15 experiences in Amsterdam which are must try and absolutely free!

Even the locals may find a thing or two from the list!

You are in Amsterdam and you realise "damn, the city is expensive". I know. Can't agree more! From having the most expensive public transport system in Europe to eating out that makes your wallet lighter by many many euros, most of my student days were spent by not spending. 🤣 But there are a few free things to do in Amsterdam which I absolutely love and I am more than happy to share it with the world. 

Disclaimer: These experiences are free considering you have a cycle/bike to reach the places. And if you ever need FREE wifi get into one of the supermarkets (Albert Heijn/Dirk/Lidl)

1. Mezrab - it's the house of stories and the perfect place to spend a cold Friday evening (which is the weather on most days in Amsterdam). If you like listening to stories, esp multi-cultural ones, meeting new people, and a nice bike ride along the IJ river, give Mezrab a try. I was addicted to it!

2. On your way back from Mezrab and towards Centraal Station, there is this empty space between buildings which has lights on the floor. It almost makes you feel like you are walking on and between stars.

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3. As you keep approaching Centraal station, on the right is Bimhuis. Overlooking the IJ river it provides some stunning views of the gorgeous Amsterdam's sunset (that is when the sun is out 😜). If it is a warm (or rainy or cold) Tuesday in June, chances are that they are having a free jazz/symphony concert up there which goes on until midnight. If music is your thing, go here! 

4. Oh they also have swings by the waterfront, which are absolutely free, unlike the swings on the Adam's tower. Go swing away to your heart's content!

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5. This stretch from Mezrab to Centraal station is my absolute favourite - be it to catch the sunset or bask in the golden hour or to see the twinkling reflection of lights on the IJ river. Yess! The views are absolutely free and very very different from the Amsterdam that you see on the internet. No tourist trap here at all!

6. Walk further down and when you reach behind the Centraal Station, you see a few ferry stations. Hop on to them and take a ride to Amsterdam Noord. The ferries are absolutely free and function 24x7! So, rest assured you can return back to this point after that ferry ride. 

7. Also, check out the OBA (library) nearby. While there are many OBAs in Amsterdam, the one near Centraal is probably the biggest. And what a sight it is! The interiors are amazing and if books don't interest you, I would still recommend you head to the 7th floor for the spectacular view of Amsterdam from there. And as the blog title mentions - it's free!

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8. If heights dizzy you, then head to Artis (the zoo). While it has a ticketed entry, the flamingoes are visible from a section of Artis that has free entry. Carry a book and sit there for hours while the pink flamingoes give you a visual treat and company. 

9. Amsterdam has a fair share of parks and more than a fair share of canals. Take a picnic mat, some cushions, take a book (or not), some fine wine (you will have to pay for this though!), glasses and cheese and make a picnic of it. Sit in a park by the canal and enjoy a hearty conversation. This is THE thing to do in summer. Also, check out the terrace of the Nemo museum or the vast Museumplein where you can bask in the sun (if and when it is out) in the green lung space between Rjks museum and Concertgebouw.

10. Party like no one is watching on Kings day in April, or dress up in rainbow colours to watch the gay canal parade. I bet you have never seen anything like either! Soak in the spirit and party without parting with your euros. On Kings Day there are some places where you can dance to Dutch music without paying a cent. De Oranjerie is one such place. If you are one whose idea of partying is to sip some amazing but expensive cocktails in peace then try the nearby Vesper. 

11. Attend the annual Prinsengracht festival held in the 2nd half of August. Tickets are hard to come by and so are the perfect viewpoints. But you can stand all along Prisengracht for free. The standing is all worth it - for there is nothing like staying back until the end of the concert and seeing the true blue Amsterdammers swaying to what could be the city anthem. 

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12. If history interests you, head to the city hall where you can find the visual history in the form of maps of the growing Amsterdam city. Also, you have probably heard that the city is below sea level. See the level of sea for yourself within tubes at the city hall and feel blessed to not be wading in water there. 😉

13. Go to any of the cheese stores doting the city and try their samples - absolutely free! Hehehe.. my personal favourite is the one in the red light district as they have quite a variety for free sampling. 

14. The city has so many statues and art work around. Some with reason, some without. Some by known artists, some by anonymous groups. You don't have to get into a museum to see these artworks. You can do it for free as long as you have a keen eye!

NDSM

       

       Street art by Frankey

Anonymous sculptor's work

15. Go to the water fountain opposite the arch at Haarlemerplein and feel free to play with water. Or sit by the fountain and look at ppl playing with water - that is absolutely free too!  

Bonus content: Follow these two Instagram accounts. They are hilarious and an accurate representation of life and cultural differences that you may face in the Netherlands.

1. Let's double Dutch

2. Driplist

Outdated post of the Inauguration Day at KIT, Amsterdam - Sep 2022

A year ago I started my journey at KIT, Amsterdam. What a journey it has been! I was elected as one of the class representatives and hence had the honour to deliver a speech on behalf of the class on the Inaugural Day. The script of the speech is below..

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Good evening everyone - faculty members and students of the MIH and MPH batch. It gives me great joy to represent the supremely talented and knowledgeable batch of MPH 2022-23. I thank you for this opportunity. 

It also feels very surreal to be in this room with so many who think alike, with so many who chose to prioritise public health at this juncture in life and with so many of us from different parts of the world - our synergistic thoughts and aspirations towards a better public health has led us all to find each other in this reading room. 

This is the age of internet. There is an overload of information. We are privileged enough to have access to textbooks and study material. Yet, we have all come here at KIT to learn beyond what we may learn when we turn the pages of a book or click the mouse - we come here to learn from the rich practical experiences of our faculty members. We come here with open minds to absorb all that we can. 

The awe inspiring Reading Room

Here, in front of me, I can see students from over 18 countries, and if I may say a humongous human library of atleast 18 public health systems. Now, if I have to apply what ever little epidemiology I learnt in the first week, that's a lot of people years of public health experience. We have nurses, doctors, dentists, public health experts and many more amongst us. This peer to peer learning is what many of my batchmates are keen on gaining in this year. And we believe our faculty members will help us comprehend and assimilate knowledge from this human library at the end of which we will be able to articulate our thoughts, ideas and experiences better than what we do now.

Last weekend I was at a house party. Amazing food I tell you. We had a Dutch dish, a Filipino dish, oh and that pickle from Zimbabwe... brilliant! Okay, let me not get distracted by food. But on that dinner table there was also many cultural experiences shared, which interestingly the others on the table could not relate much to. I dare say that was a preview of how different we are from each other, and how different are the problems that we face and how much more different the solutions will have to be. 

Here, in this journey of a year, and I say this on behalf of all my batchmates, we hope to understand how we contextualise health interventions to work best for our health systems back home. We hope to learn how to use specific tools, methods, and techniques to scale these health interventions for making a difference in our chosen area of public health. When we go back or wherever our paths may lead us to, we would look forward to applying our knowledge gained here at KIT in implementing interventions that create an impact, a tangible impact. 

My fellow class representative, Veronica Martinez who represents the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Track, aptly says and I quote "hope this coming year is filled with wonderful cultural exchanges of ideas and sharing of experiences that will help us grow more as individuals and also in our focus areas of public health. I expect that the MPH program will afford the opportunity for us to develop our talents and use our newly found skills to continue transforming our respective communities and have a positive impact on those we serve. May this journey be filled with insight, knowledge, and joyful memories that will leave an indelible impression on all our lives.” Thank you Veronica!

Well, back home, we have a child, parent, partner, grandparent and a health system waiting for us, cheering for us. And we just want to make them all proud. 

Thank you. 

And so began our journey.....

Graduation Day @ KIT, Amsterdam, Sep 2023

On September 1st, 2023 I graduated with a distinction in Master of Public Health from KIT, Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam. It was a wonderful culmination of the year long journey of ups and downs, but a year of great learnings. 

On the occasion my friend and fellow MPH batch mate, Craig Dube from Zimbabwe, and I gave a speech on behalf of the class. We got some rare compliments for the direct and so I thought I should leave it in print somewhere. Now you know what this blog piece is about :) I also have some pictures from the graduation day at the end of this blog. Enjoy!

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Lakshmi (LK): Good evening everyone - esteemed guests, faculty members, students of the MIH and MPH batch, family, and friends. It's an absolute honour and privilege to represent the 59th batch of MPH students at KIT for the second time in a year. 

I remember, when we started off an year ago in the reading room, I was in awe of the impressive setting. And now, to be here in this magnificent marble hall with all of you and an year full of rich experiences, I dare say, life is not the same, we are not the same. It feels surreal! We, the batch of 49 students came with dreams in our eyes and hope and excitement in our hearts. Today we are richer with knowledge and experiences, for sure, but more importantly, HUMBLED! Humbled, for we now know the depth and breadth of knowledge is far and vast, and the way it can impact lives is beyond imagination!

Craig and I delivering the speech at the magnificent marble hall

Craig Dube (CD): Yes. what a year it has been! We huddled together in groups to build a health system for a new country in two days, we wrote proposals that we believed would change the world, well maybe they will. We even had the health ministers who refused to pass our programme budgets without enough rationale! We learnt to read numbers as sentences and new words breached into our vocabulary to become a permanent part of it. DALY’s & QALY’s Blue boxes and gender equality became part of our everyday stories. But it was not all work and no joy. We had parties and danced nights away to songs which became our anthems. We shared food, learnt about each other's ways and cultures and realised we may have come appearing different but our ambitions desire to do good for our communities, connected us. We definitely had fun but then, we had some trying times too..

LK: "One day this terrible war will be over. The time will come when we will be humans again" Anne Frank wrote this in her diary in April 1944. Seventy nine years later in April 2023, the war in Sudan broke out affecting so many around the world including our Sudaneese friends in the class. From not being able to easily contact their families to hearing the bombarding in the background when on calls with them, to losing homes and family members to the crimes of war, and the uncertainties around them, our friends from Sudan have faced challenges that we cannot even fathom. In fact, challenge is a small word. I take this opportunity on behalf of the class to say this - Dear friends, We saw what you went through. We stand by you, professionally and personally, and we will do the best we can to support you. And I know it is easier said than done, but YES ... YES, THIS TOO SHALL PASS! <momentary pause>

This year also has been hard for many of our friends who faced a personal loss - loss of a parent, a sibling, a child, a family member -  to an enemy of mankind other than war - diseases. It wasn't easy at all. It was especially hard as our friends were away, here in a faraway country when their loved ones back home departed from the mortal world. Let's take a moment here to pray for their souls. [Pause] During these trying times, our facilitators provided us with great support. Thank you! We very much appreciate it. 

Despite all this, our spirits were held high, thanks to the support from so many quarters... We also travelled far and wide.. 

CD: Really? Remember how many people turned up at Sportsday in the Hague or that one gathering in Vondelpaark??. 

LK: ah! But then we all went to Geneva too. When was the last time you went on an inter-country school excursion like that?

CD: True true. And most of us still have our WhatsApp profile pictures set at the World Health Organization. We even went on a weekend Island trip to watch seals and enjoy the winter sun and maybe learnt a thing or two  about health systems in the same breath ...

LK: ha ha ha it was fun! But I think the best journey was that of the journey within. Don't you think so?

CD: I absolutely agree. As a cohort, we deeply appreciate the professionalism and commitment to service that our facilitators here present, those that could not be here and the diverse guest lecturers, exhibited throughout the course. We thank the custodians of this Sustainable development goals house for accommodating us the privilege to learn within its confines. It was indeed a long journey and by no means was it a walk in the park but we gather here today to celebrate the ups and downs of that journey. 

Even though some of us could not make it till the finish line at the same time, I understand that this cohort will remain a supportive community we can reach in to and walk the rest of the journey together. May the kindness, tolerance and empathy we exhibited to each other, be extended to the people we love, to the voices we represent and the callings we serve. To the MPH class of 2023, i leave these words by the late Paul Farmer to you “The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world”So friends, Let us  continue our pursuit to challenge the MSE inequalities.

LK. Indeed. We did learn many things this year through the MPH course and look at the irony that life presents, these things happened back home in real - diseases and conflicts claimed lives and livelihoods. This only tells us that a lot of work remains to be done. That we have a lot of work to do. Earlier in this academic year, I had mentioned that this class is a walking-talking human library of over 30, three zero different health systems. But now i feel we are a collective force that has the immense strength and capability to transcend beyond our country borders ...to talk, share, innovate ... and change the face of global health! 

My friends, THE REAL WORK STARTS NOW ... AND HERE!!

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The promised pictures :)   

     

     Proud post-graduate - for the 2nd time

Also, distinction holder!!
With my academic advisor (and unofficial therapist), Elaine. 

Batch of 2022-2023

And here is the start of a new journey..