Amsterdamage...says it all.

SO we got to Amsterdam late in the afternoon and checked into our hostel.  Ash and I were sharing with Elmo and Jason in this TINY little room so it was kinda cramped...especially since for the first time, we had all of our bags along with all of our souveniers.  We ate dinner downstairs and then left for our big night out in "Amsterdamage".  We took the tram over to the Damrak where we were set free for about an hour.  Tee told us to go to this place called "The Grasshopper", which is a bar/restaurant/"coffee shop".  Just so we are all on the same page, a cafe sells coffee and food, a coffee shop sells drugs...here anyways.  So a bunch of us went in, and then Kate, Crystal, Johann and I came out about 20 minutes later, found a bank and then met up with the group.  Tee then took us on a tour of the red light district.  We did a bit of "window shopping" (here, prostitues stand behind glass doors leading to little rooms and parade around their "goods"...hense the window shopping) and then we made it to the Casa Rossa...where we were going to see a live sex show.  To be honest, I thought it was hilarious....they got audience participation and they like to pick on Contiki so they used a couple of my friends in the show.  I won't go into detail, because there are people that read this that I am really not so comfortable talking about this to so I will leave it at that....uncomfortable yet really funny.  After that was done, we went to a bar for a bit and then we caught a cab home.

The next day we got to sleep in quite a bit, so we got up late and had breakfast and then met about half of the group downstairs.  Tee walked us to the Canal bikes where we got into groups of 4 (I was with Ash, Ange and Buttercup) and we got on these little boat things that we had to paddle (and by we, I mean the boys....Ange and I sat in the back and took pictures).  We were supposed to paddle to Anne Frank's house, but we kinda got lost....a couple times....and Ash and Matt decided to crash the boat multiple times so Matt ended up having to bail water out for half the trip.  What was supposed to be a half hour trip ended up being about an hour and a half and by the time we got there, the line for Anne Frank's house was so long that we decided not to go in.  Then we decided to go to the "Amsterdam Dungeon".  Ash and I somehow lost the group so we went in alone.  It was pretty funny...there was lots of audience participation and Ash and I got accused of "Crimes of fashion" for wearing toques (beanies for the aussies/kiwis/americans).  That took about an hour and then we just went shopping for most of the rest of the afternoon.  It was raining like Vancouver so it wasn't very pleasant but we walked back to the hostel in the end.  Then we got dressed and met up with the group for our last night out.  We walked back to where we picked up the canal boats and got on a ferry bus sort of thing.  It was supposed to be 2 drinks each but we ended up with an open bar for about an hour so we were all pretty jolly.  We took lots of pictures and gave lots of hugs.  Then we got off the boats and got driven to an asian restaurant where we had dinner.  Then we went back to the hostel, spent some time in the bar and then some people went out but I went to bed.

The next morning (my brithday!) I got up with everyone else who was heading back to London (44/49 people) and walked them down to the bus.  It was pretty sad....lots of people (myself included) were in tears and I got lots of hugs and it was just not good to watch everyone leave.  So my birthday was kind of a downer after that, but John tried to cheer me up...we went shopping and he took me out for a nice dinner and all that.  Then the next morning I got up and pretty much just spent the day wandering around by myself (John was recovering from 47 days travel but I couldn't sit still).  I spent a lot of time on the internet catching up with everything and just walking around looking at everything.  Then we went out for Japanese food for dinner.  The NEXT day trip into Belgium (which you can read about in the Belgium sections) and the next day we went and saw Anne Frank's house which was really cool and better than I expected.  After that, we had lunch and then went to the Heineken factory, which was awesome...we got a free gift and 3 free beers with entry so when we were in the bar at the end we met 2 Aussies and we talked with them for awhile....it kinda reminded us of tour I guess so it was comforting and we hadn't really found anyone our own ages to talk to in awhile.  After that we went back to the hotel and got pizza and then pretty much just went to bed.  then we got up this morning, packed our bags, used the internet, took a taxi to the airport....we were supposed to meet mom and dad but we couldn't check in until 7 tonight and we forgot to tell them where to meet us so we have been sitting here for a really long time, and we only just got through security an hour ago.  One more hour and then we can board the plane and go meet the parents in Barcelona!

I MISS ALL OF MY CONTIKI FAMILY!  Lots of LOVE and CANADIAN HUGS to everyone!!!