Hear the Bell Run like hell

Amsterdam was awesome!!!! There is almost as much barf on the street there as there is in Edinburgh. The whole city is just canals everywhere, everyone ridding bikes, really liberal (obviously) but just an overall good vibe in the city. We were booked in a Christian hostel which was bizzaro not going to lie. night prayer and surveys about how you pray is not really what I'm looking for in a hostel. However it was clean and a decent place to hang your hat at night so not too many complaints.

Bikes there are crazy!! You get out of the train station and there is a three story car park- filled with just bikes. You are way more afraid of getting hit by a bike then a car for sure! Its is hilarious because you see a mom with a kid in a bike seat in front of her... and then two more kid's seat behind. 4 people on one bike it was hilarious. Also I think I saw one person wear a helmet the whole time. Not even the police on bikes wear helmets- they actually usually have long hair all down waving in the wind. Also when there is a bike lane in Amsterdam, that apparently means that if you are on something with two wheel you cna go for it. Bikes, scooters, motorcycles, htye all rip up these little paths.

Anyways Allie and I were pretty pumped on finding some traditional pancakes and found a great place called Sara's pancake house. I'm about 90% sure she is not originally from Amsterdam, or Holland for that matter, but she still knew how to make some good pancakes.

So basically our days were filled with exploring all the canals, going on tours, and dodging bikes left right and centre. The funny thing about tours in the city are that locals there are so tired of tourists that they actually yell liar at tour guides to make the tourists think that they are getting some crazy tour. In fact they tell you this is going to happen before you even start tours so that you know they aren't just stringing you along. Sure enough the first one we went on an old man with a fist full of fries yelled at our tour guide about being a liar. Quite the sight actually.

However it wasn't the best interruption of a tour on our trip to Amsterdam. We also went on a tour of the red light district. this place is bizzaro. Ladies in windows to be purchased for sex. Well we toured around and saw "the sights" You would not believe some of the stuff. A rather large woman was wearing a jean skirt that did not in fact cover her rear at all and I got an eye and a half full of her business. Anyways about part way through that tour an old drunk man- wearing slippers- came up to our tour and started rambling about the district. He actually started calling himself Mary J. Blige and told us that even if you only pay for 15 minutes with a lady that you have to try and stay with her longer, and announced his record was and hour and a half. after this great enlightenment his fun was over because he then announced that if our guide was a prostitute he would buy her for sure.

We also discovered where the best of the best ladies can be found- its a tiny sketch alley just down the road from the Prostitute union office... and a kindergarten. I didn't know where to look- eye contact, no eye contact? what is the protocol. Well let me tell you its not to take pictures. There are stickers on all the windows saying no pictures and one guy attempted. A crazy huge bouncer came out and tried to smash the guy's camera. then we were told that a lot of the ladies have bottles of urine beside them to throw at people who try and take pictures. mmmmmmm.

Once the frolic in the red light district was over we did some reading by the canal and more exploring.

On our final day in Amsterdam we rented bikes and ripped around the city. this is by far the best, and most fun, to get around the city- highly recommended! We rented them so close to when our train left that we actually went to our hostel picked up our packs and then rode back to the train station with them. Hilarious! We are talking about backpacks that weigh about 12kg and go from the back of my head to below the waist. Basically it was a mission to not get thrown off the bike when turning corners. We laughed hysterically the whole way.