So I found a few things that I had kept from my past trips to Amsterdam. A ripleys believe it or not museum ticket, A drumcode festival map of the NDSM docks where the festival occurred and 2 GVB travel tickets, one from 2018 and the other from 2019. I like to keep little things like this as memorabilia’s, that represent my time in Amsterdam. Which means that I must of thought of them to be representative of my experience in Amsterdam; with the travel tickets suggesting that travel was a particularly big aspect of my time there and I can say that this definitely was the case, as travel is a main factor of your typical day in the city of Amsterdam.
Each and every time I have visited the City of Amsterdam, the first thing I have done once reaching the destination, is buy a 3 day travel ticket in Schiphol Airport railway station and this ticket by GVB allows you to travel by bus, tram, metro, train and ferry.
This is the day service map on one of the sides of the booklet –
This is the night service on the other side-
When in Amsterdam I have only used the train, bus, tram and taxi. From the beginning of every visit to Amsterdam, I have used the train from the get go, since as soon as you land in the airport, the easiest way of getting to the centre/hotel is by using the train station in the airport, also in the past the train is the best way for getting in and out of the city; usually when I have stayed in a hotel outside of the centre. I use the bus and tram to get around the city centre despite the destination being walking distance I have found that it is much quicker, to use the transport, so of course it makes sense to use the transport instead of walking having already paid what I remember as €24 to get the transport ticket. Plus, when thinking back to the city centre, you are constantly surrounded by bus and tram stops, with maps and information inside that clearly tell you what route to take and what number bus/tram operates in that direction, making it very handy and accessible to use the public transport around you. Throughout my previous trips to Amsterdam, I have used taxi/Uber when needing to go a far distance away from the city centre, this tends to be only when I have attended a festival and wish to get there quicker than the tram/bus and perhaps it is because I have always thought a taxi/Uber to be more reliable in getting me to the festival in time; without having to worry or stress about getting to the right place without the risk of getting on the wrong bus/tram (yet this transport option is not covered by the transport ticket, which means excess money being spent).
A festival I have most recently been to in Amsterdam is “Drumcode festival” in 2018, which was held on the NDSM docks.
This map shows that transport is very much incorporated within a successful event; well thought out in order for the festival to run smoothly. The map has a check point for ferry travel, a car park for taxi/Uber, shuttle bus access and a bike park; this tells me that the transport options on the map are the most popular for people in Amsterdam? Maybe that’s why the festival has ensured them to be available? Also this makes me think that travel is a way of supporting a big crowd of people, to assist them in getting to and from the festival (to allow the festival to be of reach to all people no matter the distance). So this makes the target audience a diverse one and without all these forms of travel, those people attending would be limited, to if they could get there or not. Overall,the different travel systems work together to make it possible for people of different places to unite.
Faye's International Fieldwork Blog 