Amsterdammmmmmmmm

Last post July the 4th and now its July the 18th??? How is this possible?? Where the hell does the time fly to in London??
OK well the week before last I managed to do something London-ish and actually go and watch the Tour De France cyclists at Hyde Park!! It was quite mega exciting, compounded by the squillions of people there which definetly made me feel like it was the place to be. There wasnt much in the way of room to see though but managed to nab a spot on the grass in the sun (!) watching the big screen while the bikes whizzed past. After about an hour or so, the concensus was made to retire to the pub. And thus was done. After drinking (lots), sun (not enough) celebrity spotting (negligible) and food (delicious) it was on to some house party or another....the hostess of which I did not know. I didnt stay too long as obv the cycling had been too much fun for me. Managed to just get the last tube home and collapse into bed and that was my weekend in one hit!

Last week I tried to really not do anything as on the weekend was going to Amsterdam!!! Was sooooooo excited as going to Dance Valley...a HUGE dance festival which I saw described as the Woodstock of dance festivals. Anyway, rushed to Heathrow after work on Friday where I met my partner in dance (Tim) and KLM'd it to Amsterdam whereby he revealed he had not brought the name of the hotel (all we had done was look at it on a map!). Normally this kind of loss of control would totally freak me out but I always feel more relaxed in Amsterdam just by being there so we walked into Dam Square from the train station and there was out hotel....the biggest, fanciest looking one in the square. Nice. Upon check in this was confirmed (altho have to admit I think we were both worried that they might say this wasnt the right hotel and we would be wondering around all night asking random hotels had reservations...)

Anyway after checking in we went straight back out again to an Absinthe bar (eeewww but mmmm) which was a bit run down and seemed to be more a place where groups of drunk people came in, did a shot and left. We had a few drinks there before moving onto the club next door (no idea of the name) where we stayed alllllllll night and most of the morning, finally walking the 2 minutes back to the hotel at 5am. "Glad eye" of the night went to Tim who was checked out so throughly by a random girl as we entered that I almost blushed on his behalf. I wasnt as lucky and only managed to get the "rape eye" which was so through and freaky that we moved seats to get away from the would be attacker. Urgh.

Saturday dawned without us seeing, only getting up later to make our way to Dance Valley!! Yay!! It was incredible!! They closed some of the roads and so we bussed there and then there was a half km walk to the actual valley (we met a Dutch guy who told us that and I thought he was joking....). Luckily some entreprenurial people were selling alcohol on the walk there, which I duly imbibed.
It was MASSIVE!! Apart from the actual valley (which I never saw, we got so caught up in the other acts we ran out of time....oh well) there were 8 different music venues catering to every dance music taste there is. I wanted to try them all but it was hard to make yourself leave when you had found one you liked! Highlight of the night had to be Carl Cox. He peformed outside on this HUGE platform like stage thing with his name flying accross in giant 6ft letters. Amazing. I was totally star struck.
After it all finished we got back to the city just at midnight and raided McDonalds (thank god it was open) before actually collapsing in the hotel.
Sunday was a truly lazy day, only leaving the room after 2 thanks to much sleep. This sadly did not work in our favour later that night when we wanted to sleep but found ourselves much to rested). We wondered about the shops and cafes, looking about at stuff and generally soaking up the atmosphere. I was so happy we werent getting a plane that day! Monday was back to reality day and we visited Maccas again before heading to the airport and back to London! The tube back to my house took longer than that flight from AMsterdam....insane.

Anyway that trip has wiped me out this week....I am almost asleep as I type this. Had dinner last night as a fab Thai restaurant and later this week drinks somewhere south and also a bday to go to.....when will I get time to sleep??? Maybe now..