Amsterdam...

Oh Amsterdam. What can I say? Amsterdam is absolutely beautiful, with its many canals and beautiful architecture. Four of us took an 11 hour overnight bus from London to Amsterdam Friday night (we took a ferry across the English Channel) and arrived way earlier than expected to the hotel. We napped for a bit before heading out into the freezing city. First we went to Leidseplein Square where there was a little ice rink set up next to a bunch of Christmasy vendors selling trinkets and food. We walked down the little streets and past the many shops and ended at Dam Square which is a bigger square, busy with people walking about.

While Amsterdam is beautiful, it also has a dodgy side- the Red Light District. We continued our walk and decided to check out what the Red Light District is all about. Well, its pretty straight-forward. The streets are lined with girls in their underwear behind glass doors beckoning customers. It actually made me really sad for them. What happened in their life that made them decide to be a prostitute? We got out of there and went to a cafe where we hung out for a while. I know you know what Amsterdam is famous for (other then the Red Light District) so I'm just gonna leave it at that- if you don't know what I'm talking about, then good, we'll leave that topic alone. After hanging out for a while, we got dinner and headed back to the hotel, where we went to sleep super early after our long trip and slept in late the next day. The sleep was much needed after all the busyness of London and other travels.

On Sunday, we went to the "I Amsterdam" sign and took some touristy pictures. Then we went to the Heineken Brewery and did the "Heineken Experience." It's basically a museum dedicated to Heineken, but they have some cool interactive stuff, like a green screen music video thing where you can pretend you are on a boat in one of the canals of Amsterdam and they record you singing along to the music (which I had emailed to me in case anyone wants to see me act a fool), and being taught how to properly drink a beer. You also get two beers at the end of the tour, which we enjoyed.

After that, we walked around and hung out in another cafe, got food, and headed back to the hotel to collect our things and go to the bus station for our lovely 11 hour ride back to London.