Jess Hits Europe by Coach

Well, we made it to Amsterdam...we had an interesting coach journey, we met a really funny man called Maxwell from Paris ˙- he worked at DisneyLand which we thought was amazing....he was teaching us French and we were teaching him a Birmingham accent which he loved :D

On the first night we were there we went to a few bars with a few people from the hostel we were staying in - it was really good - the night life is just like England really, and your never far away from someone from home which was a change...the bars we went to were about a 10 minute walk from our hostel in Leidesplein - there are loads of bars and cheap restaurants. You should remember though, you don¨t have to pay to get into most places, but you do have to pay to use the toilet alomost everywhere so make sure you have a few 50cents around.

The next day we went on the free tour, it was pretty long, but we learnt some good things...the weather was really nice so we spent the rest of the day in Vondelpark which is really pretty and right next to our hostel.

We went to a bar near to the Dam Square, which is near to the red light district....we were really shocked when we first saw all of the ladies, but then we just got used to them being there.

There are loads of coffeeshops all over the city and if you want to know the good ones you can probably ask at any hostel you are staying at, not that we went to any :D

Then we went to Noordwijk....a seaside town about an hour or so outside of Amsterdam - there is a pretty popular hostel there called the Flying Pig and they organise shuttle buses to take you from the city...you have to book and they get booked up pretty fast, its also quite expensive to make your own way there so make sure to book.

The hostel is really small and the staff are all really friendly, its hard to tell who is working and who is a guest...there is usually something going on in the evenings, we went to a bonfire party on the sand dunes, they are pretty small, but it was really fun because everyone gets involoved...we only stayed one night, so we missed a big beach party which would have been wicked - oh well....

We spent the whole day on the beach which was a change from the cities we have been in, it was loads of fun and would definatley recommend it there.

Next we are off to Berlin - Rachs favourite city and we cant wait :D