AMSTERDAM

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So another weekend gone, another trip complete. Destination this time - AMSTERDAM.

Well what can I say about Amsterdam.....sex, drugs and rock 'n roll :-)

Decided to do a trip with a tour group this time around, on a coach (a party coach to be more specific)....can u believe it....12 hours on a coach and 1 hour on a ferry. Lets just say that due to all the excitement the trip to Amsterdam was awesome....drink drink drink...that's basically what it entailed. 3 South African's on a trip with 27 Australians. It wasn't an Australian tour, just turned out that it was all Australians going on the tour.

We leave friday night and travel through the night, arriving early Saturday morning. Could not check into our hostel rooms as yet so after having some brekkie it was off to see the Heineken Experience. There we learnt who started Heineken, how it had moved down generation after generation and had expanded all over the world. We also learnt how Heineken is made.....we were also given loads of beer to drink. I personally hate beer and after my Amsterdam weekend (Heineken is big in Amsterdam as its made there) I can truly say I hate beer even more than I did before...yuck!!!

After our Heineken tour it was off to a pub for a toot or two of Heineken while we waited for our canal ride. The canal ride was fun....more drinking drinking and drinking and every now and again taking in some sights and then more drinking drinking drinking....The canal ride was about 2 hours long. Cruising on the canal you get to see a lot of Amsterdam, its a really beautiful place. One other thing you notice (which you also notice walking the streets) is that there are soooo many bicycles everywhere. They have these massive garages (like ones you park cars in at a shopping mall) and there are just millions of bikes parked there. In Amsterdam they have trams, cars, bikes all on the road...its a bit chaotic...bikes have right of way though.

After that its time to full our bellies with a little food and a few winks before we get too drunk and can't carry on for the evening.

As I hit a deep sleep, I'm woken up to be told we are heading to the red light district and to take in a live sex show. Well walking through the red light district is really amazing. Its so beyond anything we see in our normal day to day living. There are all these windows with red lights above them, and there is a girl standing in each window with practically no clothing on and trying her hardest to tempt men (or women I suppose) to come into her little room. They have a double bed and basin in their room. When someone has gone into their rooms they close the curtain and once done, curtain opens and they try tempt their next victim. And man oh man do those chicks have awesome bodies!!!!! Can't tell you if they were actually pretty or not as i don't think anybody really looks at their face...hehe I didn't.

After a stroll through the red light district, we arrive at our destination "A LIVE SEX SHOW". Well I had been pre-warned about this so I kind of knew that the actually sex act part of the show would be lame. But its still so weird sitting their in the audience while a couple are having sex. Basically what happens is they have a 1 women act which normally involves someone from the audience and then a couple having sex after that...it carries on like this for quite some time. We only stayed for 3 couples having sex and then we were over it as its basically they have sex for a few seconds, the guy slaps the girl on the bum, she changes positions and it just carries on like this for about 10 minutes. They have no expressions on their faces and do not even look like they are enjoying it. In fact it looked like the guys were going pretty soft to me....but then I guess that's what happens when this is ur "job". The acts in between the live sex shows were pretty funny. For one of the acts, this chick (the one actually working in the show), calls this nerdy looking guy up from the audience, she then fastens a dildo on this guys head and he has to try get the dildo inside her without using his hands. Pretty gross but very funny. Finally he couldn't manage to do this so she makes him lie on the ground, gets on top of him, puts the dildo inside of her and then holds his head, moving it back and forth (so the dildo can go in and out of her)....like I said pretty gross but so funny seeing this nerdy looking guy having to go through all of this.

I'm not sure how long the sex show actually lasts for but we left after 3 acts, we basically just wanted to see what it was all about and there was no point prolonging the painful experience. We set off to experience the night life, ending up at an Australian pub of all things, I think most of the people on the tour being Australian had something to do with this. The pub we went to was called "Coco's Outback - Lousy food & warm beer" - sounds good :-) There we proceeded to play a few drinking games (it is a party tour after all), and then I decided to try out the space cakes (for those of you who don't know what that is....its a cake with weed in it)....well I personally wouldn't do it again, I mean it just makes you spaced out (I guess that's why they call it "space" cakes).

Sunday has arrived and the weather is pretty shitty, its drizzling and cold and we are off on a bike ride around Amsterdam city centre and out into the country side. Let me just say that its dam scary trying to ride a bike around Amsterdam with all the different modes of transport trying to run you over. And I'm proud to say that I'm the only one who managed to crash into a tree. Some silly girl (not from our tour group) tried to take me out...I had to choose between the traffic or the tree....I chose the tree obviously. Anyway the bike ride was 4 hours, and after every hour we stopped to have a heineken (to keep us going of course).

After the bike ride, we took our sore and aching bodies off to the Sex Museum. This was rather disappointing. It basically was sex through the ages, which basically meant that it was pictures from the olden days up until current times of people having sex. What I learnt is women didn't shave or neaten up down there in those times....

Back to the Hostel for us and I decided to try some Magic Mushrooms. I had to try these things as it is legal in Amsterdam!! Let me just say that I have never eaten anything more disgusting in my whole entire life. Vomit!!!!! Also same feeling as the space cake...just makes you spaced out. I personally didn't enjoy any of these legal drugs as it just makes you not really participate with the party...from now on I'll be sticking to booze only.

Sunday night was spent partying at one of the local pubs again. Not much to report here, except I had to basically carry Jenna (my housemate who I went on this trip with) back to the Hostel, she found that mixing magic mushrooms, weed and booze together did not agree with her at all.

Anyway that is basically my trip. As you can see it was very limited sight seeing and far to much partying. So I will have to plan a trip back there again some time in the near future.

Now to plan the next trip - Running of the Bulls in Spain!!!!!

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