been there and citizens of Amsterdam, help me out with a good advice.. where could one stay with close-to-zero budget? I'm a pretty modest guy, 4 walls and a roof will do just fine, don't even need a bed for

for example, is there perhaps any kind of communes for poor rastafaris traveling through Amsterdam =P ? any rumors of a X barkeeper of Y pub, renting the lil room upstairs for lousy cents?
any 24h open trainstations/supermarkets/just-about-whatever, where one could stay til morning and not freeze to death and not be thrown out by security guards?

Everybody's advice is really welcome. Anything, no matter how stupid or pointless it may sound to yourself.



Peace & Love, brothers & sisters =)

range

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Don't try it at home! Come smoke it with me

 

Lyte it up 420

that sounds like a ****ty situation, only thing i could tell you is maybe try and sell your tickets to a friend, at least make the money u spent back and maybe plan the trip better, get the friend's friend's number, and where they live maybe? Always a good idea and sorry if it doesn't work out I want to visit amsterdam really bad also.

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Every living creature on earth dies alone.

WNB

I'd suggest finding some way to get more money, and staying in a youth hostel.

You could also bring a tent and camp out in parks

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War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

TimeGuardian

That woud be sweet, but wouldn't it be cold

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Consequences dictate a course of action... It doesen't matter what's right, it's only wrong if you get caught. - tool

Growguy

dont undersell yourself too much. trips are expensive and as soon as you begin to spend money it adds up quickly.

 

Herb Ninja

My thoughts exactly. Good luck getting money or finding a very cheap place to stay Orange. Peace, HN-

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"Truth is treason in an empire of lies." -Ron Paul

Barker

Yeah it'd be fcuking freezing, Shítty european weather

solutions

Orange, I like that name.

You can book a hostel at the Amsterdam Tourist Offices (click here). They have offices at Schiphol airport and A'dam Central Station, you can call them at +31-20-2018800. They can tell you about the lowest prices and availability. I think prices start at € 10-12, so a big part of your budget already.

Squatting scene
This might be an option for the broke visitor. If you can go about your business without a need to tell people what a fine president Bush is, how the US is making the world safe for democracy in Iraq, how free trade will end global poverty or how PETA are losers who need to get a job -- you'll be allright. They may consider giving you a place to spend the night. Offering to do some work in return could help convince them.

My favorite is OT301, located at Overtoom 301 (North of Vondelpark, across the Jan Pieter Heijestraat). The building used to be from the Film-academy, it was squatted and later legalized. They were closed for a few months by the fire-department and reopened recently. On their site you'll find their contact information.

There is a restaurant that serves vegan meals for € 5. Reservation is advised. The restaurant is independent from the rest of the building (studio 301) which runs a movie-theatre and music-venue.

The squatting scene has free internet accesss available at ASCII, Kinkerstraat 92 daily 1400-1900.

More general squatting info is available at the European squatportol squat.net

Student facilities
Cheap food is available at the Atrium on weekdays between 1700-1900. located Oudezijds Achterburgwal 237 (at the end of the street). Complete meals (meat-fish-vegetarian) cost € 5-6. Students pay € 3-4 (maybe you have a foreign student ID and can say you're an exchange student, eg in the Amsterdam Law program)

free internet is available at the law faculty of the University of Amsterdam, located Oudemanhuispoort 4-6, near the Atrium. It is accessible through a small alley with book-stores near the end of the Oudezijds Achterburgwal There are +/- 60 pc's in a room under the central hallway. You can just walk in and no-one will ask you a question.

Be sure to check Underwateramsterdam.com what's on guide.

click here for a map of A'dam

And yeah, prepare yourself for rain and cold.

Be sure to let us know how your trip was

__________________
3 monkeys sitting under a coconut tree
discussing things as they are set to be
Said one to the other, now listen you two
there's a strange rumor that can't be true
they say man was descended from our noble race
but the very idea is a big disgrace
no monkey ever deserted his wife
or her baby to ruin their lives.
Damian Marley - Educated Fools

Orange

by the way..The catch in buying those cheap plane tickets was that U could book tickets only on 1 day and U couldnt change dates or sell them back later or sell/give them away to another person.


thanks a lot, solutions.

Just read your answer and now I am going to check out those links.

Thanks again for that thorough letter.

well.. I got International Student Identification Card (ISIC), guess Im gonna take that along too.


any other piece of information U guys could share, would be really welcome. do you know, by the way, how much does a bicycle rent cost over there ? coz I wont have money to use public transport and I assume bicycle rent is much cheaper ?


and during that week, where should I go? what places should I definitely visit (places that dont require much money, that is. that limits my choices a lot, eh :P)?

btw.. those cheapest hotels.. are they always full of people? so if I wanna spend a night there, i must make a reservation immediately or can one find an empty bed whatever time he steps into one of those establishments?

solutions

click here for a list of bike rentals in A'dam with phone numbers, or check these rentalshops: bikes.nl, macbike.nl, utrechtsedwarsfiets.nl. I checked briefly, prices start at € 8/day so not real cheap.

About 100.000 bikes are stolen a year in A'dam (remember that if anyone show you high crime-figures in A'dam ). Most of these bikes are sold by junkies, esp in places where a lot of students go, like the bridge at the end of the Oudezijds Achterburgwal (see prev post). Depending on negotiation tactics a 'secondhand' bike goes for € 10-20. They usually come without a lock which can be purchased at the nearbyWaterlooplein-market. Sometimes police pay extra attention to these places so business briefly goes to other places....

A public transport card (Strippenkaart) costs € 6,40 and has 15 strips, you start with 2 strips if you stay in 1 zone, the centre is a big zone. It is valid for an hour. So 1 Strippenkaart is good for 7 tram/bus-trips in the central zone. You can only buy these cards presale (with the conducter (dutchism?) you can get a more expensive 2-strip card, I believe € 1,60). Tobacco shops sell strippenkaarten.

Some trams have no conducter in the back of the tram (lines 2 and 5). Travelers are supposed to stamp their tickets themselves. These lines go from Central Station - Dam - Leidseplein - Museumplein. Another way to spend a few Euros

I don't think the hostels will be very full, it's lowseason now, but I'm not sure.

As for places to go, the underwater-link I posted above has a lot of info, on entrance-fees for clubs and shows, and places from squats to quirky and latenight bars and coffeeshops etc. I haven't been to half the places they mention. I saw there's a free-entrance 'Fellini in pictures' exhibition at the Filmmuseum (Vondelpark 3) till feb 1st.

A few nightclubs have no entrancefee, like semi-alternative Korsakoff, Lijnbaansgracht 161 open till 03.00, 4.00 in weekends. The (ex-)squatplace OT301 I mentioned has an entrancefee of € 2-3, but beers are € 1.

It all depends on what you like to do/see.... some people can spend hours window-shopping the red-light distric.

One more tip: best investment is a map, you can't do without.....