The Dam.

Amsterdam, how to describe this city. I will say it's definitely in my top five cities I've ever been to (London and Paris being two others, I'm leaving the other two spots open for good measure.) Our first real night there, we spent it in a "hostel." I emphasize the quotations on that because it really was an attic with five beds, a "bathroom" and a window. I think the rest of the building was a hotel, but honestly, none of us could figure out what was going on. We were on at least the fifth floor of this building and the floor was extremely slanted. The next morning we decided to find another place to house ourselves. After frantic searching for cheap hostels, which were unfindable due to the New Year's celebration coming up, I minorly scammed a woman into telling us where we could find the cheapest hotel without paying her 25 euros for finding it for us. The Tourist Inn was located very close to both the center of Amsterdam (Dam Square), the train station and its own little private red light district. Oh Amsterdam.

After finding our hostel, we set out to find bikes to rent. We formed our little bike gang and were off to surely terrorize the residents and tourists of Amsterdam. Many people may know, I'm not the strongest biker... a certain friend (Allison...) may or may not have a huge scar on her leg from when I crashed into her. Needless to say, I was nervous. I stayed toward the back of our pack at first and eventually got used to it. We busted around Amsterdam all afternoon on those bikes. We went through a huge park (which was also covered in snow and ice, tricky), went to a market and eventually ended up at the Heineken Brewery. The brewery was really cool, we learned how the beer was made, got to see all the vintage bottles and learned how to properly drink a beer (the foam is there for a reason, apparently!)

After dinner, we decided to check out the infamous Red Light District. Interesting. I was well protected by the boys and to be honest, it was more touristy than anything. Strange place Amsterdam. But just to be careful, if at any point someone got uncomfortable or there was sketchy situation, we had a code word: Christmas Tree. It was said more than once.
The next day was our day for the Van Gogh museum. I love Van Gogh especially because he lived in Southern France and painted many things I have seen before while studying abroad in Aix. His paintings look like Provence (if a little trippy) and it made me so happy to see them again! I put on my iPod and listened to some tunes as I ventured through the four story museum. After the museum we walked around a little more but were pretty tired. The next day I had an early flight to Liverpool... the boys' flight was 6 hours later... so it was often to a new city and country all together! Next stop, Altrincham?