Are you a first year’s student at the Faculty of Science or an international student new to Amsterdam? Welcome! In this post I’ll give you 8 tips to ensure you’ll have a great time in Amsterdam! From housing to house parties, these tips cover it all!
Door What The Faculty UvA
- If you want to look like you really belong in this city, you should go by bike. This is often the fastest way of transport and definitely the most flexible. You can get the cheapest bikes at ASVA and when it needs fixing, there is a repair shop at the Science Park area where you get a 10% students discount.
- There are several ways of public transport. You can either use the metro, tram, train or ferryboat (to get to the Northern borough). Which one is fastest depends on where you want to go – find it on this site.
- If you want to risk the busy traffic, you can take a shared car, such as car2go or greenwheels.
- The UvA organises a vast variety on extra courses you can follow. You can do a whole minor (which is 30 EC) or just follow an extra course. There are interdisciplinary courses, when you want to look outside of the field of science.
- Fancy a movie? Visit one of the student movie theatres, Kriterion or Studio-K. The last one is close to the Faculty and also has a cafe, restaurant, club and podium. The movies are often international movies, thus you don’t have to be able to understand Dutch, but English, French, German, Spanish or Portuguese.
- Go for a drink? ‘Skek is a cosy bar, run by students. Brouwerij ’t IJ is very popular and is a good way to get out of the student bubble. They sell home brewed beer with funny Dutch names like IJwit, Natte and Zatte. Read this post to find a great bar within 15 minutes from the Faculty of Science.
- Want to dance? There are several concert halls in Amsterdam, such as Paradiso (yes, that means paradise), which is an old church, de Melkweg (“milky way”), de Nieuwe Anita or Sugar Factory. Or visit clubs like Escape or Air, or the Rembrandtplein in general.
- Fancy something more chic? Visit the beautiful Concertgebouw, where various concerts are performed. Or visit a ballet or opera performance at the National institution for Opera&Ballet. At Bimhuis you can enjoy jazz and improvised musical concerts.
- A list of the vast variety of museums Amsterdam houses can be found here. The University of Amsterdam owns several museums, such as:
- The Allard Pierson museum which is an archeological museum,
- The Special Collections where you can find lots and lots and lots of books in a very beautiful old library,
- The Computer Museum, which is housed in the Faculty of Science, and
- Museum Vrolik, where you can find “normal anatomy of humans and animals, but also pathological anatomy and congenital malformations.”