Contiki Begins in Canal City!
Trip Start
Aug 22, 2011
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3
10
Trip End
Sep 17, 2011
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
My lasting impressions of Amsterdam? Crazines. This is the place I joined the Contiki tour, and where the party kicked off with a bang.
My flight from England (East Midlands Airport) to Amsterdam was at 6am. Yes, I said 6AM! Naturally it was horrendous trying to get up for, though I was excited to join the Contiki tour, meet new friends and see Gemma.
I said my goodbyes to my grandparents and cried my eyes out before mum and dad drove me over to the airport. After check-in (and already being over the weight limit) we sat in a cafe and chatted before I'd say my good byes to them also. They followed me to the departures gate, which was clear glass. I could still see them after going through, and they continued to wave and act like fools up until I had to have my bag checked. They actually got into trouble for coming too close to the security area! This is why I love them.
I landed at Amsterdam airport at around 8am, bright and early! My first test would come within moments of touching down - how to get from the airport to my hotel. I was a bit of a lost dog wandering around excitedly, before I found shuttle buses to hotels outside. I sweet talked one of the hotel buses to taking me to my hotel on his way, and got to sit in the front with him, which was good as most of the other passengers wreaked of cigarettes so I was happy to get away from their stink.
After arriving at the hotel at 9am, I had until 6pm before the tour would begin, so I decided to find my way down to the Anne Frank Haus which was one of my pre-determined top things to do whilst in Amsterdam. I wasn't sure if we'd go there with the tour, but I took a punt and decided to go there. I started off by taking the tram in the wrong direction, which had me a little nervous of my navigation skills to get back to the hotel later!
I found my way to the right place though, and picked up the most amazing hot chips from a stall near Anne Frank Haus. Anne Frank Haus itself is a museum displaying her story/life during the time wen her and her family were in hiding in the secret annex during WW2. The Franks were Jews, and had to go into hiding so they would not be taken to a concentration camp. They stayed for over 2 years before being ousted and caught by the Nazis, where all but Anne's dad Otto passed away in concentration camps.
Parts of Anne's diary are on display throughout, and you walk around the secret annex, which is very somber and surreal.
I was able to fit in some lunch along the canel in a cute underground cafe, before walkng down to Dam Square and around canels to check the place out before meeting up with Gemma and the rest of the Contiki travelers. What was great, was that I found out the people on Contiki from Paris had gone to the Anne Frank Huis that day before coming to the hotel, so I was glad I didn't wait!
Our first night was quite the introduction to Amsterdam, attending a sex show in the Red Light District; and just the luck of the girls, we were placed in the front row, with a 'great' view. Emilie was quite shy, which made it all the more funny seeing her reactions to what was going on onstage and the lesbians took quite a liking to her...
The best part of the show was when one of the girls from our tour, Jess, was dragged up on stage for a strip lap dance by a very handsome well-built man. I can speak for all the girls when I say we were disappointed we didn't get to be in Jess' shoes.
One of my top highlights of this leg of the tour was our morning trip to Edam, the countryside town known for its cheese and clogs. We took a bike ride around for about an hour, along the way seeing a famous Holland windmill. Most of us were pretty seedy from our massive night out the night before, but the fresh air did us all some good and we were all ready to back it up later that night for our last night in Amsterdam. The clogmaker Steve was a great host, and carved a clog from a piece of wood in front of us in demonstration.
A group of us decided after our trip into the countryside, we'd go to the "I Amsterdam" sign in Museumplein, then walk over to the Heineken brewery/museum. The I Amsterdam sign is a tourist hot spot, everyone climbing all over the giant letters.
After visiting Museumplein, a few of our 'crew' piked out as they were tired from the night before. The ones of us from our 'crew' that made it to the brewery had a fantastic time. Highly recommend doing this in Amsterdam. We went on a simulation ride, did karaoke in dutch, taste tested, learnt to pour the perfect beer, and had free beer at the end to cap off the afternoon. We all got our Master Pourer certificate from Martin, who taught us how to pour.
Sarah managed to pour terribly, and smash one glass - and she has worked in a bar before. We were with Benji, the birthday boy who continued to say 'The is the BEST birthday EVER' the whole way around the brewery! It was great to be a part of making someone's birthday such a fantastic day. Especially when we had only met the previous day.
The day didn't end there. We then had dinner at the Sea Palace restaurant on the Canal, which was a chinese restaurant that looked like one massive pagoda. The food was delicious and we ate like kings, and each received 3 free glasses of wine, so we were all quite giggly by the end of the meal.
Our whole Contiki tour group then spent the next hour or so drinking as much as possible on our Canal cruise which provided as much beer and wine as we could drink. It was a great chance for us all to become more familiar with each other.
One of the boys on our tour Hamish only just arrived in time for the canal cruise from England. He had missed his flight from England as he thought it was a different day, and then when he realised he had to wait all day at the airport before he could get a flight to Amsterdam!
From the canal cruise, we took a tram down to a nightlife precinct and all went to party the night away in a nightclub.
After nightclubbing, Benji, Jono, and I went to the Piano Bar, which was by far the best part of my night. The piano player found out it was Benji's birthday, so the whole bar sang him happy birthday, and we requested many different songs for Benji. Benji continued with 'The is the BEST birthday EVER', and the Piano player (an American lady) sang 'I still call Australia home' for us - which we responded well to by belting the tune out. Obnoxious Aussies.
We got back to the hotel not much before 4am, before a 7am wake up to get on the coach bus to motor down the Autobahn destined for Berlin.
Bring on Berlin!
