The public transportation network extends to every remote corner and although train and bus fares are not cheap, they are still nowhere near as expensive as buying and running a car. (A monthly train ticket Zandvoort-Haarlem will cost you about EUR 37). The trains, especially in the western part of the country, run very frequently: four to six times an hour between the main cities.

Travel times are also short: Zandvoort-Haarlem, 10 minutes; Zandvoort-Amsterdam, 25 minutes; Amsterdam-The Hague, 40 minutes; Amsterdam-Rotterdam, 60 minutes. The train carriages are either first or second-class. A first-class ticket is about 50% more expensive. Tickets are purchased at the station. There you can also inquire about the many reduction cards and special rates, which can mean considerable savings for people who travel regularly or in groups.

There is a single ticket, which is valid on all busses, trams and subways (metros) throughout the country. This `strippenkaart' (strip ticket) can be purchased in busses and trams, but is much cheaper bought in advance, at the post office, train or bus station, or from one of the tobacco shops, drug stores or travel agents that sell them. When a strip is stamped, that particular strip and all those above it are considered to be used. Every city is divided into zones. The number of strips you have to use corresponds to the number of zones you travel through, plus one (the basic fare). This means that travelling within one zone costs two strips.

If you will be using the bus, tram or metro regularly, inquire about the many possibilities for monthly or weekly cards, some of them in combination with train travel. Cards can be purchased at either the train station or the post office, you will need an identity photograph and your passport.

There are a variety of ways to travel from the accomodation in Zantvoort to school. For travel to Amsterdam you can go by train or bus; there is also a night bus. The hostel assistants will have the exact information for you.

In a country of 16 million people, there are about 16 million bicycles. You will see a complete cross-section of the population getting around this way. The fact that a person rides a bicycle is not taken as a sign of relative poverty. In fact, social status has nothing to do with it; there are even members of parliament who go to work by bicycle. You will see women cycling with one child on the handlebars, one child on the back, and shopping bags hanging from the sides. You will see well-dressed businessmen with their attaché cases strapped over their back wheels; and on Sundays you see families out for recreational cycling.

A new bicycle costs between about EUR 150 and EUR 500, but second-hand bikes cost a fraction of that price. Ask the accomodation-manager to suggest a shop, or inquire at the railway station (`fietsenstalling'). In fact it is better not to spend too much money on a bicycle. The incidence of violent crime in the Netherlands is low, but especially in the cities, two kinds of theft are almost a sport: stealing radios or mobile phones out of cars, and stealing bicycles. So when you buy your bicycle, buy a heavy steel chain and lock to go with it.

The accommodation is situated in Zandvoort, a village on the coast at a distance of about 10 kilometres from INHOLLAND University Haarlem. Pension Zandvoort aan Zee is cosey boardinghouse, which offers studios, apartments and rooms. In March 2007 the boardinghouse is entirely restyled. The rooms are nicely decorated, each in its own theme. Experience the luxury and the privacy of an own appartment or studio in the most beautifull street of Zandvoort, near to the train-station. By train it takes 5 minutes to the campus of Inholland. Boardinghouse Zandvoort at Sea lies in a calm neighbourhood. The beach and the center of Zandvoort lie on ca. 300 meters of the boardinghouse.

Boardinghouse Zandvoort at Sea offers space at four studios, two rooms and two appartments. You can make your choice, depending on your wishes like privacy, price, staying together with friends etc.

On arrival in the Netherlands you will be met by Dutch student who will accompany you to the accommodation in Zandvoort. Note, that your preference will be taken into account but that there is no guarantee that everyone will be given his or her first choice. Be prepared to share a room. See for further information, rent, rooms, etc. the info / applicationform 2008(download)

The traditional Dutch diet is healthy but utilitarian, consisting primarily of bread and vegetables: bread with cheese, thinly sliced cold meat, or jam for breakfast; much the same for lunch with the possible addition of soup, salad or fruit; and for the evening meal large quantities of potatoes and vegetables together with a relatively small serving of meat or fish. As you would expect, this traditional diet is also the most economical in Holland. Vegetables especially, are plentiful, of high quality and quite cheap.

Plenty of other foods are available as well, as a result of the historical link between the Netherlands and Indonesia, and the presence of different ethnic groups. Dutch tastes are becoming more international all the time; rice, pasta dishes and curry are now almost standard fare in most Dutch homes. You will find imported tropical vegetables and fruit sold in many shops, and tropical cooking ingredients can be found at the special Indonesian grocery shop called a `toko'. In the larger cities there are ritual butchers (Islamic, Hindu, and Jewish) and shops selling products from Turkey and North Africa.

You will save money if you do as much of your own cooking as you can, but convenience foods are increasingly available and a growing number of restaurants have a take-away service. The traditional Dutch convenience foods are French fries (`patat'), which, for a quick meal, are often eaten with a meat `kroket'. These are bought at snack bars or special outdoor stalls.

The number and variety of restaurants is growing all the time. Since the Dutch themselves do not have a tradition of fine cooking, you will find many restaurants offering international cuisine, but not many that are simply Dutch. The most expensive restaurants offer French cooking. In general, you can pay anything from about EUR 7 to EUR 45 for a main meal in a restaurant.

All students have free access to the school computer network. A large variety of applications can be used in the special rooms with computer facilities. The help-desk assistants are there to answer students' questions.

The post office is more than just a place to buy stamps and post letters. It is also a good place to make long-distance telephone calls if you do not have your own telephone, much easier than having to feed many coins into the telephone in a telephone booth. You tell the clerk behind the window that you want to call, and he or she directs you to a booth. When you have finished, you pay the clerk for the call. For a regular telephone booth, which you find on the street and in railway stations and other public places, you need either a telephone card or coins. You will find instructions for use in several languages.

One more thing: the red letterboxes you see on street corners have two slots. The one on the right is for local mail (stated on the slot are the postal codes of the region) and the one on the left is for everywhere else (`overige postcodes'), in Holland and abroad.

Most international students will not be able to read Dutch newspapers. But you do not need to worry that while getting to know your host country, you will loose touch with the news back home. The Netherlands is very internationally oriented, and newspapers and magazines from many countries and in many languages are sold in the larger bookstores and at the railway stations. Because of Holland's central location in Europe, even the simplest radio can pick up international news broadcasts in English, French and other languages. The BBC World Service is especially good. In the International Student Hostel, Doppenberg and Heilig Hart Kerk cable television is available. The main international broadcasts from the United States (CNN), United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, France and Italy can be watched.

You are required by Dutch law to have health insurance. Therefore you will have to take out (additional) health insurance if you are insufficiently insured or if you have no health insurance. INHOLLAND University Haarlem can offer you an insurance policy, which costs approximately EUR 37 per month. The policy INHOLLAND University Haarlem offers (Insurance Passport for Students, IPS) covers medical expenses, extraordinary costs, legal aid, accidents, liability, baggage and householdgoods (see also insurance cover page 48). Only if you prove to the International Office before your arrival that you have sufficient health insurance the above ruling can be waived. Suitable proof must be sent together with your application form. This proof must consist of:

• International Health insurance card if you are from an EU country and fall under the state health scheme. Apply to the appropriate authority in your country before departure for exact information.

The health insurance INHOLLAND University Haarlem offers will not cover costs resulting from a health condition that dates from before the policy period. This includes both disease and pregnancy.

Under Dutch law persons are liable for damage done to other people's belongings. You are strongly advised to take out liability insurance. On arrival you can purchase an Insurance Passport for Students (IPS), which covers both health insurance and liability insurance.

All necessary literature is available in the library of INHOLLAND University Haarlem. Internal databases will give you information about availability of books, magazines, paper, videotapes etc. in the library.

On a world map, the Netherlands is very small indeed. The longest distance you can drive from north to south will take about four hours. To the east the Netherlands borders Germany, to the south Belgium, and to the north and west the North Sea.

Several features of the landscape will strike you immediately. To start with, it is extremely flat. There are a few hills in the southeast corner of the country, but even they barely infringe on the broad, unbroken expanse of sky that is so characteristic of Dutch landscape painting.

The wind is an almost constant feature. Water is everywhere - lakes, rivers, and canals of many types, ranging from the large transport arteries for barge traffic to the narrow drainage ditches that criss-cross the fields where Holland's millions of cows graze. Some 16 million people live in an area of some 41,000 square kilometres. This means an average density of 377 people per square kilometre. This is indeed just an average if you realize that 60 per cent of the population lives in an area that covers one-sixth of the country. This is the West Holland conurbation known as the Randstad, which is defined by drawing a line connecting Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht. The Randstad has a density of more than 1000 people per square kilometre.

Haarlem is one of Holland's most interesting ancient towns, with many beautiful architectural features, a romantic river and a great variety of historic façades and quiet courtyards surrounded by almshouses.

In the year 1245 Haarlem was given privileges by Count Willem II. His former castle became the beautiful town hall of the city. Nowadays Haarlem, with a population of about 150,000 people, is the capital of the province of Noord-Holland. Among other things, Haarlem is the city where the famous painter Frans Hals lived and where bank notes are printed.

The village of Zandvoort is a modern seaside resort. Its miles of broad, sandy beaches and its quiet dunes - large parts of which are open to the public - have a unique and varied fauna and flora. You will also find general facilities you need there: supermarkets, cafes, discos etc.

Amsterdam, the official capital, is the social and cultural centre, and its theatres, concert halls, museums and cafes are famous. The city's liveliness and its live-and-let-live attitude gives it an international reputation. Amsterdam is the place for having fun. The rest of the country looks to Amsterdam as the innovator - the `radical cutting edge'. Amsterdam is also affected by the fact that it is always full of visitors from many other countries.

Rotterdam, with its huge international port (the world's biggest, in fact) is the industrial centre and the country's commercial capital. Bombs flattened much of Rotterdam in the Second World War, so that its modern buildings contrast sharply with the 17th-century centre of Amsterdam.

The Hague, which is the seat of government and diplomacy and the residence of the Queen, has a relatively reserved and dignified atmosphere recalling the colonial past. Like Rotterdam, however, it is gradually becoming livelier culturally.

The busy life of these cities, which form the backbone of the Randstad, is especially evident during rush hour, when the streets and motorways fill up with a sea of cars. This is in contrast to the rest of the Netherlands, which has regions where you can sometimes walk or cycle for hours in relative quiet. People who live in the Randstad have a reputation for being harder, more aggressive and more in a hurry than people in the rest of the country. The southern provinces especially are known for being more jovial, and many people in the Randstad try to get away at least once a year to enjoy the more relaxed and peaceful atmosphere and the natural beauty of one of the other provinces.

The ethnic Dutch tend to be tall and fair; statistically they are the largest people in the world. But Dutch society is becoming increasingly multicultural, so you will see many other physical types as well, especially in the larger cities. There are people of Indonesian, Surinamese and Caribbean descent because of Holland's colonial past in these regions. When the Dutch were forced out of Indonesia in 1948, many of the local people who had worked with them emigrated to the Netherlands and became Dutch citizens. With a few exceptions, these groups have been assimilated.

People from Surinam have ancestors that came from Africa, India, Indonesia, China and/or Europe. Surinam was part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands until it became independent in 1975. Just before then, many of its inhabitants took advantage of their Dutch citizenship and emigrated to the Netherlands. The Netherlands Antilles (these are the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, St. Maarten, and St. Eustatius) is still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. People from these islands are therefore free to settle in the Netherlands. Dutch citizenship also entitles them to regular Dutch student grants.

You will also see many people living in the Netherlands who originate from the Mediterranean region. In the 1950s and 1960s Dutch industry was growing fast and there was a shortage of cheap, unskilled labour. Workers were recruited from Turkey, Morocco, Yugoslavia, Italy, Spain and Tunisia. Many of these people have now brought their families to Holland and settled permanently.

Cool summers, mild winters. This is typical of the marine climate one would predict for Holland on looking at a map and seeing its position in relation to the North Sea. Nothing could be less predictable than the Dutch weather, however. In the morning there may be bright sunshine, but within a few hours the wind can change direction and all of a sudden a cold gale is blowing in from the west. (Of course days can also start out badly and end well.)

In the winter (December-March) there are not too many days below freezing, and although you will probably see snow, there is seldom a lot of it. The winter cold is penetrating, however, because it is often wet and very windy, so you will need a warm winter coat and woollen sweaters.

Milk (1 lt)	€ 1,00	1 ½ lt of Coca Cola	€ 1,50
Rice (1Kg)	€ 2,00	1 lt Orange Juice 100%	€ 1,50
Sugar (1Kg)	€ 1,10	Newspaper	€ 1,00
6 eggs	€ 1,20	Music CD	€ 20,00
Butter (250g)	€ 1,00	DVD	€ 30.00
1 Menu BigMac	€ 5,50	Cinema	€ 8,00
1 espresso	€ 2,00	Bus (1 month 2 zones)	€ 50,00