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Published: December 3rd 2012
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Ferry terminal at Dover, England. It's a cloudy day unfortunately!I was up bright and early at 5 am to leave for our tour. I was upset because my hair straightener didn’t work in the outlets. I had specifically asked before I left if it would work and was told it would. I hoped it would work in mainland Europe. For now I’d just have to suffer with wild and curly hair. We all met in the courtyard of the Royal National and got our bags weighed. Soon enough we were getting on our purple coach. I sat in the front seat with Emily (USA), opposite from Melissa and Candice. As we left London I got some good views of the River Thames and the London Eye, some things I had not seen during my pitiful sightseeing attempt yesterday. Filippo got up front and gave us an introductory speech all about our tour, and Contiki, and the things we were going to see. We all loved listening to him talk because he is from Italy and has a very thick accent – everything he said just sounded hilarious. I knew he was going to be a good tour manager. After about a two hour drive we reached Dover, and got to
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Me in front of the White Cliffs! immediately get on the ferry bound for Calais, France. We didn’t have to get our passports checked or anything, I was surprised at how easy it was.
We got some good views of the White Cliffs of Dover from the top of the ferry, but it was so cold we didn’t stay up there for long. The ferry was awfully bumpy - I thought I would be fine because I go on ferries all the time, but none of them were ever like this. I did some shopping at the duty free shop with Melissa and Candice. There was so many different kinds of perfume I was in heaven. I didn’t buy anything though, because I just couldn’t make a decision. We got some food at the café and relaxed for a bit until we arrived in Calais. I fell asleep on the bus but was soon woken up by Filippo’s wake up song (Spongebob – I would come to hate it!) because we were going to play a speed dating game. Those in the aisle seats had to continuously move one seat back and spend five minutes with the person behind you. It was scary at first, because
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Pit stop somewhere between Calais and Amsterdam...not really sure what country we were in! I was in an aisle seat and I was nervous to have to talk so much, but it was actually nice to get to know everyone. It got a little tiresome after a while because we were all exhausted and it gets a little repetitive when you are asking the same questions over and over again. “Where are you from?” “What is your job/major in school?” “How old are you?” “What are you doing after the tour?” “Why did you come on this tour?” Gahh, I just wanted to go to sleep after a while
Our first pit stop wasn’t too much later. We didn’t even know what country we were in when we stopped, but it seemed silly to ask. To this day I still don’t know if we were in Belgium or the Netherlands. The rest stop seemed very high tech compared to North America, but I would soon learn that this is what all the rest stops are like in Europe. Really nice buffet restaurants, souvenir stores, and very interesting bathrooms. After going to McDonald’s at this rest stop (no I didn't eat there, I just used their WiFi), we continued on our way to Amsterdam.
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Hundreds of bikes! I was pretty excited for Amsterdam. It has a reputation for sure, and I’d heard of some of the things that go on during a Contiki tour to Amsterdam, but I was excited to participate. It's not wrong, it's different!! We arrived at our hotel in the late afternoon. I was rooming with Emily, Candice, and Melissa. I had a shower, we ate our first Contiki included dinner (which wasn’t too bad), and then we got ready to head into Amsterdam for our canal cruise.
As we drove into the city the first thing you noticed was the bikes EVERYWHERE. There was a bike parking garage that was literally holding thousands and thousands of bikes. Also, the civil workers in Amsterdam were on strike, so nobody was picking up garbage throughout the city. There were piles and piles are garbage everywhere, it was pretty gross to be walking through it. It really took away from the beauty of the city, and I’d love to see it without the mess. We started our canal cruise with a shot of Flugel, which was quite good. The cruise included free drinks, so we all took advantage of the opportunity. It was good
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Haley and I on the canal cruise. fun mingling with everyone and munching on the awesome crackers and cheese at the tables. This is where I first talked to Chelsea (New Zealand), Sumi (Korea), and Holly (Korea).
After the cruise we were all quite drunk (we had polished off the entire alcohol supply on the boat) and Filippo took us on a tour of the Red Light District. It seemed very strange, but I’m sure it would have been even stranger had I been sober. The alleyways of the Red Light District are tiny and narrow, and along are brightly lit windows with the prostitutes standing there. I didn’t find it offensive, or gross. It’s just the way of life here. Someone even went up to one and asked her some questions. We weren’t allowed to take photos because their pimps would throw our cameras in the canal if we were caught. Eventually Filippo took those of us who were interested to a sex show. I didn’t really know what to expect, but I figured when in Amsterdam… It was 30 euro to see it, which is steep, but I was drunk so I wasn’t really thinking properly. The show basically consisted of a revolving stage
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All of us at the nightclub in Amsterdam where couples would do the deed with everyone watching. It was quite overrated, actually, and there was only about 5 acts, 3 of which were single women dancing around with no clothing. Really seemed more like a strip club with extras haha. After, me, Korryn, Candice, and Melissa went to some of the sex shops. Some of us bought something, but who did will remain a mystery. We met everyone else back at The Grasshopper, supposedly one of the best coffeeshops. I smoked a little weed and tried a hashbrownie, but I was already pretty drunk, so it didn’t really affect me. It was pretty cool to be at a coffeeshop in Amsterdam, though. When the shop closed, a group of us headed out to a club, where we danced for the next couple hours. This is where I first hung out with Adrien, Duncan, and Albert (all from South Africa), as well as Faith (Australia). It was good fun, and we ended up getting back pretty late. I was passed out in bed by about 3 am.
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