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Published: September 7th 2008
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**Note: Parents of the travel blog girls please be warned that the contents of this blog may be deemed offensive or possibly shocking to some of you** We made it in the end and that’s the main thing... after going to the wrong airport in UK (my bad) went to Stanstead instead of Gatwick 6am in the morning not happy! But we were lucky enough to be able to change flights and get out from there an hour later that originally booked. So all sweet! We arrived in Amsterdam, unfortunately weather wasn’t much better than London, but really in a place like that does it really matter what the weather is like? Checked into our Hostel cool place, right in the centre of town and alot of weed, but to be expected in Amsterdam I guess? Was interested to see everyone happily tucking into the free included breakfast of a boiled egg and 2 pieces of bread... not toast just bread and a thing of jam. I guess when your a poor back packer in a place where a chocolate bar can set you back nearly 3 EURO (equivalent to about $6+ AUD for those playing at home) you will
take what you can get. I unfortunately learnt the hard way, but ill get to that soon. When we finally got into our room at the hostel we had a little kitten in there, dont know where he came from but he was so cute (photo below for all those who thought i was lying) ha ha we named him Marley seemed to hang out at the Hostel quiet a bit. Prob cause he gets so much attention!
Our first day we just took in some of the sites, accidentally stumbled into the red light district without realizing, that was a bit of a giggle at 3pm in the afternoon? Apparently its a 24 hour gig in town... no rest for the wicked hey? We hit some of the "coffee shops" to see what the deal was. For those who don't know the "coffee shops" are where you can purchase weed and smoke your own for the cost of a cup of tea. So me and Bel thought we may as well join the fun while were here and purchased our very own bag of marijuana called "cheese" how appropriate being in Holland land of cheese and clogs and of
Tiny narrow streets
No wornder we got lost! course some space cake for later! Good times - good times. We headed back to the hostel to try the merch, not bad, not bad. Of course later I did get the munchies and like I was saying above, NOT CHEAP! Total catch 22, they get you with the cheap weed and then hit you with the expensive munchie food! Which for me was inevitable. I headed to the deli and bought 2 chocolate bars and a muffin and didn’t realize till I walked out that I just forked out over 10 Euros for 3 items! THAT’S OVER $20 AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS!!! I nearly cried when I actually figured it out later! But good lord was it tasty! Later that evening we headed out for a wander to take in some of the night life, what was meant to be a short walk round town ended up being about a 3-4 hour trek trying to find out way home! But a good way to see the City I guess? Although we don’t remember a whole lot of it, but again... good times!
Saturday was the day to get all the site seeing done. We headed over to Anne Franks House that
was very surreal to be in such a tiny place from so long ago with such history. They have done well turning it into a walk through museum that re tells her story. After that we did a bit of a 180 and went to the Sex Museum... don’t get too excited its really not that great kind of lame really but again good for a giggle and the 3,50 euro was worth it for the photo opportunity with the giant penis! (see attached photo) That night we signed up for a pub crawl to meet some other travelers. We went along with some Canadian girls staying in the same hostel as us. Good fun to have someone to party with. The pub crawl was packed! Heaps of Brits, Kiwis, Germans, Irish, and Canadians and of course a tone of Aussies who were all ready to party. The first pub would have been ok if the DJ or person controlling the CD player didn’t keep chucking on such shit music! Went from Greece Lightning, to ABBA, to the Village people... I mean come on it was the first stop you don’t play that crap till everyone’s drunk enough to sing
Marley the Hostel Kitten
Told you i wasnt imagining him! along! But still good to have a laugh at those who were singing. Stopped in at about 5 or so pubs to have a dance and lots to drink! Finishing up around 3am we decided to get a kebab and head back to the hostel.
Sunday Bel was a bit under the weather so she stayed in bed, while I ventured off to do some exploring. Jumped on a bike tour in town that took us round to see the sites for a few hours, that was nice, got to see a real life wind mill, learnt about why some of the apartments and buildings all lean over slightly (cause of the muddy ground they are built on) found out that the little enclosures on the side of the road that I thought were telephone booths were actually means urinals, this was to help stop them from pissing on the walls in the streets (picture below) and heaps of other kooky facts good laugh!
Being our last night me and Bel thought we would have a romantic evening together so we went and saw one of the famous LIVE Sex Shows. Yes Mum I'm a dirty perv! Not really, just
seems to be one of those things everyone has to go see while there here, again mainly for a giggle... It was interesting ill put it that way? Not really what I was expecting although for the higher price apparently you can see some very VERY interesting stuff. We kept to the safe, cheap option and watched the basics and ill leave it with that. Once all the other curious ladies and couples left the place packed out with seedy men so that finished up our show. We then took a romantic stroll through the red light district again to see how it all worked at night time. Actually very pretty with all the lights and the ladies in there pretty outfits. Some although not looking much older than 16 and then some looking near on 60!
Quick Fact: did you know that the oldest lady still working in the red light district is over 70 years old and has been working in the industry for more than 25 years! Once we had had our look around we had to go check one more thing off our list of things to do...smoke out of a Sheesha! So we wandered round
and finally found a place for 7,50 euro each we got the fruity tobacco tablet thingy, our very own Sheesha and two hot chocolates! Bargain!
And well that pretty much sums up our few days in Amsterdam lots of fun and lots of giggles! Now off to Greece! YAY!
xox Mel & Bel xox
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