Hello from Amsterdam
Hallais
This is the only youth hostel we are staying at so it's possibly my only chance at internet so you get an early trip report.
Arrived tuesday. Even after being there for 30 minutes, which meant getting our luggage in the apirport and finding the platform/train number for the train to the city, we were confused out of our minds, haha. It's new to me to be in a country where I don't understand the language. Our hostel is great, very clean and nice, safe and quiet neighbourhood a little outside the city center, good breakfast, we're sharing a room with two girls from canada and two from Israel.
Wednesday we went on a long walk in the city. Later we went to Madame Tussauds and the Anne Frank museum. We took a canal cruise too. There are more tourists than Amsterdamians here and more bikes than tourists. Pedestrians are at the bottom of the food chain and have to watch out for both bikes, cars and trams (trikk)! They were gearing up for Queens day on wednesday. We witnessed a fire in one of the hundreds of falafel places and we sat in the sun by a canal with mr Ben and mr Jerry. Vacation is horrible:P Came back to the hotel at night after 12.5 hours of walking:/
Thursday was queens day. We went to the city center, it meant a lot of walking since most of the public transport was not running. Everybody was dressed in organge (Holland's answer to the Irish green), there were flea markets everywhere, cheap junk food, tivoli, loud techno, funny smokes and beer beer beer. Trash everywhere! I thought Norwegians were the worst in the world to not pick up after them! We quickly got tired, at one point we were stuck in the crow unable to move for 20 minutes! They had public fully visible urinals that were frequently in use, no cover or anything, that was pretty funny, but girls had to pay 1euro to pee, that is so unfair. After 5 hours we threw in the towel and worked our way to the bus, a task that took 1 hour... Relaxed at the hostel for the evening, went for an area walk and tried a falafel for the first time.
Today we got up early again and went to the science centre Nemo. Sat in the sun for a bit (sun and ~18 celsius today). Walked around the city again, the streets were still messy from trash and also urine(!) from the urinals that were now laying on the ground. Yummy. Went to a small museum called electric ladyland, which is a small hudden place in a basement with crystals and mineral rocks that have flourescent properties and they put UV light on them and they shine in neon colours. So pretty and awesome (I have lots of pictures). Then we went and had our vegetables for the week, haha (minestrone soup). After that we did an organized tour of the red light district, which I totally recommend doing instead of going on your own. We got a lot of the districts history in and the inside scoop on the interesting stuff, like the sex shows and what is etiquette. The girls' rooms looked just as cheesy as the stories tell. Lots of the curtains were closed (meant they were busy) so they are not just for tourists to look at. The tour ended in a bar for free jagermaister shots, go Amsterdam:P
Now we are back at the hotel after another 12.5 hour day! We're taking the train tomorrow at 11 to Brussel and changing to Paris, going straight to Disneyland. Everything's been good so far, we're sunburned and happy.