Tell Me About Holland

[Rory]

Is it an expensive place?

What's the nightlife like?

Is there much crime?

Any responses would be great :content:

[Phydeaux_3]

There's more than a few people on this forum that live there, so you'll probably get more up-to-date info from them. I've visited many, many times so here's my take on it. I LOVE the city of Amsterdam. Sure it's a little bit grungy, but damn... those people really know how to have a good time. As far as cost goes, it was a little more expensive than "home" for me all the times I visited, especially if you try to buy a bong... gak! We went to The Old Man (http://www.theoldman.nl/) (biggest selection, by far) on the Damstraat and they wanted over a hundred $'s for a teeny weeny little plastic bong, I could get the same thing here for less than $20. Unacceptable. As for the price of smokables, well at "street level" (aka tourist prices) was about the same as "on the street" around here. So unless you know somebody there (thank Jebus we did) you'll pay large-ish.. but probably happily just the same, I mean where else can you just go "window shopping" for pot & hash, totally worth the extra expense. Luckily for us, my Dad's pal worked at a re-pressing "factory" so we got really good deals on hash. For the weed we liked we had to do the tourist thing, we paid street prices because it was our only option, we were hooked on the White Widow and the only place we could find it with any consistency was the Lucky Mothers (http://www.channels.nl/amsterdam/lucky.html) coffeeshop.

As for "night life" well it pretty much doesn't stop. If you know where you're going you can party all night, easy. My room-mate the first time I went (I was 18 at the time) had a loop down pat, he'd leave this one bar just as it was closing and just down the street another bar was opening, he could do that for days.. the government only tells you how many hours your bar is allowed to be open for, not what hours. So some bars are open all day, others are open all night, and everything in-between. Fan-fuckin-tastick! I had a LOT of fun running with him. He used to say "let's go to Led Zeppelin" and I'd laugh.. it was actually Leideseplein (pr. lydza plane). Also, check out the Melkweg (http://www.melkweg.nl) (Milky Way) that's always fun, might even catch a concert there if you're lucky.

As for crime, well I don't pretend to be an expert but I'd say it's much like any other downtown tourist trap (Amsterdam anyways) in that there's probably pick-pockets and petty-thieves abound, so we never carried more than one day's worth of money on us, deep in the front pocket. Also, the freaks tend to come out at night, so watch it if you're out late and stuff. I can't stress this next point enough.. the Dutch authorities are light on soft substances (pot and hash) but they way more than make up for it on the heavy stuff. If you play with powders you WILL pay the price.
They seem to go way overboard where hard drugs are concerned. Only makes perfect sense to me. If only our politicians in North America could get a clue.

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Travel/Pix/pictures/2005/03/14/Amsterdamguy372.jpg

Looking back over my contribution it looks like all I talk about is drug stuff, but yeah, there's more to Holland than just Amsterdam, just that that's the only part I've frequented. We've also been to Madurodam (http://www.madurodam.nl) while there, very cool, and the last time ('92) we saw Floriade (http://goeurope.about.com/cs/holland/a/floriade.htm), which was simply amazing.

[yoast]

First of all, it's the Netherlands, not just Holland (that is just a region), but it's a very common misconception.

It really depends what you're looking for, if you wanna party all night it's possible in Amsterdam and a few other city's. I think Amsterdam is a great place to visit for tourists, but it is different then the rest of the Netherlands. It's probably a bit expensive due to the relationship dollar vs euro. But then again, I don't know the prices in the US.

As to crime, I never had problems with it, except my bicycle got stolen or demolished about ten times. Nobody carries guns around here (illegal, you just can't buy them), so that's no problem.

It's a very small country, about 200 km x 300 km roughly, so you can go from one end to the other and back in a day by public transport.

Just mail some specific questions.

[yoast]

Hmm...I just saw you're from Ireland and not from the US, so nevermind my dollar vs euro remark.
By the way, what's Ireland like?

[Neruo]

The Netherlands are pretty cool, but I guess for tourists, Amsterdam is the place to be. Other places in the Netherlands can be great, if you live there, but if you don't live in the Netherlands, Amsterdam is a great place for concentrated, distilled fun & happytimes. ^__^ ok that sounded gay.

Anyhow. Yeah. Lots of coffeeshops of course. :)

I don't know, besides that, try a 'frikandel speciaal' in a snackbar. Mmmmm, delicious. The thing next to the Fries.

http://members.home.nl/starren/Frikandel_speciaal.jpg

[Rory]

Thanks very much for the very detailed answers, it was a very big help, I wasn't expecting all my questions to be answered so well. Me and my friends are trying to decide where to go on holidays after we are finished with school and I'll show them the answers to this topic. Thanks again.

[sogart]

try FEBO!!!

I was addicted to FEBO food when I lived in amsterdam

PS: for those that dont know FEBO is the coolest fast food chain in the world. you put a coin on the wall and take the food from the little tray, I love it. REAL FAST FOOD!!!