For those who didn't know I've been in Amsterdam for three days. Back home now to my more mundane surroundings for a bit of recovery so I thought I'd write a bit on the subject.
Ok, so now I'm not sure what I was going to write... hmm... wait a sec....
Well, the trip was for my friend's stag do (bachelor party to those across the pond). We left Oxford at about 7am on Saturday. Getting there was a bit of a mission. It involved driving, then a bus ride, then a plane journey, then some walking, then a tram ride, then some more walking. Finally got to the appartment at about 3pm. The appartment was a pretty cool place to stay. There was only really supposed to be four of us and the appartment supposedly slept a maximum of six, but there was plenty of space for all eight. There were two bedrooms, but we brought a few blow up mattresses so it worked pretty well.
The rest of the first day we just spent wandering the streets of Amsterdam really... Trying desperately to get our bearings, (mostly unsuccessfully) and moving from bar to coffee shop to bar to club to bar. Of course we also did the customary lap of the red light district... That's a bizarre place. For those that don't know prostitution's legal over there and the red light district is just like a big shopping centre only in every shop window there's a girl in her underwear trying to beckon you inside... That's always gonna be surreal to me, no matter how many times I see it.... also quite amusing!
You see I think I may have peaked a bit early with this blog - now I have to find something original to say about the other two days when really the format was much the same as the first day. Most of us got pretty wasted and provided each other with a lot of amusement at various points, but nothing that much out of the ordinary really....
So yeah, there's not a lot more to tell really. We had booked in to play a round of crazy golf on the Monday afternoon, but when it came down to it none of us got to bed on Sunday 'night' until about six or seven in the morning. By the time we were all up and mobilised on Monday it was something like four in the afternoon. There were a few sore heads and no one could really be bothered.... So, as you may have guessed, more wandering, more coffeeshops, more bars.... Before we knew it we were back to lugging bags across town and experiencing every form of public transport known to man once more!
Eventually got home at about midnight last night (Monday night.) I was glad to have a real bed and a toilet that I could flush without taking the flushing mechanism apart and reaching my hand inside the wall, tearing holes in it in the process!!
One thing that has me scractcing my head - I was wandering around town aimlessly on Monday morning at about 10am (waiting for the others to wake up) and it became apparent that all the ladies were already in their windows attempting to ply their trade. I thought to myself... What sort of market are they trying to appeal to? Surely the tourists are most likely still in bed and most of the locals will be at work.... I dunno, just seemed a bit strange to me!
I'll have some photos up soon. I have no idea how many and what they're gonna be like. I took a disposable camera and I need to go get it developed.... Anyway, we shall see.
