Reach Amsterdam

Reached the Netherlands~

Hostel

My dorm is right next to campus. The location’s pretty good, only a five-minute walk to the train station~
There’s also a supermarket nearby, just a five-minute bike ride away!

Bicycles

As soon as I got off the train I saw so many bicycles… Sasuga kingdom of bikes~

There’s a bike parking area next to the university library, packed wall-to-wall with bikes… It’s my first time seeing so many bicycles!

Dinner

The restaurant was recommended by a friend. It is a highly reviewes Japanese ramen restaurant in the city center.

I ordered the daily special signature ramen (forgot the exact name), and since the description said it was extremely spicy I went for it (). The price was about €18.70.

It’s a tonkotsu broth with red chili oil on top. I suspect they added Pixian doubanjiang (spicy fermented bean paste)… because I actually bit into a few of those soybeans you get in the bean paste, and the flavor was pretty similar. The noodles are Sapporo-style curly yellow noodles, topped with roasted chicken, a huge handful of coriander, pickled bamboo shoots, fried onions, a few stalks of bok choy and chunks of napa cabbage.

The bean paste, coriander, bok choy and napa cabbage give me this stitched-together Sino-Japanese vibe (?), which is kind of weird. And it wasn’t as spicy as I imagined.

My friend ordered a bowl of miso ramen, and halfway through thought it was insanely salty…

Considering that price, you could eat 1.5 bowls of ramen in Singapore or 3 bowls in Japan… so I’ll give it a 6/10…

The moment I stepped out of the ramen shop I smelled a really weird foul odor and realized the place next door was that legendary “coffee shop” (weed shop).
(I hightailed it.)