WARNING: may contain some explicit images
The weekend started off slightly less excitingly than the rest of the time we were there. We left Plymouth for a grueling 6 odd hour drive down to Dover to catch the ferry to Calais, France. Naturally, the best way to keep ourselves occupied was to watch a few films and chat about life. It took me a good half an hour to form a hammock using a scarf and the handles on our seats to rest my iPod in to watch the film on....then after I had gone to all that effort, the reps actually put a film on the TV. Time wasted.
After a while we finally got to Calais. At this point it is 2am and all we want to do is sleep. But we decided to go out on the deck of the ship and pretend we were on the Titanic. Standard. Our boat looked like this:
We finally got in to Amsterdam at around 9.30am - major relief! Took bloody long enough. We dumped our bags and went straight out to do some exploring.
I have to say, it is such a pretty place. It's full of canals, and everything is really tall. However, I have to say one thing: DEATH BY BIKES. Apparently there are more bikes in Amsterdam than people.....mental.
Typically, we headed straight on over the the Sexmuseum - had to be done as soon as we saw that it existed! Safe to say it was one of the funniest experiences of my life! It was just all innuendos and dicks EVERYWHERE. You definitely have to go if you're ever around that area.
We then headed over to the main square for a little look around to see what was about. I can't quite remember what this lovely building is to the left, but it looks pretty so I took a picture. There was all sorts in the square including Madame Tussaud's, and a shit ton of bars (which we went to on night number 2 on a bar crawl!).
We also stumbled across this gorgeous hot chocolate shop which had the most amazing hot chocolate you have ever seen in your entire life (as you can see by the picture). We went back a few times over the entire weekend. It wasn't to badly priced either really, about €3 which is pretty cheap for Amsterdam.
It was about that time of day where we thought it would be a great idea to be serious tourists and get one of those boat cruise things down throughout the entire city so that we could see everything without having to move much. It was quite good, actually. Saw loads of sites, including this building here which looks like something out of a movie. If I remember rightly it is some form of educational center about boats and shit.
Didn't get a chance to go in the Heineken brewery thing, but we are heading back in the summer for even longer so this is a definite must-do for us. I actually drank a hell of a lot of Heineken when we were out there. It is one of the cheaper drinks - a pint costs around €3-4 whilst a single vodka is around €7 so you can see why I drank that now!
We treated ourselves that night to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe which was so lush. It did cost me about €20 which was madness (could have been spent on shots) but thought why not? Ended up having a beautiful cheeseburger which was huge and could have easily been two meals, but I am a fatty and ate the lot.
Here is a casual horse drawn carriage for you.
That night we went out in town (just outside the Red Light District) and got a teeny bit drunk (quite drunk). Vikki and I ended up getting lost on the way home and bumped in to two girls who were on our trip who we are actually now really good friends with and planning on going back to Amsterdam with them in the summer - woo getting lost!
The next day we decided to book tickets to go to the Xtra Cold Ice Bar, which is apparently the coldest in the world at -10 degrees. I have been dying to go to the one in London, so was so happy when everyone agreed to go to this one. We paid around €15 because we booked it with the boat trip we did. You get two free drinks per person when you get inside the ice bar which is awesome. I think there was the choice between Sourz shots, non-alcoholic juice, or Heineken - naturally Heineken was the answer. It's really awesome because everything is made out of ice. The seats were ice, and the glasses we drank out of were made of pure ice - was good because it meant the drinks were permanently cold. Unfortunately you aren't allowed to take pictures in there so the only two I have are the two below - sorry!
Here is mine and Vikki's faces for shiggles.
That night we went on a massive bar crawl organised by the reps. It was beyond mental - apparently we went to 6 bars (I don't remember all of them). We got a free drink in each bar, and were constantly being supplied with shots. So it is safe to say we got a teeny bit drunk. Shockingly, we didn't get lost that night and safely made it back to the hotel to await the morning hangover and the 16 hour journey home.
As predicted we were all very hungover the next day, and dreaded the journey home. It was made better by the fact that we spent most of it chatting away and singing songs from Pitch Perfect. We also stopped by a Belgian chocolate factory which made everything just that little bit better. It was really choppy on the ferry back, but the sun was setting and I managed to take this gorgeous picture of the sea and the sun (I am very proud of it, shhh).
So without all the embarrassing stories and cringey drunk pictures, that was my weekend away in Amsterdam!
I know this is a really short (ish) post, and I promise I will get back to my normal posting schedule in the next few days.
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Please drink responsibly.
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