Ah Experiencing the...culture

The handsome (?) couple
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We arrived in Amsterdam, after the uneventful trip to the Rhine Valley, all very eager to experience the much talked about city!

The bus first stopped at a cheese and clog factory on a farm outside of Amsterdam, where we got to see how cheese is made, and taste a variety of different flavoured cheeses. We also got a demonstration on how to make wooden clogs! Quiet an art, a very time consuming art, but spectacular! The tradition of clogs was that when a man wanted to marry a woman, he would go about making her, her very own unique clogs, which he would decorate by carving into them and putting her name on them, she would then wear them as wedding shoes (cheaper alternative i'd say!)

...walked through the red light district a couple of hundred times...

The mostly cool group
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We checked into our hotel and got ready for the night ahead. We went into town, being warned about the 'culture' we were about to see, but I guess no one can describe it to you accurately untill you've actually seen it yourself!

As we walked through the city centre we passed many locals, they were very laid back and easy going, (this should have been obvious from the lifestyle they experience each day!) I suppose once you have walked through the red light district a couple of hundred times you are no longer shocked by it! But little naive Hannah was!!! I suppose it wasn't as dirty as i had expected, the working girls, all have their own window, which they hire off the owner each night for between 50-100 euros. They are definetly dressed provocatively, but it wasn't as trashy as I had imagined! If a guy wants to be 'entertained' he has to go up and knock on her door, if she is interested, she invites him in and the curtains are closed on the window, and if she is not she can tell him to move on! Pretty funny to watch, or sad, depending on how you look at it!

The 'Damage' by night
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After this we went to a nightclub and danced the night away, very entertaining and fun!

The next morning those who had survived the night before got up early to again head into town. Being Easter Sunday, we thought for sure it would be pretty quiet and we'd get through the museum lines pretty quickly. However we were wrong, at 9.30am we lined up to see Anne Frank's house and by 11am we were in, apparently the Easter weekend is the busiest of the year! Who'd have thought! Anne's house was incredible, it has now turned into a museum which runs you through what it might have been like being hidden away for 24hours a day during the war, pretty incredible and very sad!

Us and Jeremy, from Perth
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Went and had lunch, and then that night we had a celebratory dinner at an Indonesian, Chinese Thai kinda place. Tasty food! We then had a canal cruise through the red light district and surrounding areas, before heading to the pub for one last time! Lots of laughing and dancing before the bar shut, then off to bed...

The next morning we piled back onto the bus, and started towards England, via Calais. Nat and Shannon left us at Amsterdam airport, and it was very sad to see them go. Overall, an awesome trip!!