First of all, I apologise for the late post. After Amsterdam, I went to Warwick for an economic summit few days later. And in between and after that, I just been slacking and wasting my time on the Xbox :D

Anyway, Amsterdam is so beautiful. By a remarkable stroke of fate, the sun was shining brightly when I left the train. Everything looks so picturesque. Walking around, I was like THE tourist again, taking photographs wherever I go. I was so engrossed before long, I realised I was really in holland (throwback to the army term horlan, which means getting lost). It took me a while before I found my way back, asking kind strangers and discovering new stuff.

After getting to my hostel, I realised I couldnt check in till 3. So I walked around Amsterdam carrying my small backpack. My hostel is in a strategic location, smack in between a coffee shop and a strip club. Looking out of the windor, the red glow of the red light district just winks in. To the North West, is the touristy area and monuments. And my hostel, turns into a club at night. I tot it was pretty funky. So if you are going to Amsterdam, I totally recommend St Christophers Inn. Cheap and good. Who says you cant have you cake and eat it too :D

The next day, I went to see the countryside. Being ambitious, I rented a Dutch backpedal bike and almost got into a few accidents riding out to the countryside. I always thought that I was a pretty decent rider but I guess not. Firstly, I didnt realise the implications of backpedal till 10 minutes later. I only realised that there was no traditional brakes and I was trying to stop by using my leg aka Flintstone style. After awhile, I realised all you need to do is to back pedal and you will stop. And the bike was slightly too high for me, so basically, it was a Dutch Torture Device for me.

The views outside were nice and it was nicely match with a dull ache in my rear posterior region. I was walking like a duck for a few days after that adventure. However, if you ever go Amsterdam, you should really bike the countryside. Its beautiful. Even though it was 50 km and 6 hours of hell. Each time a car drives by, I wished I was driving too.

The next day, I met my friend and we went to do some touristy stuff. Basically, we ate dutch pancakes which rock, went Anne Franks Museum, went Sex Museum and went Amsterdam Torture Chamber. They were all interesting in their own ways and I really enjoyed it :). One thing about Amsterdam was that the very first image I had was of my big sister taking a photograph outside the Sex Museum. So I really had to go in there :P

The next day, we took a train to Den Haag and went to Madurodam. Basically, its a place where they make miniature models of important Holland buildings. You can see that each model is painstakingly build and was really beautiful. I also had alot of cam whoring moments in which I was a giant Gulliver killing Lilliputs and King Kong lost in Amsterdam. After hitting about 70+ number of models, we gave up and ran for the warm shelther of the cafe. After going back to Amsterdam, we did our usual touristy shopping. Basically, I bought a “I AMsterdam” shirt and a green shirt for St Pats Day. Kal went ahead and bought all the foodie stuff to bring back.

Amsterdam is a really beautiful city. I will go back one day again.