Discovering charming Utreht

Utrecht is beautiful town that I would recomend to everyone that likes balance of peaceful and quite areas and interesting cultural life. Utrecht is one of biggest Dutch cities, but except very central part of town you wouldn't feel that it might be busy at. Road network is well adjusted for cyclers. Public transport was in fine standard, but nothing exceptional. As far as I know night buses are not going. Full time students of Univeristy of Utrecht get free pass for 4 year for a bus, but I have no idea wheater exchange students get it. First thing you need in this city - BIKE. You can look up online in many places like www.marktplaats.nl (open with chrome so you would be able to translate the website with google translator) facebook groups like Expacts Utrecht. You can also check out companies renting out the bikes but it might be more expansive than buying used bike. 

The old town is pretty centered around medival bell tower: Domtoren (Dom tower) and St. Martin's Cathedral, which is also worth to see. There are some markets open on different days, like Vredenburgh market, where you can buying a lot of food (and not only) of any kind, including local cheeses, famous for quality, snacks, sweeties and fastfood. Good idea to sightsee the city is to rent a canoe at see the town from the level of canals that are cuting through the town like a web. 

I don't have a lot of expirences with University itself as I just did internship in Veterinary Faculty in one of departments. The department is almost outside town, and in literally 5 minutes of cycling puts you in very rural area, taken mostly by forest. Very close there is small river called Kromme Rijn, and that area combining with forest makes it very good spot for picnics.