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Dress to Impress Your Wallet: an inexpensive store to shop for clothes in Europe

Have you ever taken a vacation only to realize you didn't pack for the right weather?  Last May I flew into London in order to begin an around Europe rail trip and found myself freezing!  I continued to tell myself; it will get warmer.  By the time I was in Amsterdam though, I was still freezing and the two long sleeve shirts I had brought along with the one pair of jeans were just not going to hold out.  That is when I wandered into one of the best places for budget travelers to pick up extra, fashionable and cheap clothes.

Founded in 1841by two brothers, Clemens and August, in the Netherlands, C&A began as a textiles company and in 1861 opened its doors as a clothing store. Did you know that JC Pennys didn't open until 1902? By providing fashionable, off the rack wearables C&A quickly began spreading around Europe, opening stores in France, England, Germany and several other countries.  Today there are about 900 stores throughout Europe (Although England has recently done away with the store) and they are still growing.

The store offers a wide selection of clothing and in typical European style they generally look "fashion forward" compared to what you get in the States.  While I was in Amsterdam last year I found several great Jackets on the clearance racks which I would have expected to pay at least twice as much.  Whether you run out of socks or need a new pair of jeans to replace the ones you cut the legs off of to use as swimming trunks you can find a cheap pair here. 

Locals " affectionately" refer to C&A as Cheap & Awful but that is no more the case than Old Navy.  And even less the case because their clothes generally hold up to wear and style more like the Gap (ok ok this may not be saying much but come on you're on a budget and H & M is a bit pricey).  I was in the KaDeWe (Kaufhause de Westens: the largest department store on the European Continent: Berlin) last summer and realized I just couldn't afford anything there.  I approached a sales lady and asked "gibt es ein C&A nahe?" [is there a C&A near by] in poor Germany, and she jokingly rolled her eyes at me and gave me directions. It is just one of those stores that everyone knows is inexpensive and no one admits that half their clothes come from there. I recommend searching out these stores whenever the need arises and you will certainly be happy you did. 

If you are in Berlin one C&A is going to be over by the Zoo train station.  I f you are facing the entrance of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (the one all hollowed out from a WWII bombing) it will be down the street behind you on the left (KaDeWe is the opposite direction).  When in Amsterdam you can find at least one of the C&As straight down the street Damrak that runs directly into the Central train station (half underground half above).  After spilling sangria on your best shirt in Barcelona you will be able to find a C&A right near the Catalunya Metro stop north of Las Ramblas.  After following my advice and visiting Tuebingen you will be able to find the nearest C&A just a short train ride over to Reutlingen, the nearest big city.   

Of course there are many more of these stores around and you really should have no problem finding one in most major cities as you travel around Europe, topping off your wardrobe and figuring out what you forgot to pack.

Walk Like You're British:totally free guided tours around london,amsterdam,berlin and Paris

  You arrive in a major European city for the first time, your on a budget and have just a few days.  Walking around aimlessly or by relying on your guide book's limited info and hard to read maps can take a lot of your time and before you really know your way around or what you ha ve seen you have to move on.  Taking a guided tour is probably the best way to find your way around and gain valuable insights into what it is you're actually looking at.  Unfortunately these can put a dent in the limited funds you have set aside.  Don't worry there is a completely free option that will help you feel like a local in about 3 hours.

On a recent trip to London I first became aware of a new company that offers free guided tours around the city.  There were flyers in the hostel I stayed at and chances are there will be some where ever you are staying too.  At first I thought...it does say free..but what's the catch and what really can I expect from a free tour?  The truth of the matter is there is no catch and you can expect a superb tour with a great guide who will not only walk you through the city pointing out the major sights but also show you things that your guide book won't take the time to mention.  After the tour I was able to orient myself in the city and explore the sights I was interested in more in depth with an efficiency that made the best use of my time.

The company that provides these tours is called New Europe tours and operate s in several major cities throughout Europe.  In London you will likely see flyers for "New London tours" a nd likewise in Berlin they will be called "New Berlin tours"...you get the idea.  The tour guides are usually locals or students working their way through college who's incentive is providing you with the best tour possible so that you feel like tipping them at the end.  This however is completely voluntary and the only pressure to do so will come from your own conscious.  No matter what, you will pay less to tip these guides than you will for a paid tour of the same caliber where you will feel just as responsible to tip in the end anyways. Then again, you certainly do not have to tip if you don't feel like it. According to my tour guide the company's real money comes from their other tours such as pub crawls and ghost tours. These seem to bring in more than enough revenue to support the free ones that ultimately act as advertisement for the pay tours.  Don't worry though you won't be given any sort of hard sell...just one or two suggestions and even then you will receive a disc ount on any pay tour just for taking the free one if you so decide.

As I mentioned above, I tried out this tour in London and was more than satisfied.  The company also offers tours in Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Munich and Edinburgh.  In London everyone meets at a central point and from there you are taken on a 2.5-3 hour walking tour all through the city.  You can leave the group at anytime and there will even be a break at some point where you will stop for some snacks and drinks.  This is where I first tried the Pasties I wrote about last week.   Even having been in London before this tour saved me a great deal of time finding my way around for the rest of my stay.  The guide is even a great resource to ask questions about sights and culture and since you're on the tour with others who are probably in the same boat you are (limited time and money), you may meet some great people to hang out with after.  I think this should be on every new visitor's plan for the first day of sight seeing in the cities it is offered.

Failure of the Heart :the worst hostel I ever stayed in: Amsterdam

  Hostels come in all shapes and sizes, degrees of clean and with or without amenities.   By booking hostels on the go you just have to expect that once in awhile you will run into a horrible place.  That is exactly what happened in Amsterdam last summer and I want to warn all of you who plan to visit one of the most memorable cities in the world you will ever visit.

Generally I would not single out a particular hostel like this and warn my readers about it. Advertising a place  I dislike makes no sense.  This hostel just happens however, to be the place that the tourist office will send you too when you show up looking for a bed to sleep in(or come down from whatever drug you might do).  To make matters worse the tourist office is directly outside the central train station and is the the very first place most travelers make a bee-line too right after their train arrives.  Therefore they seem to have a grasp...no, no, a trap  on unsuspecting, unprepared and desperate travelers.  My first advice then is to plan ahead and book your hostel before arrival in Amsterdam...if you don't, by all means avoid any suggestion that you stay at The Heart of Amsterdam.

By all accounts the name of the place does do it justice and the tourist office may or may not tell you that the establishment is in the middle of the redlight district.  Having been to Amsterdam before I was not really put off by this initially.  The Redlight district can make some uncomfortable and appear unsafe at times but all in all your biggest worries should be yourself giving into temptations you may regret later.  (of course if you aren't the type of person that would regret anything done here...go forth and enjoy!  This is the place to do it)  That being said, its location is not the worst thing about the hostel...in fact the prostitutes window directly across from the lounge window can make for some interesting people watching. 

What does come as unexpected is the room you are likely to be placed in if you are directed here from the tourist office.  While it appeared from pictures of the place on various hostel booking websites that the rooms were clean and comfortable you will most likely be directed to "around back".  Going out the back door you will notice the bathroom/shower area that is not exactly attached to the main part of the building.  It is here that you will have to shower and use the restroom in a facility that is lacking in cleanliness and privacy.  To your right is a outdoor meeting area that in all its glory consists of an old bench which if any wooden bench could give you tetanus this would be it.

A few more steps bring you to a precariously steep and cave like stairwell that brings you to a basement type area. Right outside the room are cheaply manufactured "lockers" which you will have to leave a deposit to use.  Essentially plywood with two hinges and cheap turn key locks you will want to be sure you do not loose the tiny piece of paper given to you as receipt of your deposit.  If you do happen to misplace this scrap of paper  be prepared to, in turn, have your deposit misplaced.  Somehow the key they give you for your locker is not sufficient proof that you did in fact pay a deposit.  If you are lucky enough to get the one key that accesses the room you will soon enter your room to find a damp, once yellow  walled dungeon that houses 8 or so beds.  Although there are about 4 windows that potentially at one time opened about 3 inches to allow for fresh air, only one now stands open about 1 inch.  The ceilings are so low that if you are any taller than 6 foot you will have to crouch during your entire stay and even if you are "lucky" enough to be shorter than that you will constantly be on guard against banging your head against the even lower hanging smoke detector. Considering the size of the room and the smoking that Amsterdam is famous for, I doubt the smoke detector worked anyways.  The walls and ceilings are interestingly decorated by previous tenants by what appears to be the burning of various pictures (mostly penis') and dirty limericks through the use of a lighter and a small TV which may have one day gotten reception is placed on a small shelf above one of the beds.

   As I mentioned there is only one key to this room.  If you are the last person to leave you will return it to the less than friendly front desk clerk and hope that others do the same.  Truth be told, the room is rarely locked and if it is you must ask various other guests lounging around the hostel if they have the key.  As for breakfast...well, I can't complain too much about this.  They do provide a sampling of various meats (above and beyond the usual bread and jelly) with which you can put together sandwiches that will cut down on your spending for the day.  This fact however does not out weigh the general sense of being stuck in a germ and bug infected prison that you will put up with for the duration of your visit.

Having spent many nights in hostels throughout Europe I have come to expect that not all places will live up to the standards of others and in all fairness it is a cheap bed.  Hostels, by their very nature have a rapidly changing clientele and must deal with the repercussions of travelers grime. The Heart of Amsterdam however was probably the single least pleasant hosteling experience that I ever had and I truly spent much of my wandering the city with new hostel searching in mind.  There are any number of "famous" Amsterdam hostels to choose from (The Flying Pig & the Bull Dog) and I recommend seeking them out for a more pleasant stay in this vibrant city whose heart is far from the failure of this place.

click to download a video shot in the room of this hostel!