As I left Helsinki, the shuffle of seats on the plane began, from my beloved window seat I moved two rows forward to allow a lady to sit with his husband. Nice guys finish last, now I had a seat between a big overweight (I'm not judging) man and some noisy young morrocan (I'm guessing) child. Then came the Finnish girl: "would you mind please moving seats with my friend?" "Sure" I replied, the air hostess laughed and I said "put me in an overhead locker if u need, wherever u want so we can all get to Amsterdam." nice guys don't finish last......at least I didn't. Emergency aisle seat so extra leg room which normally would come at a price of 30€.

Anyway, so arrival in Amsterdam and I met up with my Melbournian friend Marcus (the same one who we saw in London). We were both sorry sights after our new years celebrations. We found our hostel easily enough, the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel, which I would recommend to anyone (around 20€ per night is excellent for Amsterdam). It is also easy to recommend it as you could have a shower without:
1) annoying ur roommates
2) having to stand under the shower while the cold water wakes you up before the hot water kicked in,and
3) having to hold a button down under the showerhead to make it work (way too much effort!)
This hostel was once a hospital, and not much of the decor was changed, except to accommodate 6 beds and 6 lockers in each hospital room.

We grabbed dinner and headed to a gay club our friend Maurits had recommended called De Trut (a Sunday sessions place). Completely hidden from the street, it offers 1/2 pint beers for 1€, cool interior, cosy atmosphere and the music warmed up from chilled dance grooves to dance and pop music. Excellent way to start our Amsterdam trip, and of course followed up with frites (fat chips) while Marcus argued with a Dutch chick about the location of some place in Paris, let's just say she had had too much fruit juice and was close to passing out too.

That was day 1 in Amsterdam, had an awesome sleep catching up from flying hungover and new years eve celebrations. Without a plan or the next day, we didn't need to be up at anytime. Such a luxury when u r having such a busy holiday.