Our final stop with the contiki winter wanderer tour was amsterdam! Warning this is not a G rated blog, parental supervision is advised. We got there in the evening, had supper and then headed out straight away to let the fun begin. We hopped onto the bus and were greeted with a wonderful soundtrack themed for night, songs included: sexy and i know it, cuz i got high, sexual healing and a clip from pulp fiction. We passed by a couple of cool things on our way to the redlight district, one of which was a bike rack that held 6 thousand bikes! It was crazy big. When we got off the bus our tour guide Mike pointed out a few things to us such as the three person urinals placed on corners at night so guys dont pee on the streets. Kirsten thought it was like a porta potty but then realised there were no doors or anything, they just walk up to it and start peeing. Allison who clearly has superior knowledge about modes of relieving oneself knew exactly what it was. We also saw a statue of a lady called belle, she was the first prostitute we saw. We then walked down the streets of the district and were suprised to find that it was FULL of red light windows, they were everywhere . For those of you who dont know, a red light window is a huge window a hooker stands in front of flaunting herself and inviting guys in. They are all individual rooms with beds but we thought that it was probably a big building owned by the pimps because all of the rooms were connected. Prostitution is very popular, its really weird (but we've learned that most of europe is). There are actually places girls can go to learn how to be a proper prostitute and how to be safe while doing it. The other thing that was everywhere was coffee shops. These are not regular cafes, but coffee shops where when you order a coffee you are offered a special brownie or cookie as well. People smoke weed everywhere, we smelt it the second we got off the bus! Its so strange, people smoke joints like they do ciagarettes and they are the fattest joints I've ever seen, so huge. Eventually we got to our destination, Casa Rossa. To be blunt Cassa Rossa is a sex show. Kirsten can say it was easily the weirdest thing she's ever seen and was very glad she was not chosen to go up on stage to help the "dancers", unlike some people. After the unbelievably long hour we headed straight for the bar to drink away the awkwardness. In the bar there was a smoking room, similar to many european bars, this one was of course different. Basically you could get high just by sitting in there. We definitely got to see the Amsterdam culture that night.

The next morning was a little rough, we hopped on the bus at about 9 to go to a clog/ cheese place but didnt make it much further than that. We walked into this little house like building to see the cheese making demonstration and were instantly overthrown by the smell. It smelt like dead stuff and were so hungover it sucked. We learned that cmoked cheese is actually old cheese that they add water to and melt down then smoke but thats about it. After the cheese we moved next door to see a clog making demonstration, that was really cool! The guy made a clog right in front of us! He started a with a block of wood and cut it down with a big long knife until it turned into a clog it was really old fashionned and really interesting. He told us that all the clogs are hand painted and in the olden days a man would hand carve intricate designs into them for his bride. Now adays many dutch people still wear clogs, they are used for gardening and factory work. They are not that uncomfortable considering that they're just wood and they are perfect for working in a factory because they act like steel toe boots, if you drop something on your foot you are protected. I cant remember why they are used for gardening but Im pretty sure you can basically supsitute clogs for crocs, they're kicking around the house shoes. After we'd looked at all of the different clogs (there are a lot, all different sizes colours designs etc) we went outside and sat down at this table. Beside the table there was a really big bird, which we never decided whether it was a duck or a goose so we ended up calling it a guck. Anyways, we were a little nervous sitting next to it because it was so big and it kept coming closer to us but we were so tired we just wanted to sit so we did. Well, this goose decided to jump onto the picnic table (lucikly on the opposite side of us) and allison and i both screamed and jumped away from the table simultaneously. Our friend Byrn wasnt so lucky though and just about fell off the bench when the guck jumped up beside him. Then there was Connor the Canadian who just stood there laughing at us, Im sure it was pretty funny to watch. After everyone had finished buying clogs and cheese we got back on the bus and headed back into central amsterdam. We did a little bit of shopping but then decided that fighting the exhaustion and hangover wasnt worth it and headed back to the hotel. We slept the afternoon away and woke up in the evening to get up for our last group dinner and night out together.

For dinner we went to this nice little restaurant by "the ocean" as some people thought.. netherlands (the country guys, not amsterdam!) is surrounded by land, there is no ocean. Dinner (not supper) was really nice and we had the best apple pie for dessert! Afterwards we hopped on a boat and went for another canal cruise! This was the best one yet, mainly because it was an hour and a half of unlimited drinks! We took lots of pictures, had some good laughs and used the unbelievably awkward stool toilet and eventually it was time to get off. We then moved to this bar called the bulldog (which apparently we have in Canada) and onto another with cheaper drinks afterwards. The bar was awesome and everyone had a blast but the best part of the night was the bar we found afterwards. At about two five of us verntured off to find somewhere new and ended up finding the sweetest bar ever. Imagine the best social you've ever been to, the kind where you know everyone there an everyones silly drunk but its in a bar. Then add confetti, pot and crazy sick music, that was this place. It was the coolest thing, and everyone was having the best time the vibe was awesome. We left close to five and were quite dissapointed to find out that Mackers (McDicks) closed at 4, when asked someone where we could get food and he said the only place you could eat at that time in the morning was home, to which we replied we don;t have a home, but then settled for vending machine food when we got back to the hotel. The five of us then proceeded to take pictures with all of our roomates sleeping, of course waking them up the process, liuckily allison was spared. By the time I got to bed I was very happy that The two of us were not getting on the bus the next morning.. A couple of hours later we awoke to Byrn banging on the door and yelling at us to get up, we slept through our wake up call and were about to miss our chance to say goodbye to everyone! We dragged our still drunk buts out of bed and ran downstairs where we just got the chance to see everyone off. It was sad saying goodbye but we didnt have much time to be sad because when we got back upstairs we were greeted with 2 bottles of ice sitting outside our door (good one Tyler and Craig). After that we passed out until about 12 when we had to pack up and head to our next (much more affordable) hotel.