Day 3: The drug and sex capital of the world!

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Today was a free day in Amsterdam. Steph and I got up, got ready and headed to breakfast in the hotel. As part of the tour we were to visit the town of Edam to go to a cheese and clog making demonstration. The drive there was quite pleasent as we got to see some of the Dutch countryside.
The cheese making demonstration was pretty average. I was still hungover from last night so what the lady was telling us pretty much went in one ear and out the other. Also, the strong smell of the cheese did nothing tomake me feel better. The guy who made the clogs was pretty random and funny. He kept cracking jokes that only made us laugh at him rather than at his jokes. Anyway, he did a pretty good job of turning a chunk of wood into a clog in a matter of minutes. We then looked around the gift shop for a while, before it was time to board the bus and head back to the city.

I wanted to go shopping, so I agreed to meet up with the others later at the Heiniken Experience, and headed to the main street of Amsterdam to find it barracaded by police with sheilds, so I ended up having to walk down a dodgy looking ally. Still, I found some good shops and bought some Amsterdam boxer shorts for my brother, some postcards and a shot glass (I plan on getting a shot glass from every country I visit). After that I wanted to go back to the hotel to drop my stuff off before then meeting up with everyone else. No signs seemed to be in English and it took me a while to figure out where things were so I ended up taking a taxi back to the hotel becuase I could not be arsed figuring out what tram to catch back. When it was time to go back into town, I ended up catching the wrong tram (well the right tram but in the wrong direction) but I got off at the next stop and managed to get on the right one to Dam Square. From there I decided to walk the rest of the way. It was confusing but with the help of my trusty map I managed to get down there (give or take a few wrong turns and the help of a stranger who in return for directions wanted a "donation", so I gave him like 20 Euro cents). I rang Steph, but the call got disconnected becuase of my lack of funds, so I pretty much walked in the direction I thought she mentioned they were. I walked for abut 10 minutes when Andre appeared and led me back to where Steph, Emma, Simon, Beau and Hadi were waiting. The Heinekin Experience ended up being closed (as it is for 6 months at the moment), which sucked, so we made our way to the markets, which are apparently the largest in Amsterdam. They were pretty big and we looked around for a while but didn't buy anything.
Emma, Steph, Hadi and I decided we wanted to go back to the hotel to get changed for dinner, so we caught a taxi back, while Beau, Andre and Simon caught a tram back to the centre of town. Later we found out they went to the grasshopper and got Simon stoned.

Dinner was at the Von Hogan restaurant just outside of town called Volendam (sp). It was a fishing village so the restaurant was by the water. The dinner was pretty nice and there was loads of food. I recall eating turkey with a curry sauce, soup and salad followed by apple pie for desert. I was pretty much stuffed after that. It was a fun night and I sat with Steph, Emma, Simon, James, Shell and Hadi. After dinner we caught the bus back to town and boarded a boat for our canal cruise. The canal cruise was heaps of fun and had unlimited beer and wine and took us on a cruise through the canals around Amsterdam, past some of the famous sights like the Anne Frank House. We got a free shot of this stuff called Strupple, which was kinda nice and went down alright. The lady who hosted the cruise was a bit crazy but I had heaps of fun and we all got pretty tipsy. After the cruise, a few of us decided to go to the Grasshopper, which is one of the most famous "coffee shops" in Amsterdam, for a few drinks and you really can't go to Amsterdam and not smoke. Our group ended up being Steph, Beau, Simon, Hadi, Josh, Leah, Rob, Dave, Cherie, Andre and myself. Simon had a few joints left over from their visit to the Grasshopper earlier in the day we we shared one and had a few beers. Things got pretty giddy after a while. I remember hearing Sneaky Sound System play which I remember being pretty stoked about becuase its not often you hear an Aussie band in a Dutch pub. I was at the bar till about middnight and then Steph, Simon Beau and I caught a taxi back to the hotel.

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