Sympathy For Mary & Joseph

Milhouse: Amsterdam... The land of dope & glory.

I have to say, as much as it is slightly stereotypical to think that all Amsterdam has to offer is hemp, hookers & a number of canals, it is quite amusing that the first fragrance to hit your nose once the exit Centraal Station is that of a burning marijuana plant. And as for the infamous red light district, you're virtually plonked right in the thick of it before you can say "Big Neon Sign".

Needless to say, we soon learned what a "Coffee Shop" really sold when you're experiencing life a la Amsterdam. Of course, this wasn't the reason that I goaded Aye that Holland would be a beneficial landmark to our month's trip.
Oh no, no, no, no.
As well as it's fairly liberal side, Amsterdam is a beautiful & peaceful city with a hugely higher ratio of bicycles to cars, enough canals and little roads to almost rival Venice and last but by no means least

...Heineken.
Lots & lots of Heineken. There's a bar in pretty much every direction you look. Mind you, they still can't pull a decent Pint.

Since we hadn't booked a hostel before hand this time, I had a little look in the very handy 'Europe on a Shoestring' travel guide I was so kindly given as a birthday present and found 'Bob's Youth Hostel' to be a fitting solution to the problem. 'Cheap, clean, & only 5 minutes from the station', Bob's Youth Hostal would of been ideal.
But Bob was nowhere to be seen.
We looked for Bob.
We searched high & low for Bob - & Amsterdam is bout as flat as the come - but no luck came our way.

I personally put this down to two things... Either Bob has had enough of all this Dutch malarky and instead opted to pursue his life long dream of joining the circus, OR, it really is best for the both of us that I don't continue to give lame-ass directions that lead us a 1/4 of a mile in the wrong direction.

Anyway, cutting a long story short, things were starting to get a little hairy around the time it came to 9 O'Clock and we still hadn't found a half decent hostel that wasn't full. You could kinda feel a little tension building up and I even found myself getting slightly worried about where we were going to sleep.
We sure as heck weren't going to be sleeping it rough in Amsterdam... who knows what mite of happened!

Luckily, as a last resort we found a dodge-looking hostel (complete with big neon sign) called "My Home"... how nice.

We were greeted by a 30-something year old Canadian woman. To describe her, she looked exactly how you would imagine a 30-something year old Canadian woman to look... if that's any help. We managed to end up getting a room to ourselves which was phat, & the breakfast was awesome. But we ended up paying through our nostrils (€28 each for one night!), which was in this case,necessaryy, but that was when werealizedd we were spending way too much money. I think that's been our biggest problem so far; we've gotta keep an eye on our daily budget.

When we get to Prague though, me thinks things will be a whole lot cheaper. And everyone knows that means more spending money for Beer!

YYYYEEEEEESSSSSSSSS! : )