Amsterdam- XXX

once again, kate and i ran into problems while traveling from brugge to amsterdam. the train to brussels was fine but the train to asmterdam was delayed about 45 minutes. so of course we go to amsterdam a bit later than expected. this worried us because our other friend, alex (from PC wooo), was already at the hostel and for some reason we could not get a hold of him on the phone. even worse, if we didnt get to the hostel by 11 they closed the front desk. and duh, we were gonna get into amsterdam past 11. so finally i got enough courage to ask a guy sitting across from us to use him phone and we called the hostel and they gave us the code and it was all good.
we got to amsterdam and had to buy tickets for the tram..their language..dutch..is disgusting like flemish and although everyone speaks english i was getting nervous to ask questions. we got to a desk to buy tickets and i explained to the man what i needed. he asked me where i was from and i told him ny, but im studying in paris. so he was like "OHHH FRANCAIS BLAH BLAH" and spoke to me in french..soooo that worked out i guess.
ANYWAY, we finally got to the hostel where alex was very happy to see us. kate and i were starving so we got kebabs (of course) and we also got something else that i will not write about on this blog. and then we went to bed.

the next morning, we woke up early in order to do the "free tour" in amsterdam. unforntuntly it was raining but luckily we had an AWESOME tour guide to keep us entertained. he was portuguese so he had an accent :) verrrry nice. i was very relieved by this point because when i got off the train last night i was kinda dissapointed by what i saw. it looked like amsterdam was just some regular city. and i was thinking whats so special about this place. but as we got to the center of town and started our tour i was completely proven wrong. amsterdam is amazing. theres so many canals that its hard to walk even a few blocks without having to cross a bridge. theres 1000 bridges in amsterdam! the buildings and houses lining the canals were so pretty. most of them were narrow because back then, when merchants and traders lived there, they had their houses on the canals in order to reach their boats easier. since there were so many, the government said that the more narrow your house was, the less taxes you paid. and theres that. but anyway, the town itself is just great. theres areas that are very old and most streets are cobblestone and then theres newer areas that i had seen last night. the houses even lean slightly towards the water making the sight even more breathtaking. the red light district was of course on the tour and although many people are turned off by it, i thought it was so cool. hah. i mean, its part of the town, and people know its there..dont go see it if youre expecting girls dressed in jeans and a tank top..theyre PROSTITUTES, trying to sell SEX to men, obviously they will be in thongs and a bra. and the funnier thing is the red light district started because of the church. the priests would keep their mistresses in one area near the church which eventually became the red light district. THEN sailors started using it and priests would make money because if sailors wanted to confess and be forgiven they had to pay up. how convenient. psh and people question my lack of faith in religion. OH and theres varities of girls...fat, old, young, colored, etc..and unless youre gay..dont go near the "blue lights" cause those are the women...who arent really women. DOT DOT DOT.
ill give you guys a little overview of how smoking works in amsterdam. selling, buying, and growing weed is actually illegal in the netherlands. however, in the 1970's, when both weed and HEROIN were popular, police turned a blind eye on weed because they saw it as harmless and concentrated on catching all heroin users. this actually worked and the system still exists today..obviously. although it is illegal, no one has been arrested for smoking a blunt in about 30 years. mostly, it is smoked indoors but unless youre obnoxious about it you can smoke outside. so many times while walking around its common to get a whiff of pot from someone walking by. coffeeshops sell the weed in different varieties, pre-rolled, and in brownies. these coffeeshops are strictly NOT allowed to sell alcohol and if asked where they got the weed from theyll probably say "some fairies dropped it off last night". and theres your little lesson about pot in amsterdam.
ANYWAY, after the tour we went to the anne frank house. yeah thats right, i saw her ROOM where she hid, oh shit. that was pretty cool. then...we had dinner and got ready to go on the pub crawl for the eve of my 21st birthday!

the pub crawl was possibly the most fun ive had in a while. we got to the first bar/club and met a few people. of course, i had to tell them it was my birthday and we ALLLLL became friends woo. we went to 5 bars/clubs and they were all very very fun. just so you know, amsterdams favorite song is "beat it" by michael jackson. EVERY single place played it. we even met some australians and over the night i learned that two of them were actually polish australians...whatever that means. but yeah they spoke polish and it was AWEESOME. after a long fun night, we got home and slept only to wake up for another fun packed day.
IT WAS OFFICIALLY MY BIRTHDAY. so we got breakfast (kebabs again...oh god) and went to the heineken brewery which we heard was something you cant miss. me and kate had already seena brewery in brugge so we were basically experts at brewing beer but whatevz we went anyway :) and who do we see there? the aussies! woo so we hung out with them again..and yes its true, the brewery is pretty sick. im still wearing my cool wristband today. we got free beers (and i got more than just the 3 we were given because kate and alex gave me some of theirs cause it was my birthday yay). then we took naps...got dinner..and went out..again. we went to this place called the grasshopper and it was pretty cool although the crowd was a bit older so we took a taxi to an actual club that the aussies knew about and i got in for FREEEEEE. after some dancing we went home and my birthday weekend was concluded. and i have thus named it THE BEST 21st BIRTHDAY.
so we had a while until our flight to london and after checking out of our "budget hotel" we walked around a bit since it finally stopped raining! then, just as i was about to take the second bite of a hotdog that i bought at a vendor at the dam square WHO DID WE SEE.....the AUSSIES. i swear they were stalking us. i mean amsterdams small but seriously. so since we all had late travel plans (except alex who left then for london to meet us there later) we went to see shutter island together. although leo was good the movie itself was eh..i dunno i kidna figured it out halfway through so it got too long for me. after the movie, we said bye to our new friends and went to the train station to make our way to the airport and finally..london.