Well, Amsterdam is a city unlike any other. After visiting Italy, France, and the UK one could even question the purpose Amsterdam serves.
On Sunday night when we arrived we checked into our hostel, and first off we were told the rules.
... No smoking, eating, or drinking in the rooms.
all of the above are allowed in the lobby, including Hash, Pot, and Cigarette smoking, just no hard drugs.
Wow. So the hotel receptionist told us this. This was a new idea.
We walked to find something to eat and I was FREEZING. It was at least 20degrees colder in Amsterdam than Italy. Since I had packed lightly, with everything in a backpack, I had not brought anything warm enough. I bought a scarf/shawl thing to keep me warm and we found an irish pub to have dinner at.
Afterwards we wandered back to the hostel, and ran into a group of kids from Penn State. They were roughly our age and we started talking to them, then wandered around Amsterdam at night, taking in the sights... which mainly consisted of the Main Drag, with restaurants and souveneir shops, and the Red Light District. We stopped at several pubs and had beers, it was a great time talking to them.
The Red Light District was incredibly shocking and almost surreal, but wandering in a group of 7 made it comical. While the surroundings were taboo and strange, most of the people walking around were tourists of all ages.
A city that cannot be described!
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