I Survived Amsterdam!

This weekend was exciting, fun, spontaneous, and not very well planned! haha We decided literally at the last minute to take a bus to Amsterdam and see if the city is really as crazy as we have heard it to be. I am now fully convinced that there is no city crazier than Amsterdam! Our bus dropped us off right in the notorious red light district at only 1 in the afternoon. Who would have thought that the streets would have been completely filled with prostitutes at such an early hour!? There were women of ever age and ethnicity dancing in their red lit boxes (more like cages), which I was not quite well prepared for. We had not planned to get a hostel because our bus left somewhat early the next day and we figured the city would be filled crazy things to occupy us for an all nighter. However, after getting our first glimpse of the city, finding a hostel suddenly became our first objective. We luckily found a nice one for super cheap that slept all 15 of us very comfortably. Afterward, most everyone wanted to go to a cafe to smoke, but I found a few people willing to go venture the city to find the Anne Frank's house with me! We walked across the canals and through the historic parts of the city, and got to her house just in time! I found her house to be fascinating, yet really eerie and depressing to walk through at the same time. They most depressing thing to see was a real taping of her father discussing the holocaust and the effect her diary had him and the rest of the world.
Amsterdam is even crazier at night....the streets were literally packed and there were bars, clubs, and "coffee shops" on every block. I got really excited when I saw so many places titles "Coffee Shop", however when I walked in I realized right away that you don't go to those places to get coffee. haha Most of the coffee shops don't even sell any coffee, just joints and every think you can think of to make weed with. The students traveling with me were not slow to realize how naive and I am.
We decided not to stay out real late and go to any clubs since we were all so sketched out by the people and places. Instead we got into our bunk beds (all 15 of us in one huge room lol) at around 1am and woke up early for a nice breakfast and left some time for sightseeing and shopping!
Overall, Amsterdam was fun and unique, but just a littIle too crazy and expensive for my liking.
Tomorrow we have lunch with the Mayor of Bonn! I will fill you in!