News from home

So you're having a nice time in Amsterdam, but what's happening at home? Did a cyclone hit your hometown, who won the elections and did your favourite team win the national title? Okay admit it, you're a little bit homesick. Luckily a medicine is around the corner: in the newspaper shop, a cyber cafe or in the telephone boot. But where are they?

Newspapers

In the centre most newspaper shops have a selection of American, British and German newspapers. The best shops, where they also sell French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic newspapers, are:

• Athenaeum, Newscentrum, Spui 14 - 16
• Selexyz - Scheltema, Koningsplein 20
• The American Bookstore, Spui
• In cafe De Jaren, Nieuwe Doelenstraat 20, they've got a good selection of papers and magazines at their reading table.

Television

On the telly in your hotel room you will find the following channels: CNN, BBC 1 and 2, ARD, ZDF, TV5, VRT, Canvas, TRT and MBC. And of course lots of channels with movies, cartoons etc. But hey, this is the news sections.

E-mail

Cyberspace has also extended to Amsterdam, so you\'ll have no problem to check your e-mail. Several coffeeshops (you know, those who sell pot) also have Internet service (mostly around € 2,-- for about 20 minutes).

Telephone

When you want to call your mother to wish her happy birthday: dial double zero, your country code, the area code without the zero at the beginning and then her telephone number. The most common telephone boots (green ones from KPN) won't accept cash anymore; special cards to be bought at newspaper shops. The few exceptions are at the Central Station, where a rival company (Telfort) has boots which accepts coins.