watch your wallet. and other Amsterdam, Netherlands Warning Or Danger Tips

Put your wallet in the inner side of your jack, never in the backpocket of your trousers. Watch out in the centre, especially in the tram, on markets and busy places. Don't put your bag just behind you on the floor when you are sitting somewhere. Put it between your feet.

If you are a little carefull, Amsterdam is very safe. It is a waist of time and money if you get robbed.

Don't give money to people who ask for it, if you want, it is better to buy some food for them. This are drugaddicts who will buy drugs from the money you just gave.

In Amsterdam, homeless people have the oppurtunity to sell a paper ("daklozenkrant") in front of supermarkets to earn some money. It is a very good alternative way to help them: buy a "daklozenkrant".

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* Some owners of dogs are still not used to the new rules. Their dog ***s on the street and they forget to clean it. And then you might step in it. And the dogowner can get a bon.

* We have special dogbags. Sometimes for free. Mostly the dogowners have to buy it in a animalstore.

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Traffic in Amsterdam is relatively good organized. But ...
** Trams: you don't always hear them coming. They cannot stop quickly, especially not when the street is wet or when there is loaf on the rails. Don't run in front of a tram!
** Trams: the driver can't always see you if you walk very close in front of a tram at a stoppingplace or a traffic light. He might will starts to driving! Don't cross the street between the back of the first tram and the front of the second.
** Trams: in some streets in the centre the tram drives through a shoppingstreet! There is even no difference between the foot-path and the tramroad!
** Tramrails: are slippy! For bicycles and also for cars! Always cross the rails with your wheels, don't drive on the rail!
** Trams: they don't like it when a car blocks the tramrails in front of them. They will drive till they are very, very close to your car, which will make you nervous.
** Taxi's: may drive close besides you.
** Tramroads: are sometimes also used by policecars, ambulances, firecars and taxi's.
** Normal cars (and bicycles) are not allowed to drive on the seperate tramroad, they only may do that if the tramrails are not laying higher than the street.
** Tram stoppingplaces are sometimes at the middle of the street. Don't forget to watch if cars drive by! If you are driving in a car: watch out for passengers, if the tram just stopped at the middle of a street. The traffic-rule is that cars have to stop for passengers getting in or out the tram.
** Walking people and bicycles: most of the times we don't wait for the trafficlight to get green, we just walk if we can cross the street.

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I, as a Amsterdam woman, am shocked to read the way some people try to robb tourists from their money in the place where I live.

** When I walk outside the Central Station, I also see people trying to pursuade tourists. Don't go with them, they are payed to bring tourists to a certain hotel.
** The Central Station is safe; but at night, I would be more carefull. If you need help, go to a loket, a shop, a policeman or a woman who is alone, and is not looking like a drugaddict. If someone is offering help, you can better say: thank you but I rather do it myself.
** If I arrive at a strange station or airport, I always refuse every help first and search for a place to sit. Then I look around to the people and the place itself and decide where I go to first. It gives you time to see which people are looking for tourists.
** Ask yourself if it is normal when someone approaches you. Could you have done it also by a stranger in that situation?
** Metrostations are less safe when it is getting dark. Especiallly when you leave the station you have to watch out for your belongings. The stations itselves are camera-watched.
** Never buy any drugs on the street. They try to collect your money first, and don't show up anymore or give you a bad quality. If you want to use hash, go to a coffeeshop. A lot tourists alleady got sick because they are not used to the strong quality. It is better not play with it at all, because this quality looks more like hard-drugs than soft-drugs. Some tourists also allready got crazy by eating mushrooms (I don't mean the kinds you eat in restaurants).
** Girls who want to go out to a dancing: buy and get your own drinks, so that you will be sure that nobody had put some strange stuff in your drink. Don't leave your drink unwatched. Don't let it be watched by a stranger. If you want to take a drink from somebody, walk with him to the bar, so you can see yourself nothing happened with the drink. If a drink smells or tast strange, don't drink anymore of it. Buy a new one yourself. It has happened only a few times, but you won't get robbed or raped because your drink is drugged.
** Maybe it's a idee to ask somebody first if they mind if you make a photo of him. If he don't mind, he is probably trustable. If he don't want you to make a photo, he might have bad plans, or he don't like it to be photographed at all. If something happened, you have the picture to show the police.
** Don't give beggers money because they keep on trying, after you allready said no. Just walk away and don't give him any attention at all. It won't take long untill he leaves you. No means no!

It's the same all over the world at places where a lot of tourists are: some people will try to make money out of it. In the good, or in the bad way.

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