So we (me and jess) arrved in amsterdam Sunday avo ... the other girls (lucy and kayley) were staying in paris for another two nights ...
As soon as we arrived, we dumped our stuff and had showers and talking to people in our rooms (by this stage it had been 24 hours since id showered – and I hadn’t slept!) ...
We jumped on the free internet for a little bit and organized all our last minute stuff/checked bank accounts/facebook etc ... and after this we went in search of coffee houses ... we asked one of the fix-it guys who had fixed jesses bathroom where the best ones were, and we visited one around the corner called 420 ...
We got a peanut butter n white chocolate hash cookies to share and a gram between us ... spent the afternoon rolling joints n mucking around at the hostel ... we stayed at the flying pig down town – its in the middle of the red light district and its famous as being the place that backpackers stay in Amsterdam ... we had to reserve about 2 weeks ahead just to get beds, and even then we were in different rooms at different times because we couldn’t always get beds together ... the hostel was really cool ... and had the cheapest beer in Amsterdam ... a few hours later at like 6 we got the munchies and wandered down to macdonalds ... there were about 3 in the street we were in, all within a km of each other!!! ... I ate two sundaes n I think they were the best icecream ive ever eaten in my life haha .. it took me about two hours to eat them because we were so hi ... it took us forever to get home because we were walking really slow (but we thought we were walking really fast ha) ... we were so wrecked we went to bed about 9 that night ...
Woke up the next day after a huge ass sleep at about 930 n went to get breakkie ... we made about 4 sandwiches eat (peanut butter, nutella and jam) to last us through the day ... the great thing about getting buffet breakfasts is u can steal enough food at breakfast to last u for lunch n din .. haha by ths stage of our trip wed all become so cheap ... we had to be back at the hostel that day by 5pm because jesses cousin (joel) and his friend (graham) were coming over from London ... they were our age and backpacking too (from queensland) ... they had been staying with jesses mum in London ...
Me n jess wandered around for a little bit n then walked across town to this other coffee shop ... I cant remember the name, but it was the coffee shop that was in Ocean’s 12 (the movie) ... we wanted to buy brownies and couldn’t find them anywhere, and we fgured this would be a touristy coffee shop because it had been in a movie , so it would have brownies ... and YAY we did find them ... best brownies in the world, sooo much icing yum ... they were more like cakes than brownies though .. spent the morning eating our brownies and then had a joint (from yesterday) and GEE .. warning to anyone who goes to Amsterdam, the weed is so much stronger than back home ... we found this out on our walk home (which I think took us all afternoon) ... at one stage we thought we were a marching band ha .. we found the best ice cream store on our way home .. it was traditional icecream store n it was made with full cream milk and real cream .. the guy wanted to open a chain in melb ... we had passed by this store yest n the queue was about 10 metres outside the store ... eventually we made it home ... but we couldn’t get into the hostel haha ... we had these electronic keys but we couldn’t find the slot ... eventually someone else let us in n we took the elevator (instead of the stairs ... I don’t think we would’ve made it up them) and found our way to my room ... it was about 2 in the avo about this tage n we fell asleep on my bed ... I was staying in a room with this group from argentina ... and they came in about an hour later n started taking magic mushrooms and we hung around for a while ... we were really out of it that avo ... at 5 went down to meet jess’ cousin and his frend ... we spent the night at the hostel having a few drinks and mucking around .. they had a dj every nght and we always met heaps of ppl
Woke up the nxt morning ... made sandwiches at breakkie n we all went to the red light district ... it took us forever to find. But finally arrived ... it was just like everyone has always said, lots of sex shops and prostitutes in the windows L ... and it wasn’t just a few, but every second window ... and all types of girls – some really pretty ones – all standing in bikinis inside these windows and dancing at every man that walks past L me felt really sad ... felt sorry for them because they must have been so cold in biknis and it was cold outside (though much warmer than everywhere else id been) .. jess pointed out that they prob had heaters ... the others wanted to see a sex show tonight but I convinced them to go on one of the nights that I wasn’t there (they were staying 2 nights longer than me and I definitely didn’t want to go to a sex show) ... so we went to the supermarket, got heaps of wine n beer and went back to the hostel ... we had wine for lunch yumyum ... and spent the afternoon bumming around the hostel ... lucy and kayley were arriving that day at about lunch time .. they ended up arriving at 1.30 when we were nicely tipsy ... we spent the whole day talking, drinking and eating hash cookies ... a dj came on that night and me and jess got free drinks at the bar from that fix-it guy that had fixed her toilet ... no idea wat time we went to bed ...
Same routine the next day ... breakfast n sandwiches, but everyone felt like such shit ... we sort of walked around at one stage to see a bit of Amsterdam (well we walked to the supermarket to get more alcohol) ... and repeated yesterdays day ... this was my last night and prob our biggest night ... t was cheap tequila night at the hostel so it was vry vry busy ... made friends with a really lovely german backpacker who was working at the hostel ...
Woke up next morning at 745 ... made sandwiches n ran to get a train to paris ... stupid thing took me 8 hours n had to change over a million times ...
Things I liked about Amsterdam
- pretty city with lots of canals
- many pretty buildings n churches like paris, but not pretentious about it
- there are heaps of really cool government initiatives that make the city very friendly ... lots of policemen constantly walkng the streets ... in the trams, there are information people sitting n the middle of the train who talk to u and you can buy tickets from ... everyone speaks English (though this sn’t a gov thing) ... prostitutes actually have a union!!! Hurrah, they def need some support (again not a government thing) ...
- people are warm and friendly and very laid back
- trains actually run on time ... and customer service is incredibly efficient ... there is a no-fuss or time wasting attitude ... one example is when I was accidentally sitting in a first class carriage, the ticket inspector told me to move (I was more than happy to) and he did it in a really friendly way ... when I was in france, me and my French exchange sister maud sat in a frst class carriage on purpose, she talked her way out of it – in france u can easily talk ur way out of stuff and if u r young and pretty people oblige ... in Amsterdam it wasn’t like that ... I like how they have rules and follow them
