Amsterdam 2014

So I am home from Amsterdam now and I'm feeling rough. I can honestly say, never in my life have I craved a shower and sleep so badly. I was wondering if you could get jet lag from a coach trip? I have really bad travel fatigue. The 10+ hour coach ride from London Victoria to Amsterdam didn't feel as bad as I though it would, it could have been a lot worse. I guess doing a 'red eye' trip means you sleep and don't notice as much but each stop the lights would come on and wake everyone up.

It is messy/dirty due to it being King's Day.

We left London around 21:30 on Thursday and arrived around 10:30 on Friday due to delays on the ferry at Dover. We got to our hotel which was a stone throw away from Amsterdam Sloterdijk. The hotel is a hostel and hotel, we stayed in the private hotel side and it was beautiful! It was stylish, modern and very clean. We couldn't check in till 15:00 so paid our 5.5% city tax, left our luggage in the locked luggage room and took a train into town where we walked around the canals and took a trip towards Anne Frank House before coming back for 15:00 to shower and sleep a little. We were very lucky and had 2/3 days with loads of sunny, hot weather.
 

First night

We walked around the red light district which wasn't how I expected it. It had loads of BEAUTIFUL (and some not so beautiful) women in their sexy lingerie in a box looking room with a red light, some of the rooms you can see the beds. I saw a man leave the room and the woman was instantly back at the door, she didn't even have time to use the bathroom. As we walked past a peep show brothel I assumed he was a pimp or body guard unsettled me a little. He randomly said 'Nice tits!' I smiled and said thanks while crossing my arms to cover myself, he then went on to bargain with my friend on how much he'd take me for. €2000 for me to work for him and the four girls got a free peep show. I'm not sure if I should be honored or worried. Other than hen parties I felt like we were the only female only group around De Wellen (RLD). It is so easy to get lost in but could easily be the safest part of Amsterdam with loads of police, body guards and people looking after the women.  

Second night in a local nightclub/bar

Amsterdam is honestly a beautiful city but my hair and clothes are glad to be back in the UK. With the law being that you're allowed to smoke weed (cannabis) pretty much anywhere my clothes and hair smell of it, I was shocked I didn't get stopped at the UK border haha.

On the Saturday it was King's Day (Koningsdag) in Amsterdam which is a national festival. King's day was celebrated for the first time this year as it was formally Queen's Day. King's day meant 99% of people were in orange dancing to music, smoking, drinking and having fun walking around the markets, having boat parties on the canal and pretty much just living life. A few years back a law kicked in that you can only buy one alcoholic drink per person, which I fully understood after seeing a man fall over drunk who scared me enough into thinking he was dead! You don't see people acting like that from the drugs.

Picture Bomb

Sexmuseum

Sexmuseum - Before he shows all!

Where we played pool

Condomerie - the World's First Condom Specialist

Now I am home I am back to reality, back to university work with three assignments to write in little over two weeks, a group presentation and work. Wish me luck!

Have you ever been Amsterdam?

I'd love to read posts about what you got up to.

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