It's now Day 8, and with only 2 days left to go, my trip is speeding towards it's end. I can't help but feel I could have done more, even though I have done quite a fair bit. (It's a constant battle)

My digs in Amsterdam were comprised of a 4 bed shared dormitory featuring a bar downstairs. Did I mention the bar? Yes, this was a huge advantage because it just happened to be THE bar of choice in the red-light district for young people. WIN!

You can read about my night life experience in my post below, as I would like to focus on what I did during the day in this post. There's a fair bit to say, as always. Started off by taking a free walking tour of the city, by Sandeman tours. This is a pretty cool company, that has a ton of different tours all across Europe and they have been my company of choice. (#1 on tripadvisor :))

Feel free to take a look at the pictures below for some candid shots of the city and it's various canals. In addition, I've listed some insights and observations that I had about the city.

For context, Amsterdam is home to many an "illegal thing". In most places around the world, weed, prostitution and general sexual promiscuity are pretty "hush-hush". However, Amsterdam has 3 rules that allow this and many other things to be possible.

As long as what you want to do doesn’t hurt anybody- go ahead and do it.
If what you want to dois good for business - Do It. ("mo money, mo taxes")
If the general population can turn a blind eye to the activity in question- Do It (Plausible deniability)

These are the principles that the city operates on, and it works. I think there's a beauty in such blunt honesty. These things cross everybody's minds, but Amsterdam is the only society as a whole that acknowledges it. It accepts, tolerates and welcomes over 192 nationalities that make up the fabric of the city.

There's a lot to be learned from such a society.

I next went to the Anne Frank museum. Fair warning: buy tickets online! Tickets sales open 2 months in advance of the booking date, however a friend and I were lucky that we were able to secure 2 during our walking tour, otherwise we would have waited in the long line (see below).

This was a doozy. I use "doozy" because the gravity of the experience is hard to describe. I read Anne Frank's diary back in grade 8 and ever since then I've wanted to see the museum. It's the exact house that the entire family hid out in during WWII. I won't go into the history of Anne Frank, you can read more here if you'd like.

What made it so real though, was from seeing the star of David on display to the actual hand written diary preserved in it's original form inside the museum.

It was moving to see with my own eyes and walk around the house. The bathrooms tiny, the living room non-existent, and dim lighting all add up to an insight that words cannot merely capture.

Unfortunately, while walking through the museum, I lost track of the friend I came with. I did wait, but never found him. I didn't have anything but his first name and therefore became almost impossible to locate him on Facebook. Kinda sucked.

Anyway, capped off the night by heading to a Salsa/Bachata event in the city. This was a big departure for the "usual" things that most backpackers do, as the hostel offers pub crawl events that most attend. But, I'm not the "usual" person and the Salsa event was way more fun. I learned how to do the Cha-Cha along with meeting another like-minded person! All in all a great day of absorbing the culture and vibe.

As I type this out in a local cafe in Amsterdam, before flying out to London, I wanted to acknowledge how different Europe is from the North America. People are people, of course, with many of the same stresses, worries and problems. However, the cities I've been to so far have been refreshing. It's given me a glimpse of how tiny, yet big the world is.