We got to Amsterdam and it was straight to the hostel we had booked. I had booked a place called Shelter City and it was a mere 650m from the train station. Brilliant and easy, I like it. We started walking and Maggie was asking people on the way for directions. What should have taken 5 minutes took us two hours. We got lost, had to ask directions at least a half dozen times and just laughed the whole way. Of course with our 8 bottles of 167 we definitely made a dent in those as well. This Shelter City place was nowhere to be found. We called them and they talked to Maggie giving simple directions as best they could, when she asked for a landmark the girl said there really was nothing, they were in an alley. So we kept venturing. All of a sudden I look to the left and spot the “Shelter City” sign! Yay! We found it! We get a little bit closer, but wait…Shelter City: Christian Hostel. Oh boy. I booked a Christian Hostel, and had no idea. No biggie. It’s one night, and we aren’t really going to be there much: just a couple hours of sleep. We enter and are immediately presented with the rules: no alcohol, no drugs and no being under the influence. Well considering there were still about 6 bottles in our bag of 167…that might be an issue. Well bible study was at 7:30 and we were almost in time, but we kindly declined the offer. We were off to find our rooms then were out again. I walk through the double doors to see the fabulous mural of “God Loves You”. We had to be good here or we would go straight to hell.
We took off to go venture the rest of the streets and honestly what a hell of an experience. So first off, we were a couple bottles deep when we checked in, and my eyes missed that there was a step down from the hostel. Right. Well I wiped out. And then getting to the end of the street, my bad right ankle gave out and luckily I caught the street pole and did a hilarious swing around. Pretty sure I looked like a stripper, but it all happened so quickly it had been my first reaction. Yeah well the group of guys, and of course my girls were dying laughing. As if that had just happened. Owwww but I was even laughing. Right, carry on.
Orange everywhere and we just kept walking the streets, drinking and chatting with people we saw on the sides. Petey even stopped to play a game of badminton with a group of guys! Ha, she was outstanding. Now we are walking around and of course you have to venture to the red light district. This is something that you never see at home, and absolutely not like this. Door after door, all the windows and these girls are gorgeous. Like I’m talking should be on the cover of magazines gorgeous. It was insane. When curtains are closed that means they are busy and honestly it was fascinating. So we are walking down one red light district alley when all of a sudden we look up and what do we see?....OUR HOSTEL. Yes, our Christian hostel was located in the red light district. Seriously? We all had our mouths open, and of course took a picture. Who would have thought?
You think when we called to ask where they were located they might have mentioned that they were in the red light district as a landmark…but nope, they just said an alley. Uhuh. Too funny.
We ended up meeting back up with Erik (who we had met on the train earlier that day) and we all decided to venture to a bar. We are walking and they were looking for a particular bar but clearly with so many people, everything was packed, and the longer the day goes the less your coordination and direction skills are accurate. We are walking down when I see the sign “shots for 1 EUR”. Perfect. Turns out it’s a pancake house, but we didn’t care. There was a bar and tons of people. Game time. We had brought a german shot belt with us and since this is Europe, and particularly Amsterdam, we did all of them right in front of the bar. We also popped a bottle of 167, borrowed some glasses and the bartender didn’t’ seem to mind any. All I could think was that this WOULD NEVER happen at home. Ever.
Now of course we made a group of friends with guys, some of which were American but we didn’t care either way. We all did some jagger shots, had some margaritas and were just loving life. The bouncer was probably my favorite: he had a shaved head except one teeny tiny ponytail, braided, black hair out the back. Big guy, and I just couldn’t get over that. Too funny. So while we were loving life, we had managed to finish off the last of our 167, jagger and complimentary beers from our new friends. Fa-bu-lous. It was time to switch bars, I mean we were in a pancake house, but it was about 12:30 so a good time to change. We are walking out when I spot “Canadian Maple Syrup”. Oh yes. This is impossible to find here, so I kind of…well….took it. I mean, the girls had been talking about pancakes for the longest time, so I figured we could use some Canadian maple syrup. Oops: but for the record, that was to die for with our pancakes later that week.
So off we went and managed to venture into another New Orleans type bar called the Bourbon Street Bar or something along those lines. Brilliant. We were having a blast, good music, tons of people and just soaking it all in. It was a relatively tiny place, but just what we needed. Now we are having a great time when all of a sudden we cant spot Mags anymore. Where the hell did she go? She wasn’t picking up her cell, not answering texts, nada. Shit. We are in Amsterdam, with millions of people, all dressed in orange and we lost her. What do you even do? We went on a man hunt throughout the bar with no avail. She was gone. Now Mags is from the Hague, so she speaks the language, but still, we were super worried. How did that even happen? None of us smoke, so its not like she went outside. Crap, crap, crap. This would happen to us, right? Of course it would. Well since we had no directionality in the city, we decided to stay in the bar in the hopes she would come back in. Ha, not a chance. We were there until about 4:30 when we finally decided to hit the road.
The walk home was certainly an adventure. Petey was just down for the count, not sick, but more zombie-like. So I held her backpack like a leash (which she was not impressed about) but I was not going to let her fall. We had to ask some folks for directions but man oh man we finally managed to find our hostel. Now, this whole “you cant be under the influence of alcohol” thing was going to be an issue. We had had 167 for breakfast…so uh…this was going to be interesting. They gave us these papers that we had to show to get in, so we walk in, and pretty much all pressed our faces against the glass to show our passes. Ha. Not drunk at all. Super smooth ladies. We are laughing our heads off as well. Yeah. Yay us. So because I don’t want Petey to fall over while walking, I decided to give her a HUGE bear hug from the back and just tell the guy at the front desk how much I loved her and didn’t want to let go. Yeah…I walked bear hugging her all the way to her room. He must have known. Must have known. And clearly my love had been matched with the death stares I was getting back from Petey. Yeah, we were smooth all right.
So its about 5am at this point and its off to bed. Super. Some chick was in my bed, so I took her bed. I had done this whole ‘wrong bad’ situation before, but honestly, I was going to be sleeping for less than 2 hours, so I really didn’t’ care. We were supposed to meet at 7am at the front desk to check out so we could all get our trains back. Oh man. I got there just before 7, and as 7:10 came around, I ventured to the girls room to see if they were alive. Who do I first see? Petey looking like death. Now please keep it in mind, we had essentially been wearing the same orange outfits for 3 days now, we had 2 hours of sleep post our 8 bottle, jagger, beer filled day. Yeah, we were still drunk. No question there. But we had to get moving. So we got our stuff and were off!
The guy at the front desk gave me some pamphlets on religion and some websites to visit, so I made a mental note and put those in my pocket. Thank you sir. We get outside and its raining. Of course it is. We looked ridiculous. Pretty sure we were the only ones on the street at that point. Oh boy. We were sorta walking, sorta sliding back to the train station. We left Amy there since she was taking the train, but we were taking the bus. Why? Ugh, horrendous idea. 7 hours. But still, we grabbed a croissant and a drink and just sat. We had a couple hours to kill after all.
So there Petey and I were: on the floor of the train station, waiting for our bus. All of a sudden Petey looks for her phone. Gone. Ahahah she would. She had managed to lose her phone. I didn’t have it, and for sure Amy didn’t either. Oh Petey. How how how? This was the second or third phone Petey had broken/lost in the past year. Fabulous. I was dying laughing, but she was still pretty unimpressed with life, slash why I had woken her up so damn early. Turns out Petey didn’t even take her shoes off for bed, or use the sheets. She face planted and 2 hours later was greeted with my pretty face telling her to get her ass out of bed.
So its almost time of our bus and we go outside, when all of a sudden a guy told us we have to wait in line, give our ticket and they then give us a card with our bus number. Right, okay, our bus was leaving in 20 mins, but the line wasn’t moving. Of course this would happen to us. We get closer and we thought they had said last call for our bus back to Lille….but turns out they didn’t. But we were closer in line anyways. Finally we get our stuff and get to our bus. Two seats together. Superb.
Those 7 hours were a huge blur. Pretty sure I was instantly outcold and same with Petey. I can only imagine the smell of booze oozing from our pores. Oh god, those poor people on the bus. We had stopped once for food, but oh man, we needed bed. Big time. I mean don’t get me wrong, a bus is semi comfy, and I slept, but wow, I needed to starfish in bed. Desperately.
To end off this fabulous adventure to the Hague/Amsterdam I got a phone call on the bus from Mags. HELLO!? WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!? ARE YOU ALIVE?!. Oh the story that came out of her mouth was priceless. Turns out she is a silent escaper. She had planned to take the train back that night anyways, since they were running all night to go back to the Hague. Well, in a 167 state of mind, Mags left the bar and started walking back. Turns out she was incredibly sick, and shared that thought with the sidewalk, streets, etc. A guy ended up throwing her in a cab and paid for it as well. She gets to the train station and it’s a slow motion movie. She just covered the train tracks. Oh Mags. Once on the train, people were slowly backing up and she just repainted the deck again. We are in tears laughing on the bus because we had honestly thought non of us were sick. Not even CLOSE. Mags filled in that gap for all of us. Poor love, but she was okay. Alive and at home safe and sound. Unreal. We made a mental note after that that she was a silent escaper.
Amsterdam/The Hague had been brilliant. What a hell of a way to see the sights eh. Queens night/day were fabulous, people filled and a ton of funny stories. Memories to last a lifetime with the best girls to share it with.
Ps – a week ago Mags received a phone call from the Bourbon Street bar saying they had Petey’s phone. Ha. How fabulous? Now we just need to go back to Amsterdam to get it…hmmm. Roadtrip?
The guy at the front desk gave me some pamphlets on religion and some websites to visit, so I made a mental note and put those in my pocket. Thank you sir. We get outside and its raining. Of course it is. We looked ridiculous. Pretty sure we were the only ones on the street at that point. Oh boy. We were sorta walking, sorta sliding back to the train station. We left Amy there since she was taking the train, but we were taking the bus. Why? Ugh, horrendous idea. 7 hours. But still, we grabbed a croissant and a drink and just sat. We had a couple hours to kill after all.
So there Petey and I were: on the floor of the train station, waiting for our bus. All of a sudden Petey looks for her phone. Gone. Ahahah she would. She had managed to lose her phone. I didn’t have it, and for sure Amy didn’t either. Oh Petey. How how how? This was the second or third phone Petey had broken/lost in the past year. Fabulous. I was dying laughing, but she was still pretty unimpressed with life, slash why I had woken her up so damn early. Turns out Petey didn’t even take her shoes off for bed, or use the sheets. She face planted and 2 hours later was greeted with my pretty face telling her to get her ass out of bed.
So its almost time of our bus and we go outside, when all of a sudden a guy told us we have to wait in line, give our ticket and they then give us a card with our bus number. Right, okay, our bus was leaving in 20 mins, but the line wasn’t moving. Of course this would happen to us. We get closer and we thought they had said last call for our bus back to Lille….but turns out they didn’t. But we were closer in line anyways. Finally we get our stuff and get to our bus. Two seats together. Superb.
Those 7 hours were a huge blur. Pretty sure I was instantly outcold and same with Petey. I can only imagine the smell of booze oozing from our pores. Oh god, those poor people on the bus. We had stopped once for food, but oh man, we needed bed. Big time. I mean don’t get me wrong, a bus is semi comfy, and I slept, but wow, I needed to starfish in bed. Desperately.
To end off this fabulous adventure to the Hague/Amsterdam I got a phone call on the bus from Mags. HELLO!? WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!? ARE YOU ALIVE?!. Oh the story that came out of her mouth was priceless. Turns out she is a silent escaper. She had planned to take the train back that night anyways, since they were running all night to go back to the Hague. Well, in a 167 state of mind, Mags left the bar and started walking back. Turns out she was incredibly sick, and shared that thought with the sidewalk, streets, etc. A guy ended up throwing her in a cab and paid for it as well. She gets to the train station and it’s a slow motion movie. She just covered the train tracks. Oh Mags. Once on the train, people were slowly backing up and she just repainted the deck again. We are in tears laughing on the bus because we had honestly thought non of us were sick. Not even CLOSE. Mags filled in that gap for all of us. Poor love, but she was okay. Alive and at home safe and sound. Unreal. We made a mental note after that that she was a silent escaper.
Amsterdam/The Hague had been brilliant. What a hell of a way to see the sights eh. Queens night/day were fabulous, people filled and a ton of funny stories. Memories to last a lifetime with the best girls to share it with.
Ps – a week ago Mags received a phone call from the Bourbon Street bar saying they had Petey’s phone. Ha. How fabulous? Now we just need to go back to Amsterdam to get it…hmmm. Roadtrip?
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