After stops in Brussells, Antwerp and Rosendaal i ended up in Amsterdamn, finding the hostel proved easy enough. This Hostel (Stayokay Vondelpark) is way different to the previous one, in Paris. While the Paris hostel consisted of about 30 rooms total, StayOkay contains at least 150 at a guess, the amount of people moving through the common area in this place is crazy. I'm undecided on if i like these types of mega hostels yet. One the plus side however is the free breaksfast and cheap beer at the bar.
Central Amsterdam can be considered to be a really laid back, European version of Las Vegas on compact scale , 'Casinos' included, Or perhaps Queenstown, NZ, if you add sex and (more?)drugs..The neon lights of the various bars, clubs, 'coffee' shops etc. paint Amsterdam as a tourist town and nothing more. Amsterdam is so westernised, so geared towards the tourist dollar that if it wern't for the building architecture and the occasional dutch you hear you could be easily fooled into thinking you wern't in Europe any more. That being said. i've enjoyed my time here. Amsterdam has it's own personality, with it's tight streets and small lane ways and it's easy to become lost, usually only for a short time however.
Australia could learn a thing or two from The Netherlands when it comes to displaying national colours. Seriously, fucking everything is a shade of orange. The people wear orange, their bikes are orange, I'm in the hostel bar as i write this and sitting on an orange couch, its everywhere.
Anyway, i'm off to Berlin tomorrow and i'm a little to tired, perhaps drunk to continue writing stuff.
