Amsterdam

I Amsterdam

On train to Amsterdam

Just about to finish an extremely long train journey which began in Frankfurt back at 9:40am. Extremely bored! We've seen 2 windmills and thankgod it isn't raining like how it was this morning. Almost got hit on the head by a giant suitcase but got some of the mans spit on me instead. Train driver is going crazy with laughter oer the speaker. Germans... We arrive in 3 minutes. Curious about hostel life

First impression of the city is that it's dirty. Well, the train station at least. We're one stop from Centraal Station. Took awhile to find hostel and felt like a target with my backpack. I want to think of a name for it. Anyway, found hostel, looks like a school, huge, inside is really nice. Michelle and I are in a room with 2 unknown people as of yet but we have two beds in a loft looking down at them. Linen is clean and fresh. Came in sealed plastic bags, good sign. Shower and toilet are in room, yay! Had dinner with a cat at an Italian restaurant down the road. The cat wouldn't stop harassing me and trying to get my food. I paid for it! They also have Dove chocolate here, neato! Excited for tomorrow. Over and Out.

First things first - my hair smells like weed. And here's how it got that way...
At the estimated hour of 3 or maybe even 4am last night the anonymous roomies came in. Two guys. I fell back to asleep and when i woke up for the 5th time after that event the surprise of someone else being in the room was the same as the very time. I decided to get up around 8:30am and every time I'd turn around to have a look at our room mates one would always quickly shut their eyes. You have to be quicker than that to pretend you're asleep. Did these people learn nothing in their childhoods?! Anyway, we went down to the breakfast hall. And now, I think we can all agree that any hostel that offers chocolate at the breakfast buffet is a good hostel. I filled myself up with the free food whilst surveying my fellow backpackers. I was surprised to see a couple of families and old people there. We caught the train into town and it wasn't long after we arrived that we began our New Europe free walking tour.

Our guide was so enthusiastic it was unbelievable. A New Zealander named Mason, he was. Mason showed us the Red Light District which isn't quite how I imagined. It's made up of all little alley ways. Michelle and I went back later at night to see it all in business. It was... interesting. Mason tells us the girls have glasses of pee in their windows to throw at anyone who decides to take a picture of them, one man even got pushed into the canal. Also during the tour we were shown the church which ironically is in the middle of the Red Light District. Then the Marijuana College where the slogan is 'Learning for your higher education'.,The Coffee shops which all have the worst stench of weed coming out of them . It's legal to sell a certain amount of weed but how they get the wine is in fact illegal. But since the government makes a nice 4 billion euro revenue from it they just turn a blind eye. So would I. We were also shown the pee reflectors which are in the dark corners of Amsterdam to stop men from peeing. They use to have electric currents in them so the men would be electrified but not anymore. Then it was back to the palace which was covered in scaffolding, the Jewish Quarter then it ended.

We walked to the Anne Frank house after the tour and the line was so long so we skipped that till the next day and walked around a neighbourhood. We found a fast food place called FEBO which looks horrible. The food is in a box in the wall. Gross. That was pretty much the end of day after we had dinner. We felt we had done most of Amsterdam, not a good sign..

10th August 2010, Hostel

I've just found out that the two guys are from Finland. Today we went to the Anne Frank House. Once prepared and in town we lined up for 1hr to get in. Inside everything was explained which was good for me as I've never read the book. In the end I felt that even though all but the father died these Jews had it better than many of the other one's I've read about. The annex in which they hid was not entirely small. I always imagined it to be a 1 roomer but there was about 5! And I feel no more sorry for Anne Frank than I do for any other Jew that died just before or after liberation. I felt sick the entire time in there so we just walked around casually afterwards. We did some souvenir shopping and went back to the hostel for some rest before that nights pub crawl. Not too sure on how it will go as it's raining outside. I'm getting the urges to talk to more people so the pub crawl should be really great.

7:45pm, hostel.

Ready to go! First pub crawl!

3:10am, Hostel

So drunk. Joined up with some British 18yr olds, they're awesome. Guide is from Red Rock near Coffs Harbour! He had an agenda. Had great chat to another guy about the pies at Barnetts Bakery out at cresso, small world. Can't wait till next time goooood night.... I stink like cigarettes, they smoke inside over here.

11th August 2010, Hostel.

Woke up this morning to bright blue skies and a horrid feeling all over. Michelle went to breakfast while I hung out in the room and met the 2 other people in here. Truth revealed the girl is from Brisbane and the guy from Spain. Everyone is from bloody Australia. They were actually really cool and I wish I'd talked to them earlier. We rented out bikes today, bright orange ones at that.
We took to the crazy Dutch Bike lanes (The Netherlands has 550,000 bikes compared to 216,000 cars). We went to the Museumsplein where the I AMsterdam sculpture is.
Then we rode into a huge park called the VondelPark. Laid in the sun for some times there and got a bit burnt even though it was cold. I refused to wear by jeans and jacket from last night. We just rode around an area of Amsterdam after that which was quite beautiful. Slept from a bout 6 to 9 then talked to our new roomies - 2 girls from Liverpool. They were so confused as when they first walked in everyone in the room was asleep and in darkness. I've come to realise that no one asks what you're name is and you don't even think to ask them either. I'm really glad to be leaving tomorrow, I get bored of places after 3 days. Belfast should be okay, not looking forward to using the Pound again though.