Destination Unknown: Amsterdam

"Kylea and I are having a blast in Amsterdam, then i realised you said you'd try be here, and I wanted to rub it in that you missed it!!"

This is written (way) after the fact, but I will include the most awesome pictures so it doesnt matter anyway :)

Amsterdam was a blast! I can tell all the juicy details, but we did meet some interesting characters - starting with the guy who helped is get from Eindhoven to Amsterdam, on 3 different trains because our line was blocked after a fatal accident. He was reeeeally intense! We were talking to him, but sitting on the other side of the train from him, and he literally lent over the whole isle, and was practically ON Kylea, discussing politics and religion and shit! We were like, "Buddy, we're on our way to Amsterdam, y' hear..."

Secondly, and I have to thank this dude for his patience: on the last train from whereever we were to Amsterdam, I put my ticket somewhere really special, but not in the pocket of my jacket that I always put my tickets/boarding passes in! So when he came to check the tickets.... where was mine? SHIT! Kylea and I went through all my travel wallet, pockets, bag, make-up case, camera case, etc etc, and couldnt find it for the life of me! The guy checked the whole train, and came back to me and I was still looking and couldnt find it! OH GOSHHH!!!! He said "Look, I understand you must have a ticket if you're going to these lengths to find it. Just be careful next time, because not all train conductors are as nice as me." THANK YOU KIND SIR!!! And then, as I was thanking him, I remembered I'd put it in my passport, and found it two seconds later, and everyone around me laughed. Ohh well...

We arrived without further delay in this beautiful, neon city. Our hostel, "The White Tulip" was easy enough to find (just down the road from a sex shop...). Two Russian's who were staying in our hostel offered "Can you help us?" but meant "Can we help you with your bags" up the staircase. We said no thank-you, which sucked because then we actually saw the staircase!... it was almost as steep as Everest!!! And our rooms were on the third floor...

We went to Madame Tussaud's in Amsterdam, by the town hall - WOW!! They really are so impeccable! We got to play with Bob Marley's bongo's, Kylea kissed Justin Timberlake and I kissed Bon Jovi, Robbie Williams, and stole Brad Pitt from Angelina. We both had an intense discussion with George Clooney sitting at a table, and met Nelson Mandella, Barak Obama and Ghandi. It was all very exciting. We went to the Heineken Brewery, took lots of photos of bicycles and tulips and canals and their funny falling over buildings.

By night, on the first night, we were such tourists, and took our cameras and went to a 'cafe'. Then we went for a walk, to see if we could find the red light district (thinking it'd be quite hard). Turns out! We were living in the middle of it (We should have known, with the Condom Shop just down the road from our hostel...) Both Kylea and I wandered round this corner, and saw the red windows, then realised they ACTUALLY had women in them! ARGH!!! Thankfully my bag was big enough to hold both our camera's or else we could have got in trouble. It was pretty gross though, some of the women looked disgusting, others looked bored, sitting there filing their nails or talking on the phone. One lady, as Ky and I walked past together, stood up and started making gestures at us! AHHHH, DONT THINK SO LADY!!!!!! We also had a good laugh seeing some seedy guys come OUT from these windows. SICK! We got lost in the red light district (a whole canal + its side streets!) and it took us ages to get back to the hostel. Awkward...

The next day, we were invited in to see a live Sex show by a guy in a suit and practically screamed and ran away; yes we should have been used to it, but we werent. We found a really, really awesome cafe which we went into purely for the aesthetics - im not kidding, we both had a fruit smoothie! This place literally had layer upon layer of scribblings from anyone and everyone who had been there; it was everywhere! On the walls, the roof, the chairs, the pool table, the leather couches!!! It was awesome, and also the view looked right out over a canal, it was really cool. The other funny thing about being in there was seeing these two French guys getting told off for smoking normal cigarettes! "Only Marijuana inside Cafes!" growled the waitress, who then took away their ashtray...

All the buildings in Amsterdam are on angles, its so weird to see. Its like when they were building them, they looked too straight, and so they did it purposely. It kind of resembles a bookshelf, where the books just fit, but are uncomfortably squashed together and thus bent out of shape...

We had intended on going to see Ann Frank's house, but thought it would put a dampner on a happy holiday, so we left it. Plenty of time to see it, I figure...

I dont remember leaving Amsterdam, but Kylea had to go back to Salzburg, and I had to go onwards and upwards (geographically) to Sweden, to see my other lovely friends!!