Eurotrip: Amsterdam

9/15-Paris to Amsterdam:
We woke up at 6 am :( dropped our bags off to Hans at 7:15 and the group walked to Gare du Nord station to catch the train to Amsterdam. After a short 3 hours and beating Gweed at War twice, we got to Amsterdam shortly after noon. Once there, the "Lawn Zombies" set off for food and other local fare. We ate at this weird pizzeria/steakhouse where we all had cheeseburgers that were definitely not made of beef lol. We found a coffeeshop called "Pick up the Pieces" which ended up being the exact same coffeeshop that Derek and I had been to when we were in Amsterdam last time. Most of the afternoon was full of giggles and munchies, and wondering around town to try and find the Anne Frank Huis. We ended up meeting the 3 Aussie girls instead (D, Bel and Hayley) and went to another coffeeshop called "Free Adam" where some of the girls ate special cake. Once we left there, Derek and I did some sovenir shopping and we all caught the coach back to check into our hotel at 4:30.

Our hotel for Amsterdam was Best Westerm Blue Square.. wow! Super freakin nice! Derek and I were beyond tickled when we saw a normal size bathroom and comfy pillows AND clean sheets! (our last visit to Amsterdam was a bit shady hotelwise). Anyways, our included dinner was at 6:30 which consisted of a fairly good buffet. My stomach seemed to adjusting well to Holland food. Caught the coach at 7:30 to the Red Light District where most of the tour group experienced a live sex show. To be honest, I was disappointed. Nothing more than standard boy/girl! lol, I think most people were quite relieved when we finally left just to escape the boredom. After that waste of money, we just caught the coach back to the hotel for an early night.

9/16-Amsterdam:
Woke up at 7 am (are you seeing a dreadful pattern here?) and left the hotel at 8:30 for a small town outside Amsterdam called Edam. What a cute little town/village! We went bikeriding for a little over an hour which was really cool. Got a group picture here:

Also went to a cheese and clogmaking presentation--interesting. Derek and I bought a wheel of pepperjack cheese-yum! Afterwards, the coach dropped us back off in Amsterdam. A group of us ate french fries (Amsterdam has the best french fries!!!) and walked to the Anne Frank Huis (apparently we were only a block away in our futile search the day before lol). Anne Frank was pretty depressing. You weren't allowed to take any pictures and many of the rooms were bare with exerpts of her diary written on the wall or on casings that held other artifacts relating to the Franks or the Holocaust. The house was in a very old building and the stairs that led to where they hid were quite steep! Derek and I realized we needed a pick-me-up so the 2 of us along with Gweed and Jen walked about 20 minutes to the Heineken Brewery. We did the 2 hour tour which ended up being a lot of fun and it also included about 2.5 beers each. Derek and I decided to buy a little sovenir: our own personalized bottle of Heineken :)

After quickly (in 15 min!) drinking 2 beers, we caught the tram back to Central Station. Trams/buses can be a bit odd in Europe when it comes to actually paying for them. We got on the tram, tried to pay but were waved off. When we reached the destination, there was no place to insert coins or money so we just got off! That also happened to us when we were in Rome 2 years ago.. I dunno, like I said its just odd. Derek and I ran into the train station to buy Charlie some Belgian chocolate and then caught the coach back to the hotel.

After quick showers, we got back on the coach to go to dinner at the Sea Palace, a floating Indonesian restaurant. Alright, I have to stop here to explain a few things. A) It is female time for me. If you don't know what that means, you're dumb. B) Me and Asian food do not generally mix. I almost always puke or have the shits. C) Remember I've already had basically 3 Heineken.

Anyways, we eat at this restaurant where I try almost everything (because I have a good buzz from the now 5 beers I've consumed) and am quite excited to get on our canal cruise that features unlimited drinking for an hour and a half. And I literally spent that hour and a half drinking as much beer as I could (when I wasn't spilling it on my husband's shorts or Jen's camera). The original plan before going out was that Derek and I would return to the hotel after the canal cruise to get a good nights sleep, but oh no, drunk and happy Jessica insists that we go out with everyone else. So we ended up walking to this bar/club called Players which was basically empty when we walked in. When the bar found out we were from Contiki, they gave us all a free round of shots and were pretty lax about what we did for the rest of the night. After a reluctant shot of Sambuca, I switched to water for the remainder of the night. However, that did not stop me from pole dancing and making a fool of myself. Ah, my wonderful husband.. who was completely fucking sober. How he put up with us.. I still don't know. Well, finally around 12:30, he was ready to go so me, him, Matt and a pissed off Chloe caught a cab back to the hotel. This was the beginning of the Derek-Chloe disaster. Gah. Anyways, when I got back to the hotel I was actually feeling pretty sober and went to bed with no worries and looking forward to the next night when we would be in Berlin...

A shot of me and Gweed on the canal cruise:

Berlin next folks.. until next time Ciao!