With a little two-day hangover we went to Amsterdam from Dussedorf. We had to lay down in a park before we drove, playing some bottlebalance game and having some baguettes from Subway. Only three and a half hours later we arrived in Amsterdam. Again it was a little pain finding parking, but for (only!) 25 euros a day we parked it outside our hotel.

The girls from Dusseldorf met us once again in Amsterdam, and it didn't take long before the drinking started again. We got a tram for The Dam, one of the big squares of Amsterdam. From there we started to drink our way from bar to bar along a channel. Our chairs was so close to the water, if we had pushed our chairs back to get up, we would have fallen in. The channel boats floated by us, with partying people on them, waving to us. Our waitress was super stoned, trying to get our orders between her laughing fits.


We ran from bar to bar, having one drink in each. Just a few hours later, we were super drunk and happy.

We ended up on Rembrandt Square, another of the big squares. On the way there we passed through a gay bar area, where Dice was hit on by a huge man. (Yes, even bigger than Dice the Friendly GIant!) Luckily Ruth was there to save the day.

With all asses saved, we entered a bar in the square. A guy was playing live music, and the bartender was singing along, all in dutch. The bartender had this incredibly strange look on his face the whole evening, and the music and singing was just horrible. Kind of a scary experience. Dice of course had to go to the toilet there. Only to find out the roof was to low. So he hit his had, again. And then he had to go number one with his head in a constant extremely tilted position. At 4 am we separated with the girls, and went into deep sleep at the hotel.

Barbecue and Botanical Butterflies
Next day the four of us went to the botanical gardens in Amsterdam. It was a really calming experience. Some of us sat down and relaxed, while other walked around to look at what the place had to offer. One of the nice parts of the garden was the butterfly house. Fire and Ellen spent some time there watching the big butterflies flap their wings. Let's hope the butterfly effect won't be to serious that day...


Fire in the butterfly house at the botanical garden. The butterflies were HUGE.

After the botanical garden we went to a local supermarket and bought in stuff for a barbecue. We had a great time in a campsite grilling and drinking. At the end some very friendly ducks passed buy and got hand fed by Dice. Too bad they thought Dices toes was bread. The word "ouch" was yelled across the campsite
a few times..


Ruth and Dice were in charge of the food for our campsite BBQ party.

All good things comes in fours
Evening comes, and we decided to party again. Again we met at Rembrandt Square. At this point some of us was a bit tired of beer. So vodka and coke were picked a few times as a change. Dice spent the whole evening impersonating the dutch singing bartender from the day before. Ellen was teaching bartenders the famous black russian with guinness on. It's actually very tasty tasty if you dare try it. The reaction from the bartender when she asked for it was: "Black Russian with WHAT?!?!"

After the party, the four of us went to the campsite again, for a beer and to settle down after four nights of partying. We stayed up for a while in the campsite's main area, drinking and singing the night away.

Last day in Holland
The girls went back to Ireland the last day in  Amsterdam, while Fire and Dice went into a waking coma. A slow walk in the Dam area, and some food at a argentinian restaurant was all we got to do this day. One long sleep later we got into the car again. Now heading for Interlaken, with a small stop in Luxembourg.

Amsterdam

The people:
The people of Amsterdam are ok. It's a big plus that they all know English very well, makes communicating with them easier. The people of Amsterdam really dress up at party nights, more than the other places we've seen. Bus and tram drivers are mental, so be prepared for a roller coaster ride if you take a bus there. Your really have to hang on if you want to keep standing. Show up early to get a seat!


The ducks weren't scared of us at all, they liked us so much, they actually tried to eat Dice. He responded by yelling at them in Duck. Who knew Dice could talk their language?

The place:
Amsterdam seems bigger than it is. 730000 inhabitants is less than expected. The tight streets was quite crowded at times. But there never was any problems with that. The tram system and bus system was good. One taxi driver tried to charge us 35 Euro for a short taxi drive. That was gruesome, and we just took the tram across the street instead. Parking is hard to find there, and when you find it, it's expensive. Accomodation is also a bit expensive. We found a hotel that was cheaper than most hostels. Be sure to order hotels or hostels a long time ahead of going there.

The food:
Had two really nice meals there. One at an italian restaurant close to Rembrandt Square, and another one in and argentinian steak house near The Dam. Amsterdam is actually filled with argentinian steak houses, which is kinda weird, we haven't seen them anywhere else. At the argentinian place we had to order each part of the meal separatly. This meant you could make the dinner just the way you'd like it. Both places had great food!

The Girls:
Girls in Holland are beautiful, and really dress up when they go out. It seemed the girls out in Amsterdam was a bit younger than elsewhere, most people being at 25-30 or younger.


Dice's tip:
Don't forget to take your condoms with you all the time. When a girl is all naked and ready in her bed, you don't want to be scrambling all around the room looking for the condoms you forgot at the hotel!


Phoon of the day. Finally we found a shoe that fitted Fire properly.