I Am Sterdam! Exploring continued

Meerrrry Christmas Everyone!!! I understand that it is boxing day down under, but here - the Europeans apparently celebrate Christmas twice. Today, the 26th, is "Second Christmas Day" so - if you had a really crappy christmas and want to redo your day yester - come on over here and relive the joy and merriment once again!!!! So how was everyone's christmas'? I heard it ended up being quite sunny down in Australia. I'm sure you are wondering what my white christmas was like? Ah. That is to come. I have missed a few days on my blog and thus would like to go through my last few days in a more linear fashion in order to not confuse myself and of course, most graciously, others. I am ever the polite and thoughtful individual am I not?

So going back again to Anne Frank Day, which I believe to be the second day of me being in Amsterdam. I did some epic exploring on my own - looking around the city, attempting to find the Anne Frank House and basically familiarising myself overall with the place. It's such a well layed out and unified city, all the architecture is so stylised in that classic look and all the canals just really frame the place so well! The city is divided into like a kazillion canals which parallel and criss cross each other and so everything is just basically built around them with bridges going over them - GREAT PHOTO OPP. I'm sure everyone who goes to Amsterdam gets a photo like this.

There's me and my sister while she looks super stylish wearing a fur stole!

Anyway, It's hard for even a photo to do it justice really. And you've probably noticed already, there are a lot of bikes. Everyone rides bikes here and cars drive pretty stupid. People also drive on the right side of the road which is trippy and the road markings are all incredibly confusing. Zebra crossings have traffic lights and even when they say go, cars still go. But mainly, you need to look out for bikes cause roads are predominantly made up of bikes, trams and then cars swerving in between them all.

As I was heading off, it was a very chilly day. I made it my goal to find myself a pair of gloves and some earmuffs - having rather sensitive ears. The cold wind makes me get a ear-ache that is super annoying. It took me forever to find the shops however and when I finally did, I was buggered and wet cause it had started raining. Still, I got myself some kinda cool black "100% leather" gloves. Not sure if they are, but they are like a soft suede leather or something - faded leather suede-y stuff. If anyone can imagine that? All the earmuffs were too fluffy for my standards so I left it there.

After coming home to recooperate and find a map of the Anne Frank House, I was back out again. From the Anne Frank House, I made it my goal to find this place called the Bulldog Hostel which was a place I needed to try and reserve for my trip around Europe later on in July. It's a pretty awesome hostel/hotel - which its roots in marijuana and has a very quirky culture to it.

It turned out that this particular hostel also happened to be smack bang next to the Red Light District haha and on the other side of the town, so I walked past canal after canal, counting them as I had on google maps before I left, and finally - as it started to get dark - FOUND IT! (it gets dark at like 4 here)

I was super hungry so I got some dutch chips, which apparently is super touristy. They asked if I wanted sauce, I couldn't understand any of the sauces except cheese sauce. So I got that. And honestly, it was so much cheese and it was so gross.It looks like only a bit in here... but gosh. I ate a few and felt so sick! Full orange cheese like in America it was. And yeah, but hey! It's what you do in Amsterdam. I'm going to try a different sauce next time....

All of Amsterdam is covered in lights around this time. It's hard to get a decent photo but like all the streets have lights hung along them and so do the buildings. Like massively. It's all very festive and fun to walk under. Here's some terrible photos of that.

At night, I checked out more of the red light district with Angela, but only VERY BRIEFLY on our way to the china town area to have some dinner. I think I saw enough :P I should be going back again to give myself a proper experience later on though apparently. We also had a few cocktails. This is a grasshopper - which tastes like a "8 0'clock mint.. chocolate and mint"

Oh you might not be able to see them, but I saw my first SWANS ... in the red light district!!!!!!!

Still to come, my trip to Cologne Germany to see the Christmas Markets and Christmas Day!