6/6 - Tips

Hello,

Last message I think to complete this blog, all the tips I could give you... not enough to create one article on a subject so they are all here.

Travel

Train ticket:

- You can find some special offers for train ticket in some shop like Hema, C1000... it's a "Dayticket" for 15€  and you can use it to travel where you want in Netherlands for only 1 day.

- If you are in group you can use the next link to have some special prices (between 4 and 10 people):

http://www.ns.nl/reizigers/producten/losse-kaartjes/groepsretour.html

The bus is really expensive (2€50 if I remember) so if you need to use it everyday be sure to have this card, you could use it for the bus and the train:

http://www.ns.nl/en/travellers/ov-chipkaart/menu-ov-chipkaart/get-to-know-the-ov-chipkaart

If you want to know which bus to take and at what time just go on google maps if you didn't know it. You write the A and B point you choose your way of moving (bus) and they will explain everything :) You also have "9292" it's an application on your smartphone.

Bike:

If you want a bike just go on facebook:

bike: https://www.facebook.com/groups/216524551852144/?ref=ts&fref=ts

you could find everything:

furniture: https://www.facebook.com/groups/127275693998770/?ref=ts&fref=ts

books: https://www.facebook.com/groups/buybooks/?ref=ts&fref=ts

The ESN Card

Almost everything about student life is made by ESN (Erasmus Student Network). So you need the Erasmus Card (5€) and you can have it at the Guesthouse. After if you want to know everything about parties, travels and good deals, just follow this page:

https://www.facebook.com/ESNMaastrichtNL?fref=ts

They organize each year some travels=> Prague/ Big Balkan roadtrip/ King's day in Amsterdam/ Belgium trip and some (bigger) parties like pubcrawl/ BusParty and the famous Cantus (don't miss this one ;) )

Recycling

In Netherlands if you recycle your plastic bottles or beer bottles you can have money back, it's 25cts/ plastic bottle and 10cts/beer bottle so you can keep them and after some weeks have some money. We used it in our floor, you can imagine for 15 people you can easily have enough money to do a dinner in common ;) You have some machines just next to the supermarket to put bottles inside.

 Bank account

You can take a bank account at ING, I thin for free.

Or you can keep your credit card, normally you can use it everywhere. But the mastercard is really hard to use into the shops, you can just go to the ATM, take a lot of money and use it slowly. Be sure before to leave your country, with your bank, if you will have some taxes with your card abroad. For me, to give an exemple, I could go to the ATM only three times per month (without taxes) and I could use it on shops, thats mean almost never with my mastercard.

Sim card

If you want a local number you can get a free sim card at the ESN office and after you have to put some money inside (I never tried), or you can get a sim card from T-mobile to have, for exemple, only 3G and use what's app or facebook with all the students. Or maybe your local number is enough. To give an exemple, as a french student, I am using SOSH orange and, actually, I can send sms for free in Europe, so it's was enough for me.

I will complete if I remember some other things