Today we had a free day in Amsterdam. I didn't want to do any of the big things like the Heineken Experience or Anne Frank's house as I know Laille wants to do those things too, so it seems silly to do them more than once. We went to the post office with Amy and Rach first. They wanted to post some of their things back to Australia and Bec said that Amsterdam is the cheapest place to do that. You can post up to 10kgs to Australia or New Zealand for €58-€60 which is pretty reasonable for that amount of weight. Paul and I are thinking of doing the same before we leave Holland, but will just do one 10kg box between us. We've just accumulated so much extra weight so I think it will be safer than arriving at the airport and facing the possibility of having to pay for extra luggage. We had coupons that gave us free entry into the sex museum (they were given to us at the sex show) so we decided we would go and do that. It turned out that we had to pay €4 anyway because there's more than one sex museum in Amsterdam. We should have guessed! The whole place was a bit creepy anyway. I also tried the Dutch fries with mayo on them too, prior to going into the museum. They were yummy, but they put SO much mayo on them. Paul, Ross and I caught a taxi back to the hotel early on in the afternoon. I was a sleepy bear so decided to have a nap before our last night with the group. We left the hotel at 5.00 pm and Alex drove us to where we would hop on our canal cruise. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but this weekend is gay pride weekend. There was a parade earlier on in the day through the canals in the red light district. I missed the parade, but they there were still a lot of them out partying on their boats. They were dressed up in some interesting costumes, but they sure knew how to party! We were given two coupons for drinks on the cruise so I had a couple of beers. Then one of the girls gave out a round for free. We passed lots of the party boats and also saw a lot of house boats. I don't think I would like to live on one of those. Our canal cruise ended at the Sea Palace Restaurant where we would have dinner. It was a Chinese restaurant. The food was just average, but it was our last night together on Contiki so we all made the most of it. After dinner we headed out on our pub crawl around Amsterdam. The first bar we went to was a shooters bar. They had so many different shots there, but I stuck to my vodka and lemonade. I was curious as to what the Harry Potter shot was. I'm not exactly sure what was in it, but they set them all on fire. It was pretty cool to watch. None of us wanted to leave the last club because we knew it was the last night we would ever all be together like this. Eventually a few of us went on a hunt for a taxi. We didn't get too far because one of the girls spotted BK. We went in and ordered a meal to take away. I'm not sure what the attraction is with greasy food after having a couple of drinks. Maybe it's just a Kiwi and Aussie tradition. Paul and I finally found a taxi and headed back to the hotel. I decided to write Bec and Alex's notes to go in the envelop before bed, as I thought I might not have enough time in the morning. I didn't finish them, but wrote most of what I wanted to say down. Tomorrow morning is going to be hard when it comes to goodbyes. I hate goodbyes!

Canal cruise
Dinner at sea palace
Pub crawl
Bk on the way home
Last night together