Proost! ... (Cheers!)...

And with the stroke of a pen our season was over...

If you can remember the End of our Season last year, it wasn't a fun affair. This coupled with quite a few other reasons really put Kerry and I off of working in any other resorts. However, the decision to hand our notice in this year was primarily mine. I found working the chalet a lot more difficult this time round.

Working seasons was now a job and not so much a pleasure. The snowboarding was still awesome, and something I want to do every single winter until I physically can't, but waiting on people hand and foot nearly 16 hours day was grating a bit on my patience. I wouldn't go as far as to say that I wasn't happy, but I wasn't enjoying myself as much as last year, and Kerry said that it showed in my persona... So we both decided it was best to jack it in and start new adventures.

We worked our notice and ended up leaving just 3 weeks short of the end of the season in Sainte Foy, avoiding the dreaded transfer to another resort. So what would I do with this years season wages? Get constipation in Tenerife? Tempting though it was I decided to meet up with the boys and have a week long excursion in my favourite city... Amsterdam.

Friends of mine, Dane and Alec, and I hatched a drunken plan over Facebook and the day after landing in the UK was meeting Dane in the bar at Gatwick Airport again headed for the most efficient airport, Schiphol. Unfortunately Alec couldn't make it just yet, with a few more days work in the Army before his redundancy started.

I'd bought some blinging new shoes in the day I had spare between getting back from the Alpes and heading off to Amsterdam. This also meant I didn't have time to check them out and 'wear them in' as my mum was always telling me when I was young. That first day in Amsterdam was pure hell on my feet. The shoes fit but were slightly too small. Not by much... In the shop they felt perfectly fine... but with a city break comes a lot of walking and I was now learning that that slightly too small pretty much meant did not fit.

And so after a few visits to the coffee shops we were walking in to a BHS style department store looking for the cheapest shoes they had. The result was a pair of weird plastic topped trainer/loafer that I did not like but fit lovely. I doubt I will wear them ever again once I get home, but for now they were a god send.

Dane took us both out one night to visit his favourite bar, the Gollem bar just South West of the main Dam Square. It was a nice place and we must have spent hours in there, chatting and catching up like good friends do. The variety of beers on offer was also impressive and we slowly made our way through at least half, trying to remember our favourites but forgetting the next night when we popped in for a couple. The cheese board was also good and went very quickly as we thought the bar's cat would eat it all as it prowled around between the taps.










One drunken evening we met up with some dude. I can't remember how we got talking or where we met him, but he came back to our hostel for a few 1 Euro beers before heading in to the bright lights later on. He was a nice English chap from somewhere in the Midlands I think. We shared a few drinks and smokes when suddenly, and through a bit of a slur, he declared it was time to go home (presumably his hostel?). I glanced at the clock and it was nearly 4:30 in the morning. I think we were all a bit worse for wear and Dane and I staggered back to our hostel, happy in the knowledge we'd put on a good drink!

Dane, Kathryn and I

Our next chance meeting was Kathryn who we randomly got talking to in the middle of Dam Square. Can't remember what we spoke about (We are in Amsterdam!) but I have her on my facebook!

It was time for Alec to be set free from the Army, and he made the drive from his Army base in Germany to the northern part of Amsterdam where we wild camped with Mia. Its the perfect place to leave a vehicle when venturing in to the Centre of Amsterdam. So after an elated meeting in a supermarket car park, we set off on the 10 minute walk to the ferry and it felt good. The 3 musketeers were together again!

However, the trio was to be short lived as Dane was to fly home that evening for another flight hours later to Las Vegas on a work exhibition. So we set to work! Beers were drunk, coffeeshops visited and we made the most of the afternoon ending in a nice little farewell dinner.

Alec booked in to the same hostel as Dane and I and after a little difficulty explaining that I was checking out, but checking in as well on another booking, were told that we had the same beds. Alec climbed in to Danes bed that night and remarked that it was a little weird!

The only real touristy things other than Coffeeshops we did was a little torture museum just off the Damrak. If I'm honest it wasn't too great, there was just one room with a few strange apparatus' but mainly pictures of gross ways to kill someone. I'd always recommend the Amsterdam Dungeons for this sort of thing, but the torture museum was a lot cheaper.

 It was really nice to see my friends again after a long time apart for one reason or another.