Hitting it in Amsterdam!

This is a trip that we had planned pretty much has soon as we stepped off the plane in the UK! Jenny & Nath had been busy planning their European tour and Amsterdam was to be the meeting point for us to catch up with them before they left to Berlin! I had been in Dublin for work Thurs/Fri so flew direct and meet Shane, Jenny & Nath there! Was pretty funny though when I arrived... because I had been at work I arrived at the Backpackers we had booked into in my work dress, so heels, makeup the works... laptop in hand and a small wheelie suitcase as I jumped out of a freaking flash town car.... yep looked like I was a bit lost walking into a dogy backpackers! anyway....

Once we all arrived and finished off the little Heineken keg that Nath had purchased and a few Heinekens out of the vending machine.... it was cheaper to buy Heineken than water or coke from the vending machines! Getting a little distracted... we headed out to find some dinner and have a drink. We worked our way through a few little bars and had a couple of drinks - Jenny and I went into one place and the barmen were entertainment in themselves... they were singing to us while they served and putting on quite a performance!

The next day we headed out and went to the Heineken Brewery tour... can you see the common theme that appears to be running throughout this weekend.... the tour was very cool, we got to sample the product throughout the tour and it was quite an interesting place with lots of interactive stuff - there is a classic video of Nath & Shane doing Dutch Karaoke that must be viewed (check my bebo)! At the Heineken Brewery Jenny picked up a friend... an Aussie guy that was travelling on his own so along he came as we wandered back into town! We headed to Dam Square and loittered among the crowd for a while soaking up the atmosphere! We then headed down into the Red Light District - our aussie friend was quite the tour guide and had obviously checked out some of these places earlier!

The red light district wasn't quite as shocking as we had been initally led to believe.... however it was quite in your face and there were a number of windows with women displaying their wares, Jenny and I took to figuring out which were ladies and which were lady boys! Amsterdam is pretty liberal and this was really shown by the nature of the advertising! There were big signs everywhere for live sex shows and all sorts other offerings! There were also numerous 'coffee shops', so as per Nath's motto 'when in Rome do as the Romans' we headed in to inspect the wares! We found a little place which is favoured by the stars and sampled some of their goods! Made for a funny afternoon!

The following day we headed to Anne Franks Huis but the queue was about two hours longs so we jumped on a canal boat and went for a cruise through the canal system before stopping for lunch and wondering through the shops to purchase some xmas decorations (my collection is coming along nicely)! We decided to head back to the Anne Frank Huis late afternoon where we met up with Jon! He is looking very tanned and had plenty of stories from his trip sailing across the atlantic! We went through Anne Franks Huis which was quite sobering - they never left the annex that they were hiding in for over 2 years... crazy stuff, the exhibit was very well done!

That night we went out for... you guessed it ... some more Heineken! We spent the night at a bar playing some pool before heading back to the hostel... Jenny and Nath left early in the morning to head to Berlin and we jumped on a plane back to London! Recovery time required.....

I have photos but have to wait for them to be developed... yep back on the film for now as my camera is still away getting repaired after Spain...