HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY : The start of Contiki number 1
BUYS OF THE DAY: 9.50EUR for a vodka and coke at a club!!!
WORD OF THE DAY: - always written phonetically – Doy Doy – Hello in Dutch
Good morning Contiki!
We had to meet this morning at 6.45am to get through some Contiki formalities before we could set off. The main one was that our bags had to be weighed and under 20kg for them to be loaded on the coach. They are very strict about this for the health of the driver who packs the coach and also for us, as some of the hotel won’t have stairs and they don’t want us to do ourselves an injury. I was obviously over the 20kg as I know my bag is around the 22.8kg mark. So I decided I should leave some of my stuff in London, things I won’t need for this trip. Such as the sleeping sheet, travel towel, thermals etc…… and this in turn reduced one of my hand luggage bags I was carrying to 2. I think about it now, and what I don’t use in the 2 weeks, do I really need in the first place? Anyway I hoped that I had removed enough to be under the 20kg, how embarrassing if I was over in front of all the Contiki people, shame job. Knowing I had a good reason that I was away for 16 months, but they didn’t know that yet and I didn’t want them to have the first impression that I was an over packer!! I came in at 19.6kg! So with a sigh of relief I was allowed to put my pack on the coach. I am storing my other bag at the Royal National for 50p a day, so for the 2 weeks it is only costing me 6EUR! What a bargain! Wish I had of known that back in April before my cruise, but hindsight is a wonderful thing right!
To give you an idea on the pace of the tour we do 8 countries in 12 days. We will leave the UK this morning, travel through France and Belgium to get to Holland, and then we will be in Germany tomorrow! Sounds insane right! So we are going to be kept super busy the whole trip. My new family consists of 50 people, and in 12 days, I guess you will make friendships with some and not others. It is always sad and exciting starting a new tour. Missing friends already made and the personal jokes and meeting new people and making new personal jokes – sometimes a double edge sword……
Onto the coach we hop for a 7.30am departure and a 90 minute drive to Dover to cross the English Channel. Our tour manager is Mark from Sydney, who looks like a brother of Grant Denyer, so we are calling him Grantly from time to time, and our driver is Pete from New Zealand. They both seem super cool and I think we will all get along dandy!! We crossed the English Channel in 90 minutes, winding our watches forward an hour hitting France at 12.50pm. This is where we played the ‘Get to Know you Game’ where everyone has to stand at the front of the coach and introduce yourself, what you do and if you are red, orange or green light in your relationship status. I HATE public speaking, but it really is a good idea for us to try and get to know the other 50 people on the coach in a shorter time frame. As it works out, there is a large contingency of Canadians, a few Malaysians, a few couples from South Africa, 2 from Brazil, 2 from Mexico and 2 Kiwi’s!!! AND then the breakup of those 50 people, approx. 15 of them works in the medical industry of some sort. From doctors, to studying doctors, to nurses, to an antithesis, a nutrionist and a few others as well thrown in. We should call this the Contiki Medical Convention!!! From here we travelled through Belguim, with a 45 minute break roadside ( law requirement for Pete ) we got into Amsterdam at 6pm.
We found out this morning that today is Queens Day. It is like the Queen’s birthday we celebrate back home, but MASSIVE!!!! Dutch people really know how to party!! The Netherlands still actually have a monarchy and they also still have a Queen, so to them it is one of the biggest days on their calendars! So after dinner, we got a ride into the city of Amsterdam and the place was amazing. There were people, albeit drunk people, everywhere, all dressed in the national colour of orange and the place was really buzzing! The streets were lined with rubbish, no joke it would have been 10cm high and just littered in all the streets. In their defence I guess it was like an outdoor festival and the place just gets trashed with so many extra people in the city.
We took a walk through the red-light district (sorry no pictures allowed) and it is what everyone claims. There are women standing under a red light ( or blue neon ) in a small room of about 2m x 4m, in their underwear, if you call it that it was skimpy to say the least, and if you’re interested you go up to the glass door, she tells you the price for what you want ( generally 50EUR for 15 minutes ) and if she likes the look of you, she will let you in, the doors close and the curtain gets pulled over and bam chicka bow wow…… That people is the red-light district. We walked a few of the streets and one of the most famous called skinny lane, and it is really surprising, most of the girls in this lane are just beautiful, like stunners. You wonder why they are in an industry like they are. Do they actually enjoy it? Is it for the money? Oh well, each to their own, and I’m not judging anybody.
Next stop was a “coffee shop”. This people, is code for a Marijuana shop. They are licensed shops to sell as the name also suggests coffee, but they are also permitted to sell joints and all things marijuana. They have space cakes, joints, biscuits of all different flavors and they are laced with marijuana. You do need to check with the proprietor on how much you should have, as you don’t want to eat the whole thing and then be comatose for the next 3 hours after not knowing how strong they are. ChelC got some vanilla hash cake, and guess what? It just tasted like, well cake. Some of the guys bought a joint for only 4EUR! How cheap is that? I don’t know what the going costs for drugs are, but it seems cheap. The prices do vary, and I am assuming it is the quality of the stuff but they can go up to 25EUR for one.
We did what all people do (well maybe not) when in Amsterdam, and we went to a live sex show! I have been before on my Contiki tour I did **cough cough** a few years ago. It is exactly as the name suggests. You sit in a cinema style theatre, with a stage up front and then people come out and have sex on the stage. Simple as that. We saw around 5 shows in the hour we were there all for the grand price of 30EUR, and that included 2 drinks, now is that value or what? They do have audience participation, but I was just not too keen, you just don’t know what type of bodily fluids etc…. you find on the stage! I mean how well would they clean that place? Anyway it was worth going, as they say when in Rome and it was a great experience. From there we had free time, so we shared our love and hit a few different clubs to get the feel of the place, and it was just packed everywhere you went. The drinks alone were expensive, I was getting a vodka and coke for 9.50EUR and I think the beers were 5EUR, so we stayed out for a few hours, but then we had to tackle the rest of the drunk population and hail a cab to get us home, which eventually we did and the cab fare went from 20EUR to 60EUR, but firstly there were 6 of us, so split was no biggie, and really he could have charged anything as he was in high demand. I do need to mention that they certainly have plenty of food outlets open for that midnight kebab, sweet or pizza craving before heading home. I had a wedge of pizza for 3EUR and it hit that spot – it was super delicious and I am pretty sure that wasn’t the vodka taste buds talking!
A few things I took away from Mark’s induction today:
You will never be left behind; you would have just missed the bus
Don’t be a Debbie Downer – people are all here for a different reason
No BMW’s onboard (Bitching, Moaning or Whining)
The worst thing you can take home is regrets – live the moment (okay I added on the last bit)
All in all, we have seen a lot in the small amount of time we have had here. We have 3 hours tomorrow morning to see the city before we head out this afternoon to Germany and the town of St Goar.
Amsterdam – you are good to see once – would I come back? Hmmmm I guess we will just have to wait and see.
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