So after months of waiting the time had come to jet set off to Amsterdam, land of drugs, sex and scandal. 16 girls in one city can only mean one thing... Time to party.

Carys, Becky and I were up bright and early to finish packing and we made our way to the lovely Cardiff airport, which has had a facelift by the way. Mr Obamas visit can take credit for that I think. Thank you Mr President.

I have to admit, I do love Cardiff airport, walking through security is just a pleasant experience here. I don't feel like I'm being interrogated like I do in an airport in America. I'm sure most of you have experienced that. A serious man or woman stares into your eyes checking your passport about 5 times, taking your fingerprints and then asking you questions about why you're in the country. Why do you think I'm in the country? I'm on holiday. The guys at Cardiff are so friendly and they just make the start of your holiday a happy one. They had a laugh at the amount of luggage we had brought with us for 4 days. My stuff alone took up 5 of those plastic boxes. Once all my luggage had gone through the scanners, trying to close my case back up was a huge effort. I was pushing the case down really hard to try and zip it back up. One of the guards was watching me and smirking. I just thought he was laughing at the fact that I was struggling. Once I had walked off though I had noticed that there was no support under one side of the table at all, so the guy was just waiting for me to push down so hard that the table would collapse and I would fall over along with my suitcase. Thanks for the warning Mr Security guard.

Becky was quite intrigued by the new body scanners that were there and wondered what they did and what image they showed on the screen so the security guys told her to just have a go. Becky was a tad embarrassed so the guard just got in to show us. You wouldn't get that at many airports would you?

We met Izzy, Becky and Abi in departures and sat having a drink and a catchup waiting to board the flight. No delay this time so we were on schedule and ready to fly.

The flight was nice and short and before we knew it we had landed in Amsterdam. I was honestly so hot and bothered as I had taken so much warm clothes, after being told by Carys and Becky because I usually get so cold. It was just a ridiculous amount of stuff to be wearing, I had a long sleeved shirt, a wooly jumper, a gilet, a hat, Ugg boots and a coat. I was all hot and bothered and experiencing hot flushes.

After exiting the plane, we got on a bus that was waiting for us at the bottom of the steps. Holding on, on the bus was a work out. I was swaying back and forth (unintentionally) whilst humming a song to myself. To other people I must have looked like a right weirdo.

We had made it to arrivals with no fuss. Now it was time to add another three to the group and meet Nina, Hayley and Karen. It didn't take us long to find Hayley and Karen but the game 'where's Nina?' had begun! I'm sure that question will be the most said phrase over the weekend once again. The game had begun, she had given Carys the clue that she was stood by the crazy Ariana Grande fan zone waiting for her arrival at the airport. We found the fans...but no Nina. She then said she was stood by H&M which was where we were stood...but still no Nina. Becky thought she saw her walk passed us so ran after her shouting "NINA" to then find out she was chasing some random through the airport. Eventually Nina emerged from nowhere, she had actually been hiding amongst the fans waiting for Ariana herself.

We were all together and it was time to make our way to the City centre. We had planned to get the train there, which should have only taken us 15 minutes. We weren't on the platform long before it came and we all felt very confident in our decision and boarded the train. We had the choice of upstairs or downstairs on these trains, we took the upstairs choice, found a seat and got comfy for our 15 minute journey.

As we started to move some of the girls realised there was no 'Amsterdam Central' on the board. There was a stop called Ubermacht Central (something along those lines anyway), which I thought meant City Centre or something like that. I just thought it meant Amsterdam Central. We were all pretty uncertain so after about 10 minutes of deliberating I decided to google the stop, as there was wifi on the train. How posh!!

After googling I came to the conclusion that we were definitely on the wrong train and a guy stood up, (as he could hear our conversation,) and confirmed this. So we got off at the next stop and waited for the correct train to come. It took about 25 minutes but then we were officially on our way to the City centre. Woooo. It was only an hour detour.

After passing the airport once again, we had finally made it. There was another train on the platform which had numbers 1 & 2 on the sides. Carys then said 'See trains 1 and 2 do come here.' Not realising that the 1&2 was on every train symbolising first and second class. To be fair I'd already made that mistake at the airport but let's keep that one quiet.

As we were walking the busy streets of the city, through the hustle and bustle I was taking in the beautiful sights of Amsterdam until Carys turned to me and said 'Look there's Thompsons!'. Out of everything that was around, she picked out Thompsons. Really? Haha.

It wasn't a far walk to the hostel and within half an hour we were all checked in. It was a bit of a drama though as they had only got 2 of us checked in to one of the rooms for the first night, the girl was pretty crap at trying to rectify it as well. She wasn't even concentrating. We got round it eventually. Once all the bags were dumped in the rooms we were back out roaming the streets for some dinner. There was a nice little corner pub on one of the streets, so that's where we went for some food.

The menu came out with many options, but I stuck to what I know...a cheese toastie and chips. Can't go wrong with that.

Once food was done, Aled and Rhys had come to meet us. It was so random that they were in Amsterdam the same weekend as we were. Great to catch up and have a drink with them both though.

After a little while we walked off our dinners and headed back to the hostel. Emma, Tor and her flat mates were there waiting. That was another 4 people added onto the group, there were only two left to join us. We all had a few beverages in the bar downstairs, which was pretty funky. The barmaid even poured us all some free shots, not that I drank mine...not a fan of cherry shots. It was a lovely thought though.

We were all sat down with our drinks, engrossed in very deep and serious conversation all about murderers and serial killers. I personally enjoyed the conversation. That sort of thing fascinates me, no idea why, but it wasn't a very light hearted conversation, it was a pretty depressing one to be honest.

While we were waiting for the last two to arrive a few of us went for a stroll around some of the streets in the area. At this point the rain had started pouring but we went out anyway. We walked past a few cool shops one being a huge souvenir shop, so of course we had a little wander around it. There were some funky little things in there but the best part was that they had cheese tasting there. We were in our element.

There were so many samples to try, I had tasted so many good samples, I had stopped reading the signs and just started picking samples up, one of which was god damn Goats Cheese. I was not impressed when the flavour hit me. It's absolutely disgusting!

After a few samples we got told by the cheese man that the samples were only for people buying. We explained that we were there for the weekend and that we would possibly come back and buy but he was having none of it. All I have to say to that is…DON'T put samples out if you don't want people trying them! Stupid man.

The rain started to get heavier so we made our way back, my ugg boots and wooly jumper were getting soaked. Not the most appropriate clothing for the rain really. Silly me. We all freshened up for the night and were ready for some more exploring.

At this point Sarah and Laura had arrived. Our empty beds were now full. We did gain a lodger though. Our 6 bed dorm had now become a 7 bed. The 7th bed being a duvet folded in half on the concrete platform in the room, ready for Karen to sleep in as she was booked into a room on her own. Funnily enough she looked quite cosy on the floor. She just had to think of it as a couple of nights camping.

The Sex museum was first on the agenda. And as soon as we walked in I can honestly say that I have never seen anything so strange in my life. The most weird, surreal place ever! It would definitely be Simone's worst nightmare, but don't worry Simone, I took lots of pictures just for you. Ha.

There were nude pictures everywhere, old sex toys and these weird dummies which would do some crude action of some sort. It was so creepy. There was even a bowl made of penis shaped metal, like seriously who would use that? I certainly wouldn't keep my apples or grapes in there. We had a few pictures with very enlarged plastic penises, which also became a picture on some random sleazy guys phone. There are some weirdos around.

Once that was over and done with we made our way to the red light district where there was nothing really going on. A few people had said we were too early. The curtains weren't open yet so we just went for a drink in a bar while we waited for it all to begin. I was so amazed by the place that I didn't know what the hell was going on really. It's hard to explain but I just didn't know what to expect at all.

In the bar I got myself a pint of heineken which was pretty expensive, €6.50 euros for a pint!! I knew then that the weekend was going to be an expensive one.

There was an old guy at the bar who poked me on the back and asked who's stag do it was? Stag do?? Do we look like men? We all sort of shrugged him off as if he wasn't there, but the he turned his body to face Emma and he just opened his legs so one was either side of her. She soon moved forward and he took the hint. What a sleaze.

There was also a man in there constantly taking photos of us. I initially thought he was working there but the pictures were only of our group so that was a bit strange. Right?

We knew when the red light district had opened because the bar had emptied. That meant it was time for us to go and experience it.

I honestly couldn't believe it, I had never seen anything like it at all, I just didn't know what to make of the place. You'd see these lights on in the windows and you just didn't know whether to look or turn away. What was weirder was that the women were absolutely beautiful and they were stood in these windows selling themselves for money. What on earth is going on? Honestly they are seriously beautiful! I am still in such a shock. The whole scenario is just mental, the women just stand or pose in the windows waiting for their prey and then a man goes in for 15 minutes, if that, and when they are finished it's onto the next one. I just don't get how someone can live their life like that.

After a little while we decided to head back to the hostel, stopping in a chocolatier/cake shop for some chocolate waffles. They were to die for! De-lic-ious!!

The later it gets there the more creepy the men are. There were two walking very closely behind us most of the way back, we didn't get mugged though, so that's a plus. One even said oh hey and sort of stopped to look at me. I just gave him a nasty look and continued walking.

We got home and tucked ourselves up in bed. We were zonked after a long day. Day one was over and we were already feel looking forward to breakfast and the next day ahead.

Day two had begun and we started the day with a lovely walking tour. Tor, Joanne, Elaine and Anna were dead to the world and didn't join the rest of us. Too much of a heavy night on the Friday I think haha.

As we were such a big group we had to split and have different guides. My guide was Kiel. He was this cool Aussie with a massive beard. He told us a fun little fact before the tour started. Did you know that everything has a basic name in Amsterdam? If you see a monument representing the war then it's just called The war monument, same goes for things like the palace and the new church. Not really much imagination with those names.

At the start of the tour we were given the warning about the Cyclopaths that ride around the city. They apparently play smash the tourist. Imagine that? 15 points if you knock them in the canal...win! There are a crazy amount of cyclist in the city. Everyone has a bike, even the Prime Minister of the Netherlands rides around on his bike. The strangest thing is that nobody locks them up. They just leave them on the side of the road. It's pretty high on crime here but it seems that everyone is just very trustworthy when it comes to bikes. Very strange.

We walked around the area that years ago used to be the place that all the Jewish people lived and at one point there were around 80,000 Jews living in Amsterdam. By the end of the war there were only 5,000 and nobody lived on that street. It was used to be a ghost town. Nobody wanted to move there either as it was a place with such bad memories. So the government handed the area over to an architecture school to do what they wanted with it, which is pretty cool really. Then only thing is, it now looks like a weird version of legoland, with bright colours and just ugly looking buildings. It doesn't really fit in with the look of Amsterdam. Apparently the government wanted to re design Amsterdam to look exactly like that street, which caused uproar in the city and that's why the New Market square riots began. The people of the city protested until the buildings that are still standing today became protected. For years now the buildings have been protected, which is a good thing, as the architecture of the City will never change. Great news really as its so beautiful. The only downside of it is that now the buildings are protected, no changes at all can be made to the properties, not even little ones. No double glazing can be added or they can't change a crooked window. It's crazy right? Some of these properties are also around €2500 per month. So it's very expensive to live in the city centre.

Walking around the city, the smell of weed was pretty strong and everywhere. I find it so strange that it's fine to smoke weed around the streets. Our guide told us that it's not legal but it's just a grey area and it's just shrugged off by the police. Apparently years ago the red light district was the most dangerous place in Amsterdam and it was full of drug addicts, thieves and dealers. If you walked the streets it was guaranteed that something would happen to you, so the police decided to move their focus from the people smoking weed who were causing no harm at all, to the people causing lots of trouble. That's when coffee shops started. Not your usual coffee shop to buy actual tea or coffee, but it's where you buy your "stash". It's quite surreal.

I found it strange that there was a Church right in the middle of the red light district. A place where there's smoking, drinking and prostitution there is a Catholic Church. Crazy right? Well the reason behind it is that when the sailors came to shore years ago after months and months at sea, they wanted to let loose and have some fun. The only problem was, they were Catholics; and doing all these things in Amsterdam was committing many sins. So before they went back to sea they felt the need to confess their sins so that they could be forgiven, so they went to the church, confessed, and the priest would tally up all the sins so that the sailor could then pay for forgiveness. It's like they paid their way out of hell. The church actually stayed, as they were making money from doing this. They even started a pre pay for forgiveness process where the sailors pre paid for their indulgences. They would confess their sins before they had happened and then go off to commit them. Now that's even more messed up.

Half way through the tour we stopped for a small snack and we bought our tickets for the Heineken museum and the Red Light District tour. We had heared a bit about the area, but I was so interested in it, I wanted to find out more.

We then continued on our walk of the city and passed a building with a little brown door. I thought nothing of it, to be honest I just thought it was someone's house. I couldn't have been more wrong. Little did I know that behind that door was a small village like area, with its own church. It was very well hidden and supposedly one of the cheapest areas to live in the city. But not anyone can live there. Oh no, there are three main rules you have to abide by to live there, and they are...you have to be a single female, you can't have kids and you have to be Dutch. I thought that they were pretty hard rules to follow if I'm honest but there is a 10 year waiting list to move into one of those houses.

The area had one of the two wooden houses left in all of Amsterdam. Can you guess what it's called? Yes, 'The Wooden House.' How original.

Another fun fact of Amsterdam for you. People with the surname Van something means 'of the'. Last names didn't exist back in the day and when so when the Dutch started giving last names to foreign people they started making names up and have a little laugh at their expense because the people being handed the names didn't understand the Dutch language. They made names like hans of testicle...and because of that little joke those names still exist today! Imagine having that as a surname. You'd want that changed straight away.

Kiel then took us to the prettiest part of Amsterdam where he showed us some cool buildings and architecture and then he went and got us some cheese to taste...it was called 3 year old, and had quite a rustic flavour but it tasted delicious.

We then continued the walk to where our tour ended outside the Anne Frank museum and he told us it was a must see. Luckily we had pre booked our tickets as the queues for the museum were at least 2 and a half hours long. I felt like I had learned so much about Amsterdam in the 4 and a bit hours Kiel spent with us. What a great tour guide. It was only his 2nd ever tour as well. I couldn't believe it.

As the tour finished the heavens opened and we had quite a way to go to the Heineken museum, so we caught the tram. We were trying to figure out which tram for a while though, so we were soaked anyway. Luckily we got on the correct one and we were on our way to meet Laura, Karen and Izzy at the Factory, Becky and Abi had gone to the Van Gough museum. Lucky for us the pissing rain held off until after we had finished the tour. Phew!

The tram stop was just across the road from the Heineken museum, so an easy little walk for us. A tram was heading our way as we all waited to cross the street and that moment almost became a moment of crisis. Hayley decided to look out into the road as a tram was coming. She obviously hadn't seen it coming so Becky grabbed her backwards milliseconds before it passed, thank god, or there could have been a death on the trip. After that bit of drama we got ourselves out of the rain and began our Heineken experience.

It wasn't long into the walk around that we had lost Nina again. It seems to just be standard now. She appeared again just at the right time as we were in the queue for the Heineken ride. We were intrigued by what this could be. We were all taken into a room with some sort of simulator in the middle. Once we were all stood in position a film began to play. We were taken through the process of making Heineken. The ride part was the movement of the substance as it goes through the different sections of the process. The part of the process where the barley is mixed with the water, water gets squirted out from somewhere and both times it hit Carys right in the face. It was hilarious, sorry Carys.

The tasting of the Heineken came next, so our first free drink, before heading to the most fun part of the factory. It had green screening, digital drawing on a wall and you could even make your own music videos there. I think Carys, Nina, Emma and I spent most of our time in this area. We had a good few pictures on the green screen, we tried the digital drawing on the wall but it didn't work for us for some reason. Maybe we were doing something wrong. The best part though was making a music video. It placed us on a boat on one of the rivers in the city and we had to sing along to a Dutch song. Well 'take one' of the video was a disaster but 'take 2' was spot on. We had planned a little routine before it started and then we hit record. The video has apparently made it on to the wall of fame on the Heineken experience website, so take a look if you fancy a good laugh.

http://www.heinekenexperience.com/wall-of-fame/singalong/0A135DCB896CA3DF9D81A3C87E7ACCCB

The last part of the factory was to either learn to pour your own beer or just have two free drinks. Of course we went for the learn to pour option. We got a certificate for doing it as well. Plus I got told mine was a star pour! Wooo. If anyone needs a pint of Heineken, just come and see me. We then met up with the other girls who were chilling in the bar drinking their cold pints of Heineken.

Time had actually flown by, we had been there for over 3 hours. It was 6pm and our pub crawl started at 8pm. We hadn't eaten anything either as we had tried cramming so much into the day.

On the power walk back we found a pancake house where we got some food. The food came out super quick which was great, as we were in a rush. It wasn't on the plate long either. I scoffed it down as I was super hungry. So did everyone really. We were in and out in about 30 minutes.

We continued speed walking the whole way back to the hostel, all the food we had eaten had been burnt off from that walk I think. It was then a major rush to get ready for our night out, but we all made it. I'm actually pretty impressed with how quickly we all got ready. We made it in time to the first bar called Players. We got our free drinks token and a free Tshirt. I do love a free Tshirt.

The place was full of men. But as there were 16 of us so we raised the ratio for the girls. We squeezed in a few drinks at that bar. There were some strange characters around though. One guy was dancing around the dancefloor with a pigeon head on and chanting that song from the Wolf of Wall Street. He was very irritating. There was also an old guy barging into people, he was absolutely wasted. He tapped me and Hayley on the shoulder and asked if he could buy two 'good' cigarettes and held out €20. I was like...sorry, I don't smoke. It was a very random scenario. I did wonder if he meant joints but in that case do I actually look like a bloody drug dealer?

The 2nd bar we went to had great music and cheap drinks. The tour guide we had earlier in the day was there as well chilling in the smoking room. We had time for a couple of drinks before moving on again.

We had to walk through the red light district to our next stop. The women were out in force tonight and by that I mean the red lights were on early. The streets were packed so they must have been making good business.

The fourth bar was right on the top floor in this small room where people were allowed to smoke. It brought back memories of when smoking was legal in bars in the UK, and that horrible smell that latched onto your clothes and hair. Well that smell was back after leaving that bar. We had all had a few drinks by this point though to even care.

The next bar was cool, it had a tiny balcony area which was sort of cordoned off, but I managed to squeeze passed the sort of barrier and went upstairs. A few people followed. Tor was sat next to me and an old guy came up and sat next to us. As he walked passed she gave him a slap on the ass. He acted like he hadn't noticed but he then got up about 5 minutes later and he turned to toe and said: 'My girlfriend was supposed to come but she declined so slap my ass again!' Haha what a weirdo. We made friends with a few French lads as well, they had lost their pub crawl so they just joined on to ours.

I had so many people taking my hat all night, which was irritating, I'm quite surprised I managed to keep it all night if I'm honest. I think I tried a few people's hats on as well, I definitely tried someone's motorbike helmet on. The things you do when you're drunk!!

We had reached the night club and we continued to dance the night away. Some great tunes were played in there, we drank, we danced, I even had a dance off with one of the French guys. Which the girls all voted for him to be the winner. I LOST! Thanks girls.

I think I'd hit a point where I'd had enough to drink, the night was coming to an end anyway so we made our way back to the hostel, but via McDonalds of course. Got myself a little happy meal to try and soak up some alcohol. Carys and Hayley got their food pretty quickly, Becky just got some water for €3.50, which was almost the price of my whole meal, she couldn't believe it. My cheeseburger happy meal took forever. I waited so long and was staring at the hamburgers so just said, 'can't you just slap a slice of cheese on one of those?' She said no so I continued to wait until it finally came. I had to take my shoes off as they were killing my feet. I'd barely sat down all day so they needed a rest. It didn't take long for the security guard to come and tell me off though. Couldn't he just leave me be. I was eating my food peacefully. Men just don't understand the pain we go through after wearing heels all night.

I'd finished my food and left in my bag was a lovely yoghurt! I got no toy with my poxy happy meal in Dublin. But here I get a fruity yoghurt. I was a happy bunny.

Back at the hostel I drunk FaceTimed Benjamin. He wasn't overly impressed with the 3am phone call but he humoured me anyway. He also got a major laugh out of it when he was saying night to Carys. She was heading to bed, stumbled a few times and as she went to turn the corner she tripped over a step and walked straight into the side of a vending machine! It was hysterical. Not long after that little incident I went to bed and crashed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Sunday morning had arrived and I was feeling far from fresh, but we had to get up and head to our first stop of the day, the Anne Frank Museum.

We gave ourselves a bit of time to get there but we realised it wasn't far from the hostel so we had about an hour to kill until our tour time. We thought it would be a nice idea to stop for a bit of a light brunch and a cuppa.

There were only two other people in the cafe, so we thought it would be pretty quick service. I couldn't have been more wrong. It is officially the worst cafe I have ever been to in my life, and I think the girls will agree. For starters the lady had a face like a slapped ass! She was the most miserable woman I had ever come across. We had ordered our food and drinks with her, most of them being cans or bottled drinks which took about 20 minutes to be brought out to us. To be honest we should have picked up on the signs then. The food we had asked for was either a ready made dessert, pancakes or soup. Three quick and easy snacks to make. I watched the man who was cooking and he had three pancakes being cooked at the same time. The first couple of times I saw him flip the pancakes, I thought nothing of it, just thought he knew what he was doing, but 40 minutes later and I kept thinking to myself 'if you flip that pancake one more time I am going to take that frying pan and flipping hit you across the head with it. By this point we had said politely that we were in quite a rush. We had even asked for the bill before any food was brought out. It was no surprise when the pancakes finally came out that they were like rubber and very overcooked. Pancakes don't need anywhere near 40 minutes on the bloody stove. Mine and Emma's soup was the worst though. We had paid the bill and the soup hadn't even come out yet. 5 minutes before our time slot for the tour the man had poured the soup into a bowl. I'd had enough by this point and said quite abruptly that we needed to leave and that we couldn't eat it. He then poured both portions of soup into take away pots and passed them to the lady. They could see we needed to leave but the bloody woman started opening and folding a plastic bag slowly. She then put the soup in the bag one at a time, placed the bread rolls in a different bag one at a time, then she searched for spoons. She was obviously not understanding that we needed to leave so Emma just snatched the bag and said 'ok bye!'. I have never known somewhere take over 45 minutes to cook some bloody soup. I won't be recommending that place again. Maybe there was a reason for it being empty. Emma and I now had a bag with our soup in that we couldn't eat. It hadn't been a great start to the day.

At least we didn't have to queue for the museum, we walked straight passed the queue and through a little side door to get our tickets. We made it 1 minute before our set time, Phew!! The Anne Frank museum was incredible though. So moving, and what a powerful story. I had read the book before but seeing the actual house and the annex behind the bookcase was something else. They still had the original bookcase there and marks on the wall in the annex where they all used to measure themselves. As you walk passed the bookcase you need to duck before climbing the stairs. It's pretty obvious that that's what you had to do, there were even sign stating 'Duck!' There had to be one though that didn't pay attention. I was a few people ahead of this girl but even I heard the sound of her head whack the wood frame. That must have hurt! Ouch!

When we got inside I just found it so hard to believe that 8 people used to live in such a small annex 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for two years together. There was no daylight allowed into the flat and they couldn't make any sound during the daytime, to avoid risk of someone hearing them downstairs. I just can't imagine having to do that. I had a bit of a funny turn as we walked upstairs to the second floor of the annex. The stairs were very steep and being extremely hungover all the heat rushed to my head and I almost fainted. It wouldn't have been fun falling down those stairs. Elaine helped me through the situation though...thank god. It didn't take long to get to the end but it was an incredible experience and one I would recommend to anyone.

I was in serious need of a nap after the museum plus I needed to eat the soup I'd bloody bought, otherwise I had just paid for someone to put some soup in a cup. We all made our way back, and Emma and I went straight to warm up the soup. The microwave had broken so that was a pain. Emma just heated hers up on the hob and me? well I just ate it as it was. It was disgusting anyway, and it definitely wasn't tomato soup, it had green beans, carrots, potato and God damn bloody onions! I was not impressed so I just threw it out and headed to bed for a nap.

I got to the room and found that my card wasn't working. Downstairs Becky and Izzy were stood by the desk. My first thought was 'what the bloody hell has happened now?' It was a bit of a drama really. The hostel had moved an extra two people into our room when it should only have been one. They had removed all of Izzy's stuff from the room and put it into storage. I'd have gone nuts if that was my stuff. Why they thought someone would have left the hostel without checking out or taking their stuff I don't know. Well, why would anyone leave the hostel without taking any of their things? All they needed to do was ask us really, it would have saved a lot of fuss. Luckily Izzy got all of her stuff back, they moved the extra person in our room back out so Karen finally got a bed and was off the floor, and they even gave us some free drinks vouchers for the inconvenience. To be honest all I wanted to do was get into bed, so as soon as my key was re activated I headed to bed for a nap. The other girls went for a little wander or to get a coffee. I just physically couldn't do anything. I felt dead.

A few hours passed and the time had come to say goodbye to two of the girlies. It was home time for Sarah and Laura. As they made their way to the airport it was time for the rest of us to grab some grub before another walking tour. We chose a nice restaurant this time, we didn't want the same experience as the bloody morning. We had to split tables as there wasn't a table big enough for us all. Everyone's food came out in pretty good time, but guess who had been forgotten about? Yes...lil ol' me. One of the waiters saw me with no food and asked if I was eating, when I replied yes he then realised he just hadn't brought it over to me. When it came though, the food was so delicious I didn't care that I'd been forgotten about anymore. It was just what I needed before the Red Light District Walking tour.

We got to the meeting point and guess who was there to meet us, our Aussie friend Kiel, so we knew it would be a good tour. It was pissing down with rain for this tour though which wasn't the best and on top of that it was absolutely freezing. I had no waterproof shoes with me either so puddles had started to form in my shoes 5 minutes into the tour.

We passed through the gay area of Amsterdam first of all. One bar was a hardcore gay bar which is a men only bar. They apparently hold nights like 'shoes only night,' and yes that's exactly as its sounds...just shoes and nothing else. They also have leather/PVC only nights. Inside there is supposedly a section where they can go into booths if they are feeling adventurous, and in those booths there a glory holes, for those of you that aren't sure what these are...Google it. It sounds pretty hardcore in there to me.

We then entered the red Light District again and were told the reasoning behind the red lights. To be honest it's not that exciting. The girls apparently choose to use them as it is the most flattering colour for when they are standing in the the windows. There are some windows which have blue or purple lights as well. These lights represent something a bit more hardcore. If you are into weird fetishes or like 'he she's' then look for a window with blue lights and you should find what you're looking for.

Kiel then took us to a place which had peep shows. He said that this sort of thing was a dying form of entertainment in the Red Light District. We all got the opportunity to pay 2 euros to go in and see what it was all about. Me and Carys went into a booth and locked the door. We then put the 2 euros in and waited for the frosted screen to become clear. It was a tense moment as we had no idea what to expect. It is an extremely weird experience. As the frosted window became clear we saw a woman getting naked on a rotating platform. I honestly didn't know what to do. It's a window so she can see you but it was such a strange thing it made me and Carys laugh. We were not subtle about laughing either. Whats even stranger is that the booths go all the way around the rotating circle so through the window you can see other people watching. It was funny for us because we could see the other girls. I waved at Becky in the booth and the guy next to her thought I was waving at him so he waved back with a grin. He was this creepy guy who had clearly been inserting 2 euros over and over again to keep his screen clear and his face was right up to the window. The 2 minutes seemed to last forever and it was just getting awkward. Before the woman started to get a bit dirtier the frost came back and we were free to leave.

We all came out at the same time and had a giggle about our experiences. Hayley and Karen came from the other side of the room. They must have gone into a different one so we asked them how theirs was. Hayley said "Well we thought it was just a girl dancing in her underwear until she took them off and the platform rotated to face us. It turned out the she was a he." So they had seen a transvestite! haha.

It was down Discount alley next, which fitted quite well with what Karen and Hayley saw. Yes this was where people come if they are into 'he shes' or ladyboys. Nobody was working yet so we didn't see any blue lights in the windows.

Big mama alley was next. I'm sure you can imagine what this area was like. It is known to be the area that makes a lot of money as well, which shocked me. It seemed to have a lot of interest. A guy even went in while we were in our tour.

We were told the story of twins that used to work the red light district, they are very well known in the area apparently. They only recently retired from prostitution. Can anyone guess the age they were when they retired? ...74!!!!! Can you believe that? They must be rolling in it.

Elite street was next. A very narrow alley where it is said that the most beautiful women in Amsterdam have the windows. Now we were told that the women in the red light district earn around 6,000euros per month, insane right? Well the women on elite street are said to bring home around 10,000euros a month. 10,000, imagine that!

One of the last stories we were told was about a guy who returns to the Red Light District every year and he has one of, if not the most weird fetishes I have ever heard of. They call him the Cookie Monster. Every year he returns to Amsterdam, makes an appointment with the same prostitute and pays BIG BUCKS for his time with her. He goes to her door, lays down a sheet and covers it with cookies. He then asks her to get naked, well only wear stilettos and she stomps around on the sheet crunching the cookies. That's it! Apparently that's his way of 'getting off!' Some people are bloody weird.

The tour came to an end and we were all freezing and soaked from the rain so we made our way back to the hostel. Becky, Abi and Nina went to meet Tor as they were heading to grab some 'coffee' and the rest of us made a stop at the chocolate waffle place for something sweet before bed! Yum yum. Back at the hostel we had a little night cap before ending the day. I think we are getting old now, me especially. All the girls had some alcoholic beverage and I was sat there with a cup of tea.

I felt much fresher Monday morning, our last morning in Amsterdam. We got up, finished packing and went to check out. A last wander of the city was a must to see all the souvenirs and some of the things we had missed. Five more were leaving in the morning so we said bye to Emma, Tor, Jo, Anna and Elaine and began our wander.

I wanted to find the book market that Kiel had mentioned on the walking tour, so we went on a search. It was like a game, was it don there? Was it this street? Whilst searching we stumbled across the most famous chip shop in Amsterdam and it happened to be lunch time, so of course we had to indulge in them. There were 16 choices of sauce, of course I went for a simple frit sauce, but the other girls decided to try what Kiel had recommended which was a frit sauce mixed with peanut butter sauce with onions on top. Not my cup of tea at all, and there were a few mixed reactions on that mixture. The chips themselves were great though. They were deliciously crunchy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside. Yum yum yum.

Just passed the chip shop was the place where the book market should have been, but it was nowhere to be found. We had come out by the door with the small village like area behind it. As Karen or Izzy hadn't seen it we took them to see.

The church was open this time so we had a little nose inside. I had wondered if people get married there but before I asked anyone I realised that this church was in the middle of a place where only single women lived. Highly doubt that anyone gets married there. Silly me.

The sun was actually out for the first time all weekend so the city looked beautiful. We made our way back to the hostel via a beautiful flower market which wasn't great for the hay-fever but it was very pretty. All of us bought a few souvenirs to go home with and then it was time to make our way to the airport and fly home.

We got our luggage from the storage room and said goodbye to the hostel and the city of Amsterdam. We made sure we got the right train to the airport this time, there was no fuss or anything, although an old guy did lose his shoe down the side of the train track, as the train was there. Gutted! I thought he was going to cry, the poor man.

Back at the airport and we had a few hours to just chill and wait for the plane. Again I was overloaded with luggage, clothes and bags, I need to learn to pack much better really, or just take less next time.

Our flight number was called and we began to board the flight home. Bye bye Amsterdam, it's been a pleasure. You've killed me but what a great weekend with the girls. I wonder where our next little break will take us. Can you guess?

Until next time you lovely lot.

J.L

Xoxo