Europe adventure. Day 9 of 34.

Written in the Amsterdam airport on day 11.

I arrived in Amsterdam tired and feeling lost. Everything was in a language I didn't know and I didn't have anyone to show me around. I felt really alone for the first time since meeting Sarah in Galway. Of course trying to catch a bus when the whole map is in Dutch is not easy. I didn't even know for sure where the hostel was, even though I had an address. I stumbled around, eventually getting the ticket I needed and making my way to the park where I knew the hostel was.

I was pretty terrified by the bikes, to be honest. There are more of them than cars and pedestrians combined. The dinging of their bells is everywhere. Discarded vehicles line the street on every side, propped up against bridge railings or locked to bike stands. When people said everyone bikes in The Netherlands, I didn't know they really meant it. Not to that degree, anyway.

With the bikes and the cars and the buses and the trains and the scooters all together on one road, I am incredibly impressed that I didn't die. It was a close call a couple of times.

I walked in circles around Vondelpark for what felt like hours, asking people for directions every so often and getting no good answers. Finally I found it and walked up and down two flights is stairs just to get in. I was so exhausted. And I still had four flights of stairs left to get to my room. I really was ready to just collapse in bed at 4:30 in the afternoon.

In my room I met three of my roommates, two from Australia traveling together and one who was born in Japan and grew up in Brazil. He was in the city with friends, but they were all in different rooms or hostels. I left the room to go do laundry, walking around the city until I found the place and just leaving my laundry there. Then I followed my ears and found a brilliant piano player in the middle of a square, and I took a great video that didn't save because my SD card was full.

After following my ears I decided to follow my stomach and found a Mexican restaurant that seemed pretty good. I had passed about a million Argentinean steak houses, and I have hi idea why they are so in abundance in Amsterdam.

The Mexican food was delicious. It tasted like the best Mexican food ever, but I am sure that's because I was starving. I got enchiladas, as usual, but even though I checked first they came out with four tortillas and I had to send them back to get corn. Corn tortillas seem like they are a delicacy in Europe, or just impossible to find.

Rain sprinkling down (it was like I never left Ireland) and leftovers in my hand I went back to the hostel, where I found my Japanese Brazilian roommate, Yugo. I decided I wanted to go see the sex museum, and he seemed like he wanted to come along, so we headed back out together.

I am glad I had Yugo as a map reader and guide, because I definitely would have gotten lost again. All the streets look the same! Canals, tall/narrow buildings all in a row, bikes everywhere. Even with Yugo's map reading skills we couldn't seem to find the museum for a while. But eventually we got there, and it was pretty awesome.

It's a history museum, basically, focused entirely on sex throughout the ages. Artifacts, photos, moving figurines, loads of historical information. I really enjoyed the museum, and got a couple of hilarious pictures. And it was a very affordable entrance fee!

When we left the museum we almost immediately ran into Yugo's friends from Brazil. And the world was a changed place. The area we were I'm had transformed as the sun went down, from the same as every other part of Amsterdam into the famous red light district. There were countless doors with a red light shining above them, a red glow coming through the glass and lighting up the whole neighborhood. There they were, standing behind the glass, straightening there hair, touching up their make-up, smiling at all of the tourists. They wore basically nothing, just bras and underwear or even less. Most of them weren't attractive. Or Dutch. It wasn't at all what I expected, though I don't know if I even had any idea what to expect.

Me and the crowd of Brazilian guys, plus one other girl they had met, wandered around and observed the strangeness of legal prostitution. Curtains kept on closing as more and more girls got customers. I found out later that they charged €50/15 min, but that what exactly you were asking for had to be specified beforehand.

I also found out, very quickly, that those girls will flip you off and swear if they see anyone with a camera, even if it is not aimed at them. Quite a touchy bunch, even though hundreds of people stare at them every night. People of all ages, too! It was seriously just another tourist shopping center, which was the weirdest thing in the world. Old people, children, people from every nationality were window shopping whores in a place were it was a legitimate business. I couldn't have imagined it.

Most of the guys went to a very noisy, expensive cocktail bar after we finished walking around. The bar didn't smell awful like all of the coffee shops, because it rented out giant bongs instead of everyone smoking. I still didn't really want to hang out there, so I left with Yugo and his friend Henrique and we went in search of something to eat.

We find a not too expensive almost Italian restaurant and I got some chips (French fries) and fresh squeezed orange juice while they are a real dinner. I was still mostly full of enchiladas.

After we ate they went back to meet their friends and I went back to the hostel to sleep. It wasn't that hard to navigate Amsterdam once you got a feel for the city. It is very small, after all. I mean, I probably took one of the longest routes back to the hostel, but I did get there. And I saw a bunch of cats on the way, too. Overall, the day was not that bad.

More on Amsterdam later! I'm on my way to Rome now.