Friday July 21

We woke up early this morning and took the tube to Liverpool Street and caught a train that took us to Harwich where we took a 4-hour cruise to Hoek van Holland. The cruise had 2 movie theaters, a bunch of restaurants, a casino and a store. I had a pizza from the restaurant and then we walked around and checked out the ship. When we got to land we took another train to Amsterdam. As we started walking to our hostel I noticed that the only shops I was seeing were sex shops and magic mushroom shops. We then figured out that we were staying in the middle of the "Red Light District." If anyone is naive as me let me explain to what that is exactly... prostitution and marijuana are legal and a part of everyday life. This area is directed for that kind of crowd. It is filled with sex shops, Marijuana cafe's and Magic Mushroom shops!! So we checked into our hostel and decided to walk around and find somewhere to eat. We ate at this Italian restaurant and I ordered a penne pasta with a 4 cheese sauce (with justification of the amount of walking we've done) and it was amazing!!! I really enjoyed the meal. On our stroll home threw the Red Light District we came upon souvenir shops and went inside to check them out and I can not describe the disgusting things that were on every t-shirt, every mug, every key chain, etc. Fortunately I did find some appropriate souvenirs to take home. So we were going home and the streets were filled with people and right next to our hostel is a sex shop and they had prostitutes in the windows dancing with hardly anything on and people luring you inside and I was so taken back by the amount of filth! We went to our hostel that we shared with 3 other girls, one was from Australia and she was really nice but the other girl that we met didn't’t speak English. We started to get ready for bed and realized that our bathroom was unisex. There were other men brushing their teeth in their boxers and I felt so uncomfortable! We went to use the sinks and they were clogged and filled with water to keep some alcohol cold. It was so out of my element. We turned down our sheets and Brighton’s were full of holes, which indicate that there are bed bugs! Our room was around 100 degrees and we were sweating profusely! Not only was I unbearably hot, I was having bad anxiety about the area we were in. Our hostel was located about a Pub so the music and the drunks were going all night long. The windows had to be open because of the extreme heat so the music and the noise from the streets were so loud. It was impossible to sleep. Brighton, Katie and I were sitting on the bed trying to figure out what we’re supposed to do and someone punched in our door code and walked right in our room! It was a lady that worked there and she started to tear off the sheets and make the bed. We were so blown away that someone thought that its okay to interrupt the guests in the middle of the night like that. An hour later a man opened our lock and came in our room and demanded to see our reservation tickets to make sure we’re all supposed to be staying there! What the heck?! So at about 3:00 in the morning Katie decided that couln'tuldn’t take it anymore and said she was going to go look for a hotel. I tried to talk her out of it but she started putting her clothes back on so I had to go with her. I was terrified as we were walking down the streets of the Red Light District. Katie and I linked arms and just walked, we did not stop for anythingdidn't didn’t find a hotel that had anything open so we walked back to our hostel and outside of the sex shop next to us was a guy wearing a leather thong with chains connected to his nipple rings. He was standing right next to our door and I was so nervous. I have never felt so uncomfortable and scared and helpless. We ran inside our hostel and waited until morning. I thought that the night would never end, ultimately the worst night I’ve experienced.
















This is the Royal Palace at Dam Square in Amsterdam.
It is no longer home to the Dutch Royal family.
















Katie and I just casually browsing through this
souvenir shop. Does something seem out of place?
















We are standing on the back deck of our ship.
It was so hold and obviously very windy!
















Here is our hostel, my bed (if you could call it a bed)
is on the bottom and Brighton's on the top.
The Salvador Dali Clock replicas painted on the
walls didn't make this place any more pleasant.
















This is Dam Square. There are many restaurants
and shops including the Amsterdam Diamond Center.
There was a street performer doing magic tricks.