Day 18: Copenhagen to Amsterdam……………

Part – I (Copenhagen to Hamburg)  

 We asked our professors for holiday on Friday, left office early on Thursday so catch the train. Everything setup, and we were good to roll. Our train was around 2:30pm in the afternoon, we three along with Mr. A Junior (he was a sophomore from our college), who was also in Copenhagen for internship, decided to travel together so he was with us most of the times. We just traveled for about 3 hours and to our surprise, something we never thought of happened. The train went inside a ferry ship, I mean the whole train. That's the way trains travel between Germany  and Denmark to cut down the large circle one need to take, if one wishes to go by land. (Just for reference purpose if you go by the route which uses ferry you will reach Hamburg in 4.5 hours but, if you take the land route, this will take you about 7 to 8 hours, almost double)

As per the capitalistic or opportunistic rules, you are not allowed to be on board the train when it is inside the ferry. So all passengers went up to the deck, where there are mostly restaurants, an exchange point and shops for buying goods – liquor, chocolates smokes, perfumes, cloths, toys or whatever u name it, they have it. Finally after a journey of about 45 min. we reached to the other side and we were again back on tracks (Always a happy feeling). We reached Hamburg around 6:45pm, changed trains there and started the next lag of our journey.... !

Part – II (In Amsterdam)

  We reached Amsterdam around 11pm, Mr. A (out batch met, not Mr. A Junior) was already there (he reached there around 8pm) and Mr. A reached there at 10:20pm.  Both of them were waiting for us (me, Mr. L and Mr. S) at the station. After searching for each other for a while, finally we got together. The first thing that came into our minds was food. Yes I know you might say what the hack, we in Amsterdam and first thing we think is food. But let me tell you, never try your stamina on empty stomach, will save you some embarrassment. So, we came out of station, and just went straight on the main road from the station. After walking for 10  minutes we found a shop selling French fries, no questions asked, we took one each ( about €2.85), a bargain from what we have had so far. 

Part – III (First night in Amsterdam)

  After eating and roaming around for a while we went back to station, looking for some place to sti down, relax and pass the night, as we couldn't book any place to stay. The station was big and we thought it would be easy to find a hiding place there, but as a routine the station staff asked us to leave the station to carry our cleaning and other maintenance activities, it was done from 2am to 4:45am every day (in case you plan to do the same). So we were again homeless, also we were tired because of the long journey (almost 10 hours), so we set down on a small bridge near the station amd started playing cards. To our shock we later discovered that it was right in front of the red light area. Amsterdam has a pre-established area for adult activities, in loose term or general terminology it is called red light area (More details will add in the later part). We started playing cards, there was a lot of police activity around that area, many police teams of 3 or 4 personal went passed us in just 3 hours we spent there. As soon as we started a young local student also joined us. I forgot his name, he showed interest in playing cards and we also needed someone as Mr. A and Mr. A Junior were not in the mood, so Mr. S explained him the game and we started playing, just half an hour later a police team came to us, and asked us – who we are, what are we doing here in the night, also they were skeptical because of Mr. S’s beard and also because of the fact that a local person was with us. We just answered them that we have a train to catch in the morning for Belgium, and don’t have a place to stay and the central station is also closed now, so we are just sitting here and playing cards to pass the time till morning. 

We had to convince them that we are students and we are here to visit for the first time. We showed them our passports, after some explaining they started questioning the local guy. As robbery is very common in Amsterdam they asked him about his ID, address and contact number. The guy was also very responsive. He gave them the details and after that he invited the lady officer to play, to make things clear the lady officer was very sexy. Infect all the police teams we saw had a good looking lady officers and the one that came to inquire us was hot. Anyways, she went away without any response, and we continued playing cards. The local guy then asked us that we are really what we said earlier, as he has an ambition to join the Amsterdam police one day and so he didn't want any bad tag on his record. Good for him.

 We played for about 2.5 hours, when we finally stood up and went back to station to get some sleep. Although we couldn't get as security staff members keep coming and waking us up, saying that you can’t sleep here. Somehow we managed for an hour than finally we went on the platform 1, where the facilities were situated. As usual pay and use is the way when you step out of home. We had no other options, this is the funda all over the Europe, no free public toilets and no drinking water. We were okay with it but the only thing that bugged us was that water cost was so high that we couldn't even believe it. We have public places for water and toilets in India and here it was all charged, more then a can of beer if you like to compare. A bottle of   water (0.5 liters) will cost you around €2 dammit, so we decided that we will fill out bottles from the washing rooms, where ever we go. You may say what about hygiene and health, and we may say what about being traveler friendly. In each restaurant we use to go to washroom, each one and fill out one bottle of water. That’s the way we managed water supply in all our journeys. Except for some places where we had no other choice. Even the soft drinks and bear are cheaper than water. That’s was the most frustrating thing, at least for me and Mr. S as we don't drink alcohol.

at last, we went to the station at around 5am, and stayed there till 8am. We tried to sleep but couldn't because of continuous disturbance of passing trains and to guard our luggage. So this was our first night in Amsterdam, playing cards and searching for a home, traveler's home I would say. Hard to find when you don't have much to play with, but then again, the fun is in the journey, more then the destination............  Let us contniue, soon !