Friday night, after the long day of traveling, I was planning on calling it an early night in the hostel. As I was using the lounge's wifi, a group of young people asked me to play cards with them. So I played cards and had a couple drinks with two Austrians and a guy from Portugal.
Later on in the night, I joined them for a night out in Amsterdam. We found a bar that serves 10 jäger shots for 10€, so we shared a round of those and spent the rest of the night in a pub.
The streets were packed, even as we were heading back to the hostel at 2:30 am!
I am really glad that I met such friendly people at the hostel! Something that I'm not glad about is that you have to pay at least 0.50€ to use a public washroom here (even at a Burger King). But as the French say "c'est la vie!"
The good night last night led to a great day today! Today I had a Me-day! I woke up when I wanted to, had breakfast at my own leisure and then set off to do what I wanted to do!
The hostel served a complimentary continental breakfast. The dinning lounge was so full and I met people from all around the world! After breakfast, I set out to do some solo-exploring of Amsterdam. I decided to skip most of the museums because I wanted to spend more time outside and see more of the monuments and landmarks.
I started my day by going to the Begijnhet, which is a peaceful garden square which used to be a convent and is now a senior's residence. It was cool to find such a peaceful place in the bustling city.
Afterwards, I made my way towards Dam square and stopped in a few shops along the way. At Dam square I took a tour of the Koninklijk Paleis (Royal Palace). It was originally built as a very grand town hall with meeting rooms and staff offices. In Napoleon's era, his brother Louis Napoleon was appointed King of Holland and quickly converted the town hall into a royal residence. Today, the Dutch monarchy use the palace for special events and guests. The palace was so beautiful and grand. I've decided I need to marry a Dutch royal now so I can live in a place like that!
After seeing the palace, I just wandered along the canals and went into some shops... Just general exploring. I got lost a couple times, but it was a good kind of lost where I happened upon more things to discover. On the way back to the hostel, I stopped at a Starbucks to warm up. They completely butchered my name on the cup.. "Cloyde". Haha!
I will be leaving soon to meet up with my Contiki your group. I'm happy that I had this day to travel alone, it was peaceful and it gave me the chance to unwind. It's nice to have people to share experiences with, but it was also nice to have a compromise-free day.