Cold gas streaming along the dark-matter filaments of the cosmic web is predicted to be the major provider of resources for disc buildup and star formation in massive galaxies in the early universe. We use hydrodynamical simulations to study to what extent these cold streams are traceable in the extended circum-galactic environment of galaxies via Ly alpha emission, Ly alpha absorption and selected low ionisation metal absorption lines. We predict the strength of the absorption signal produced by the streams and find that it is consistent with observations in high redshift galaxies. The characteristics of the Ly alpha emission of our simulated galaxies are similar in luminosity, morphology and extent to the observed Ly alpha blobs, with distinct kinematic features. We analyse the characteristics of the cold streams in simulations and present scaling relations for the amount of infall, its velocity, distribution and its clumpiness and compare our findings with observations.