So the contiki began, although off 3 hours sleep after clubbing on my own the night before, I wasn't feeling the brightest. Luckily day one consisted of a drive to Dover and a ferry across to France.

We were introduced to our South African tour guide, Steve and our mascot "Scuba Steve". Our mascot can only be described as a teenage mutant ninja turtle on steroids, who had apparently been abducted once by another contiki group and returned with a few phallic objects sowed onto him. Anyway, we also heard our day song, "Mr Saxobeat" which is played at the start of each day on the bus (we are currently leaving Venice for Rome, and have just finished hearing it).

We have 52 people on the tour. All keen to explore different cultures and meet many different people from around the world on the tour. We had 4 south Africans, 2 Japanese, 1 south Korean, 1 Italian, 3 brazilians and 41 Aussies. A little bit dominant perhaps. Europeans all look at you weird when you talk to them about going on a tour with people you don't know, clearly not something advertised much here.

On the ferry we befriended more teachers (how we flock together to talk shop), Corrina, Nicole and Brenton all from NSW.

From there our ferry took us to France, where we drove through Belgium and into the Netherlands, Amsterdam to be precise. In Amsterdam we were introduced to the most annoying song of all time, a baby singing "Aja Yippee" (YouTube that s***). This song is designed to wake everybody up, and my god does it do the job. Both Amy and I were out like a light when it began, we were not only awake within seconds, but freaking out wondering where the hell we had ended up. Pretty hilarious since others awake on the bus were told to look at anyone that is asleep.

Also on the bus trip everyone spent a few seconds introducing themselves and making more new friends and describing their most embarrassing moment or a favorite joke. The highlight joke involved a married man on Viagra, and I won't explain it here as it definitely is not something a teacher should be publishing on the Internet.

So Amsterdam. I had been there a few days earlier, so was kind of the local guide. We had quite an eventful night. Dinner was supplied at the hotel (Amy was very pleased to be back in a hostel after having £100 stolen out of her purse in the last hostel) and she had a bathroom that was ours (probably her highlight so far). We headed into town where we were taken onto a cruise with unlimited beer or wine. Dangerous! We were guided around the canals, and the views were amazing. Our moods were extremely positive by the end of the cruise, as you can imagine.

Next, Steve takes a group of drunks through the Red Light District. All the women attempting to call us into their windows for a bit of "attention". I am still keen to go back and meet my love. Apparently she wanted to tell me how much she loves me.....if I stepped into her room. Hmmmm, tempting?

Anyway, from there we went to an all famous Amsterdam sex show. For those who have seen it, it's not what you expected. For those who haven't seen one, different acts are on stage. Each act we saw was anything from a man and a woman assuming different positions, to stripping and to a girl smoking a cigar through her [blank]. All these performances were done with as much enthusiasm as a 50yr old woman working at Woolworths wondering where her life had gone wrong (no offense Linda and Tam, there is still hope for you :-p). Everything was with as much emotion as all the sculptures we have seen of religious leaders. I'm sure you get my drift, anyway an entertaining night came to an end with a taxi back to the hotel. Contiki day one is over.